From The Publisher* | A startling, fascinating novel.- Kim Stanley Robinson, New York Times bestselling author If we can alter the structure of reality, should we? In Observer, scientist Robert Lanza, one of Time Magazine's "100 Most Influential People," is joined by Nebula and Hugo Award-winning author Nancy Kress to confront the space between biology and consciousness. Dr. Caroline Soames-Watkins's star has been on the rise. But when she accuses a superior of sexual misconduct, the Twitterstorm that follows upends her career. With few professional options and an impoverished sister with a disabled child to support, Caro is willing to consider a mysterious proposal from her great-uncle, the Nobel Prize-winning scientist Samuel Watkins. Sam Watkins has invested untold sums of money to build a medical facility in the Caribbean. But he is very sick and in urgent need of a surgeon to perform a unique procedure developed at his island compound. The procedure isn't for the cancer surely killing him. It is to offer new life of a truer kind. Helped in his mission by the eminent physicist George Weigert and the young, charismatic tech entrepreneur Julian Dey, Sam has gone far beyond curing the body to develop a technology that could solve the riddle of mortality for the soul. Though wary of the project's secret aims, Caro signs on for the chance to secure a future for her sister and herself. What she encounters is something so much more profound than she ever could have anticipated. It will put her on the precipice of a humanity-altering discovery. It will lead her to a level of interpersonal connection that she thought was only for others. And it will throw her into a kind of danger she never imagined. Joining a fascinating and relatable cast of characters with a mind-expanding journey to the very edges of science, Observer will thrill you, inspire you, and lead you to think about life and the power of the imagination in startling new ways. |
From The Publisher* | "A startling, fascinating novel."- Kim Stanley Robinson, New York Times bestselling author If we can alter the structure of reality, should we? In OBSERVER, scientist Robert Lanza, one of Time Magazine's "100 Most Influential People," is joined by Nebula and Hugo Award-winning author Nancy Kress to confront the space between biology and consciousness. Dr. Caroline Soames-Watkins's star has been on the rise. But when she accuses a superior of sexual misconduct, the Twitterstorm that follows upends her career. With few professional options and an impoverished sister with a disabled child to support, Caro is willing to consider a mysterious proposal from her great-uncle, the Nobel Prize-winning scientist Samuel Watkins. Sam Watkins has invested untold sums of money to build a medical facility in the Caribbean. But he is very sick and in urgent need of a surgeon to perform a unique procedure developed at his island compound. The procedure isn't for the cancer surely killing him. It is to offer new life of a truer kind. Helped in his mission by the eminent physicist George Weigert and the young, charismatic tech entrepreneur Julian Dey, Sam has gone far beyond curing the body to develop a technology that could solve the riddle of mortality for the soul. Though wary of the project's secret aims, Caro signs on for the chance to secure a future for her sister and herself. What she encounters is something so much more profound than she ever could have anticipated. It will put her on the precipice of a humanity-altering discovery. It will lead her to a level of interpersonal connection that she thought was only for others. And it will throw her into a kind of danger she never imagined. Joining a fascinating and relatable cast of characters with a mind-expanding journey to the very edges of science, Observer will thrill you, inspire you, and lead you to think about life and the power of the imagination in startling new ways. |
From The Publisher* | If we can alter the structure of reality, should we? In OBSERVER, scientist Robert Lanza, one of Time Magazine's "100 Most Influential People," is joined by Nebula and Hugo Award-winning author Nancy Kress to confront the space between biology and consciousness. Dr. Caroline Soames-Watkins's star has been on the rise. But when she accuses a superior of sexual misconduct, the Twitterstorm that follows upends her career. With few professional options and an impoverished sister with a disabled child to support, Caro is willing to consider a mysterious proposal from her great-uncle, the Nobel Prize-winning scientist Samuel Watkins. Sam Watkins has invested untold sums of money to build a medical facility in the Caribbean. But he is very sick and in urgent need of a surgeon to perform a unique procedure developed at his island compound. The procedure isn't for the cancer surely killing him. It is to offer new life of a truer kind. Helped in his mission by the eminent physicist George Weigert and the young, charismatic tech entrepreneur Julian Dey, Sam has gone far beyond curing the body to develop a technology that could solve the riddle of mortality for the soul. Though wary of the project's secret aims, Caro signs on for the chance to secure a future for her sister and herself. What she encounters is something so much more profound than she ever could have anticipated. It will put her on the precipice of a humanity-altering discovery. It will lead her to a level of interpersonal connection that she thought was only for others. And it will throw her into a kind of danger she never imagined. Joining a fascinating and relatable cast of characters with a mind-expanding journey to the very edges of science, Observer will thrill you, inspire you, and lead you to think about life and the power of the imagination in startling new ways. |
Review Quote* | "Robert Lanza has taken the gigantic step of incorporating his ideas into a science fiction novel with Nancy Kress. This brilliant book will take you deep into quantum physics, where these often-complex concepts are illuminated through a riveting and moving story... It was when I was doing research for my latest book, The Greatest Secret, that I came across Lanza's astounding book, Biocentrism. Here was the science that backed up everything I knew to be true on a spiritual level. Observer breaks down the materialistic model of ourselves and the world that we've come to believe as reality. It is the leading-edge scientists such as Dr. Robert Lanza who will help take humanity out of the dark ages and into a new world." |
Review Quote* | "Mind-bending . . . A novel full of life-affirming ideas that's likely to make readers rethink concepts of time and space. A thought-provoking fictional examination of big ideas." |
Review Quote* | "Nancy Kress is one of the greatest living science fiction writers, and her particular talent for telling stories about people on the cutting edge of science tipping into something new and marvelous is perfectly suited to the ideas that have come to Robert Lanza in the course of his groundbreaking scientific research. Together they've written a startling, fascinating novel." |
Review Quote* | "Nancy Kress is a master storyteller, and her trademark empathy is on every page. Even as we venture into the heady territory of quantum physics and the nature of reality that Robert Lanza is known for, we never lose track of Caro, the brilliant surgeon who'll do anything to save the people she loves. Observer is the best of science and fiction-an intellectual adventure with real heart." |
Review Quote* | "Observer is an impressive story! . . . Lanza and Kress give us characters with science and spirit" |
Review Quote* | "Real science and limitless imagination combine in a thrilling story you won't soon forget." |
Review Quote* | "The viewpoint character is a brilliant neurosurgeon unwillingly drawn into a secret scientific project designed to prove that the generally accepted view of reality is completely wrong... a compelling story filled with believable characters" |