Title: Concentrated Brilliance
Review: This novella is a burnished jewel of concentrated thought. Disch's hero is all too much like we are, and when he begins to experience the mind-expanding effects of his "therapy," we watch his shifting perceptions register the pleasures and horrors of the change. His dry commentary on the other experimental subjects is by turns empathetic and dispassionate-- but always grimly fascinating. Disch has created an SF framework for this cold meditation on mortality, but it transcends the genre. The plot satisfies-- but it's the precise writing and the brittle and cynical philosophizing behind it that make this special.
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