Crazy Time (Kate Wilhelm)

This is one of Wilhelm's earlier books, a cross between a romantic comedy and science fiction, and while it was enjoyable it didn't grab me as much as the book of hers I recently read (the mystery The Deepest Water). It was much more superficial in its emotions, relying for depth on some very iffy SF. A military experiment goes awry (because of some hacking by a fat, nerdy 14-year-old boy, the first of many stereotypes) and the adorably awkward hero gets blasted into an altered state of existence where his consciousness is dispersed around the globe. He manages to get himself back together partly because he's on the mind of the adorably awkward heroine, who was the person who happened to be looking at him when he vanished. She spends most of the book denying that he is real or that he is attracted to her, enough that I just wanted to slap her upside the head. Meanwhile, an obtuse military man is convinced that both of them, and practically everyone in the state as well, are involved in a complex spy ring. Eventually, of course, everything ends happily, though I have to say I didn't really get most of the big reveal at the end. Not a strong book, but she definitely got better.