51

In O’Leary’s (The Gift) latest, Winston Koop’s job is to make people forget. He’s been tasked with keeping the government’s biggest secret, that the infamous Roswell incident was not a badly covered up alien crash landing on Earth. Instead, the incident was itself a well-conceived coverup of something much more dangerous. Experiments at Area 51 have opened a door into the multiverse, and the government has spent decades covering up their illegal experiments on beings from the other side—and the resulting technical advances that have been gleaned as a result. But he’s an old man now, and his misdeeds are wearing him down. All he needs to do is tell his best friend a story that Winston has made him forget. O’Leary’s novel can be read in any number of ways—as science fiction exploring the multiverse; as fantasy dealing with creatures of the imagination made real; as commentary on how badly humans treat one another and the rest of the planet; as a political satire; as a tale of an over-the-hill-gang that rides again; as an exploration of the human psyche and the need to be seen and understood; or all of the above.