Author: Jason Glover

Publisher: Thirdeye Publications

ISBN: 0-9790981-2-2

The Perception Experiment is the spiritual journey of one man in search of true reality. Each and every chapter is filled with reflections of faith and questioning. It is a philosophical novel in which God, angels, Satan and the devil play a big part. There doesn’t appear to be much of a plot to this work more the ramblings of a madman corresponding with his own head. However this character, whose mind you feel you are continually analysing, skips Church one day and the result - his mind taking him on a mysterious journey full of dreams and visions. One hallucination is of eating a pig’s heart and this somehow is symbolic for him. Personally I thought that this was unnecessary and grotesque. 

I think it has to be said that this book is aimed at people who have an interest in God and the bible. It is also intended for people who are into this type of reasoning and who can dissect what many people will only read as spiritual thoughts.

On the other hand the author has managed however to actually create sentences that make you stop and think “Oh yeah!” Here is one of his quotes “There are two sides to every coin-everything has its shadow”. Rather thought-provoking I found.

Some of Jason’s “perceptions” have no bearing on real life though.

The reader cannot feel much empathy with the character in this fiction for very simple reasons.  Is anyone as mad as this man?  He disappears down manholes into the murky and foul depths of the sewers.  I did feel that this man needed a lot of help mentally, perhaps a visit to the counsellor is in order. He asked over and over in his head “Why did He (God) create me?” well because they put a micro-chip inside this guy’s head, there is the answer mate.

The character also has a bit of a crush on one of the almighty beings he meets when he gets sent to hell. It made me think throughout the whole book- is this man dreaming all of this or is it actually happening to him?  It’s fair to say that the unexpected ending perhaps suggests the answer to that question. 

There are so many devils and other demons toward the end of this fiction, I just didn’t know whether to take it seriously or not. And what’s with the Blind before reading the book and Aware after reading the book? (website)

Apocalyptic, psychological and a mixture between science-fiction and religion. Jason’s poetic flare is interwoven throughout the storyline.

I may be wrong and I may indeed be missing some underlying theme but I didn’t see that much of it made sense. That is just my view point and others may well feel completely different about this unusual novel.

The above review was contributed by: Jessica Roberts: Jessica has been a book reviewer for a newspaper and a national women's magazine and is working on a novel.