ARTIFACT [Mass Market Paperback]

Gregory Benford (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Tor NY (1985)
• ASIN: B0025YDW8Q
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Gregory Benford, author of top-selling novels, including Jupiter Project, Artifact, Against Infinity, Eater, and Timescape, is that unusual creative combination of scientist scholar and talented artist; his stories capture readers - hearts and minds - with imaginative leaps into the future of science and of us.

A University of California faculty member since 1971, Benford has conducted research in plasma turbulence theory and experiment, and in astrophysics. His published scientific articles include well over a hundred papers in fields of physics from condensed matter, particle physics, plasmas and mathematical physics, and several in biological conservation.

Often called hard science fiction, Benford's stories take physics into inspired realms. What would happen if cryonics worked and people, frozen, were awoken 50 years in the future? What might we encounter in other dimensions? How about sending messages across time? And finding aliens in our midst? The questions that physics and scientists ask, Benford's imagination explores.
With the re-release of some of his earlier works and the new release of current stories and novels, Benford takes the lead in creating science fiction that intrigues and amuses us while also pushing us to think.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Indiana Jones meets Particle Physics, June 13, 2004

By 

E. Nichols (Bloomington, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Artifact (Mass Market Paperback)

Perhaps I'm biased because I like Benford's style: I couldn't put the book down. I read it straight through, just stopping once for lunch. It's not Benford's best book because his others are all so great, but it was much better than I expected after reading the other reviews here. Benford mixes in plenty of realistic science, archaeology, and university politics with the action of the plot. At the end of the book, an interesting "Technical Afterword" puts the sci-fi in context with "real" physics.

My favorite line from the book is typical Benford: "He had noted that the noise in a room rose as the square of the number of people in it..."

14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining, thought provoking, plausable, August 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Artifact (Mass Market Paperback)

I was completely enthralled and captivated by Benford's scientific knowledge and writing skills. He has the unique ability to blend insightful scientific speculation with real-life adventure and human interaction.

Artifact is one of those rare science fiction stories that is believable because of the real science it contains. Benford has been critisized for including too much scientific explanation. However, without it, I may not have found the story line as plausible, or enjoyable.

I further enjoyed Benford's writing style. His characters come to life and it is apparent that Benford enjoys writing about adventure and human interactions as much as he does about the science.

All-in-all, I found Artifact very entertaining and would recommend it to anyone remotely interested in science fiction or adventure.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful premises let down by poor scripting, November 16, 2001

By 

OoOoOoO "OoOoOoO" (Singapore) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Artifact (Hardcover)

An ancient artefact containing ... what (I won't spoil the joy for readers)? The story began with a tantalising pre-historic sequence of how the artefact was buried with an ancient king but then left the readers with no further 'retrospective' of how the artefact was used (or otherwise ravaged) the ancient world. Cut to the present, the reader is then confronted with huge chunks of irrelevant rivalry amongst academic-types, including a Greek archaeologist unfortunately miscast in an MCP role. All very well but handled badly and detracting seriously from the implications of the Artefact on human history. A wonderful premise by a brilliant author, but needs to be reworked drastically.