The Eyes of Darkness (1981)
Author: Dean Koontz (aka Leigh Nichols)
This book has been making its rounds recently after the current outbreak of the feared novel coronavirus Covid19. The excitement (paranoia) grew as it was mentioned that the said virus was developed as an experimental bug in a research facility in Wuhan, China. On top of that, the virus in the book is reported to have a 100% mortality rate. The hysteria reached a feverish pitch as more pictures allegedly coming out clandestinely from there dropping like flies after contracting the disease.
There are some interesting facts about this book. The writer, a prolific one, wrote under many pseudonyms - Leigh Nichols when he wrote this 1981 novel. In the original edition, the biological agent was produced in a Russian lab, named 'Gorki-400', probably after Gorky Park in Moscow.
Author: Dean Koontz (aka Leigh Nichols)
This book has been making its rounds recently after the current outbreak of the feared novel coronavirus Covid19. The excitement (paranoia) grew as it was mentioned that the said virus was developed as an experimental bug in a research facility in Wuhan, China. On top of that, the virus in the book is reported to have a 100% mortality rate. The hysteria reached a feverish pitch as more pictures allegedly coming out clandestinely from there dropping like flies after contracting the disease.
This story is a simple one narrating the tale of a grieving divorced young mother. She lost her son during his school trip accident. Even a year after his demise, she had not really got over him. She kept seeing him around town. Many unexplained events made her conclude that her child was somehow trying to contact her telepathically or via telekinesis.
With her newfound love interest and a lot of help from her gifted son who is still alive in captivity,(surprise!), they discover a secret government facility and their secret experimentation with a killer bug.
There are some interesting facts about this book. The writer, a prolific one, wrote under many pseudonyms - Leigh Nichols when he wrote this 1981 novel. In the original edition, the biological agent was produced in a Russian lab, named 'Gorki-400', probably after Gorky Park in Moscow.
There was a reprint in 2008. By the time the Iron Curtain had fallen, and it was not thrilling to put Russians as the villains. The events surrounding 1989 Tiananmen Square made China the perfect bogeyman. Hence, 'Gorki-400' became 'Wuhan-400'. The rogue scientist Ilya Poparipov became Li Chen.
People are questioning whether the mention of a biological weapon arising from Wuhan from a nearby laboratory is mere coincidence or is there something more that is present in this interplay?
People are questioning whether the mention of a biological weapon arising from Wuhan from a nearby laboratory is mere coincidence or is there something more that is present in this interplay?
There have been many instances when such a fluke event happened. Think 1912 Titanic and its disastrous maiden voyage and you have 1898 Morgan Robertson's novel 'The Wreck of Futility', renamed 'The Wreck of Titan'. The book chillingly describes many striking similarities between the ill-fated ocean liner, Titanic and the ship in the novel, Futility (a disastrous name, if you ask me). Of course, as conspiracy theorists would go, the company that managed the Titanic was running at a loss and got their inspiration to make insurance claims from this book.
Then there are Jules Verne's many classic novels - '20,000 leagues under the sea', 'Around the world in 80 days', 'In the year 2889' and 'From Earth to the Moon'. This Father of Fiction sitting in the cosy chair of the late 19th century could conjure up devices that are of highly complexed inventions. Captain Nemo had his electric submarine, which was a reality more than a century later. His other novels spoke of helicopters, hologram, newscasts, video conferencing and space suits. Can you imagine, he even mentioned solar sails for interplanetary travels, which are only theoretically possible even in this age and time?
Are these people clairvoyants? Are they endowed with some kind of extra-sensory precognition that can tap events from an alternate universe or foresee events of the future? Perhaps, like Ramanujan, mathematician extraordinaire, they just attuned their brain wavelengths to the correct frequency to pick up information from the Master Intellect that controls every nook and corner of the Universe.
Do their works form a template for other great minds to work on a prototype or perhaps improve their ideas?
Did Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek implant the idea of creating such designs like iPad, Flip phone, BlueTooth headset, command-obeying Siri, Flat TV panels, communication badges, hand-held Universal translators or Google Glass? Or was it is just part of human's general technological evolution? If that is the case, in no time, teleportation will be a reality.
Hey, what do you know, successful teleportations of information on computer chips have been reported through quantum entanglement in laboratory conditions.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Interesting facts.
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