Observer -- Robert Lanza, Paperback

Observer, by Robert Lanza and Nancy Kress is a slick, modern, hard science fiction standalone medical thriller, combining classic Robin Cook with the hard edge of Black Mirror and Altered Carbon.

After neurosurgeon Caro Soames-Watkins's career has gone down in flames, she receives a strange job offer from Nobel Prize-winning scientist Sam Watkins, a great uncle she barely knows, and desperation overcomes any suspicions.

Watkins's mysterious medical facility conducts research into the nature of consciousness, reality, and life after death. Two obstacles stand in his way: an intel leak and his failing body may not last long enough for the tech to be ready.

As danger mounts, Caro finds more than she bargained for: murder, love, and a deep disturbing look into the nature of reality.

Author: Robert Lanza,Nancy Kress
Publisher: Tor Books
Published: 09/23/2025
Pages: 384
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 9.14h x 6.29w x 0.99d
ISBN: 9781250376466

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 09/08/2025

About the Author

ROBERT LANZA, M.D.: Named one of TIME magazine's "100 Most Influential People," Lanza is a renowned scientist and author whose groundbreaking research spans many fields, from biology to theoretical physics. He is the father of Biocentrism, the basis for Observer, his first novel. Fascination with the nature of life infused his entire career, leading him to the very frontiers of biology and science.

NANCY KRESS: Hailed by bestselling author Kim Stanley Robinson as "one of the greatest science fiction writers working today," Nancy Kress has won six Nebula and two Hugo Awards. She often writes about developments in science, particularly genetic engineering, as in her bestselling novel, Beggars in Spain. Her work has been translated into over a dozen languages, including Klingon. She teaches writing and was "Fiction" columnist for Writer's Digest magazine for sixteen years. Nancy lives in Seattle with her husband, author Jack Skillingstead.