The Beyond Experience by Michael Reid Jr
Rating: 5 out of 5
"You're going to feel a chill."
The Beyond Experience was, in a word, stunning. To be blunt, I was skeptical about reading this. I'm a cognitive scientist, and most books I read that have something to do with neuroscience and psychology are so far from reality that they are painful to read. Mike, this story was fantastic.
The amount of passion and research that went into the characters and their story was quite clear from the get go. Even the setting of the story was intimately detailed. Mike clearly has a marvel of an imagination, and an eye for taking brilliant scientific ideas to the next level, while still remaining as realistic as possible. That is one tall order to follow.
The characters were really well written, it was enjoyable to watch them grow and change. The dynamic relationship between Dr. Lewis and Kyle, and their battle between science and religion, was well crafted. There were incredibly brutal struggles some of the characters faced, but I loved the book even more for that. It was easy to grow attached to the characters and really feel for them.
The Beyond Experience was captivating. It might be bold to say, but I think this book really has something to offer for everyone--whether you are a scientist, a religious/spiritual person, both, or neither--and that is an extremely difficult variety of people for an author to please.
Plus, how gorgeous is that cover?!
That'll do Mike, that'll do.
Go check out Mike's other two novels, Debt of Fear and Sins of the Father, on website (michaelreidjr.com) or on Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes & Noble, etc., etc., etc...
Synopsis: Dr. Lewis had always found a way to hide his deepest secrets: the abuse as a child, the loss of his fiancé, the reasons why he rejected the lucrative offer from Harvard. But, when Kyle, his lab assistant, convinces him to push the limits of the drugs he'd spent a decade perfecting, his lies begin to unravel.
Kyle's emotional events during treatment forced him to believe it was an event on another plane of life, a spiritual experience at its highest echelon. Thousands of people all over the world were experiencing similar events to Kyle's, claiming they'd been to heaven. However, Dr. Lewis disagreed, and spent countless hours searching for a neural pathway within the brain itself as the source of the augmented reality.
More secrets, lies, and love drive the two close friends apart, beginning a cascade of events that point Dr. Lewis toward entering The Beyond Experience himself. He fought the treatment for nearly two decades, convinced his terrifying past would confront him. What he experiences becomes far more world shattering than he'd ever imagined possible, but will finally give him the answer to why his fiancé, Lily, had spoken her haunting final words: "forgive me."*
*Synopsis from michaelreidjr.com
P.S. Sorry I've been absent for so long. This whole grad school thing has taken over the last 18 months of my life. I'm still here, and still reading (though sometimes, most of the time, it's textbooks and I'm sure you don't want reviews on those!).
Happy holidays,
Rae
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