Julia Stretton, geóloga, forma parte de un grupo que trabaja en un revolucionario experimento. Su tarea es encontrar a un historiador desaparecido dos años antes. El experimento consiste en proyectar la mente de los investigadores al siglo XXI, a la isla de Wessex, en un medio que se ha creado por la fuerza del inconsciente de todos los participantes. Mientras están allí, viven una vida que creen real, y solo recuperan la memoria cuando son proyectados de vuelta al siglo XX. Cuando Paul Mason interviene en el proyecto, Julia siente peligrar sus mundos, el real y el de la proyección, y también debe elegir entre salvar su vida o la del hombre que ama.

This took me right back to the 1970s when I read most of my sci-fi. Thoughtful political and social background to a story set in the near future (early 1980s) with projections to a further future. The decay of the environment, scarcity, the division of the world into not surprising blocks all rang true. The world is largely composed of an Islamic bloc including North America and a Soviet bloc including the UK where the story is set. Australia, I'm pleased to report, is one of the few independent countries.

Character development doesn't stand comparison with Shakespeare, but it compares favourably with the run of the mill science fiction I've read so much of. Priest is a polished writer, which makes him easy to read. The basic premise was believable, it's nice not to have to be convinced to suspend disbelief.

I confess I hadn't heard of him before, despite being well regarded, most notably these days for having written the book that later became the Nolan movie The Prestige. I could read more. It struck me as rather PK Dick without the drugs.

Trots off to look up that idea online. Spots this:

https://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpress.com/2016/04/26/a-dream-of-wessex-by-chri...

This took me right back to the 1970s when I read most of my sci-fi. Thoughtful political and social background to a story set in the near future (early 1980s) with projections to a further future. The decay of the environment, scarcity, the division of the world into not surprising blocks all rang true. The world is largely composed of an Islamic bloc including North America and a Soviet bloc including the UK where the story is set. Australia, I'm pleased to report, is one of the few independent countries.

Character development doesn't stand comparison with Shakespeare, but it compares favourably with the run of the mill science fiction I've read so much of. Priest is a polished writer, which makes him easy to read. The basic premise was believable, it's nice not to have to be convinced to suspend disbelief.

I confess I hadn't heard of him before, despite being well regarded, most notably these days for having written the book that later became the Nolan movie The Prestige. I could read more. It struck me as rather PK Dick without the drugs.

Trots off to look up that idea online. Spots this:

https://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpress.com/2016/04/26/a-dream-of-wessex-by-chri...

Inventive, imaginative, visionary - an apt description for both men and women in the novel and author of the novel. Christopher Priest, one of my favorite novelists, set my mind gyrating and performing pirouettes once again with his A Dream of Wessex.

In 1985, in a special facility built underneath ancient Maiden Castle located near Dorchester, England, in pursuit of innovative insights and approaches to social issues of the day, 39 British academics and scientists participate in a “projection” whereby they share a virtual reality, a parallel world 150 years into the future. Once they are in Dorchester in the year 2135, memories of their lives back in the 20th century evaporate and are replaced by a complete 21st century identity. According to the rules of the Wessex Project, upon retrieval to the 20th century, participants are required to write a formal report recounting their experience.

Originally published in 1977, Christopher Priest's A Dream of Wessex is a mind-bending time twister, a cross between Philip K. Dick experimental science fiction and Wilkie Collins British suspense yarn. Here's a number of the highlights a reader will encounter in this tightly told tale of 225 pages:

MAIN CHARACTERS
There's Julia Stretton, Paul Mason and David Harkman. Julia is an attractive 27-year old geologist who thrives on her participation in the project. But there is an alarming crisis lurking on the horizon: Julia's former lover from a time when they were both students at university, a strikingly handsome man by the name of Paul Mason, joins the Wessex project.

Julia had to break off her relationship with Paul back then since beneath his good looks and charisma Paul Mason turned out to be manipulative, egocentric, cruel and domineering. Fortunately, in her current life, Julia can draw strength from another man who has recently joined the project, David Harkman. A sensitive, wise 40-year-old social historian, David is also an adventurer, a quality he will need when the power struggle within the project reaches the snapping point.

Once together in projected 21st century virtual reality, David and Julia fall deeply in love. But the lovers must deal with power hungry, self-centered Paul Mason, a man who doesn't accept defeat easily, and that's understatement. In all the Christopher Priest novels I've read to date, Paul Mason is unquestionably the darkest and most sinister of the author's characters. With the inclusion of Paul, the tension created within the story skyrockets.

TIDAL WAVES
In the year 2135, following a string of catastrophic earthquakes, southwest England is now an island separated from the mainland, Dorchester, a seaside town attracting tourists. The deep channel separating the two land masses is known as Blandford Passage featuring the most phenomenal change of all: tidal waves are a common occurrence. Rising to the challenge, future Brits ride these tidal waves on specially constructed, motorized craft, a cross between surfboard and jet ski. Surf's up, dude!

David Hartman has maintained his trim physique and saved enough money to purchase one of these unique crafts and quickly becomes adept at riding the Blandford title waves. Having been a surfer in my younger days, I especially appreciate how David’s skill and courage play their part in the unfolding drama.



INTUITION
Upon meeting one another for the first time inside the projection, both Julia and David have a feeling, an indefinable sense of recognition but David admits on the level of rationality his inner feelings do not make a shred of sense. Herein lies much of the delight in reading the novel – the dissonance between the men and women in the projection who think they are in the “real” world and a reader knowing they are merely participating in a shared virtual reality.

THE UNCONSCIOUS
A participant’s projected experience in simulated 2135 is a consequence, in part, of their alter ego. In other words, a person’s deeper wishes and desires color their projection. Added to this, however, we also read: “Someone had remarked at the beginning that the collective unconscious would produce archetypal horrors, nightmare images, dreamlike situations. It had been a semi-facetious remark, but many had taken it seriously. Unlike the dream-state, though, the Wessex of the group mind was controllable. There was constant correction stemming from reason, sanity, experience; the conscious mind could override the unconscious. The nightmare fantasies did not appear.”

INNER REALITY OF THE MIND
With each page we turn, the more we share the collective 2135 Wessex dream with the novel’s characters, the more we are confronted with the conundrum of the fleeting nature of feelings, sensations and memory. How much does remembering contribute to our sense of identity? What if we could no longer remember large swaths of the past or even our entire past? What would we fall back on? Our moods? Our emotions? Our ability to analyze via reason and logic?

JOLT OF THE WEIRD
In vintage Christopher Priest style, toward the end of A Dream of Wessex there is a sudden, unforeseen event propelling the story into even more amazing dimensions of time and space. I wouldn’t want to disclose anything specific here but I will pose a number of questions: What would happen if someone in 2135 discovered their membership in the 1985 Wessex Project? How would identity be shaken up if the men and women in 2135 Wessex created their own Wessex time travel project whereby they would travel backwards in time to the year 1985? Stated another way: What confusion would be created if men and women didn’t know if they were in the “real” world or in a projection of a projection? What would your reaction be if you saw your own name among the participants in a 2018 projection? To approach an answer to any or all of these questions, I highly recommend this Christopher Priest mind-stunner.



"In the same way that she had a double, and sometimes contradictory image of herself and her own future persona, so Julia had conflicting feelings about David Hartman. As she was here, living her real life in the real world, Harkman was just another member of the projection, if one in an unusual situation. But her memory of Harkman's alter ego was altogether differrent: warm, intrigued, excited, deeply personal."


Photo of Christopher Priest taken back in the 1970s when he wrote A Dream of Wessex

David and Julia meet, fall in love and live in paradise (in the year 2137). But in reality their bodies are contained in morguelike drawers in the Ridpath Project in the year 1985. They and other dreamers are trying to construct a future that might save the present. Very interesting premise. ( )