"Science Exceeds Creative Vision!"

"What if, he ruminated, our role in creation was to be the void out of which things were made - not the demigods we think we are, but canvases on which other pictures are painted..." This is the world that Stephen, Bennie, and Eli unwittingly enter and the end of which they never imagine.

Initially trying to earn extra money for their studies, these three characters decide to invent a toy - a talking rabbit. But their manipulations of math and science produce a product that thinks, feels, and acts beyond what even humans are capable of dreaming. For the toy continues to evolve and links to another world, a supernatural one that has mythical and religious allusions vaguely resembling that known by humans.

While this evolution is occurring, Stephen has been arrested and is on trial for violating national security. For the government has a vague understanding that the experiments may produce something threatening the world and so are determined to stop it for good.

Readers should not be daunted by this slowly evolving narrative, as the trial opens the book and is at times annoyingly repetitious and vague. Interestingly, the story of Stephen's youth, the development of his scientific genius, his ﷯﷯﷯relationship﷯﷯﷯ to Bennie and Eli are fascinating, and the actual experiment as it unfolds are written in fascinating and engaging style.

You will, as this reviewer does, eagerly await the second novel in this series, to be published in late 2005.

While a great deal of science fiction is totally predictable, this story does what good science fiction, indeed good science, should do - consider worlds beyond what we now know! P. J. Fischer has accomplished just that goal and it is well worth the journey.

Reviewed by Viviane Crystal on September 24, 2004

Reviewed by Viviane Crystal
Courtesy Crystal Reviews
Posted October 15, 2004

Summary

Three graduate students in search of a little extra money create a toy for profit that pushes the limits of artificial intelligence and changes their futures in this slipstream novel. One student lands in jail, charged with violating genetic manipulation laws, while another becomes more deeply involved with their creation, Julia, when she comes to realize the significance of their accomplishment. Elements of fiction and fantasy intertwine in this tale of how a new era of human history is ushered in through the enterprising activities of cash-strapped graduate students.