Ian Watson's Novels Ian Watson's Novels (with excerpts from the publishers' blurbs)
"As man's destiny danced with the drug-inspired visions of a tribal priest deep in the Amazon jungle, his birthright was being optioned by an alien sales agent from outer space. At that same instant humanity's survival hung on the fulfillment of a mystical omen. The supernatural, ultra-shocking coming of a mutant messiah . . ."
"All over the world the whales were coming ashore, in a ritual mass suicide that no species of animal had ever matched. In the laboratories of Tokyo, at the secret police headquarters of Moscow, beside the Big Dish at Arecibo that peered blindly into space for another voice, even among the motorcycle gangs and ordinary citizens of California the phenomenon brought an astonished question: Why? And the answer-- Because they have tasted men's minds, and they are dying of it . . ."
"The Mars probe has crashed. A triumph of Soviet technology, the first two-way interplanetary probe performed brilliantly until the final stage of its return. Then something went wrong: rather than following its programmed course to a soft landing in its country of origin, the probe crashed in the Peruvian Andes. Now a weird infection beyond the understanding of medical science has wiped out an entire village-- except for one man, who, alone and undiscovered by the medics, survives. He has awakened to find himself become his own ancestor, and a god. Suddenly the flames of an Indian revolution are spreading in South America. He is the Martian Inca."
"Lila was one of those who could, by diving deep, deep within herself, emerge in outer space. The few who could make that journey were honored above all other mortals; already the secrets brought back by the mind-travelers had transformed Earth from the pigsty of the 21st century to the paradise of the 22nd. But Lila was to learn something beside which the secrets brought back by previous psychic astronauts would pale to insignificance--she was to learn the Truth . . . and it would not make men free.
John Deacon, a psychologist investigating UFO experiences, interviews Michael, a young man who has been picked up (and made love to) by aliens. Deacon's skepticism is shattered when he is flown in a red thunderbird to the dark side of the moon, there to have mysteries of the universe explained to him by an alien. Finally he experiences the "UFO state" himself, a waking dream consciousness more real than reality, and he steps outside the mundane spacetime continuum.
"It is 1997, time of the Millennium. Earth has been alerted by messengers of God and summoned to his planet of angels, 82 Eridani. Powered by a mysterious space drive found in the Gobi desert, a crusading space ship is launched through High Space to explore this heavenly world. In fear and wonder, Amy and her companions travel on an hallucinatory, mind-expanding voyage . . . fighting spectral foes, encountering revelatory visions, in a starship propelled by imagination . . . Then, in a series of dream contacts searingly, achingly real, Amy discovers the true identity of the alien inhabitants of God's World."
"Trapped in Eden! The Starship Schiaparelli, journeying to a distant mysterious planet in search of a colony founded by an earlier ship, was suddenly immobilized by a powerful unseen force and forced down upon a paradisiacal landscape, strange yet strangely familiar. Only one among the Schiaparelli's crew, psychologist Sean Athlone, realizes that its luxurious fruits, its colorful birds, its naked celebrating people are a replica of one of Earth's masterpieces, The Garden of Earthly Delights. Who created it? An d why? and where is the leader of this enchanted group, the enigmatic Knossos? Now Athlone and two women of his crew must search this paradise for its residing genius. And with Heaven so near at hand, can Hell be far behind?"
"The Kybers are an unnerving sight for human eyes, more like Giacometti sculpture than living things. Are they flesh or machine? No one knows--and the Kybers themselves remain impassively silent on the subject. Only Dr. Keiko Takihashi, ship's linguist, has been able to establish any communication with them; each day a Kyber comes (The same each day? No one knows.) to hear what she teaches of Earth's language and history. In return it tells her--nothing. What the Kybers call themselves, how they view the world, their two suns, all remains a mystery. But a time is coming when the Kybers must respond or die; one of their suns is about to go nova. Surely nothing could live through that fierce heat¾assuming, that is, that the Kybers are living. Keido Takihashi is convinced that they are, and is determined to save at least some of their race from annihilation. The Kybers have singled her out; surely they will tell her their secrets, open themselves to her, allow her to take some few on board ship and away to safety. In interfering so, Keiko is about to step over a line established at man's first contact with alien races; she knows all too well that no one can predict what will happen now."
"Todhunter was one of the world's elite--a guide in the House of Death--preparing the retiring for their coming departure. then he was given a violent man, a murderer, to shepherd into death, and Weinberger convinced him that those about to die emit a chemical signal which attracts a strange predator--a creature which is Death itself. Together they built a cage to trap Death, and then followed the Being into the strange alien world of the Afterlife."
"A soviet film unit's latest project is to make a picture called Chekhov's Journey. They try out a new method of hypnosis on the main actor to make him reincarnate Anton Chekhov. Impossibly, it seems that Chekhov knew of the famous 1908 Tunguska explosion back in 1890! Next, the actor is projected forwards in time--into a Soviet timeship which is plunging down towards the Tunguska region, completely out of control. The Stanislavsky Film Unity of Krasnoyansk is cut off by an impenetrable fog. The phones are working and yet not working. Hypnotic reincarnation seems to have gone too far."
"The Sponsor was a financial superman. But he wanted to become an actual superman, Homo Superior in his own lifetime. And he had developed a miraculous trigger device that would let him do just that: something to give a little evolutionary nudge to the human body, mind and spirit that would release the Superbeing within Everyperson. So a select group of volunteers--to keep the Sponsor company in his new incarnation--got together down on the Farm. The results were, to say the least, spectacular. And dramatically unexpected."
"Riverwoman . . . ever since she was a child, that had been Yaleen's goal in life, to join the powerful River Guild, and ply the waters, learning about all the towns on the eastern bank. Now she was a riverwoman at last, one with the water, one with the mysterious, sentient black current which granted women the rule of the river, yet called men forth to madness or death. But when her only brother joined the male organization, the Observers, and lured her to aid him with knowledge of the seemingly unattainable western shore, Yaleen found herself caught by a destiny beyond her control--a destiny that would put her beyond the laws of her guild and lead her on to challenge the black current itself."
"Yaleen, heroine of the River War, was the only one who truly understood the secret of the Black Current and of the entity that was its heart and mind. Now she must pay the price of that forbidden knowledge., forced to become the Black Current's spy, and to abandon her body and her world for a celestial journey to the inner sanctum of its mysterious, seemingly all-powerful foe--the Godmind. Yet could Yaleen discover the Godmind's plans for cosmic conquest? And, if she did, was the Black Current a strong enough defender to stand against this omnipotent enemy in the coming interstellar conflagration?"
"As the Black Current's agent against the power of the Godmind, Yaleen the Riverwoman has faced death and rebirth to learn the truth about the Godmind's plan to destroy the universe. Yet now, back on her home world, Yaleen's own people refuse to heed her warnings of the terrifying fate which awaits them if the Godmind isn't stopped. Only her old ally, the Black Current, offers Yaleen the help she so desperately needs. But is the Current truly trying to save humankind? Or does it seek to use Yaleen to destroy the Godmind--and humanity as well?"
"In another world, somewhere in space and time, two nations, Bellogard and Chorny, are locked in perpetual war, conducted by magic. Each of the main members of the two countries' courts--King, Queen, Prince, Bishop, Knight, and Squire--has their own form of magic, and special ways of moving magically. A war may continue for centuries, until one side succeeds in killing the other side's King, at which point the whole world vanishes, only to reappear and have the cycle begin again. Pedino is a young Bellogardian who is sent to uncover a Chornian spy. During his adventures he meets and falls in love with a whore, Sara, and Pedino's whole world is threatened with extinction."
"The little village of Melfort set deep in the heart of the countryside harbors an ancient curse and a modern evil. Alongside the Norman church, the green fields and thatched cottages nestles the American nuclear base of Kerthrop. As a group of villagers and CND supporters gather in protest, they little realize another more malignant and hideously destructive power is focused on the village. A power that has been waiting since the dawn of time for the destruction of man. And when a limited nuclear war between the Soviets and Americans mushrooms into apocalypse, The Power awakes. A monstrous parasite, it shelters Melfort from the worst effects of the nuclear explosion, allowing a pitiful few to live, cocooned in a nightmare world. Needing more to fuel its gross appetite, The Power then raised the dead."
"A fascinating tale of an ancient scientific experiment gone wrong, a mediaeval Chernobyl sending its fallout drifting down through the ages. Weaving together sexuality, history, and occult science, vividly evocative, rich in detail and fascinating characters . . ."
"The city of Babylon lay on the river Euphrates, out in the Arizona desert. The river was piped underground from Gila Bend, but the tower of Babel was real enough, its spiral roadway curling up towards the heavens, wide enough for several donkey carts. Alex Winter and Deborah Tate arrived by hovercraft, their minds babbling in the Greek that had been pumped into them via computer interface at the University of Heuristics. English had yet to be invented and the young king Alexander was still dying in his palace. Alex was a sociology dropout from the University of Oregon at Eugene. He wanted to become a Babylonian. Women sat outside the temple of Ishtar, waiting for some stranger to toss a coin into their laps. The prospect seemed to fascinate Deborah. She wanted to become one of the Whores of Babylon."
"When Saul and Diane save a wild rabbit from a hungry weasel in a quiet country lane, they inadvertently unleash the vengeance of a bloodthirsty, carniverous force. Soon their sanity and their lives are at risk, as are the young people of a cell of the Animal Liberation Front with whom they join forces to learn the terrible secrets of their quiet rural village. A visit to a battery chicken shed turns into an animal Auschwitz, where Saul is held prisoner. And a raid on a butcher's shop brings to murderous life a full-size model of the meatman, which, armed with a butcher's cleaver, goes hunting for blood and . . . meat."
"Charles Spark is an expert on body language. So when the aliens arrive, who better join the team that will attempt to understand them? But even though these insectoid aliens--the "Flies"--in their pyramid- ship speak both English and Russian, they seem unreadable. We have come to your planet to remember it," they say, and at first they seem indeed to be a bizarre group of intergalactic tourists. When human beings start to interfere, things begin disappearing. the Dome of St Peter's in Rome is the first to go, followed by downtown Prague, old Mombasa, Munich, the heart of New Orleans. In an effort to understand what has happened, Spark and a strange group of pilgrims embark on a bizarre journey to Mars, where the city of Munich has reappeared in a canyon. And where time, and memory, have become manifest."
"In the war-torn universe of the 41st millennium, all is whelmed in darkness, and the Emperor is the only light. Behold the Liber Secretorum of the so-called renegade Inquisitor Jaq Draco of the Ordo Malleus. Is this the only hard evidence of an awesome plot to overthrow the emperor and hold humankind in thrall? Or is it an amazing plan for the mental salvation/enslavement of the whole human race? A plan guided by the Emperor's own wisdom which He himself will not acknowledge lest even loyal believers rebel against it?"
"His grizzled hair was cropped tight, a pad of wire upon a rock-like skull, and implanted in his brow were two shiny steel studs. A fur-trimmed dark blue cloak embroidered with unfamiliar icons and sunbursts hung to lap the Marine's heavy jackboots, partly concealing a yellow uniform chevroned in azure--a uniform bulging with slabs of muscle. Fanged skulls within potent crosses adorned his knees. The giant was wearing an engraved power sword and a similarly enchased bolt gun in a holster of brass lined with slithery lizard hide."
"The galaxy of the 41st millennium is torn by strife. Earth's Inquisition seems at war with itself as Secret Inquisitors and other shadowy figures conspire to inflict mind-slavery on the human race. Their aim is to create a psychic doomsday weapon but if the weapon backfires the very fabric of reality could be destroyed. Amongst all this Jaq Draco is a renegade. Yet might this formerly loyal Inquisitor prove to be a savior of the human race?"
"In the strife-torn galaxy of the 41st millennium, can Inquisitor Jac Draco, hunted by Imperial and alien enemies, learn to read the Eldar book of fate and discover the secret of the final apocalypse? Devastated by the death of his assassin-courtesan Meh'lindi, might Jaq surrender his soul to a daemon to discover the legendary place where time can reverse, so as to bring her back from the dead? If Jaq's faith in the faltering Imperium fails, might the Space Marine captain who accompanies him be forced to kill him? Amidst massacres on the holy world of Sabulorb, Jaq will not have long before Chaos raiders come, and vengeful aliens too, before the planet itself is faced with incineration."
"Kaleva is Earth's first and only interstellar colony, discovered by Lucky Sariola who was transported there by an Ukko, a mysterious asteroid-like entity that responds to stories told to it--in Lucky's case, those of her Finnish grandmother. Centuries later, Kaleva, a planet of forest, lake and sea, is a quasi- feudal society salted with advanced technology and inhabited not only by humans, but also by the Isi, snake-like aliens, and their servants, the humanoid Juttahat. Lucky, altered by the Ukko, is still alive, though capricious and sometimes crazy. By mating with her, her consort Bertel had his life prolonged for centuries, as will the men who first bed her daughters--Lucky's harvest. Now on the 402nd anniversary of Lucky's discovery her daughter Jatta, banished by her mother, comes to Osmo van Maanen's keep as a vagabond with her demon child Jack. What happens there will set in motion a series of events that will bring havoc to Kaleva and all its people--human, Isi and Juttahat."
"Queen Lucky, half mad and newly widowed, is obsessed with finding the Ukko that brought her to Kaleva, for in it is her other half, her 'sister', and by meeting her she believes she can complete. But this obsession is potentially disastrous, for the Isi too are looking for the Ukko as part of their design to enslave the humans. Understanding this, one of Lucky's daughters (and with obsessions of her own) crowns herself rival queen. As summer turns into unseasonable winter, brought about by Lucky's mutant grandson, Demon Jack, and elysian peace turns to bitter war, the Ukko, once more, has a role to play in the history of Kaleva."
"Cambridge researcher Clare Conway and her would-be lover, psychologist Jack Fox, travel to Arizona for the 'Hard Question' conference about the mysteries of the human mind, little realizing that a lurid newspaper story about Clare is about to transform a routine trip into a terrifying, murderous confrontation. Clare is unwittingly drawn to the attention of both charismatic cult leader Gabriel Soul and a coterie of industrial spies, all of whom are convinced that she holds priceless knowledge about Qua, the quantum computer, a machine of unbelievable speed and power. Cult disciples, ruthless computer criminals and government agents all seek the secrets that they believe Clare guards--and they will let nothing stand in their way. For Qua, which uses multiple pathways in parallel universes to operate thousands of times faster than any previous machine, may well be the doorway to life after death . . . but it may also make alternate realities fact, and cause catastrophic civil war in America as today's realities disintegrate in the face of tomorrow's survival."
"When Tom Ryan stops his car late at night on a dark road for a man dressed as a Roman centurion, his first thought is that he's picked up one of those enthusiastic re-enactors . . . but the man, Marcus Appius Silvanus, appears to speak only Latin. He insists the year is AD60 and that the British Queen in Boudicca--and that he and the men of the Fourteenth gemina are in hot pursuit of her. Tom and his sistem Mary shelter the Roman, but inadvertently attract the attention of an unscrupulous journalist. He's not the only one interested in the Ryans: an IRA terrorist who was once Mary's lover in Northern Ireland tracks her down to tell her the plane crash which killed her parents twenty years ago was caused by the British security services. This fast-moving thriller is a fascinating portrayal of a Roman soldier coping with the marvels of the twentieth century, while asking searching questions about the secret activities of the state, and about its most ruthless, persistent opponents."