Rating: 
Summary: less than I expected
Review: The writing is excellent, the content is good, this is a very readable book. What keeps me from giving it the fourth star is: so what? The philosophizing and time travel are both confusing.
Rating: 
Summary: Behind Door #3: the next Phil Dick?
Review: There seems to be a resurgence in time-travel novels, although they seem to be taking unusual shapes and forms. Or maybe I'm just hitting a bunch in a row: John Kessel's humorous take on time, Connie Willis' upcoming novel set in the same world as her award winning "Time Watch," and now this unusual novel, a combination of conspiracy paranoia, aliens among us, questionable reality, and time shuffling. It's a strange combo, but it works magically.First off, I have to give credit where it is due. Lawrence Person told me to read this, and although we don't always agree on literature, Lawrence knows my taste in SF and can often identify books that I will enjoy (it was he who pointed me in the direction of Zod Wallop, I believe). This time Lawrence was number one with a bullet! Door Number Three pushes several of my buttons, most importantly the study of dreams and the fluctuation of reality. The subject matter reminds me of Philip Dick. What is the nature of humanity? Why do we do the things we do? These are Dickian subjects (at least in the SF genre), and O'Leary tackles them within a framework that Dick might have used. However, the style with which he describes his world and ideas is what Dick would have used it he were still alive. Trying to describe this, I have to resort to the simple description of this as a 90s novel--in 20+ years time, we will be able to definitively identify this as being written shortly before the turn of the century. The basic story concerns John Donnelly, a psychologist whose new client, Laura, claims to have been in contact with aliens and if she can convince one sane person of this, they will let her stay on earth. But the real story is about John himself, his life, his family, and his personal adaptation to life. As such, it is not "true" science fiction, or, at least, science fiction as it is assigned as a label by most people. If the fantastical elements were less, or if O'Leary had been a little more post-modern with his prose, this would have been the latest hip college novel, rather than a forgotten debut on the SF shelf. It is a strong novel, which should appeal to most readers. Be open to it, however, because many things are not as they first seem. And at a little less than 400 pages, there's a lot of space for twists and turns.
Rating:
Summary: Written for Hollywood?
Review: This book belongs to a type I've seen more and more recently--a book influenced by film and/or written with an eye to film adaptation. John Donnelly, a psychotherapist, acquires a new client, Laura. She claims to be the offspring of an alien plus a human parent (the human was abducted by aliens). Her descriptions of her upbringing among the aliens are detailed and shocking. Donnelly thinks Laura is suffering from elaborate delusions brought on by a traumatic childhood. However, he is unable to shake her delusional system. Laura claims the aliens have given her one year to make a human believe her (or something dreadful will happen). She is also trying to seduce him. The first half of the book consists largely of descriptions of Laura's sessions and Donnelly's feelings--disturbance because he is starting to believe Laura, guilt because he is sexually attracted to her, grief over his mother's death, guilt over his long enstrangement from her. Then madcap action erupts. It involves government conspiracies, secret agents, murders, colorful characters, love affairs, time travel, alternative time streams, religion, Hollywood, and visits to another planet with fancy scenery. And lots and lots of easy insights and meaningful emotional breakthroughs for Donnelly, his brother Hogan, and several other characters. I said at the beginning that this book seems to be influenced by film. What I mean is the nonstop action and continual working to entertain the reader, by means of either emotional insights or humor. It doesn't seem to matter which, as long as the reader is entertained without having to think deeply. Fine if you like this sort of thing, but to me it seems rather shallow.
Rating: 
Summary: "One of The Best Books of 1995"--Publisher's Weekly
Review: This is my first novel. It's about time travel, alien abduction, quantum physics, God, the nature of dreams, mothers and sons, fathers and daughters, the future, the past, basketball, war and lucid dreaming.
It's about 350 pages.
Hope you like it.
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