- Hardcover: 344 pages
- Publisher: Eos (T); First Edition edition (Feb 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0380974355
- ISBN-13: 978-0380974351
- Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 15.7 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 3,528,700 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Alicia Butterworth is a physicist from U.C. Irvine who's trying to recreate the conditions that existed just before the big bang using the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider on Long Island. Something goes wrong during one of the collider runs and part of the machine explodes, leaving behind a strange metallic sphere. Butterworth sneaks the object back to Irvine, where she and a colleague determine that what they have on their hands is a window into a miniature universe, or cosm. The cosm is evolving far faster than our own universe, giving Butterworth a ringside seat as the history of creation replays itself. Her theft turns out to be just the start of what, at times, is a boisterous adventure as she becomes ensnared in the intrigue of cloistered academic and scientific circles.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
New York Times Book Review
`Benford is a scientist who writes with verve and insight...'
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
First Sentence
Alicia was irked, not exactly a rare event. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Alicia was irked, not exactly a rare event. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you haven't read any of Gregory Benford's books before, this is a good read with interesting ideas. But, the basic idea. That if universes can be created by physicists in the lab, universes containing physicists and their labs will become more prevalent. Has already been covered in one of his short stories. The description of the way the university dept handles the incident seems to be based entirely on the events in Timescape. One passage in particular is almost word for word the same except that 'newspapers' is replaced by 'television'. Disappointing.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The plot will not strain your mind but some the Physics might if you really think about it. Along with the physics comes a little philosophy, how did it all start and recognising the unknowable 101. Some have said the ending is rushed but read it and you will hopefully see that is the point.
Not a classic but definitely worth reading if you enjoy a good SF novel.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The hard SF sub-genre has a rough row to hoe: these books not only have to have all the normal requirements of fiction, such as believable characters and an interesting plot line, but must also educate the reader in what are frequently some very esoteric theories and some very strange facts that fly in the face of 'normal' logic. Benford has been one of the major practitioners of this field for some time, and this book could possibly be the ultimate expression of it, it terms of pure science. The other requirement, to tell a good fictional story, however, is just not on a par with the science.
The scientific point of extrapolation here is a small, silvery sphere that is produced as the result of a sub-atomic particle physics experiment. This result is totally unexpected, and wrecks a good portion of the equipment when it appears, forcing the lead experimenter, Alicia, a black female physicist, to stop any further planned work. On impulse (or gut feeling), she takes the sphere back to her own university, without informing anyone else what she is doing. Upon investigation, and with the help of a theoretical physicist, slowly a theory is developed about what the sphere is - a 'pocket' universe budded off from our own, which is evolving at a time rate that is exponentially faster than our own.
The description of the evolution of this sub-universe is based on some of the more current theories of the day, starting from the moment of the Big Bang to points that are far in the future history of our own universe, and are well described and easy to follow. However, I found the university politics that surround Alicia's theft of the sphere somewhat unbelievable, as her institution leaves her, an untenured junior professor, in sole charge of the investigation even after preliminary results indicate that it may be one of the scientific breakthroughs of the century, and one of the side effects of the sphere is the direct cause of the death of one of her students. The bureaucratic quagmire that makes up the university administration is more believable, with individuals who are more interested in having Alicia, as a minority representative, help on committees devoted to such subjects rather than work on science, and others who are clearly out to only hold on to their own positions in the school. The small scene of the President's involvement of using the sphere as one more campaign aid, without any understanding of the real science or its import, is, unfortunately, spot on.
Characterization for the secondary characters (Alicia's helpers and her theoretical physicist) is quite reasonable, but I found myself looking serious askance at Alicia herself. I found it difficult to believe that someone steeped in the methods and doctrine of science would steal and conceal such a find; her reactions to others trying to place her in the 'minority' box came off as much too mild; and those scenes where she is on the prowl for a man felt like they belonged to a different person.
The end of the book takes a route that I felt was even more unbelievable than the initial 'theft' of the sphere, and did little to really resolve either Benford's character conflicts or the philosophical musings on the fate of the universe and the reason 'our' universe is so perfectly 'tuned' to allow the production of life. Thus, at the end, though I was left with some excellent cosmological insights, in terms of story and completeness, or any real look at the people who actually do scientific work, this book had little for me.
--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
a stunner of a concept
My first foray into Gregory Benfords work,a well written piece,informative without being 'geeky'and the end concept is a mind blower.
Published 20 months ago by Aukmune
How to make a universe in six easy steps?
A book of this kind is often of limited appeal, involving as it does some quite high end physics in it's plot, however that is not the problem with this novel, the physics aspect... Read more
Published on 30 Aug 2005 by M.S.W. Fan
The universe in a basketball
Why is our universe so eerily suitable for us? Does this prove the existence of a god(dess)? Or is this universe itself the work of a blind watchmaker? Read more
Published on 26 Feb 2004 by Half Title
An accident leads to a major scientific discovery
The Cosm is a minuture universe into which the academics can see into and because it's evolving at a much faster rate than our own gives the scientist an opportunity to see the... Read more
Published on 15 July 2001 by calc.bates@btinternet.com
Good hard science
It's nice to see a "proper" hard-science fiction novel, and Cosm doesn't disappoint. Benford's grasp of physics is obviously excellent, and he transfers his enthusiasm... Read more
Published on 21 Aug 2000
Mostly excellent
Benford appears back on form after the hack of all his "tribute" Asimov rubbish.
Excellent science which sometimes gets overwhelmed with characterisation. Read more
Published on 26 April 1999
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
