Robert Charles Wilson, says The New York Times, "writes superior
science fiction thrillers." His Darwinia won Canada's Aurora Award;
his most recent novel, The Chronoliths, won the prestigious John W.
Campbell Memorial Award.
Now he tells a gripping tale of alien contact and human love in a
mysterious but hopeful universe.
At Blind Lake, a large federal research installation in northern
Minnesota, scientists are using a technology they barely understand to
watch everyday life in a city of lobster-like aliens on a distant
planet. They can't contact the aliens in any way or understand their
language. All they can do is watch.
Then, without warning, a military cordon is imposed on the Blind Lake
site. All communication with the outside world is cut off. Food and
other vital supplies are delivered by remote control. No one knows
why.The scientists, nevertheless, go on with their research. Among them
are Nerissa Iverson and the man she recently divorced, Raymond Scutter.
They continue to work together despite the difficult conditions and the
bitterness between them. Ray believes their efforts are doomed; that
culture is arbitrary, and the aliens will forever be an enigma. Nerissa
believes there is a commonality of sentient thought, and that our
failure to understand is our own ignorance, not a fact of nature. The
behavior of the alien she has been tracking seems to be developing an
elusive narrative logic - and she comes to feel that the alien is
somehow, impossibly, aware of the project's observers.But her time is
running out. Ray is turning hostile, stalking her. The military cordon
is tightening. Understanding had better come soon....
