Customer Reviews

Miracle visitors

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This is the first novel I have read by Watson and likely not the last because Miracle Visitors does what the best sf does, which is make the reader think. That might be an understatement, considering what Watson is taking on, which begins with the mysteries of UFOs and alien abductions, MIBs, etc and takes a startling turn I wont spoil here. The story goes from England to Egypt to the Moon (in two very interesting scenes) and finally to the US.

Suffice to say, I thought it worked brilliantly.

This, along Watson's first novel THE EMBEDDING, was listed on the top 100 SF books of all time by Interzone editor David Pringle. Here, Watson represents obsession with UFOs as a legitimate religious impulse leading to a "UFO state" of consciousness. Overt allusions to William Blake and Carl Jung help put this work in context as an attempt to mythologize (through science-fictional motifs) the eternal quest for unity of awareness. The aliens in this book, however, do not, as they do so often in conventional SF, represent the most expanded potential of higher knowledge. This responsibility is placed on the human mind and imagination.

Some spoilers ahead . . .

Watson's novel starts out in a rather grounded reality with a scientist (Deacon) doing research into altered states of consciousness. He suggests the possibility of of unique method of getting at the truth of a subject's U.F.O. experience. The next thing we know, the patient is off on a flying saucer to the dark side of the moon. The reader has to decide whether this is part of the on-going research or whether it is actually happening. The scientist too is taken on mysterious trips of his own to visit a Sufi master, then finally falls into the mad world of his patient. At least, this is the way I read it. (My reading may actually help you understand what is going on here!) There is a lot of unexplained mysticism in this book about a Biomatrix, The Green Man, tulpas, demons, well, you name it. It is as though everyone took L.S.D. and went tripping, which would have been alright if Watson had gotten a grip on his story. In the end we are left with a handful of mystics spouting a brand of New Age wisdom, while science is left in the dust on the dark side of the moon. I'm selling my copy of the Miracle Visitors cheap. It's too bad because it could have been a good novel had the author kept tighter reins on his craft.