Picoverse
by Robert A. Metzger
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Description
Nebula Award Finalist: A team of physicists trying to develop fusion power via a new development in plasma physics, a Sonomak, accidentally stumbles on a method to create picoverses, which replicate everything in our universe but on a smaller scale. A disastrous test of the Sonomak machine shakes things up and a new project director, previously unknown to the group, is appointed. Alexandra has her own secret priorities and one of them is to escape from her superiors into one of the show more picoverses. To do this, she needs the researchers to execute her plan. Unfortunately, things go amiss and the team finds itself stuck in a picoverse duplicating 1920s Earth, but with its own version of a Sonomak, vacuum tubes and all. On the local team are Werner Heisenberg and Albert Einstein. As the pace of the story accelerates, the original team races from one picoverse to another, trying to return to their home base and thwart Alexandra's plans. In a clash of alternate realities, the fate of Earth and the entire universe hangs in the balance. Cosmic rabbits need to be pulled from alternate-universe hats before this tale comes to a satisfying--and scientifically rigorous--end. Robert Metzger writes classic hard science fiction, but he does so in a way that emphasizes excitement and adventure, and shows the science in a way that makes it accessible and fascinating. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
I'm not a big fan of "alternate history" stories, but combining alternate histories with entire alternate universes proved to be a winning combination...at least for the first 200 pages before it all got bogged down in a confusing game of "Whose Universe is it Anyway?". Too many secret identities, too many BIG REVEALS, and an explosive ending (literally) which gives readers more of a paradox than a resolution. I don't know whether or not Metzger wrote a sequel but I certainly won't be looking for it.
This was an interesting and challenging book to read. I liked the way the characters entered various alternate picoverses, sometimes for seconds at a time.
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Author Information
12+ Works 526 Members
Robert A. Metzger has held distinguished teaching and consulting positions with Hughes Research Laboratories and the Georgia Institute of Technology.
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Awards and Honors
Awards
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 2002-03
- People/Characters
- Anthony Wittkowski; Katie McGuire; Horst Wittkowski; Alexandra Mitchell; Jack Preston
- Epigraph
- Had I been present at the Creation, I would have given some useful hints for the better ordering of the Universe -- Alfonso the Wise, King of Castile (1221-1284)
- Dedication
- To April, Alex, and John
- First words
- The Nunn Physics Building, a six-story sprawl of red brick and smoked glass, dominated the northern boundary of Georgia Tech's campus, throwing a long shadow down 14th Street, painting the dozens of ramshackle student bungalo... (show all)ws that hugged its western edge in depressing shades of gray and brown.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)"Katie?" he whispered.
- Blurbers
- Benford, Gregory; Sawyer, Robert J.; Wilson, F. Paul; Easton, Tom
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 252
- Popularity
- 127,673
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (3.21)
- Languages
- English, Portuguese
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 7
- ASINs
- 1
