Abandon in Place

Completely ignoring typical notions of story structure, consistency, and suspension of disbelief, Olton seems to have simply daydreamed up a wild fantasy (involving NASA and magic), and written it down verbatim. The result is one of the most genuinely FUN novels I've read in years. As with most of Olton's novels, the characters seem to enjoy the story as much as the author, and a healthy undercurrent of intelligence keeps the novel from seeming overly cheesy or juvenile. I'd recommend this book for anyone looking for pure escapism at it's most unhindered.

NASA is in deep decline especially looking back to its glory days of Mercury, Gemini, and the Apollo missions. As the astronaut and cosmonaut pioneers of space die, Elvis-like sightings are reported, but most rationale folks write them off as too much moonshine. However, when Neil Armstrong passes away, a Saturn V moon rocket launches from the Cape Canaveral pad witnessed by shuttle astronaut Rick Spencer. The ghostly spacecraft reaches Moon orbit, then vanishes. This phenomenon repeats itself several times.Rick persuades the NASA brass to allow him to travel with the phantom ship, which takes him to the shuttle piloted by his girlfriend, Tessa McClain. Rick, Tessa, and astronomer-astronaut Yoshiko Sugano ignore their superiors and ride the ghost ship to the Moon with the Russians providing mission control support from earth. Rick soon learns that if he fears that the space program will end, the ship remains solid, but if he believes that the space program will recover, the ship begins to vanish. The team lands on the Moon and successfully returns to Earth only to have the CIA interrogate them to learn more about psychic powers.ABANDON IN PLACE is a full-length novelization of an award-winning novella. The story line is exciting as Jerry Oltion uses New Age elements combined with scientific information tat tuns into an excellent paranormal tale. The novel is at its best during the space scenes, but loses thrust when the CIA enters the picture. Though the NASA leaders seem stilted, fans of preternatural science fiction will relish this weird to the moon and back thriller.Harriet Klausner

Great story, but the first part of the book, first 200 pages went way to fast and let out a lot of info. Over all a good book.

Those reviewers who complaing about the second part of the book need to remember that reality is what you make of it ;)Yes, it is true that you can clearly tell where the original short story ends. But this doesn't mean that the rest of the story is bad only that it's a _different_ story. In first part the core idea remains unexplained but we get an exiting and thrilling ride from its application. In the second part Oltion explores the core idea itself. Basically it is an intelligent approach to psychic phenomenon. Oltion asks the reader to assume that it exists and proceeds to explore what could be the rules governing it, what could be the logic behind it and what whould be the consequences if a large number of people understood these principles and tried to apply them.Don't stop reading the book at the changing point between the too parts. You'll be glad that you continued when you reach the end.

Only a Grinch (and there apparently ARE Grinches) could dislike a book as stuffed with ideas, adventure and sheer fun as Jerry Oltion's latest. Sure, it's a little messy, but so is life. Sure, you can tell exactly where the Nebula-Award-winning short story it started out as ends and the "widening gyre" of the author's wildly imaginative elaboration begins. But the center holds. (A tip o' the hat to ol' W.B. Yeats, whose poem "The Second Coming" could describe the world portrayed in this book.)For anyone who appreciates a novel that is truly novel, that makes you chuckle on one page and despair on the next, that has you rethinking everything you ever believed and still leaves you smiling, read this one. Unless you're anti-evolution...or a Grinch.