Posted on 02/01/2005 9:44:18 PM PST by paulat
Just finished "Singularity." Would love to know what you eggheads out there think of it. WARNING: If you are going to post something that gives the plot away...pls warn readers first.
I have no connection to the book...I would just like to see a "book review" section here.
Author? Description of book? Please....!
Author is Bill DeSmedt...and is, without giving the plot away, a novel about a sub-microscopic black hole trapped inside the Earth...maybe.
Do you recommend it? I read ALL summer and need some good books.
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Bill DeSmedt should be on the bestseller lists with Tom Clancy and Dan Brown. DeSmedt's ambitious and exciting debut novel, Singularity, mixes a post-Cold-War conspiracy with cutting-edge quantum physics and a century-old mystery to create a terrifying techno-thriller.
A secret US government agency, CROM, fights terrorism by apprehending or terminating post-Soviet scientists before they sell the technology of mass destruction to terrorists. A rookie CROM agent, Marianna Bonaventure, and a brilliant consultant, Jonathan Knox, find themselves on an undercover mission to locate a missing Russian physicist. Instead, they discover a secret far scarier than terrorists with nuclear weapons.
The famous "meteor" that devastated Siberia's Tunguska wasteland in 1908 was no meteor. It was a microscopic black hole that entered the earth's crust--and never exited. Trapped, it may eventually devour the earth. But a small, clandestine group has developed secret technology to capture the black hole. If the conspirators succeed, the world will be enslaved by a dictatorship made omnipotent by the black hole's quantum effects. If the conspirators fail, they will accelerate the black hole's destructiveness--and guarantee the earth's immediate annihilation. Bonaventure and Knox rush to stop the conspirators--but they may already be too late. --Cynthia Ward
Product Description:
GREG BEAR, New York Times bestselling author writes, "Singularity is a swift, gripping novel with a goose-pimple mix of scary science and near-future action. An excellent debut from Bill DeSmedt — and I’ll be looking forward to his next one!"
KEVIN J. ANDERSON, New York Times bestselling author writes, "Singularity juggles Clancy, Crichton, and The Da Vinci Code. An innovative concept for an end-of-theworld thriller, with convincing research and locomotive pacing."
DAVID BRIN, New York Times bestselling author writes, "DeSmedt veers an action-packed thriller into perilous realms of black hole physics. The combination of adrenaline and intellect sizzles"
Jonathan Knox’s knack for intuiting hidden relationships among seemingly isolated events serves his Fortune-50 clients well. But when federal agent Marianna Bonaventure blackmails him into helping her, Knox’s talent is put to the ultimate test. Bonaventure is investigating a Russian industrialist suspected of trading in WMD research, but together they uncover something far more chilling: an attempt to capture a submicroscopic black hole and harness its awesome power to transform the world — or end it!
Bill DeSmedt’s debut is a tour-de-force of breakneck plotting, complex characters, and cutting-edge science. In the tradition of Michael Crichton and Greg Bear, Singularity weaves a richly detailed and intelligent tale, meticulously researched and elegantly told.
btw, I would LOVE a book review section on FR also. And not just political books.
Sorry...also forgot to say it is related to the pretty-well-documented 1908 Tunguska "meteor hit." (Lots of stuff on the Web about this.) But takes the stance...what if there is no crater?
> sub-microscopic black hole trapped inside the Earth
Without having even heard of the book before, the idea sounds goofy. "sub-microscopic black hole" is the description of a black hole of very low mass; obviously no greater than that of a small asteroid or a mountain, or otherwise the added mass woudl disrupt the Earth;s surface in short order and there'd be no story. But a black hole of that small size woudl be fiercly radiating Hawking radiation, and would evaporate very, very fast, adn again story is over.
This is total fun...not as dense as Clancy...but plenty of physics. Soon to be a "major motion picture," I'm sure.
I just wondered about you "physics-types," and what you thought.
Guess Orion just blew the premise out of the water! Darn!
AhHA!!! That conundrum is addressed...the Hawking radiation is discussed at length.
...don't think so...
Cool! I may just have to buy your book!
Putting your two, and Singularity on my list "To Buy".
Night all.
Earth
Thanks for the rec. I'm ALWAYS on the lookout for good thrillers, especially techy ones. Got her in my Amazon cart now.
MM
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