To Ride Pegasus - Anne McCaffrey

I know I'm a little behind on my blogging so I'm going to try and get it all done today.

This book was originally a series of short stories for Science Fiction Magazine in the 60s but they made sense as a complete story.

In the late 1990s, people with advanced sensory skills like telepathy and telekinesis were ridiculed as being "quacks," charlatans who were just trying to make a quick buck off the unsuspecting. Henry Darrow was an astrologer with an amazing ability to "guess" right when it came to his clients. After a car accident put him in the hospital, a very sensitive EEG (electroencephalograph) was attached to his head to monitor the trauma to his brain. Standard procedure. While a nurse was checking on him, he had a precognitive experience and proof of ESP was captured.

Now there was scientific proof that ESP really did exist and Henry and Molly (the nurse in question above) set about to find as many Talents as possible. The idea was to train them to assist various company, goverments, officials, etc. with decisions that could save them money. Ingratiate themselves to the world and that world will become their oyster.

As any organization with growing pains will experience, there are obstacles and challenges that crop up in the line of duty. Do you predict the future in order to change it or live through the aftermath? If you do change the future, should you be held liable when the change may cost millions of dollars? These are some of the issues that the Eastern Parapsychic Center located in the Palisades section of NY have to deal with.

Legislation is created and battled against to protect the Talents from repercussions. It's a fascinating look into the struggles and foibles of Talent in preparation for their leap into space with the Tower & Hive series.