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Book Description
The stunning new novel from the author of BLOOM - chosen as one of the New York Times Notable Books of the Year
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
In this stunningly original tale, acclaimed author Wil McCarthy imagines a wondrous future in which the secrets of matter have been unlocked and death itself is but a memory. But it is also a future imperiled by a bitter rivalry between two brilliant scientists--one perhaps the greatest genius in the history of humankind; the other, its greatest monster.
The Collapsium
In a world of awesome technology, the deadly substance called collapsium has given humans all the powers and caprices--including immortality--of the gods they once worshiped. Composed of miniature black holes, collapsium allows the instantaneous transmission of information and matter--as well as humans--throughout the solar system. But while its reclusive inventor, Bruno de Towaji, next dreams of probing the farthest reaches of spacetime, Marlon Sykes, his ambitious rival in science--and in love--has built an awesome telecommunications network by constructing a ring of collapsium around the sun. It appears Sykes may be the victor--until a ruthless saboteur attacks the ring and sends it falling toward the sun. Now the two scientists must put aside personal animosity to prevent the destruction of the solar system--and every living thing within it.
The Collapsium
In a world of awesome technology, the deadly substance called collapsium has given humans all the powers and caprices--including immortality--of the gods they once worshiped. Composed of miniature black holes, collapsium allows the instantaneous transmission of information and matter--as well as humans--throughout the solar system. But while its reclusive inventor, Bruno de Towaji, next dreams of probing the farthest reaches of spacetime, Marlon Sykes, his ambitious rival in science--and in love--has built an awesome telecommunications network by constructing a ring of collapsium around the sun. It appears Sykes may be the victor--until a ruthless saboteur attacks the ring and sends it falling toward the sun. Now the two scientists must put aside personal animosity to prevent the destruction of the solar system--and every living thing within it.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I enjoyed the book, but would disagree with other reviewers who tout it as modern hard science-fiction. It reads like one of the better examples of Golden-Age science-fiction, quite reminiscient of E.E.Doc.Smith's seminal Skylark novels with ever-increasing doses of super-science pulled out of thin air by a modest super-intelligent protagonist as the situation demands. Ideas such as multiple-embodiment (i.e. cloning both mind and body) are used as an amusing plot device without any attempt to explore the deeper ramifications. It's a fun first-time read, but lacks the depth to be worth adding to ones permanent collection.
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Wil McCarthy's stylish and baroque tale of laconic scientist Bruno de Towaji is both original and refreshing, set in a Solar System where Tamra, immortal Queen of Tonga has been elevated (due - it would appear - to popular demand) to the position of Queen of the Solar System, attended by a court of Declarants and a royal guard of robots.
This novel could also be considered as the 21st Century version of Gernsback's `Ralph 124C 41+' since it features the most brilliant scientist in society as the hero, a dastardly foe, women to be rescued and problems to be solved by power of the scientific mind.
Bruno is the inventor of Collapsium, a material constructed of interlocked neutron sized black holes. It is a substance which has many varied uses, the royalties from which have made him inestimably rich.
Because of the dangerous nature of his further experiments, Bruno has been `banished' to an tiny artificial world in the Outer System which orbits a just-as-artificial miniature sun. One day his solitude is interrupted by the arrival of the Queen who demands that he return to court to work on a scientific problem. A rival of Bruno's, Marlon Sykes, has begun the construction of a Ringworld-style band of Collapsium around the Sun, a construction which will vastly increase the speed of human and data transmission across the system. The partly constructed ring however, has lost its position and is beginning to fall into the Sun. It goes without saying that the consequences of millions of tiny black holes falling into the Sun would be disastrous.
It is up to Bruno to find a solution and save the Solar System from Stellar collapse.
The joy of this book is both in its preposterously believable neo-Elizabethan social structure and the way McCarthy seamlessly welds it to the complex scientific theories around which the substance of Collapsium is based. It is also laced with a dry wit and a degree of characterisation absent from the work of many of McCarthy's contemporaries.
Bruno travels from outrageous setting to outrageous setting - a banquet in a domed enclave atop a mountain on a partly transformed Venus; Marlon's cylindrical space-habitat whose inner surface is dotted with Athenian architecture, and there is the Collapsiter Ring itself. These journeys are achieved by the use of the Fax, essentially a matter-transmitting device which destroys the original and reassembles a duplicate at the destination.
With the fax of course, one can make copies of oneself in order to work on several projects at once, and later conflate the copies back into one individual, complete with the memories of all the copies.
It's a fascinating notion and one which McCarthy explores but perhaps doesn't exploit as much as he could have, although the basic concept is important to the plot.
McCarthy's retro writing style of course helps to add a certain verisimilitude to the baroque nature of the Queendom's social structure which, in other hands, might appear a trifle ludicrous but here seems perversely a natural and inevitable political development. It has hints of Moorcock, of PG Wodehouse and of Gernsback but is nonetheless a unique voice.
This novel could also be considered as the 21st Century version of Gernsback's `Ralph 124C 41+' since it features the most brilliant scientist in society as the hero, a dastardly foe, women to be rescued and problems to be solved by power of the scientific mind.
Bruno is the inventor of Collapsium, a material constructed of interlocked neutron sized black holes. It is a substance which has many varied uses, the royalties from which have made him inestimably rich.
Because of the dangerous nature of his further experiments, Bruno has been `banished' to an tiny artificial world in the Outer System which orbits a just-as-artificial miniature sun. One day his solitude is interrupted by the arrival of the Queen who demands that he return to court to work on a scientific problem. A rival of Bruno's, Marlon Sykes, has begun the construction of a Ringworld-style band of Collapsium around the Sun, a construction which will vastly increase the speed of human and data transmission across the system. The partly constructed ring however, has lost its position and is beginning to fall into the Sun. It goes without saying that the consequences of millions of tiny black holes falling into the Sun would be disastrous.
It is up to Bruno to find a solution and save the Solar System from Stellar collapse.
The joy of this book is both in its preposterously believable neo-Elizabethan social structure and the way McCarthy seamlessly welds it to the complex scientific theories around which the substance of Collapsium is based. It is also laced with a dry wit and a degree of characterisation absent from the work of many of McCarthy's contemporaries.
Bruno travels from outrageous setting to outrageous setting - a banquet in a domed enclave atop a mountain on a partly transformed Venus; Marlon's cylindrical space-habitat whose inner surface is dotted with Athenian architecture, and there is the Collapsiter Ring itself. These journeys are achieved by the use of the Fax, essentially a matter-transmitting device which destroys the original and reassembles a duplicate at the destination.
With the fax of course, one can make copies of oneself in order to work on several projects at once, and later conflate the copies back into one individual, complete with the memories of all the copies.
It's a fascinating notion and one which McCarthy explores but perhaps doesn't exploit as much as he could have, although the basic concept is important to the plot.
McCarthy's retro writing style of course helps to add a certain verisimilitude to the baroque nature of the Queendom's social structure which, in other hands, might appear a trifle ludicrous but here seems perversely a natural and inevitable political development. It has hints of Moorcock, of PG Wodehouse and of Gernsback but is nonetheless a unique voice.
Format:Mass Market Paperback
'Hard' in this context meaning the science - its very plausible and as the author is a rocket scientist he knows a lot about physics and has explore where all this technology is going to be in a few hundred years. In fact, he holds a patent for some of the technology described in the book so I guess that shows how serious he is about it.
The book is a little disconnected, there are basically 3 stories which end up being connected as the hero Bruno de Towaji the greatest scientist in the 'Queendom' is called upon to help out with industrial accidents involving a kind of matter created with black holes. The characterisation is nothing special and the way the main character worries about social interactions seems strange when you'd think he'd be smart enough to realise such trivialities were beneath him, however the science itself and the ideas are what makes it truly amazing and anyone would enjoy it for that. It doesn't have any alien species because humankind haven't travelled beyond the solar system but in other ways its more far out than star trek ever was and yet it retains a strange kind of realism.
Wonderful science fiction - the best in the series in fact because in the other books the technology seems to be decreasing as the society collapses. In this we still see the Queendom in its prime.
The book is a little disconnected, there are basically 3 stories which end up being connected as the hero Bruno de Towaji the greatest scientist in the 'Queendom' is called upon to help out with industrial accidents involving a kind of matter created with black holes. The characterisation is nothing special and the way the main character worries about social interactions seems strange when you'd think he'd be smart enough to realise such trivialities were beneath him, however the science itself and the ideas are what makes it truly amazing and anyone would enjoy it for that. It doesn't have any alien species because humankind haven't travelled beyond the solar system but in other ways its more far out than star trek ever was and yet it retains a strange kind of realism.
Wonderful science fiction - the best in the series in fact because in the other books the technology seems to be decreasing as the society collapses. In this we still see the Queendom in its prime.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A hard science-fiction fable about immortality
First, this is hard science fiction, but if like me you're no scientist, there is a way to read it and get the gist of the science without getting hopelessly confused. Read more
Published on 17 April 2003 by Neal C. Reynolds
Wil is the new Larry Niven
Beautifully written, this. Particularly in the first half; there are passages so well crafted they leave the reader grinning broadly: Mr McCarthy has the stylistic flair and punchy... Read more
Published on 5 April 2002 by G. ADAIR
A different direction from Bloom, but you can't put it down.
A good book with some facinating concepts, not too heavy on the 'hard' science and hard to put down.
Published on 26 April 2001
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