Mark Alpert

Cominciamo dalla fine, per una volta.
Nella Nota dell'autore in appendice al libro, Mark Alpert rivela che fin dal principio aveva intenzione di ambientare il climax del romanzo al Fermilab, il celebre laboratorio americano di fisica. Organizzata quindi una visita alla struttura, pare abbia ricevuto l'illuminazione proprio sulla via dell'annesso acceleratore di particelle, il Tevatron. Mentre la guida ne illustrava le caratteristiche fu folgorato da una devastante intuizione: "Questo show more materiale è fantastico! Il libro si scriverà da solo!" (forse per moto browniano dell'inchiostro?).

Il prodotto di questa disarmante hybris termodinamica è un libro ad altissimo tasso di luoghi comuni, con una trama prevedibile quanto uno spot pubblicitario e un ritmo narrativo che non farebbe invida ad una partita di curling. L'impostazione vorrebbe essere quella di un thriller all'americana del genere inseguitori-inseguiti, se non fosse che la coppia di fuggitivi riesce a spuntarla sempre e comunque, benché fino a quel momento entrambi abbiano condotto la tipica esistenza del topo di laboratorio, e a dispetto del fatto che tra i cacciatori c'è un killer russo che ha la determinazione di Terminator, l'astuzia di Kaiser Soze e l'istinto omicida di Leatherface.

Giornalista di Scientific American e laureato in fisica, l'autore fornisce iterate prove della piú completa inettitudine con i meccanismi narrativi piú elementari, rivelandosi del tutto incapace di suscitare nel lettore, non dico suspance, ma almeno un minimo di interesse nello sviluppo delle vicende e attirandosi solo un istintivo moto di pietà per aver inserito nel romanzo i due colpi di scena piú telefonati della storia del pensiero umano.

Ma il bello viene quando si passa alla fisica. Perché i due protagonisti hanno sulla carta un'indiscussa competenza tecnica in materia se non fosse che ne parlano pochissimo e ogni volta lo fanno come se dovessero farsi capire da un ragazzino stupido delle medie, senza riuscirci peraltro, dal momento che non c'è neppure il sospetto di una qualche metafora suggestiva o di un'idea illuminante che possa gettare uno sprazzo di luce su una scienza altrimenti ostica.
E per di più mancano anche i contenuti tecnici. Ci fosse almeno qualche discorso infarcito di incomprensibili astruserie matematiche, sarebbe stato per lo meno uno spunto per qualche approfondimento. Invece niente. Niente di niente.

Che altro dire? L'opera prima (e speriamo anche ultima...) di Mark Alpert piú che un libro è una vera e propria disgrazia editoriale su cui è meglio calare un velo impietoso.

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Precedente: [b:Il bambino con il pigiama a righe|9791552|Il bambino con il pigiama a righe|John Boyne|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327321777l/9791552._SY75_.jpg|1148702]
Successivo: [b:Analizzare i film|17408563|Analizzare i film|Augusto Sainati|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1361566214l/17408563._SX50_.jpg|24249861] show less

Omega Theory, by Mark Alpert
This is a science fiction action packed thriller that is top notch. A sequel to Final Theory, which should be read first, science historian David Swift and his quantum physicist wife Monique Reynolds discover that their autistic teenage son, Michael, has been kidnapped by religious fanatics. It’s not an ordinary kidnapping.
Michael has memorized Albert Einstein’s Unified Field Theory, a set of equations that explains absolutely everything about physics in the show more Universe. It is the fundamental nature of reality. It shows how particles and forces in the universe originate from the convoluted folds of spacetime but also how spacetime could be manipulated to release the immense energies contained in these folds. And that is why the bad guys want him.
The book also centers around an actual theory about the nature of reality in which reality is essentially a binary system. Am I sitting in a chair? yes/no. Am I working on a laptop? yes/no. Is that a car? yes/no. Is the grass green? Yes/no. Is there a floor beneath my feet? Yes/no. Rather like a binary computer operating on a program of 0-1. It’s either on or off, the Universe is also a binary computing system. Don’t be too quick to scoff at this. Go to your search engine and type “It From Bit” and see what pops up. But like any computer system, it can be overloaded and crash.
So what can make the entire Universe crash? That’s right, the Big Bang, 14 billion year old Universe? Well, a group of religious fanatics led by Brother Cyrus and his True Believers have found the way in Michael and his memorized Unified Field Theory equations. These equations, combined with nuclear warheads and a super powerful laser called Excaliber, properly aimed and timed, could overload a certain point in the Universe and begin a tearing of space/time that would bring about the absolute crash of the entire sinful Universe and initiate the promised Kingdom of God where everybody who ever lived would then be resurrected and live peacefully and happily ever-after in the loving embrace of God. David and Monique know this to be true, at least the destruction part, and lead a team to prevent it from happening.
Considering the outrageous storyline, I don’t think there are too many authors who could get away with writing a story like this in a very convincing fashion. But Mark Alpert majored in astrophysics at Princeton, no less, earned an MFA in poetry from Columbia, and was a contributing editor to Scientific American. And he does a masterful job of tackling a tricky theme in a most convincing fashion. His writing style is engaging, his characters are interesting and diverse, and we are most fortunate in that he is still active today. I am looking forward to reading whatever else he may write. show less

I have described this author, Mark Alpert, as a living Michael Creighton, and he is, in fact, very good. However, this novel fell a little short of all of his previous novels. It’s still a very good read but it didn’t seem to have the verve, the tension, the terror of his previous novels.

Like Creighton, Mark Alpert will frequently use novels as a means to advocate for causes in which he strongly supports. So it is with The Doomsday Show. In this story a former editor of the Journal of show more Climatology, Max Mirsky, has turned into an environmental extremist. As editor of that Journal he once published an article about the five worst environmental criminals who needed to be stopped. He then receives an email requesting a copy of that article.

Organizing a musical/satirical troupe to make fun of certain environmental polluters, hoping to bring public pressure against them, he soon realizes that those he identified in that article are being murdered and he, himself, is contacted by the killers and swept into the conspiracy against his will

Extortion, kidnapping, murders, greed, Russians, ruthless extremism, experimental weapons.

Regarding environment pollution by the fossil fuel industry, in his epilogue, he cites a web site listing the 25 industries that are the worst for fossil fuel emissions. The U.S. has 2 of the top 5. The full list is located here: https://climateaccountability.org/pdf/CAI PressRelease Dec20.pdf

Although I too, believe we need to adopt a greener energy source as rapidly as possible, I just can’t see how our military can run on any type of fuel except that which is petroleum based. show less

The Coming Storm, by Mark Alpert
The time is the near future (2023) In New York City, but a city one would barely recognize. The environment is ravaged, the Arctic has melted, and savage storms are clobbering the Big Apple. The rule of law has broken down and FSU officers (Federal Service Unit) are trying to restore order operating side by side with the NYPD. Trouble is, they hate each other, and the FSU is controlled by ex soldiers who have been genetically modified by a secret program show more called Palindrome through a process involving the injection of a lab produced virus called CRISPR (that’s a real program – Google it). The initial trials were used on soldiers, some of whom were now commanding the FSU, and, of course, they were suffering from unpredictable side effects.
The commander of the FSU was extremely super patriotic right wing who hated illegals, ragheads, wetbacks, terrorists, - and Democrats. And he wasn’t hesitant to use deadly force to quell the riots that were plaguing NYC these days. One of the scientists who helped develop the Palindrome project, Jenna, was a Pakistani, and was therefore the target of Lieutenant Rick Frazier’s (head of the FSU) hatred, especially after she turned against him. The story revolves around these two, essentially.
Mark Alpert starts the book off with intensity and simply doesn’t let up. He is good. If you like the thriller genre, you can’t do better than Mark Alpert. He rightly belongs among the crème de la crème of Thriller authors.
I thought the ending was a little “out there,” but does not distract from the overall impact of the novel. As an aside, the author does take a couple of nasty pot shots at our current real President by describing the President in the novel in very evil terms, giving him a campaign slogan of “Make America Great,” exaggerating the size of audiences, and (on p. 207) referencing lies told. (The book was published in 2018). Aside from that, the story is suspenseful, well written, and generates excellent mental imagery I just ordered four more of his novels. show less