Overview
When a young British couple, who make jigsaw puzzles, are hired by an ageing Norwegian to take nude photos of themselves in a sculpture park in Oslo, they are drawn into a web of occult Nazi horror. Even more horrifying will be the fate of the whole world some years later if alien visitors achieve their secret aims.However, the aftermath of events in that Oslo park will provide Anna Sharman with a key to unlock those aims.
Anna is a rebel within Britain's intelligence service at a time when most of the world appeases the aliens because of the gifts they bring -- and if she must lose her own body in order to discover the truth, she will do so.
Synopsis
This wonderfully weird tale uncovers the secrets of the "mockymen," aliens who have inhabited drug-addled humans' bodies. A young British couple who make jigsaw puzzles are hired for an outlandish job in a park by an elderly Norwegian man. Toward the end of the Second World War, a blood sacrifice was carried out in this park by Nazis trying to create an occult cordon around Norway, and the aging Norwegian hopes to access the power residing in the park to achieve reincarnation for himself. The Hardship Years intervene, when climate change, ecological collapse, and global economic crises derail human civilization, but in 2010 salvation arrives in the shape of an alien expedition promising new technologies. As the aliens begin to inhabit the bodies of humans strung out on the drug Bliss, a young Blisshead named Jamie recalls his prior life as a Norwegian, and the aliens' true motives are revealed. This wild, absurd, and far-out tale reveals a keen intelligence at work and at play.
About the Author:
Ian Watsonis the author of numerous works of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, including The Great Escape, Oracle, The Embedding, and The Jonah Kit.
The Washington Post
Watson's polished prose favors wry observations, sophisticated punning and droll interior monologues on the part of Anna Sharman. Yet in many such passages as the description of the alien city Anna visits, he provides brilliantly painted exteriors as well. Like a blend of Robert Silverberg, Umberto Eco and Philip K. Dick, Watson offers both allegorical pilgrimages through inner space and convoluted unfoldings of chance and circumstance. — Paul Di Filippo