The Island Will Sink

In a not-too-distant future perpetually on the brink of collapse, catastrophe is our most popular entertainment.The energy crisis has come and gone. EcoLaw is enforced by insidious cartoon panda bears and their armies of viral-marketing children. The world watches as Pitcairn Island sinks into the Pacific, wondering if this, finally, will be the end of everything. Amongst it all, Max Galleon, anxious family man and blockbuster auteur, lives a life that he cannot remember._____Max Galleon is an immersion director. Immersions involve hypnotic suggestion and sensory stimulation. His brother, Tom, becomes involved in a cult that takes hypnotics and hallucinogens. This cult is being helped by Dr Gabrielle Stern, who is investigating a new form of mass consciousness. Tom makes contact with Max, and Max becomes interested in the cult, joining them in their unified state. But something goes wrong. The cult members die, except Max, Tom, and Gabrielle. Tom is left in a coma. Gabrielle eventually dies.At some point while Tom was still in a coma, Max outsourced his memory to the cloud. This happened after the Sleeper Cult Catastrophe, as Jonas seems to believe he could see Tom in real life, yet he was born after Max's operation.Ellie Galleon, unhappy with her husband, initiates a radical therapy. She suspects something of Max and Tom's involvement with the cult, and engages a research program incorporating the digitised mind of Gabrielle. Using the ability to directly manipulate Max's memories as well as immersion technology, they generate a scenario where Tom is being treated by Gabrielle. Enlisting Max in her treatment, Gabrielle also starts an affair with Max. Once the curtain is lifted, Max is able to make peace with his past.