For example, although we had all received basic weapons and survival training, the surveyor had far more medical and firearms experience than the rest of us. This swift surreal suspense novel reads as if Verne or Wellsian adventurers exploring a mysterious island had warped through into a Kafkaesque nightmare world. The stairwell appears to have been positioned at or close to due north, which may tell us something about its creation, eventually.

The solid shade of late afternoon cast her in cool darkness and lent the words more urgency than they would have had otherwise. When we reached the camp, we set about replacing obsolete or damaged equipment with what we had brought and putting up our own tents.The biologist realizes that she herself must have undergone earlier hypnotic conditioning too but is now immune: probably an effect of the spores. Then, as I stared, the “vines” resolved further, and I saw that they were words, in cursive, the letters raised about six inches off the wall. It was not that I recommended this as the best course of action but because I wanted to limit their exposure to the spores until I could see what long-term effects they might have on me.

They also witnessed doppelgängers of the whole team, including themselves, walking to the Tower, which caused them to abort the mission.Most important, however, I now could guess at one way in which the spores had affected me: They had made me immune to the psychologist’s hypnotic suggestions.