“Book Descriptions: Episodic alien-visitation expansion of a 1988 short story, from the talented, erratic UK author of God's World, Chekhov's Journey, Whores of Babylon etc. When insect-like alien "Flies" descend on Earth, claiming to have come to "remember" it, body-language expert Charles Spark is brought in to decipher their purposes. The Flies study Rome intently & in turn are studied by nuns, secret agents, psychics & Charles. Turns out the Flies discharge their memories into hormone-jelly tanks, where the memories are impressed upon the universal information-field & preserved forever. But then, as the Flies depart, Munich vanishes, only to turn up on Mars. Survivors take refuge inside a museum submarine. An international expedition brings the protagonists to Mars. En route, experiments with the jelly evokes a godlike entity that snatches up the experimenters, all women, & conveys them to the Flies' home planet. Here, they must come to terms with being immortal tho trapped inside the memory store. A triumph of style, what with the novel's 5 parts each told from a different viewpoints, & plenty of stimulating & intriguing ideas; but also dense, hard to follow in places & fragmented. Impressive, then, but far from easy & not entirely rewarding.--Kirkus (edited)” DRIVE
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