Observer

by Robert Lanza, Nancy Kress

Overview

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER "Mind-bending ... A novel full of life-affirming ideas." – Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)"The cutting edge of science tipping into something new and marvelous ... a startling, fascinating novel." – KIM STANLEY ROBINSON, New York Times bestselling author "Real science and limitless imagination combine in a thrilling story you won't soon forget." – ROBIN COOK, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Coma (and 37 other international bestsellers)"Brilliant ... A riveting and moving story." – RHONDA BYRNE, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Secret.Caro Soames-Watkins, a talented neurosurgeon whose career has been upended by controversy, is jobless, broke, and the sole supporter of her sister, a single mother with a severely disabled child.When she receives a strange job offer from Nobel Prize-winning scientist Sam Watkins, a great uncle she barely knows, desperation forces her to take it in spite of serious suspicions.Watkins has built a mysterious medical facility in the Caribbean to conduct research into the nature of consciousness, reality, and life after death. Helped in his mission by his old friend, eminent physicist George Weigert, and young tech entrepreneur Julian Dey, Sam has gone far beyond curing the body to develop a technology that could solve the riddle of mortality.Two obstacles stand in their way: someone on the inside is leaking intel and Watkins' failing body must last long enough for the technology to be ready. As danger mounts, Caro finds more than she bargained for, including murder, love, and a deeper understanding into the nature of reality. 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781611883435
Publisher:	The Story Plant
Publication date:	01/10/2023
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	40,087
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Named one of TIME magazine’s “100 Most Influential People,” Robert Lanza is a renowned scientist and author whose groundbreaking research spans many fields, from biology to theoretical physics. He has worked with some of the greatest minds of our time, including Jonas Salk and B.F. Skinner. A U.S. News and World Report cover story called him “the living embodiment of the character played by Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting” and described him as a “genius,” a “renegade thinker,” and likened him to Einstein. He is the father of Biocentrism, the basis of Observer, his first novel. He has been pondering the larger existential questions since he was a young boy, when for play he took excursions deep into the forests of eastern Massachusetts observing nature (like Emerson and Thoreau, who grew up just a few miles from him). This fascination with the nature of life infused his entire career, leading him to the very frontiers of biology and science. Nancy Kress is the author of thirty-five books, including twenty-seven novels, four collections of short stories, and three books on writing. Her work has won six Nebula Awards, two Hugo Awards, a Sturgeon, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. Her most recent works are a stand-alone novella about genetic engineering, Sea Change (Tachyon, 2020) and a science fiction novel of power and money, The Eleventh Gate (Baen, 2020). Her fiction has been translated into nearly two dozen languages including Klingon. She has taught writing in Leipzig, Beijing, and throughout the U.S. Nancy lives in Seattle with her husband, writer Jack Skillingstead.

Editorial Reviews

★ 11/28/2022

Lanza, a pioneer in the fields of stem-cell and cloning science, makes his mind-blowing theory of biocentrism—“that the universe springs from life, not the other way around”—the focus of this brilliant Crichtonesque thriller, coauthored with SF veteran Kress (Sea Change). After Caroline Soames-Watkins, a gifted neurosurgeon at a Florida hospital, accuses her superior of sexual assault, the hospital administration dismisses her complaint, and she’s targeted by an online smear campaign. Caroline gets an opportunity for a new start and a lucrative payday from her great-uncle, Samuel Watkins, who operates a private research facility in the Cayman Islands and needs her skills to implant computer chips into brains. She agrees to participate in an audacious experiment to prove her great-uncle’s theory that it’s only the act of observation on the part of an individual that creates reality. That participation proves to be more than she bargains for when a family member dies, and the facility becomes the focus of a murder inquiry. The authors imagine what the implications of that would be, integrating them into a page-turning plot complete with betrayals, violent deaths, and difficult moral choices. This is perfect for fans of Blake Crouch. Agent: Michael Signorelli, Aevitas Creative. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

"Fantastical... Do we each create our own reality? Debates about the fundamental nature of reality go back centuries. More recently, special relativity and quantum mechanics have provided solid grounding for the idea that the act of observation has an effect on external phenomena... Observer includes plot twists that are ripped from the headlines, including social-media shaming, drone technology and dark-web villainy. There's even a romance between the neurosurgeon and a hunky doctor who's brought in to assist with the brain surgery."

GeekWire - Alan Boyle

"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"

The Guardian

"Observer is an impressive story!. .. Lanza and Kress give us characters with science and spirit

David Brin

"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."

Rhonda Byrne

"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."

Darryl Gregory

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.

Kim Stanley Robinson

Real science and limitless imagination combine in a thrilling story you won’t soon forget.

Robin Cook

★ 2023-02-22
A neurosurgeon gets involved with a scientific research team’s mind-bending project in Lanza and Kress’ SF novel that blends elements of biology, physics, and multiverse theory.

Caroline “Caro” Soames-Watkins is a capable, smart young neurosurgeon whose promising career is threatened after she reports a fellow doctor for sexual harassment and an onslaught of her harasser’s supporters come after her on social media. Drowning in loans, and with a sister and a disabled niece who rely on her for financial support, Caro accepts an invitation from her great-uncle Samuel Louis Watkins, whom she’s never met. He’s a terminally ill Nobel laureate who offers her a lucrative position as surgeon at a remote facility in the Caribbean. Her suspicions that the facility isn’t an ordinary hospital are proven right when, after signing nondisclosure agreements, she’s told about the real research going on behind closed doors. Her great-uncle—together with his lifelong friend and genius physicist George Weigert, and with support from tech developer Julian Dey—is apparently in the process of creating technology that will allow people to observe different branches of the multiverse. The process involves brain-implant surgery that Caro will be doing on volunteers. It’s supposed to be life-changing, potentially Nobel Prize–winning science, but Caro isn’t entirely convinced—until her personal life and the scientific project converge. This compelling novel by Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author Kress and medical doctor and scientific researcher Lanza strikes a fine balance between hard-SF ideas around quantum physics, consciousness, and biology and accounts of the lives of people who deeply engage with those ideas. Caro, as one of the viewpoint characters, effectively acts as a surrogate for lay readers: “She said aloud, 'I am made of quantum foam that has been collapsed into Caroline Soames-Watkins.' ” No, she thought, I am made of confusion.” The other viewpoint character, George, provides more in-depth scientific takes, but both speakers are equally well developed and accessible. Overall, it’s 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.

Kirkus Reviews