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Title: Cosm by Gregory Benford ISBN: 0-380-79052-1 Publisher: Eos Pub. Date: 01 February, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.34 (50 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: The Universe and Universities
Comment: 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)
Rating: 4
Summary: Thin plot, thick science
Comment: ...and tons of ideas. Academic politics, competitive science, media madness, diversity and race, law and ethics. But the big one is cosmology, so it is also inevitably about faith and frailty. Perhaps Benford's craftmanship is uneven, but much of the prose has far more precision and poetry than the average science fiction novel. The plot has drive -- what next for that mysterious sphere -- even though much of it turns out to be a distraction, and the ending is predictable. The characters are a bit typed but are lively and sympathetic. After writing this book, Benford went on to non-fiction work. Cosm feels like a completion--a place to stuff things he wanted to do before moving on, a passionate expression of some big ideas he didn't want to loose. I haven't read Benford previously, but he is clearly a first rate and creative mind. I'm going to look for some more of his work. Oh...and the physics is tough, but as near as I (a dilettante at best) can tell, it is well-founded. Even if you don't understand it, it can easily be accepted as a glimpse into something awesome.
Rating: 4
Summary: Create a Universe in Your Own Basement
Comment: I just finished reading Gregory Benford's COSM. The book was good (as usual) and sort of followed a path similar to that in ARTIFACT in that you have some characters trying to learn about a mysterious object.
An ambitious, young physicist is running an experiment on RHIC (Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider) using streams of elliptic uranium. At first everything is fine but then the readings seem to slow down. Suddenly there is a massive explosion. Amidst some of the wreckage is a reflective sphere about the size of a bowling ball. The physicist knows this has something to do with the explosion and takes the sphere for observation. Unfortunately she is a little too secretive and charges of theft and impropriety are raised.
The sphere is an enigma. It feels solid but doesn't seem to be made of anything. It has no spectrum. Light can penetrate is slightly. It emits photons as if it were at four-thousand degrees. It seems to have a tidal effect near the surface. What is this object? The physicist teams up with a theorist to try and solve the mystery. But as the mystery becomes clear bit by bit, the political and scientific climates intensify. Finally, a theory is arrived at that seems to take into account all of the facts. The object is a pocket universe with an internal time that is accelerating.
Soon the sphere becomes transparent and the birth of galaxies can be witnessed. As time speeds up in the sphere, now called a Cosm, it becomes more and more important to continue observations. But as the experiment demands closer inspection and more time, the charges against the physicist also demand more time. Although the physicist warns against it, the Brookhaven Lab repeats the experiment and creates a much larger Cosm. Unfortunately this one is too big to move and is obstructing repairs to the RHIC. The story's threads all build and collide in an ending that brings about a number of interesting questions about the nature of our own universe.
COSM is a very good novel that Gregory Benford first had the idea for in the late 1980s. A number of theories, studies, and publications are mentioned in this novel and they are all real. Even if you are not a promising particle physicist the story is very easy to follow. The characters all seem to act consistently and I found no obvious flaws that detracted from the novel. If you like hard science that is located right on the edge of current research then I would strongly recommend COSM.
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Title: Eater by Gregory Benford ISBN: 0380790564 Publisher: Eos Pub. Date: 01 May, 2001 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Timescape by Gregory Benford ISBN: 0553297090 Publisher: Spectra Books Pub. Date: 01 September, 1996 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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Title: The Martian Race by Gregory Benford ISBN: 0446608904 Publisher: Aspect Pub. Date: 01 January, 2001 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: In the Ocean of Night by Gregory Benford ISBN: 044661159X Publisher: Aspect Pub. Date: 01 February, 2004 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Tides of Light (A Bantam Spectra Book) by Gregory Benford ISBN: 0553053221 Publisher: Bantam Dell Pub Group Pub. Date: 01 January, 1989 List Price(USD): $27.00 |
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