cover image Quantum Web

Quantum Web

Kirby L. Wilkins. Henry Holt & Company, $19.95 (272pp) ISBN 978-0-8050-1260-6

Wilkins ( King Season ) blends quantum physics and Eastern mysticism in this somewhat muddled tale set in the early 1970s. At a scientific meeting in Bombay, American physicist Jack Malloy learns that India has detonated an atomic bomb. Feeling guilty and despairing, he flees to the Himalayas, where, after killing a man he believes is a robber, he is taken as a prisoner to meet the mystically powerful, cave-dwelling Lama Dorjem. Following months of study in Kathmandu, Mallow confronts the lama again, this time in the company of Tsering, a Tibetan woman who has been a Chinese collaborator; Gonpo, another holy man; and American and Soviet agents curious about the Lama Dorjem's military value. Back in Berkeley, Malloy's confused scientific colleagues try to ``share'' his experience under the guidance of yet another lama. By the end, although the most skeptical and antagonistic minds may have benefited from Malloy's strange odyssey, more than a few readers will have fallen by the wayside. (June)