Psychotron

by Jason Reza Jorjani

Dana Avalon is from Gotham, the last modern metropolis on Earth in the year 2112, built by Prometheists in the late 21st century above the shattered skyscrapers of Manhattan rising out of the Atlantic Ocean. As the leader of Prometheism, and the reincarnation of the movement’s founder, Dana realizes that the war with the Traditionalist Imperium is lost in the present and that retrieving the future of Modernity requires her to travel back in time to 1980 as an assassin aiming to rewrite history. Her principal aim is to prevent the collapse of the Soviet Union. Dana eventually meets Nikolai Alexandrov, an incarnation of her from two lifetimes ago, and alters the course of his tortured life. Nikolai is a New Yorker of questionable ‘Russian’ ancestry, who recalls his past lives as Nikola Tesla and as an Atlantean. Following the traumatic death of his parents, he is adopted and raised by a mysterious couple who claim to be his aunt and uncle. After doing breakthrough work in Physics and Philosophy, Nikolai finds himself caught up in a web of intrigue that leads him to a career as a psychic spy tracking UFOs for U.S. Naval Intelligence and to the discovery of Neo-Fascist plans to establish a Fourth Reich. This re-write of Faustian Futurist and Uber Man includes a number of new chapters that integrate Jorjani’s two novels into a single literary work and also complete the story of Uber Man that ended with a cliffhanger. The new material features substantive commentary on Satanism, makes more explicit the esoteric theme of the cult of Artemis in Faustian Futurist , and, most significantly, addresses Simulation Theory and Artificial Intelligence in relation to the nature of sentience, consciousness, and Psi phenomena.

528 pages, Paperback

Published September 11, 2023

Reviews

[no.stache.nietzsche · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well.. here we go- the new Jorjani novel! Or rather, a rewrite of his two prior novels in an attempt to rectify the er.. 'situation' around Promethean Pirate, which was billed as the thrilling conclusion to his scifi bildungsroman trilogy that had left off on an epic cliffhanger at the end of the second installment, but which was nothing of the sort (not even kind of..)

And while there is some substantial philosophical material further fleshing out Jorjani's position and theories, Psychotron does not deliver a substantial third act. Only in the last ~fifty pages does the new plot material pickup, and there are no new characters or really constructive thematic material, more just a tying up of loose ends. Neither does any of these additional pages really substantially connect to Jorjani's intermediary novella Artemis Unveiled (although they aren't contradictory and could be speculatively linked to AU if one wished to connect them one'self).

The flow of the material that comprised Faustian Futurist (his first novel- a real feat of an existential scifi novel) flows decently into the second act, which had previously been Uber Man (a more action/adventure geopolitical thriller type scifi novel, also highly entertaining), but the two are still substantially distinct. They're satisfactorily melded into an overall arc, with the second act diving deeper into theory and ethics (and sexy times).. but then there is no third act! Oh.. how we wish there was! We had presumed that finally providing a culmination in the form of a third act to crown the trilogy was the point of this rewrite.. but it just isn't there. The last ~50 pages do amend the previous cliffhanger to some extent, but the work really suffers from a lack of any introduction of a new character set, and although the added detail in the second act is neat, there is still nothing substantially new to balance the work as a whole into an authentic trilogy.

We were really hoping for a counterpoint to the stylistic contrast between the first two sections- which each explore a distinct scifi subgenre. Perhaps something like a PKD-esque quirky realist novel, centered on a new character, so that the first two: Nikolai (from FF) and Dana (from UM) would have something to sublate their distinctions into.. the nascent Admiral Hyrcanius perhaps! But nothing of the sort materializes and we're left with.. something of a "then I woke up and it was all just a dream!" type ending that, although not literally that trite, is.. basically of that general type.

To write sex scenes with Ghislaine Maxwell and one'self into a novel is courageous. To rewrite that novel with more sex (much of which involves adolescent characters..) and put Maxwell on the cover is perhaps a touch on the wild side. But if Jorjani truly has the cajones he claims, he will pen us the true third act that we crave- something with a fresh set of characters that explores an additional stylistic scifi subgenre through a plot that can truly capstone his work as a legitimate trilogy, by linking the dour inception of Faustian Futurist, through the vivacious adventure of Uber Man, to the triumphant conclusion of Artemis Unveiled. Here's hoping he can succeed!

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is a mess, but I cant say I was bored by it.

[Sam Rosendahl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally Moves beyond Heidegger. And finally incorporates Eros. PromethEros

[Bryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a tough read but had some very interesting chapters that left me in deep thought.