Zig Zag

Zig-Zag is one of the best SiF book I read the last years. Based on the contemporary theories of Physics the author gives the opportunity of a beyond the imagination travel to the past in the day of Jesus Crucifixion in Jerusalem or in Jurassic period watching dinosaurs. Science is the safest way to approach the truth but how far can we go? How could we avoid the misuse of scientific discoveries and not to ask ourselves as the the pilot of the Enola Game: "my God what have I done?". Where are the limits of science and morality? Looking the past is a kind of trespassing and as in the ancient tragedy it is a hubris, which causes the anger of the Gods and catharsis comes with the terrible punishment.

I love weird books and I'm a physicist, so what could be better than a weird book about physics. Eh, turns out quite a few things can be better. The writing was uneven and it felt like Somoza was trying for a movie deal the whole time, especially the part where the drop-dead gorgeous physicist runs around half-naked all the time. The plot was interesting enough to keep me from throwing the book down without finishing it, but felt contrived at times.

On the positive side, the ending was sufficiently Twilight Zone-ish to give me chills. The physics was cool to think about even if it was pretty far out there.

Bottom line: I'd recommend Zig Zag to people who really like weird science-y thrillers, but with a few caveats.

I'm so glad that I decided to do the A-Z Title Challenge because I never would have read this book otherwise. I never pick up thrillers when I'm browsing through books, but now I see that I should have given them a chance long ago. Of course, I can't deny that one of the things I loved about this book was the science it revolved around, specifically the String Theory, which always interested me but which I never took the time to learn about to any great depth. Zig Zag has given me a nice introduction to the physics theory, and it has convinced me to pick up a science book about it sometime soon.

Elisa-what a character! She was too perfect to seem real. A supermodel-gorgeous genius who thrives in science. This is the person I always show more wished I could be in my deepest and most desirous fantasies.

**Major Ending Spoiler**

I just have to give a short rant about the end. How could Ric have been so stupid?!! No one in their right mind would think that a childhood memory of almost killing your 11-year-old best friend would be "harmless and innocent"! How could he possibly have thought that? Choose a happy memory, moron! How hard would that have been? show less

Science fiction has always fascinated me with the idea that the world can and will be a little different with each new scientific discovery. It is obvious that we're affected by the cumulative progress in science and science fiction allows an author to embellish a plot or introduce philosophical puzzles that would just not be believable in the world that we currently understand. But science fiction can become cumbersome if an author has to describe too much of the gap between today and "tomorrow".

Jose Carlos Somoza in his new book "Zig Zag" has done a marvelous job of introducing the reader to cutting edge theoretical physics, multi-dimensional space, and string theory to set the plot for a murder mystery that will keep you wondering show more through most of the book's 502 pages. The characters, for the most part, are well developed. You find yourself actually caring as some of them meet rather gruesome ends although just how gruesome is more hinted at than described. I also found it annoying how many times the phrase "she thought it was the worst thing she'd ever see, but it wasn't" or some variant.

For a story about unraveling time strings to view the past, we shouldn't be surprised that there are lots of flashbacks and discontinuities that leave a reader a little shaken but Somoza does everything for a purpose. By such jumps, he forces the reader to take careful note of important details.

I found it a very enjoyable book. show less

I liked the physics discussed in the book although I thought that the primary premise was a bit contrived.

Bon livre, bien basé sur les fondements et les théories de la physique moderne. Accessile, thriller, bien aimé, mais pas livre préféré, trop dans la bulle de cette fausse science. Par contre, intrigue très bien ficelée.

Spanish physicist David Blanes wants to use quantum physics and string theory to go back in time and warns his colleagues not to go back into the recent past. However, one does and things start going wrong. This was something new for me. I really did enjoy the suspense. The physics language was a bit beyond me but there wasn't so much of it that I couldn't keep up with what was going on. Not being a literary critic I thought it was written well enough to keep me going.