Observer

by Robert Lanza, Nancy Kress

Overview

"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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781611883435
Publisher:	The Story Plant
Publication date:	01/10/2023
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	4,004
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Robert Lanza, MD is the bestselling author of the Biocentrism trilogy (Biocentrism, Beyond Biocentrism, and The Grand Biocentric Design). Time magazine recognized him as one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World,” and Prospect magazine named him one of the Top 50 “World Thinkers.” In addition to his groundbreaking work in the field of stem cells and regenerative medicine, Dr. Lanza has worked with some of the greatest minds of our time, including Jonas Salk and Nobel laureates Gerald Edelman (known for his work on the biological basis of consciousness) and Rodney Porter. He also worked closely (and co-authored papers in Science on self-awareness and symbolic communication) with noted Harvard psychologist B.F. Skinner. Lanza was part of the team that cloned the world's first human embryo, the first endangered species, and published the first-ever reports of pluripotent stem cell use in humans.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, none of which she can read. She has taught writing in Leipzig, Beijing, and throughout the U.S. Nancy lives in Seattle with her husband, writer Jack Skillingstead.

Editorial Reviews

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

David Brin

"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

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."

Rhonda Byrne

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

Robin Cook

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