Dated book that takes its time before finally moving into an interesting storyline…..at least for a while At the time it was written there was a lot of talk about ESP, LSD and mystical historical figures. Reynolds also way overuses his idea of future slang. BS is called jetsam, expressions include Holy Zen and people you don’t like are called cloddys. It is definitely not one of his best and has some real silly moments like a description of an LSD trip.
The world consists of The United Welfare State of the Americas, the Soviet Complex and Common Europe. A few at the top control the Welfare State. Automation has taken over and everyone born has an income from the government. No one has to work unless they want to.
Mick Grant has a scholarship to Earl University to study Parapsychology. He’s a combat veteran and had some strange experiences in the Asian war. Anna Enesco is a Gypsy who was charged with fortune telling. Before she could go on trial a coincidence kept her out of jail.. She also has a scholarship from the Joshua Porsenna Foundation. Kingsley Lund from England has the same thing. Overseeing Mick’s experiences with ESP is Dr.Theodore Ramsey.
Mick lives on campus. When he goes to his room following some experiments there’s a man waiting inside. He’s Tom Samuelson, an agent of the Foreign Intelligence Agency. He wants to know if any foreign power has contacted Mick. He leaves and shortly afterwards Mick gets a visit from Mustapha Tarabya. He represents the Monad Fellowship.
He offers Mick enough to set him up for life if he agrees to study socioeconomic systems throughout history. Mick agrees. His tutor is Marcia Andrews. She looks like she just stepped out of a movie screen. Anna also got an offer from Monad and excepted. Mick’s first study is anarchism.
Mick calls an old friend who is in the intelligence business in Washington and asks him to look up Lund. That gets him summoned to D.C. His friend’s boss wants to know why he wants the Englishman looked into. He finds out later that Lund is a petty crook and had the ability to tell his friends when the cops would come to nab them while they were doing a job.
In D.C. Mick makes a shocking discovery at a museum. Back at the University he and Anna take part in an LSD experiment supervised by Ramsey. It’s supposed to enhance ESP abilities. They also continue their studies for the Monad Foundation.
Mick tries to find out information on Monad and on Dr.Ramsey and the Porsenna Foundation. He’s striking out everywhere. The book finally picks up by the last third. Although it does get interesting it’s so dated that it starts falling flat and the ending is like a bad political thriller. This is not the one to start with if you’re just exploring Reynolds and his economy based SF.
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