Singularity

So there's a very eighties young adult type of writing to this book, and the characters and plot aren't immediately interesting. That's kind of an expected thing in most William Sleator novels though. Another expected thing that sometimes doesn't always happen is how AWESOME it gets further in.

I had heard great things about Singularity, so I had my expectations uncomfortably high. I was getting ready for disappointment the more I read, because I really wasn't sure if it was going to pick up. But it DID. Harry is awesome. The book is awesome. I don't know what I can say about it without giving much away.

No, it's not perfect. But it's meant to be a quick read, not an indepth hard scifi novel, so I can forgive Sleator for not fleshing out show more some of the stuff as much. But despite this, there's lots of technobabble to explain the singularity and time travel and stuff like that. It's very well done.

All in all, I'd highly recommend Singularity to scifi fans and nonfans. Because it's not hardcore, non-scifi fans will still be able to enjoy it, while scifi fans can get a quick, but awesome, fix for time travel. show less

It must suck to be William Sleator. He writes fascinating, memorable plots that wouldn't be out of place in much more famous books, but no one can ever remember his name. I read this book after it turned up as the answer to a book identification question someone e-mailed the library with. His books are rivaled only by Ray Bradbury short stories in the frequency they appear on "what was that book?"-type websites.

In Singularity, a pair of 16-year old twin boys arrive at their recently deceased great-uncle's house in rural Illinois to house sit until their parents have time to come take care of his affairs. The book is narrated by Harry, the less popular, less athletic, less outgoing twin. He worries that his brother, Barry, who can be show more moody, pushy and mean, doesn't like him and wishes he weren't a twin.

So when they discover a bizarre "playhouse" on the property where spending one hour inside is equal to one second outside, Harry gets...an idea.

This book wasn't as great as House of Stairs, but it was still a solidly enjoyable sci-fi read. I noticed that every chapter ends with a cliffhanger, just like Nancy Drew books, and that was sort of cheesy. But other than that, a great YA book. show less

I do get a kick out of Sleator.  The part of this one that had the Robinson Crusoe thing going on is particularly satisfying, imo.

Quite interesting and good. Decent characters and a surprising turn of events with well done suspense.

Not Sleator's best but still a worthwhile read. If you like Sleator, you'll like this.

This book simultaneously frightened me and blew my mind when I was younger. To say why would spoil the ending.

William Sleator is a wonderful young adult/science fiction author! This was the first book of his I ever read. I was instantly hooked by the concept of this novel and how the story played out. Once I finished this book I set out to collect the rest of the books by William Sleator. Do not miss out on this book!