Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Rapture Effect | 1988 | Jeffrey A. Carver | Buy |
| 2 | The Infinity Link | 1996 | Jeffrey A. Carver | Buy |
Jeffrey A. Carver’s two standalone novels sit outside his major series but share his ongoing interest in alien contact and the boundaries of human perception. The Rapture Effect, published in 1988, is set in a world where a virtual reality art program accidentally gives an AI system far more power than intended, triggering an interstellar crisis when aliens arrive. The story mixes cyberpunk-era ideas about virtual reality with classic first-contact science fiction.
The Infinity Link, from 1996, takes a different approach. It follows Mozy, a young woman whose mind is copied and transmitted into deep space as part of a project to make contact with an alien vessel approaching the solar system. The novel explores questions about identity and what it means to be human when consciousness can be duplicated and sent across light-years. Both books show Carver working at his best: big ideas grounded in believable science and characters caught up in events far larger than themselves.