Vectors [Mass Market Paperback]

Michael P. Kube-Mcdowell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 29, 2002

From one of the most original voices in imaginative fiction comes a stunning novel of suspense and speculation, as a scientist seeking to uncover the mystery of human consciousness finds himself in a desperate search for immortality.

Dr. Jonathan Briggs is a gifted neuroscientist researching the existence of the human soul. Working at one of the world’s top facilities, he has access to the latest technology. He also has the enthusiastic support of his lover, Alynn Reed, who made her fortune as a creator of virtual reality games that have broken every barrier. Alynn believes in reincarnation, which Jonathan scoffs at--until he begins to note strange anomalies in his research.

Then Jonathan’s life is suddenly, shockingly turned upside down. No longer the dispassionate scientist, he begins a fevered, reckless effort to go beyond belief to proof. Ridiculed by his colleagues and the tabloid media, hounded by the police, Jonathan finds himself in a frenzied race against time, memory, and his own mortality. As he journeys deeper into the labyrinth of the human psyche, he moves nearer the place where past and future intersect, identities mingle, and death is the beginning of the most amazing adventure of all.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Besides sf novels and stories, Kube-McDowell has written, as an unhyphenated McDowell, some 500 nonfiction pieces on scientific and theoretical subjects, and by now he knows how stories are told and characters motivated and how scientists think, work, seek funds, and can suffer from arrogance and frustration when their world doesn't act scientifically--that is, he knows that scientists are human beings, not lifeless machines. Jonathon Briggs of Toronto, for instance, wants to use Elizabeth Froelich's SQUID computer in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to study consciousness in the healthy mind. By swimming against the accepted tide of scientific thinking, he eventually nets himself a personal foundation to support his intellectual innovations. Unfortunately, the donor enabling the foundation also gives him a major headache in the form of her belief in reincarnation, which is at odds with his understanding of objective science. The gradually unfolding struggle between them, neatly wound into the story, forces the reader into accepting Briggs' entrepreneurial actions, aggressive search for scientific explanations, and ultimate suicide. William Beatty
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

From the Inside Flap

From one of the most original voices in imaginative fiction comes a stunning novel of suspense and speculation, as a scientist seeking to uncover the mystery of human consciousness finds himself in a desperate search for immortality.

Dr. Jonathan Briggs is a gifted neuroscientist researching the existence of the human soul. Working at one of the world?s top facilities, he has access to the latest technology. He also has the enthusiastic support of his lover, Alynn Reed, who made her fortune as a creator of virtual reality games that have broken every barrier. Alynn believes in reincarnation, which Jonathan scoffs at--until he begins to note strange anomalies in his research.

Then Jonathan?s life is suddenly, shockingly turned upside down. No longer the dispassionate scientist, he begins a fevered, reckless effort to go beyond belief to proof. Ridiculed by his colleagues and the tabloid media, hounded by the police, Jonathan finds himself in a frenzied race against time, memory, and his own mortality. As he journeys deeper into the labyrinth of the human psyche, he moves nearer the place where past and future intersect, identities mingle, and death is the beginning of the most amazing adventure of all.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Spectra (October 29, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553298240
• ISBN-13: 978-0553298246
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,216,178 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mike's best yet, February 3, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Vectors (Mass Market Paperback)

I am perhaps not the most objective of sources, as Mike is an old friend of mine. We met our first day of college at Michigan State University (mumble mumble) years ago and have been close friends ever since.

However, what I lack in objectivity, perhaps I can make up for with scope. I've read pretty much every piece of fiction Mike has ever published, a few that he hasn't published, and some of his non-fiction as well.

The story is well enough described in the cover blurb and other materials, so I won't go into that.

All of Mike's books and stories are good, but this is the best yet. In it he combines all his numerous strengths as a writer and human being. Mike has always been able to make the science part of science fiction intelligible to non-science types like me, without talking down, and he weaves the needed explication into the narrative far more seamlessly than most. He was an unusually thoughtful and inquisitive college freshman, and has become an unusually thoughtful and inquisitive mature writer. Without simply falling into credulity, he manages to make the topic of reincarnation, if not yet scientifically respectable, then worthy of cautious inquiry.

More than in most "hard" SF, his characters are fully human and fleshed out, warts and all. The all-too-common "tell the readers what they need to know about quantum mechanics for the story to work, why don't you" kind of dialog is replaced with real conversation between believable human beings. Humor and tragedy interweave in the lives of his characters, just as they do in real life.

I could effuse a lot more, but you get the point.

Do yourself a favor and buy this book. Do some of your friends a favor, and buy them copies, too.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Good Plan, July 8, 2004

By 

C. Heinz "dumbasssenior" (Lexington, KY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Vectors (Mass Market Paperback)

Ugh. I thought I had liked some of his stuff in the past, this was really crap. Scientist takes pictures of brainwaves, unique as fingertips, discovers identical ones from an old man and a kid born after the old man's death. His Wiccan, video game genius new girlfriend is killed by gang-bangers after he has scoffed at her suggestion that this is proof of reincarnation, so he goes on a mission to prove her theory. After a bunch of plot, he kills himself so he can be reincarnated soon after she is, so he can hook up with her again ASAP -- good plan.
I had thought he was more of a hard science guy, what's with the fuzzy reincarnation bit???

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Part one...an excellent beginning, December 29, 2002

By 

beam me up Scotty (High up in the mountains) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vectors (Mass Market Paperback)

Mr. KMD weaves a wonderful cautionary tale of the near future. There is hard neuroscience mixed with speculative spiritualism, but the bottom line is living, loveable characters who adapt and grow. And the ending is a shocker...but the very next page is a sneak peek into the sequel ("Fragments"). By the time this series is over (feels like at least three, maybe four books in all), Michael will have turned the whole universe upside down. If you read it only to see a dark vision of where we shouldn't go in his setting, you should read it. But there is also an orchard full of ideas, some hard science, others ehtereal, to be savored. I can hardly wait for book 2. This novel is a triumph; albeit act one. Buy and read if you like sci-fi at all, and for sure if you are either a) of open-minded spritual grounding, but especially if b) you think you know how the universe works (because you have a wake up call...)