What is this shift in consciousness we've all heard so much about?  And how will we, in the future, use our knowledge of conscious probability shifting?  This fiction book takes a fascinating look at these elements of a changing society and weaves them through a great science fiction story in and of itself.  This is especially interesting if you live in the Bay Area in California.  I first bought this book while living in North Carolina, having no idea I'd then live in California for a while.  I recently reread it and was surprised that I ended up living in the exact area where this story takes place - if I believed in coincidence - this would have to be a BIG one. <grin> 

The main setting is the Winchester Mystery House that is in San Jose - you can actually take tours.  Sarah Winchester was the owner and the heiress to the Winchester Gun fortune.  The story goes that a psychic medium told her that in order to stop the souls of the dead who were killed with Winchester guns from haunting her, she had to continually build onto her house.  She did so, but took building instructions from communications in her seance room in the middle of the house and gave the construction workers continually bizarre directions - building stairs that went nowhere, putting a beautiful stained glass window in an inside wall where no sun would shine through it, etc.  You can actually go to the web page for this house at http://www.winchestermysteryhouse.com/  Was she crazy, or was she building for more than one probability?

From the Book Cover: It happened one night, suddenly, without warning: 90% of the human race disappeared without a trace.  Vanished, never to be seen again.  There were no portents, no notes, no bodies, no clue as to where they went or whether they would ever come back again.  People woke to find their lovers no longer beside them.  Children woke to find their parents missing, parents woke to empty cribs.  Neighbors found empty houses, empty apartment buildings.

Civilization collapsed.

After a few months of violence spawned by fear and rage, a measure of peace was restored in the Bay Area (of California, in the U.S.).  Enclaves formed and established defense pacts against the wandering bands of fanatics.  They set about surviving, renewing contact with the rest of the world, establishing trading ties with each other, and trying to discover what had caused the Vanishing.

Now, thirty years after the Disappearance, Dr. Easterman is coming across the continent from the Carnegie Institute to work with the Hackers Center in Silicon Valley, continuing a promising line of research on what caused the cataclysmic event.  At the House, where a community of survivors has made a good life while continuing to build the old Winchester Mansion, a young woman named Renzie is in the middle of the political struggles between various groups in the Valley.

And up in the Oakland Hills a huge band of Heaven Bounders is gathering.  The 'Bounders believe that the Vanishing was Judgment Day, and the Vanished have ascended into heaven.  They believe that the only thing holding back their own salvation is the disbelief of others - disbelief that is manifested in building houses and growing food.  If those others were dead, the Heaven Bounders believe, then Judgement would be fulfilled, and they would join their loved ones in heaven.

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