Project Farcry

This science fiction novel features a very original species of alien, called Lambdans, named after their planet, Lambda. Although the cover art suggests they are insects (and this does fit their physical description in the book), the Lambdans are really plant-based beings, with an unusual lifecycle. Too much detail would be a spoiler, so I won't say too much more -- except that, because they receive their energy directly from the sun by photosynthesis, most of their internal body space is made up of brain cells. Result? They are a lot more intelligent than their small size would suggest. And they are telepathic. Richard Jordan, teenage human, is also telepathic -- but he does not understand that yet. All he knows is that he seems to have information about people that he should not have, and is always being accused of snooping when he is not. Through a series of dysfunctional family events, he ends up going to Lambda on a scientific expedition with his father -- where he meets and communicates with a Lambdan named Big Sword. The alien teaches Richard how to control his telepathy, and Richard translates for him to the other humans, convincing them that these insect-like beings are indeed a sentient species. Humans and Lambdans end up helping each other in some unusual ways. Fast-forward a few years and you are back on Earth, in a big underground city, where a telepathic cop meets up with a Mr. Rivers (actually Jordan in disguise, avoiding unwanted publicity) who is seeking out other telepaths. Why? Because it just might be possible to use telepathy for faster-than-light interstellar communication. But telepathy has its limitations, and true telepaths are rare. Not to mention the difficulty of convincing a skeptical government committee that telepathy is not a hoax. Then there is the techno-blunder that has caused an entire planet to shift into another dimension, where nobody can communicate with the Earth explorers trapped there. Or can they? I enjoyed this book, although I got a bit bogged down in the middle with all the underground city stuff, which was really more like a separate story, although it did tie in with Richard Jordan's telepathy project. But I was really more interested in the Lambdans -- who do re-enter the storyline in the last section of the book. One other complaint is that there was no real transition from one chapter to another, so things were sometimes rather abrupt. One chapter we are on Lambda with Richard, next chapter we are on Earth with a totally different set of characters years later. The Publisher's Weekly review suggested these were really five short stories or novellas, loosely strung together through the Richard character. Could be. At any rate, it would have helped to have some sort of transition to cover the time and space gaps. Pauline Ashwell, by the way, is the same person who writes under the name of Paul Ash (it says so on the cover).