Fourteen strangers travel to the planet Delmak-O to establish a communal settlement, but their arrival is met with immediate atmospheric dread. Led by Seth Morley, the group finds no clear directives and no means of escape. One by one, the colonists die under mysterious circumstances that suggest either a hidden predator or internal sabotage. To cope with their isolation, they utilize a technological religion that allows them to interact with deities like the Intercessor and the Walker-on-Earth. As their reality fractures, the survivors discover that their physical environment and their individual identities are artificial constructs generated by a poly-encephalic simulation aboard an immobilized spaceship.
Readers who enjoy psychological puzzles and ontological uncertainty read this novel to observe how isolation degrades the human psyche. It appeals to those interested in the crossover between theology and cybernetics, as it replaces traditional faith with programmed simulations. The reader walks away with a cold perspective on how technology serves as a fragile buffer against the void of space and the inevitability of death. It provides a study of communal paranoia and the ways people invent complex metaphysical structures to justify a meaningless existence.
- Published
- 1970
- Language
- EN
