PERCEPTION

This mind-bending SF novel combines mysticism with thrills.

In the opening pages, Minda Blake, a psychic known as a “remote viewer” for a black ops government contractor, uses her ability to dig up a mysterious gold artifact in the deeply religious Dutch Reformed part of Michigan. Almost immediately afterward, she passes out, later realizing that a colleague wanted the fragment and tried to kill her. After recovering, she resolves to find the golden object and take it to the media, even if her employer will hunt her down and, in the best-case scenario, have her institutionalized. Her quest to recover the artifact leads her to small-town chef Garritt Vanderhoeven, who has his own special abilities following a plane crash and miraculous recovery in the rainforest of Peru. Since the accident, he has seen “flashing, twinkling, golden sparks,” which guide his way, including circling around Minda like “fireflies all around her dark wavy hair” when they meet. Their paths further intersect when Juan Talamantes, a worker at Garritt’s restaurant, is arrested by people claiming to be cops who believe he knows a man who discovered a piece from a UFO. These different narratives collide as Downey offers revelations about the golden artifact and the true history of Earth’s people. The plot intensifies as more is disclosed about Garritt’s family and his break with his religious upbringing. In the middle third of the novel, some of the plot momentum stalls when the tale starts following the interior lives of the expanding cast of characters. The backstory of the black ops government contractor and extended sequences in which Minda learns about the heightened powers provided by the golden artifact occasionally grind the tale to a halt. Despite this, there are enough twists, cliffhanger chapter endings, and rich details about the Dutch Reformed community to set this gripping book apart from similar SF novels.

An engaging tale with plenty of genre intrigue to satisfy SF fans.