The Image and the Likeness

"The Image and the Likeness" by John Scott Campbell is a science fiction story set in 1965 Asia, reeling from post-war changes, where a team of scientists including anthropologists and a zoologist, travel to Shanghai with the official goal of studying Celebese man. Secretly, they need to investigate "New Buddhism," a rising nationalistic religion possibly tied to communism. Their investigations lead them to a monumental figure named Kazu Takahashi, thought to be a Buddha reincarnation impacted by the Hiroshima bombing, which forces them to grapple with jarring events, questioning identity, power, plus the merging point between science and mythology. The scientists find themselves confronting not only the immense Kazu, but also their escalating fears as they face a dangerous, and terrifying, reveal, struggling to comprehend their discoveries' global impact and the implications they have for themselves.