Observer is a new collaboration between Dr. Robert Lanza, the renowned medical science researcher, and Nancy Kress, the veteran award-winning science fiction writer. It is a fictional vehicle for Dr. Lanza’s theories of biocentrism. Instead of the conventional understanding that matter and evolution gave rise to consciousness, biocentrism says it’s the other way around - consciousness gave rise to both matter and time. This perspective is explained and developed in several of his non-fiction speculative science books, beginning with Biocentrism: How Life and Consciousness are the Keys to Understanding the Universe, in 2009. It is not an accepted conventional perspective in the scientific community. I’m not interested in criticizing or defending it here, but it does work very well in a speculative fiction context.

The setting is near-future, although there are a couple of technological speculations that are extremely advanced from current state. There is a brain implant, that allows the consciousness of the test subject to enter an alternate branch of the multiverse. Their mind creates an alternate universe (a la biocentrism), after which that world persists on its own. And there is a scanning machine, known as Enhanced Functional MRI, which produces an actual video image of the thoughts of the test subject. This capability is so far beyond the physical possibilities of functional MRI, that it honestly should be called something else. But the terminology tends to enhance plausibility, unless you happen to have worked in the field.

The main character is Caroline Soames-Watkins, a young neurosurgeon, whose career is destroyed by the publicity of having reported sexual abuse by a powerful and denying colleague. Having lost her job so publicly, she is unlikely to be hired at any new hospital. She is also the financial support for her sister Ellen, a single parent of two children. Out of desperation, she is recruited by her wealthy uncle to join his mysterious research project in the Cayman Islands. She is emotionally insecure, and having buried herself in her work, somewhat fragile. Her sister is an even more extreme case, both of them growing up traumatized by their dysfunctional parents. She is likeable, and well described. There is also a romance, which while a little over-idealized, was not intrusive to the rest of the story.

The plot is thrilling, eventually life-threatening, and is driven by runaway up-to-date social media responses and conniving players in the research project. The reveal of the central mysteries as to what the project is, and why it is being done, is paced nicely to the reader through Caro. Dread and panic seep in as unintended and unsavory applications of the research begin to surface. Unfortunately, there are a few too many passages where characters need to explain biocentrism and its relation to quantum mechanics to one another. The initial explanations made to Caro were enough, I thought.

I enjoyed the novel, came away with a lot to think about, and recommend it to others. 4.5 stars, rounded up. I read an advance Digital Review Copy of Observer in an ebook format, which I received from The Story Plant through netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review on social media platforms and on my book review blog. This new title is scheduled for release on 10 January 2023.

This was a really engaging and well prepared novel. I found the science to be a little over my head at times and a little lengthy, but I never mind that - I like struggling to work through and understand, and appreciate the attention to detail and the trust that the reader will be able to get enough out of even complex material to follow along. . I found the characterizations really excellent and the plot moved along at an excellent pace that I thought was perfectly suited to the story. I really enjoyed this one and will definitely be looking up both authors for follow up reads.

Excellent, well written, and thought provoking novel. The characters are well realized, with real world problems and some new types of problems as well.

I appreciate that the book challenged me about the universe and alternative views of the universe. I appreciate a book that make me think and challenge myself while providing a great story.

In the Kindle edition there were two places where there was no space after a semicolon, otherwise the formatting worked well.

Thank you for letting me read this book!

The book seems well-written and well-thought-out. Unfortunately, I can't connect it and started to feel like forcing myself to finish it. I decided to DNF it for now, but I want to emphasize it's the case of "It's me, not you" DNF :)

Thanks to the publisher for giving me the possibility to try it. I may give it another try soon.

I picked this up largely because it was co-authored (or, I suspect, "entirely written, based on ideas by Robert Lanza") by Nancy Kress, who I knew to be a highly competent SFF writer. I have a couple of her books on the craft of writing, and they're excellent, so I expected a well-told story. Nor was I disappointed. (I'll note that there's at least one other award-winning writer whose writing advice I respect, but whose actual fiction I've never enjoyed or been impressed with, so the two skills don't inevitably go together.)

It needed someone with the skill of a Kress to make this a readable story, honestly. There is a <i>lot</i> of exposition, and a less competent author wouldn't have been able to make it interesting. Also, the premise doesn't make a great deal of sense if you think about it in any depth, so it needed an author who was able to keep up a constant patter of misdirection by telling an engaging story with well-drawn characters.

That premise starts with some features of the observer effect in quantum physics and boldly makes the observer central - so central that the theory is that observers create the universe, rather than vice versa. Building on this, a Nobel laureate in medicine (who is dying of cancer), his old friend the theoretical physicist whose theory I have just outlined, and a tech billionaire have come together to attempt to enable people who are implanted with brain stimulation equipment and linked up to powerful software to create new universes by "observing" them in a kind of virtual reality within their own minds. In these universes, they are able to create counterfactual situations: for example, the door of a room in the Caymans, where they are based for legal reasons, opens into the theoretical physicist's house in Britain in a universe where his wife did not die 15 years before, but is still alive. Not a simulation of her - actually her. Never addressed is where the version of him from that other universe is, why his wife isn't surprised to see him, how he gets from the Caymans to the house in Britain by walking through a door... There are a lot of holes in the basic idea, in other words.

Although Kress is known as a "hard" SF writer, meaning she makes a lot of use of actual science, she's not one of those whose characters are simply cameras exploring the clever setting. She tells a story, and her characters read like people. The main point of view belongs to Caro, the Nobel laureate's great-niece, a neurosurgeon who, after a failed attempt to hold a more senior male surgeon to account for drunkenly groping her at a party (which led to her being heavily trolled on social media by toxic men), is prepared to take a chance on what sounds like a weird and maybe even borderline unethical project implanting the brain stimulation devices. <spoiler>I wondered for a long time whether Julian, the dubious tech bro, had manipulated the MRA situation in order to get her as their surgeon, but this was not the case - or if it was, it was never revealed.</spoiler>

Through most of the book, Caro remains skeptical about the reality of the experiences people have through the devices she implants, and this provides a good point of tension and makes her character feel strong and distinct, given that she's surrounded by true believers.

There's a solid B plot involving Caro's sister, who's dealing with a disabled child and also a non-disabled child who is finding her younger sister's needs and the demands they place on her mother increasingly difficult to bear. There's also a romance subplot for Caro, which gives her a conflict between relationship and career, and several friendships of different kinds with other members of the project. It's all very solid storytelling, and it's where the book shines. It doesn't have the all-too-prevalent issue of contemporary or near-contemporary SF, where the characters are alienated people with no values who don't particularly want anything but just have to react to events. Caro comes through as a character with multiple dimensions, needs, desires, and the ability and determination to work towards what's important to her.

From an unpromising and dubious premise, then, Kress builds a highly readable novel with engaging characters, a feat for which she should be commended.

I really enjoyed reading this, it was a great thought provoking novel. I loved the concept of alter the structure of reality and was glad it held up to what I wanted. The world worked perfectly and I'm glad that I was able to go on this journey with them. I loved the way Robert Lanza and Nancy Kress wrote this and it was really well done.

“Oh,” Ivan said, as if it were trivial, “if we can implant a really important person whose not connected with the project in any way and who everybody has already heard of and will be impressed by. I don’t know who she meant. The president, maybe? ”Aiden had arrived. “Ivan,” he said, “there’s a code glitch you need to help Coe with. He’s waiting in Wing Three. Go. I’ll see that your shift is covered here.” Ivan’s eyes lit up. “A code glitch?’ He raced off."

OBSERVER is already one of my Best Books of 2022, and with January release will be one of the Best of 2023.
Hopeful, inspirational; heartwrenching and heartwarming; infuriating and invigorating, OBSERVER is the seamless collaboration of two excellent authors with a firm grasp of Science and a flair for Speculative Science Fiction. The Quantum Science is graspable, illuminating, inspiring. I read it in one session and had no situational awareness of my surroundings, as I was so deeply into the novel. I came away Hopeful, excited, inspired, determined! This is a novel I expect to return to again and again and again.