A visionary book that easily melds philosophy, science, and science fiction. It gives a convincing and welcome taste of the future. Few other novels explore consciousness with this depth, except perhaps Carlos Castaneda’s classic novel, The Teachings of Don Juan. 

Book Review: Good will, fortitude and insight

Confessions of an Alien is a book about an alien who confides his true identity to a human, a work friend he trusts with his secret, as well as the experience of his technology. The book anticipates an experience that will awaken humankind, says E.T. Marshall, probably in the third millennium, if not before. Even now we are developing technology akin to that on Vlad’s planet, new interfaces such as Elon Musk’s Neuralink and simulations as familiar as cochlear implants for hearing. The book may be science fiction but it’s based on science fact.

Who is Vlad, DARPA’s miraculous star surgeon, wonders Donald, a grant writer working with a government-funded program that enables veterans to get new “smart” limbs. And who is that strangely dressed janitor so vigorously pushing a broom, he wonders late one night alone in a LA medical facility.

So begins a mythical relationship between an alien and a gifted “lucid dreamer,” in Confessions of an Alien (Red Coaster Press, 1/2017), the first volume of E. T. Marshall’s Mythology for the Third Millennium. The meeting is about human and alien perception of reality. And, as the friendship deepens, the alien’s simulations profoundly change Donald’s experience of life. Few other novels explore consciousness with this depth, except perhaps Carlos Castenada’s classic novel, The Teachings of Don Juan.

Without dramatic formulas or cliches about human-alien behaviors, Confessions of an Alien is a pragmatic investigation of how humankind may take its place in a changed world of the Third Millennium and as citizens of the universe. The first volume delineates the challenges humans face in their evolution, as well as technological advancement.. Donald’s, curiosity, good will, fortitude and insight, make him a fine hero in the Joseph Campbell tradition. Yet, while the perceptual experiences he undergoes are heroic, they are grounded in real science and engineering. This visionary book easily melds philosophy, science, and science fiction. It gives a convincing and welcome taste of the future.

 

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