A Fold in the Tent of the Sky

Clandestine experiments with psychic powers and time travel threaten to destabilize the universe in this half-baked thriller set in alternate versions of the present and flashing back to various points in history. Calliope Associates assembles a group of psychics with the goal of harnessing their supernatural powers, along with the latest science, to collect information for Calliope's clients. The central technique involves sending the psychics on out-of-body experiences to gather data from specific times and places in the past. But one of Calliope's psychics, Simon Hayward, is a dangerous sociopath with his own agenda. He learns to materialize on his journeys into the past and change the course of history. Soon, he is eliminating his fellow psychics by traveling back in time and preventing their births--and Simon's tinkering with the past is wreaking other kinds of havoc, too. Peter Abbott, another Calliope psychic, figures out what Simon is up to and must find a way to stop him before he, too, is erased from history. With the exception of Simon (who's obsessed with the Beatles and Sharon Tate), Hale defines his large cast of characters vaguely. The psychics are distinguished by their varying abilities rather than by any depth of personality, and the frequently discussed paradoxes of time travel--fascinating subjects in better science fiction--are handled clumsily. (Oct.)