Synopsis
Agent Cornell Novak is sent through the government's energy portal and translated into a creature adapted for another world on a mission to redeem the dreams of his father, a frustrated UFO researcher. By the author of Black Milk.
Reviews
Reed's latest is a fascinating pairing of two science-fiction scenarios. The first focuses on the inexplicable "Change," that moment when the sky suddenly inverted itself, casting back a mirrorlike image of the other side of the planet. During the day, the sky now looks as it always has, but at night no stars appear, just a clear bright view of Earth's day-side. Cornell Novak has spent his childhood roaming with his father and his father's buddy Pete on their amateur investigations of UFOs. Though at first the Change, by vindicating the elder Novak's odd ideas, seems to bring father and son closer, it eventually pushes them apart, and Cornell leaves home in anger. At this point, where another writer might focus on worldwide reactions to the Change, Reed takes a more intriguing tack, moving on to a second scenario in which, years later, Cornell joins a government project studying the Change. The sky-shift, it seems, revealed strange space-time warps through which humans can be sent to other worlds, though they are reconfigured in the process, taking the form of a creature indigenous to the new planet. Traveling to the world called "High Desert," where humans emerge as rodent-like beasts composed of several telepathically linked bodies and one central "mind," Cornell takes part in efforts to contact a powerful alien consciousness. Reed ( Black Milk ; The Remarkables ) goes on to add yet another dimension to this tale of first contact, paralleling it with the story of Cornell's reconciliation with his past and his father. With a delightfully strange backdrop and so moving a human drama at its heart, this may be one of the best science-fiction novels of the year.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
One night, after years of more or less confirmed UFO activity, the stars vanish--replaced by a mirror image of the Earth. (The explanation of this event is complicated and shaky.) Cornell Novak, whose lovably dotty father is an ardent UFO investigator, finally learns the truth about his mother: She was not snatched by a UFO, as Dad had allowed him to believe; she simply left. Devastated, Cornell rejects his father and leaves home. Years later, he joins a top-secret government project investigating space-time wormholes, which permit a human to enter another planet in an alien body. Cornell visits High Desert, where he's a multibodied creature that drags its brain around like a piece of hairy baggage. He becomes enamored of the freethinking Porsche Neal; together they have various adventures. Back on Earth, Cornell tracks down his viperous mother, is reconciled with Dad, and deduces that Porsche is actually an alien visiting Earth in human form. Together, they prepare to blow the whistle on the government's ruthless and destructive attempts to acquire alien technologies. Intriguing ideas with curious but not particularly credible extrapolations, in a narrative weighty with familial angst: a fairly typical outing for the author of Black Milk (1989), etc. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
The abrupt transformation of Earth's sky into a mirrorlike surface signals the beginning of an age of uncertainty for humanity. Drawn into secret government experiments involving dimensional portals between worlds, Cornell Novak-the son of an inveterate UFO researcher-discovers the unexpected reality behind his father's misguided dreams and confronts the specters of his own distorted memories. The author of Black Milk (LJ 3/15/89) and Down the Bright Way (Bantam, 1991) has constructed an eerie tale of dissimulation and self-deception set against the background of an altered, yet strangely familiar, world. A good choice for most sf collections.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
During the year in which the night sky astonishingly changes from the usual tableau of stars to a vista of the earth turned inside out, Cornell Novak, the son of an eccentric UFO researcher, is 10 years old. For his handy explanation of extraterrestrial responsibility for the change, the elder Novak gains sudden respect. But years pass without the expected alien appearance, and the miraculous sky show becomes commonplace. As Cornell grows to adulthood, his relationship with his father becomes increasingly brittle, and when he discovers that his father's story that Cornell's mother was whisked away by aliens is false, it breaks. Finally, when Cornell is in his thirties, his unusual past and personality profile lead to his selection by a secret government agency that sends human agents through quantum intrusions to occupy alien flesh. On a bizarre desert planet where every mind oversees six bodies, Cornell realizes his father's dream of alien first contact and begins to heal their relationship. A quirky but absorbing adventure novel distinguished by rare imagination and well-handled ideas. Carl Hays
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