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From the “finest science fiction writer now writing,” a sci-fi thriller about researchers cut off from the rest of the world while studying alien life (Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly).

Robert Charles Wilson “writes superior science fiction thrillers” (The New York Times). Now Wilson tells a gripping tale of alien contact and human love in a mysterious but hopeful universe.

At Blind Lake, a large federal research installation in northern Minnesota, scientists are using a technology they barely understand to watch everyday life in a city of lobster-like aliens upon a distant planet. They can’t contact the aliens in any way or understand their language. All they can do is watch.

Then, without warning, a military cordon is imposed on the Blind Lake site. All communication with the outside world is cut off. No one knows why.

The scientists, nevertheless, go on with their research. Among them are Marguerite Hauser and the man she recently divorced, Raymond Scutter. They continue to work together despite the tension between them. Ray believes their efforts are doomed; that the aliens will forever be an enigma.

Marguerite believes there is a commonality of sentient thought, and that our failure to understand is our own ignorance. The behavior of the alien she has been tracking seems to be developing an elusive narrative logic—and she comes to feel that the alien is somehow, impossibly, aware of the project’s observers.

But her time is running out. Ray is turning hostile, stalking her. The military cordon is tightening. Understanding had better come soon. . . .

“Wilson builds suspense superlatively well, to a resolution that packs all the emotional wallop anyone could wish.” —Booklist