DOOR NUMBER THREE

by Patrick O'Leary ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1995

Hypercomplicated science-fiction debut involving shapeshifting aliens, lucid dreams, time travel, and whatnot. Detroit therapist John Donelly's new patient, Laura, has a very tall tale to tell--and insists that Donelly must be persuaded of its truth within a year. But why? Well, Laura explains that she's a human-alien hybrid, the offspring of an abducted human and an alien Holock (she has square nipples to prove it!), and, if she can convince him that she's telling the truth, the Holock will let her stay on Earth. Though initially most skeptical, first-person narrator Donelly soon learns that Laura is seeing another therapist--who abruptly turns up murdered and mutilated. Donelly dreams what appear to be lucid dreams involving a strange boy--a Holock? And Laura introduces the therapist to the eccentric Saul Low, inventor of the HOLD button--who can ""Blip"" unexpectedly in and out of time! The Holock, Saul says, aren't aliens at all, but from the future; unable themselves to dream, they've become addicted to human dreams (that's where the dreams you can't remember go: They've been stolen by the Holock). And the Holocks' real purpose is to incite WW III, thereby causing the mutations that will allow them to come into existence. An idiosyncratic, witty, labyrinthine, preposterous, unrestrained, and often highly entertaining debut.

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1995

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Tor

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1995

Categories: FICTION