Jack Dann, The Man Who Melted

The Man Who Melted

Jack Dann

PYR, Jan 2007, $15.00

ISBN: 1591024870

Artist Raymond Mantle is in France searching for his vanished wife Josiane, who disappeared during the first wave of the psychic Great Scream. Raymond does not miss his spouse as he has a lover, Joan, but hopes by finding her he can take back the crater sized gaps in his memory tied to her existence with him, apparently stolen from him by her during the Great Scream. All he has is videos of them together left behind when she became a Screamer channeling visions that turn into deadly realities as the world no longer has physical meaning or spiritual connection.

Raymond follows a clue that takes him to the Crying Church where he plans to hook into the mind of a dying Screamer to determine whether Josiane has stepped to the other side. As he does that with Joan looking more and more like his 3d videos of Josiane, Raymond begins to see the "dark spaces" of the minds of those dead and becoming telepathically connected to Joan and a friend Pfeiffer as reality twists in the winds of his mind while sanity is blown away.

This is a reprint of a dark science fiction thriller starring an unlikable hero who garners audience empathy due to his plight anyway. The storyline grips readers who wonder what Raymond is finding out about truth, ultimate reality and the essence of being in a world where hooking in can mean losing one's mind. Fans who appreciate a cerebral, thought-provoking tale will want to read this character-driven surreal novel that challenges basic, acceptable concepts starting with I think therefore am I and going deeper into what makes a person.

Harriet Klausner