The Fifth Harmonic: A Novel (Wilson, F Paul) [Kindle Edition]

F. Paul Wilson (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

From F. Paul Wilson, the best-selling and acclaimed author of the Repairman Jack series, comes a lightning-paced, whip-smart thriller sure to please both die-hard fans and newcomers to Wilson's spellbinding world. Will Burleigh is a hard-nosed, no-nonsense M.D. totally dedicated to the health and welfare of the patients in his practice. But when he himself is diagnosed with throat cancer, he can’t bear the idea of undergoing massive radiation and radical surgery that will leave him permanently disfigured—all with no guarantee he will live at all.

Having made peace with his decision to die, Will is nonetheless convinced by a former patient to visit a healer, a mysterious and beautiful woman named Maya who claims she can help him, but only if he opens himself up completely to her and the harmony of the world around him.

To find that harmony, she insists, Will must follow her to Mesoamerica, to the home of her people, to search for what she calls the Fifth Harmonic. Will agrees, but he secretly brings along what he calls a “Kevorkian Kit” to give him a quick end in case his rapidly spreading tumor gets the best of him. Maya too, has her secrets, and as Will unravels them, he begins to fear he might have made a terrible mistake.

Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 1533 KB
• Print Length: 224 pages
• Publisher: Hampton Roads Publishing (October 1, 2003)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B001ELJST8
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #352,553 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

More About the Author

I was born toward the end of the Jurassic Period and raised in New Jersey where I misspent my youth playing with matches, poring over Uncle Scrooge and E.C. comics, reading Lovecraft, Matheson, Bradbury, and Heinlein, listening to Chuck Berry and Alan Freed, and watching Soupy Sales and horror movies. I sold my first story in the Cretaceous Period and have been writing ever since. (Even that dinosaur-killer asteroid couldn't stop me.)

I've written in just about every genre - science fiction, fantasy, horror, a children's Christmas book (with a monster, of course), medical thrillers, political thrillers, even a religious thriller (long before that DaVinci thing). So far I've got about 33 books and 100 or so short stories under my name in 24 languages.

THE KEEP, THE TOMB, HARBINGERS, and BY THE SWORD all appeared on the New York Times Bestsellers List. WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS won the first Prometheus Award in 1979; THE TOMB received the Porgie Award from The West Coast Review of Books. My novelette "Aftershock" received the 1999 Bram Stoker Award for short fiction. DYDEETOWN WORLD was on the young adult recommended reading lists of the American Library Association and the New York Public Library, among others (God knows why). I received the prestigious Inkpot Award from San Diego ComiCon and the Pioneer Award from the RT Booklovers Convention. I'm listed in the 50th anniversary edition of Who's Who in America. (That plus $3 will buy you a girly coffee at Starbuck's.)

My novel THE KEEP was made into a visually striking but otherwise incomprehensible movie (screenplay and direction by Michael Mann) from Paramount in 1983. My original teleplay "Glim-Glim" first aired on Monsters. An adaptation of my short story "Menage a Trois" was part of the pilot for The Hunger series that debuted on Showtime in July 1997.

And then there's the epic saga of the Repairman Jack film. After 14 years in development hell with half a dozen writers and at least a dozen scripts, THE TOMB is finally moving toward production as "Repairman Jack" from Beacon Films and Touchstone. The plan is to make Jack a franchise character. (Gotta tell you: all the years of this has worn me out.)

I've done a few collaborations too. One with Steve Spruill on NIGHTKILL, and a bunch with Matthew J. Costello. Matt and I did world design, characters, and story arcs for Sci-Fi Channel's FTL NewsFeed, a daily newscast set 150 years in the future. An FTL NewsFeed was the first program broadcast by the new channel when it launched in September 1992. We took over scripting the Newsfeeds (the equivalent of a 4-1/2 hour movie per year) in 1994 and continued until its cancellation in December 1996.

We did script and design for MATHQUEST WITH ALADDIN (Disney Interactive - 1997) with voices by Robin Williams and Jonathan Winters, and the same for The Interactive DARK HALF for Orion Pictures, based on the Stephen King novel, but this project was orphaned when MGM bought Orion. (It's officially vaporware now.) We even wrote a stageplay, "Syzygy," which opened in St. Augustine, Florida, in March, 2000.

I'm tired of talking about myself, so I'll close by saying that I live and work at the Jersey Shore where I'm usually pounding away on a new Repairman Jack novel and haunting eBay for strange clocks and Daddy Warbucks memorabilia. (No, we don't have a cat.)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book will open your third eye., December 8, 2003

By 

Barry Dejasu "the_otherness" (Rehoboth, Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Fifth Harmonic (Hardcover)

What IS this? Only three reviews so far? For shame...this book should already be considered a classic! I've been an F. Paul Wilson reader for three years now, mostly in his Repairman Jack/Adversary Cycle field, but I've read a (too-)scattered few others of his, and when I heard this one was coming, I couldn't wait. And now...a week after starting it...I am blown away like you wouldn't believe. No, seriously: Wilson outdoes himself with this book, his first that falls into a sort of "new age" category - no, wait, don't let that stop you...this is not just some kind of next-life/spacey-wacey fiction; this book will open up such whole new vistas of reality for you, you'll be changed.

A doctor, Will Burleigh, goes to see a spiritual healer. He has a very malign tumor in his throat, and doesn't have even a few months left. He doesn't want to get surgery, because it'd leave him permanently disfigured--and there's still no guarantee he'd live. As it turns out, however, one of his former patients tells him he should see this healer that she saw. See, this former patient had been diagnosed with leukemia a while ago, and should have been dead...but she was alive as if she'd never been sick, and she said that after seeing this healer, she'd "killed" the disease.

So he goes to this healer, a beautiful woman named Maya, who says that though she possibly could save him, he has to open himself up first. To life, to the world, to the All-Mother Earth herself. And to do so, they have to travel to Mesoamerica, to go on a quest to find...well, I'll stop there. You could probably read the other reviews and figure out what is going on, but holy damn...just read - EXPERIENCE - this book for yourself. I guarantee, if it's not a life-changing book, it will certainly open your eyes (or maybe another sort of eye?) to an amazing world: the world you are in, and maybe are blind to the true wonders of.

Now read it. Don't ask questions, just read.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An exciting adventure you shouldn't miss, January 5, 2004

By 

Susan Lee "Susan Lee" (NE Alabama) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Fifth Harmonic (Hardcover)

F. Paul Wilson is one of the best storytellers of our time. I've been a huge fan for years. The Fifth Harmonic is a departure from his other books, but what a fantastic departure it is!

Will Burleigh, MD has a particularly aggressive form of cancer where the treatment is almost as bad as the illness. His prognosis is grim. Even though Dr. Burleigh is a man of science, a man of reason and facts, he decides to give an "alternative" healing method a try. It's not a leap of faith, because he has no faith at all. It's a move spurred by desperation and his fascination with an exotic woman named Maya. Together they embark on an unforgettable spiritual adventure that will keep you turning the pages with anticipation. Wilson's characters are complex and appealing. The setting - Mesoamerica - is a character in itself. His descriptions of the Maya, their country and their history are captivating.

The Fifth Harmonic is exciting, fresh and thoroughly entertaining. I highly recommend this book whether you are already a fan of his or even if you have never read any of his books before. I assure you that you will turn into a fan after reading this gem!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is brilliant, November 29, 2003

By 

ZombiKitty "zombikitty" (Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Fifth Harmonic (Hardcover)

Will Burleigh, a doctor, is diagnosed with cancer. The cure will leave him horribly disfigured and still with no guarantee that he will be cured, so he decides to forgo treatment, though he only has a few weeks to live. A former patient convinces him, however, to visit a healer who she say cured her of her cancer. The healer, Maya, says she can help him, but he must go with her to Mayan country in Mesoamerica for the cure. Once there, Will is subjected to many trials in order to find "the fifth harmonic," which will effect his cure, but he has to fight his increasing physical weakness as the cancer takes over his body and, as an added bonus, he finds out that Maya is not all she appears to be.
This book is awe-inspiring. Wilson makes you care about the characters and draws you further into them in each section of the book by his inward-shifting narrative style throughout each part of his journey. Wilson is a brilliant writer.