AND DISREGARDS THE REST

Years after their theatrical troupe performs a version of "The Tempest", during which a series of deadly accidents occur, Martin Leywood and Kevin Gore experience mental illness and hallucinations

Near-future yarn involving aliens, time travel, the CIA, and mind control: Australian Voermans's intriguing, strongly accented debut. Landscaper Kevin Gore begins to hear weird voices in his head; even worse, his blood has turned blue! He feels compelled to seek out Martin Leywood, a voluntary patient in an insane asylum. Eleven years ago, you see, actors Kevin and Martin rehearsed together for an oddball production of The Tempest, held out in the bush, whose director was a UFO nut and psychic-phenomena enthusiast; the project ended in a ghastly tragedy where both the CIA and real psychic effects seemed to be involved. So why Kevin's voices, the blue blood? Why are people worldwide experiencing bizarre and compelling hallucinations? Helped by reporter Gemma Stranger (she's trying to find the CIA connection), Kevin learns that aliens are approaching Earth; somehow, he also knows that they must be prevented from landing if the human race is to survive. The voices and the blood are messages from the future--from Martin Leywood and Kevin's own daughter-to-be--instructing Kevin on how to go about communicating with the aliens so as to prevent disaster. Voermans's wild mix-and-match structure produces some spectacular special effects--but there's a fair amount of substance here too, though none of it particularly original. An encouragingly thoughtful and well-crafted first outing. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

A theatrical troupe stages an avant-garde performance of The Tempest in the Australian outback and is beset by a series of bizarre accidents that result in disaster and death for most of the cast. Eleven years later, one surviving actor, Martin Leywood, remains confined in a mental institution, vainly attempting to publish his incredible true account of the tragic events, while another, Kevin Gore, starts hearing a voice that later identifies itself as "Oscar." After he learns that hallucinations have become epidemic throughout the world, Gore decides to follow Oscar's instructions and quickly finds himself committing everything from auto theft to armed robbery in a wayward pattern that ultimately reveals extraterrestrial influence. Although Voermans' first novel resounds with striking ideas, his prose is perhaps too grounded in Australian culture to find a big audience among sf fans in the Northern Hemisphere. His unerring knack for the good plot twist rendered with skilled authority, however, definitely makes him a talent to watch. Carl Hays