How Like a God

What would it be like, to get absolute power? Would you wear a cape and fight crime? Rule the planet? Or perhaps you would be like Rob Lewis, and watch your world collapse around you. Does absolute power corrupt absolutely? Rob is going to find out.

Rob Lewis, an ordinary computer programmer with a wife and two kids, becomes something extraordinary one day after he wakes up and discovers he can read--and control--other people's minds. It's an ability most people dream of having, but for Rob it quickly destroys his life. There is a death, injuries, the threat of warping the lives of his children. Rob flees to New York where, homeless and destitute, he contacts Edwin Barbaross of the National Institutes of Health. Together they travel to Uzbekistan, where Rob will face both the source of his powers and his own inner demons.

Clough's (An Impossible Summer, Walker, 1992) hardcover debut offers a suburban fantasy in which Rob Lewis wakes up one morning with the ability to read?and, ultimately, influence?the emotions of people around him. Frightened, he leaves home, drifting aimlessly through New York City until he meets microbiologist Edwin Barbarossa, to whom he turns for help. Clough explores power, control, and friendship in a well-crafted psychological study. Recommended.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.