Towards The Unmaking Of Heaven, Not Now — Sam Smith

towards the unMaking of Heaven, Not Now: Death, Dreams & Reasons for Living, is an sf exploration of desire, dreams and self-deceit. Okinwe Orbinson is recruited from his artificial city world - part of a moribund space civilisation - his mission is to save a rumoured hybrid-human race, Talkers, from self-extinction. Talkers are telepathic, and individual suicides among the Talkers are becoming epidemic. Left on one of their planets Okinwe is witness to 3 suicides in quick succession. Suspicious of all around him, doubting himself, not knowing if his thoughts are his own, he becomes friends with a Talker woman, worries for her safety and falls in love with her daughter. Their love affair is not easy. Nor is the solution to the suicides. It happens through a casual touch, through pregnancies, via the children and through paintings...