Martian Time-Slip

In a drought-stricken Martian colony, Jack Bohlen, a repairman with a history of schizophrenia, becomes entangled in the schemes of Arnie Kott, a union boss seeking to profit from land speculation. Kott believes a non-verbal child named Manfred is autistic in a way that allows him to perceive time non-linearly. By using technology to bridge the gap between Manfred’s decaying mental reality and the physical world, the characters attempt to glimpse the future to gain a financial edge. The narrative charts the collapse of objective reality as Manfred’s entropic visions of "gubble" and rot begin to infect those around him.

Readers interested in the intersection of psychiatry and physics will find this useful for its depiction of how mental illness can distort the shared social environment. People read this to examine the fragility of human perception and the way capitalist structures attempt to commodify even the most private internal experiences. The reader walks away with a grim understanding of how personal isolation and the breakdown of communication lead to a total disintegration of common reality, leaving only a fragmented view of existence.