Preternatural [Paperback]

Margaret Wander Bonanno (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1997 | Series: Preternatural (Book 1)

A struggling science fiction writer makes contact with the telepathic aliens from her latest book. Did she invent the aliens--or did they invent her? Margaret Wander Bonanno is the author of several bestselling "Star Trek" novels.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Preternatural, a remarkably ambitious and complicated tale, is a complex and multi-layered work. The book is at once concerned with aliens, identity, and mind control, while at the same time, it explores the conventions and practices of the science fiction genre itself. The protagonist is Karen, a woman writing a science fiction book called Preternatural (this is just the beginning of the double-helix world Bonanno has created) about an alien presence known as the Common Mind. But as Karen creates her story, she begins to suspect that the voices that prompt her story may in fact belong to the Common Mind, and it is humankind who is actually being inscribed by the aliens she thought she had invented. Karen finds others who share her experience: individuals who think they have been contacted by the Common Mind and are left uncertain about their own identity. A strikingly large number of these contactees are in show business, where the roles they have created in the fantasy world of Hollywood have become intertwined with their sense of self. Bonanno's book is amusing and deliciously puzzling. The trip she provides is well worth taking. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Karen Rohmer Guerreri is recently divorced, middle-aged, alienated from her children and unhappy with her writing career. Worse still, the telepathic aliens in her new novel, Preternatural, are apparently trying to contact her?unless, of course, she's going insane, which seems likely. If the aliens aren't real, though, why are other people seeing them too? In Guerreri, Bonanno (most recently, coauthor of Saturn's Child and author of several Star Trek novels) has created a protagonist whose life seems to be, at least by implication, uncomfortably close to her own. This novel, in fact, is something of a roman a clef, with a number of thinly disguised actors, two of them from Star Trek, appearing in major roles. The aliens, part of a group mind (assuming they're real), have no sense of time and only the vaguest feeling for individual identity; they also believe that they've created Karen and our world. Their interaction with humanity, however, is slowly destroying them, with unknown consequences for us. Guerreri, whose career has involved writing novels based on a defunct TV series, SpaceSeekers, hopes that her new, more serious book will be a success, but is disappointed when PW dismisses it in a single-sentence review. Bonanno's novel, however, clearly deserves more serious attention. It is a complex, occasionally painful book that will amply reward readers of serious SF.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 10 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; Reprint edition (November 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812567641
• ISBN-13: 978-0812567649
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,604,574 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun for fans of literary SF and media SF too, December 22, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Preternatural (Paperback)

I haven't even finished the book yet, I don't read quite as much as I used to anymore, but this book has me right back to loving to read. I don't need to synopsize it for you cause there are already plenty of those above. But if you like Star Trek and enjoy any kind of narrative complexity, or if you *hate* Star Trek and just love a good read, this is a really fun book. Kind of reminds me of a similar book, about a fantasy writer who got involved with the reality of her fantasy, someone email me with the title and author if you can remember it, that one was also literary-experimental and still easy-to-read. About ten years ago, I think the author was Kathryn something. In-something...

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A phantasmagorical carnival ride!, March 20, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Preternatural (Hardcover)

A science fiction novel about a science fiction writer who writes a novel about a race of extraterrestrial telepathic jellyfish, the Egyptian pharoh Akhenaton, a female cousin of Jesus Christ, theories of creation and evolution, characters based on William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and Shirley McClaine, alternate universes, a dying artist, and the librarian of the ancient city of Alexandria (all of which may or may not really exist)!! If this sounds like a confusing mess, it's not. Margaret Wander Bonanno whips us through this crazy novel like a rickety metal cart speeding through an amusment park thrill ride, keeping her steady hand on the controls all the way to the end. If Bonanno's next work improves on this one, she'll be an easy favorite for a Hugo or Nebula award. This is the kind of writing for which the phrase "tour de force" was invented! Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy read!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars PRETERNATURAL is worth sorting out the initial confusion., March 12, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Preternatural (Hardcover)

PRETERNATURAL is so oddly delightful There are tons of inside literary references, and I suspect the more widely read one is the more of these will surface. A suspension-of-disbelief reading attitude helps, and patience is well rewarded. I was pleased to note that this is only the first book. S