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Nutcase from the Future
When psychiatric therapist Kim Lewis meets Ray, her newest patient, she assumes he’s simply another troubled man with an unusual story. But the details he shares about life in the future — facts he reveals reluctantly, almost against his will — are too specific, too coherent, and too unsettling to ignore.
Ray isn’t predicting anything.
He’s remembering.
As Kim tries to make sense of his extraordinary claims, her own understanding of reality begins to shift. Conversations that should be clinical become dangerously personal. Ray insists that the choices people believe they make are nothing more than the unfolding of forces already set into motion — and the more Kim listens, the more she begins to see connections between Ray’s “future” and her own present life.
Is Ray delusional, manipulative, or brutally honest about a world Kim hasn’t yet lived in?
Caught between her profession, her conscience, and her growing doubts, Kim must decide what to believe before Ray’s knowledge — or her reaction to it — destroys everything she thinks she controls.
A psychological and philosophical novel about the fragility of identity, the illusion of free will, and the terrifying possibility that our future may already be written.
Ray isn’t predicting anything.
He’s remembering.
As Kim tries to make sense of his extraordinary claims, her own understanding of reality begins to shift. Conversations that should be clinical become dangerously personal. Ray insists that the choices people believe they make are nothing more than the unfolding of forces already set into motion — and the more Kim listens, the more she begins to see connections between Ray’s “future” and her own present life.
Is Ray delusional, manipulative, or brutally honest about a world Kim hasn’t yet lived in?
Caught between her profession, her conscience, and her growing doubts, Kim must decide what to believe before Ray’s knowledge — or her reaction to it — destroys everything she thinks she controls.
A psychological and philosophical novel about the fragility of identity, the illusion of free will, and the terrifying possibility that our future may already be written.
226 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 12, 2024
8 people are currently reading
9 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 27, 2025
There’s a certain tongue-in-cheek vibe to this charming tale about a deadpan and immediately likable visitor from the future who drops unannounced into the unsuspecting world of contemporary Dallas, TX to calmly explain how much better life could be without sports, war, money or advertising.
The harbinger of this advice from a thousand years into the future is Mr. Ray Light, a sort of deadpan time bandit himself who serves as a handy excuse for the author to discuss everything from the idylls of world peace to romance, sex and customized Ai newscasters. There’s even “modification technology” that catches foreseen human problems during pregnancy before birth.
Nobody believes Ray, of course.
As expected, his contemporary new Texan friends promptly lock him in the nuthouse and try to “fix” him. The great Mental Health Industrial Complex soon takes over and the FBI gets involved. Crazy Ray (DOB 2992), slowly becomes accepting and numb to the ways of his new home, which means that he also quickly falls in love with his therapist, Kim, who has been trying to cure her patient of the idea that human beings shouldn’t require money but rather produce and share what they truly need. Afer all, a world in which a gardener makes as much money as an NBA star can’t be normal.
Through it all, Ray Light nevertheless remains curious about his new life as a visitor from the future, despite efforts by everyone around him to convince him that he’s truly batshit crazy.
This novel reflects many of the thoughts presented in Veletsky’s previous books, in which his characters offer their opinions about human fate and the predetermined events that steer us through life.
Ray Light is Socrates in a straight jacket, and I liked him very much.
The harbinger of this advice from a thousand years into the future is Mr. Ray Light, a sort of deadpan time bandit himself who serves as a handy excuse for the author to discuss everything from the idylls of world peace to romance, sex and customized Ai newscasters. There’s even “modification technology” that catches foreseen human problems during pregnancy before birth.
Nobody believes Ray, of course.
As expected, his contemporary new Texan friends promptly lock him in the nuthouse and try to “fix” him. The great Mental Health Industrial Complex soon takes over and the FBI gets involved. Crazy Ray (DOB 2992), slowly becomes accepting and numb to the ways of his new home, which means that he also quickly falls in love with his therapist, Kim, who has been trying to cure her patient of the idea that human beings shouldn’t require money but rather produce and share what they truly need. Afer all, a world in which a gardener makes as much money as an NBA star can’t be normal.
Through it all, Ray Light nevertheless remains curious about his new life as a visitor from the future, despite efforts by everyone around him to convince him that he’s truly batshit crazy.
This novel reflects many of the thoughts presented in Veletsky’s previous books, in which his characters offer their opinions about human fate and the predetermined events that steer us through life.
Ray Light is Socrates in a straight jacket, and I liked him very much.
October 10, 2024
The concept is simple: a man from the future suddenly appears in modern-day Dallas. He explains to everyone calmly and cheerfully how, in the future, they have no money, no war, no competitive sports, and insurance and advertising are thrown in there too. They put him directly into a mental hospital, but they can't "cure" him - he knows what he knows. Slowly he becomes accustomed to life as we know it today. The author has a great sense of humor, and a point to make about free will, or lack of it. It's a charming book!
May 17, 2025
A fun read
I found myself caught up in story as well as the premise of what the world would look like if we really evolved as humans.
I found myself caught up in story as well as the premise of what the world would look like if we really evolved as humans.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews