In a parallel universe close to our own, Bela and Paul are two doctoral students in mathamatics. The two are friends and roomates who come up with a new theory that will predict the future and eventually becomes the way to break down the barrier from one parallel universe to the other. Into this equation comes Alma, who at first is romantically linked to Bela but then dumps him for Paul.

Bela's more than a little upset and uses the new math theory to travel to parallel universes to win back Alma. Along the way, he starts a rock band, becomes a reality show star and finds out a universe with giant jellyfish ruling it.

If it all sounds a bit absurd, it probably is. But within the context of Rudy Rucker's "Mathmaticians in Love" it all makes perfect sense. This is one of those books that, were it a tv show, you'd say turn off your brain and go with it. But Rucker delivers a loopy plot that has some through provoking moments of mathmatics that don't talk down to readers and feel natural within the context of the story. If you've ever been in the world of academics, I bet there are a lot more in-jokes there that went right over my head.

That said, there was still a lot that didn't and I enjoyed the book a great deal. ( )

One of Rudy's Best! ( )

The writing was just barely good enough to keep me reading but it took some effort. I wanted to like it but there was too much of the morphon jiberish and not enough character development. Everybody loved Abby who I thought was a two-timing gold-digger and... Well, it was an interesting premise and it wasn't a horrible book but I really need characters that I like and this didn't have them. ( )

http://www.amazon.com/review/R1J5XDAR... ( )

Wonderful stuff from Rucker, just when I thought he might be going soft on his edgy writing skills. Full of odd characters and math theory, but not too much to bog it down. It did seem that Rucker pulls back a bit on the sexual graphics that he once used, but the book doesn't really suffer.
I did feel that death was treated a bit glibly, but Rucker makes an attempt to explain this. ( )