Liquid Earth (Neoreality Series) [Paperback]

Clifford Pickover (Author)

Book Description

Series: Neoreality Series | Publication Date: August 2002

This groundbreaking science-fiction collection explores worlds separated from our own by imperceptible veils. In Liquid Earth, reality melts along a rustic Main Street in Shrub Oak, New York. The Lobotomy Club begins in a New Orleans bar, and Sushi Never Sleeps in a New York electronics store. Egg Drop Soup starts with a walk along the tranquil Chesapeake River. All familiar settings at first glance, but a new reality awaits...

You'll visit worlds replete with beautiful women and their surgically altered brains, fractal sex, Noah's Ark, hyperspace physics, hallucinating androids, prophetic ants, exotic sushi, satanic aliens, vitamin B-12, novel plastics, cosmic wormholes, and quests for God and the structure of ultimate reality.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Clifford A. Pickover is the heir apparent to Carl Sagan..." -- Robert J. Sawyer, author of Calculating God

"Pickover has published nearly a book a year in which he stretches the limits of computers, art, and thought." -- Los Angeles Times

"Pickover has taken up the helm once worn by Isaac Asimov..." -- In Pittsburgh

"Pickover inspires a new generation of da Vincis to build unknown flying machines and create new Mona Lisas." -- Christian Science Monitor

Add together... Asimov, Gardner, and Sagan, and you get Pickover, one of the most thought provoking writers of our time. -- Michael Shermer, Editor-in-Chief of Skeptic, author of Borderlands of Science

Bucky Fuller thought big; Arthur C. Clarke thinks big, but Pickover outdoes them both! -- Wired

I can't imagine anybody whose mind won't be stretched by his books. -- Arthur C. Clarke

From the Publisher

The books in the Neoreality series may be read in any order. The books are on similar themes but are separate and distinct.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 270 pages
• Publisher: Lighthouse Pr Inc (August 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0971482764
• ISBN-13: 978-0971482760
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,288,010 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

From my publisher:

Clifford A. Pickover received his Ph.D. from Yale University and is the author of over 30 books on such topics as computers and creativity, art, mathematics, black holes, religion, human behavior and intelligence, time travel, alien life, and science fiction.

Pickover is a prolific inventor with dozens of patents, is the associate editor for several journals, the author of colorful puzzle calendars, and puzzle contributor to magazines geared to children and adults.

WIRED magazine writes, "Bucky Fuller thought big, Arthur C. Clarke thinks big, but Cliff Pickover outdoes them both." According to The Los Angeles Times, "Pickover has published nearly a book a year in which he stretches the limits of computers, art and thought."
The Christian Science Monitor writes, "Pickover inspires a new generation of da Vincis to build unknown flying machines and create new Mona Lisas." Pickover's computer graphics have been featured on the cover of many popular magazines and on TV shows.

His web site, Pickover.Com, has received millions of visits. His Blog RealityCarnival.Com is one of his most popular sites.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Review of Liquid Earth, October 16, 2002

By 

Jeremy Good (Arlington, Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Liquid Earth (Neoreality Series) (Paperback)

This book has some of the most hilarious scenes I've ever encountered in a book, and it's worth reading even just for its fight / escape scenes and its extraordinary climax. It will appeal to a vast audience, from lovers of science fiction and fantasy to futurists and serious philosophers, not to mention aficionados of fine literature and even Biblical scholars. As well as entertaining us, the author gives us serious pause to reflect on our station in life and history. In a move that would make Salvador Dali proud, Clifford Pickover lends flavor to a larger movement which he characterizes as his "Neoreality Series", introducing a scale for measuring unlikely events, referred to as "The Hawking Reality Scale" with deciReal units to "measure the intensity of reality fragmentation". With a tip of the hat to the older movement in Italian cinema, Pickover's use of the word Neoreality may very well come to be the catchword for our own age in cinema too, describing equally well such films as "eXistenZ," "Fight Club," "Being John Malkovich," and "The Matrix". Take this fantastic journey with charming girl prodigy Mink, her adorable robot kitten Carrington and the joketelling poet android Mr. Plex as they traverse through forests, jungles, ancient ruins and a small New England town, seeking refuge from extraordinary villainous creatures such as "Cheetah Killers" and Gharials in their quest to discover reality-shattering chronoplasmids. Written by the great science popularizer, math puzzler and world expert on fractals, Clifford Pickover's colorful book will appeal to older and and younger readers alike. It will make old people feel young and young people feel old! If you have enjoyed C.S. Lewis, L. Frank Von Baum and Daniel Pinkwater, you will also enjoy Liquid Earth; equally so if you have enjoyed Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke and William Gibson.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Do Androids Dream of Kosher Knishes?, September 13, 2002

By 

Melanie Michaels (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Liquid Earth (Neoreality Series) (Paperback)

In Liquid Earth, advanced robots help humans deal with a reality that melts along a calm Main Street in Shrub Oak, New York. (Some of the robots are religious and seem to enjoy exotic ethnic foods.) Max, a detective, and his girlfriend Mink have to find the source of chronoplamsids that are causing reality fractures. I love some of the funny scenes with the haiku error messages, strange methods of prophecy, and android prostitutes and police. And the bizarre portrayal of God makes one think.....

Has anyone been able to decrypt the strange symbolic code on page 128? In any case, buy this book so you can laugh and have your mind warped.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow -- what a ride..., October 21, 2002

By 

Lowell E. Waite (Dallas, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Liquid Earth (Neoreality Series) (Paperback)

Like drinking a Big Gulp too fast, this book will give you brain freeze -- but in a good way! It begins with a strange encounter and never looks back. Cliff Pickover weaves an interesting story centered on shifting reality (Does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care?) caused by a growing space-time rupture. Bring along a cat, a heroine, and robot, and you have quite a crew.

Like Pickover's non-fiction books, there is plenty of science and other stuff to learn here, only this time wrapped up in an often hilarious, very entertaining sci-fi story. I enjoyed it and look forward to reading other stories in the Neoreality Series...