Watson (Great Escape
) fuses occult horror with SF in this uneven mix of magic, philosophy, politics and science. Olaf Frisvold, a former Norwegian SS Officer, hires a jigsaw-puzzle–making couple to create a puzzle that commemorates the Nazi blood-sacrifice of Frisvold's sister during WWII in Vigeland Park, an eerie Norwegian sculpture garden. A subsequent ritual enables the odious Olaf to be reborn as Jamie into a world that by 2016 has been invaded by Mockymen, machine immortals "hoping to become free-ranging energy-beings, while lesser native species"—like earth's humans—"went extinct." Watson makes some astute observations about what it means to be human, but his inability to decide what sort of tale he's telling—a Lovecraftian nightmare, an I, Robot
with Tibetan/Teutonic flare or a biting Orwellian satire—produces puzzle pieces that never quite fit. (Oct.)
