SANDCASTLES AND RAINBOWS

In this debut SF romance, two bodiless, immortal entities roaming the universe must repeatedly rediscover each other when their race decides to limit itself to a planet-bound mortal existence and fleeting memories.

Myers’ novel posits that a vast population of billions of elemental minds—life forms of “the Ethereal Universe”—explores the cosmos, occasionally entering the bodies of biological beings, usually primates, to enjoy physical sensations and emotions. Among the entities who indulge themselves are passionate mates Falin and Xin. Another of their species proposes a recreational challenge: The Ethereal spirits will migrate en masse into mortal creatures, shedding memories of eternal existence and limiting themselves to animal perceptions. Then, they must deduce the way back to their true Ethereal nature. Everyone thoughtlessly joins this “game,” and Falin and Xin bid farewell in what is assumed a temporary separation. The action moves to an Earthlike planet, home to assorted, largely flawed communities. Scott Daniels (Falin) matures in a totalitarian, socialist dictatorship, with everybody genetically engineered to serve the monolithic Corporation. Scott, naturally curious, voices skepticism about the establishment and suffers the loss of his fast-track career and his lover, Denise, a Corporation-indoctrinated woman. Scott vagabonds his way through assorted nation states, searching for a mythic Tower wherein answers supposedly await perennial questions (“Who am I? What am I? How did I get here? Where did I come from? Where am I going?”). Meanwhile, he’s brutalized in a militaristic culture coveting conscripts for its “fake war” and imprisoned for 15 years by a Roman Catholic–style inquisition whose faith he criticizes. He also finds romance—usually ill-fated—with girlfriends who seem to present facets of Xin until he finally partners with a woman named Audrey. Unevenly paced, with sometimes years of narrative flitting by in a few sentences, this metaphysical, allegorical odyssey skillfully grafts the New Agey romanticism of Richard Bach (The Bridge Across Forever, 1984) onto a Swiftian (light on the satire) tour of assorted dysfunctional societies that exposes their Western civilization–type foibles. Will transcendental true love prevail over petty nationalism, greed, dogma, and so forth? Things do wrap up by the end of the engaging story, but readers keen on the love fantasia should know the book is heralded as the first installment of a two-part saga.

An engrossing tale of reincarnated super-beings in search of meaning and love.