Project Pendulum [Hardcover]

Robert Silverberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2, 1991

Twins become involved in an experiment in time travel.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This title in the Millennium series of illustrated SF is a striking time-travel story by much-honored Silverberg. Twins Eric and Sean Gabrielson, a paleontologist and a physicist, are chosen as the first human subjects of a secret Cal Tech experiment in 2016 that will transport them into the past and the future. As if on a pendulum, they are automatically shunted back and forth, at increasing distancesa few minutes, hours, years, centuries. . . . Their brief stays in other times produce vivid, dreamlike vignettes: encounters with their younger selves, with robots, Neanderthals, aliens and dinosaurs, each era with its own smell and taste. This imaginative story, suggesting much more than is stated in its brief length, is a deft evocation of Silverberg's theme of dislocation. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-10 FDR's personality shines through in Devaney's biography. Roosevelt is portrayed as an optimistic man who welcomed each challenge, whether personal or political. While Devaney is obviously an admirer of FDR, he includes criticisms leveled at Roosevelt and does not gloss over the Lucy Rutherfurd affair. Franklin and Eleanor's relationship is displayed, warts and all. Devaney includes sufficient historical and political background to discuss the New Deal effectively without getting bogged down in detail. His is not an exposition on 20th-Century American history, but a vivid portrait of the man who shaped it. The book is rich with black-and-white photographs and is written in a readable style which adapts it to general use. Devaney's volume joins Jeffrey H. Hacker's Franklin D. Roosevelt (Watts, 1983) and Fred L. Israel's Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Chelsea House, 1985) as generally excellent overviews of FDR's life and career. Joseph Alsop's FDR, 1882-1945: a Centenary Remembrance (Viking, 1982) offers more depth as both a history and a personal memoir by a Roosevelt cousin. For those needing more information on the New Deal era itself, Don Lawson's FDR's New Deal (Crowell, 1979) deals effectively with the most famous period of FDR's life. Joyce Adams Burner, formerly at Spring Hill Middle School, Kans.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Random House Value Publishing (June 2, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0517070839
• ISBN-13: 978-0517070833
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,260,799 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but not absorbing, December 19, 2010

By 

TChris (Tzer Island) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: Project Pendulum (Millennium Book) (Hardcover)

Project Pendulum is one of the Millennium series of books published by Byron Preiss. Each book dealt with a different science fiction theme. The subject of Project Pendulum is time travel. The story (really more of a novella or long short story than a novel) is reprinted in Cronos along with two more of Silverberg's time travel stories.

Eric Gabrielson is sent 5 minutes into the past while his twin brother Sean simultaneously moves 5 minutes into the future. Then Eric moves 50 minutes into the future while Sean moves 50 minutes into the past. The next swing of the pendulum sends them each 500 minutes in opposite directions; the swing after that moves them 5000 minutes, and so on. If this first experiment in time travel is successful, the brothers will explore 95 million years in each direction. Silverberg explains the basis for this time displacement in language that sounds reasonable enough to those of us who don't know a singularity from a tachyon particle. Eric doesn't understand it either; he's a paleontologist who is more interested in the past than the mechanics of the journey. Sean, on the other hand, is a physicist.

Each time jump for each brother comprises a chapter. There isn't much of a plot; the book consists of snippets of the past and future. Silverberg's depictions of the unspoiled past are rich with detail. The future scenarios are vividly described and wildly imaginative, although they aren't always explained. This makes sense, since Eric and Sean don't hang around long enough to get explanations of what they see, but it's nonetheless a source of minor frustration. The more significant drawback to telling a story through vignettes is that Eric and Sean are observers more than actors. They don't spend enough time in any era to allow a story to develop beyond their ride on the pendulum: they see this, they see that, they plunge into a sticky situation but are rescued by the next swing of the pendulum. It's an interesting ride and while there's a certain sweetness to the ending, the story is far from absorbing.

Byron Preiss (1953-2005) was known for his efforts to marry the printed text with visual art. The Millennium series furthered that ambition by pairing stories with illustrations. The black and white drawings in Project Pendulum are by the artist Moebius. They didn't excite me but I'm no art critic; all I can say is that there aren't many of them. The hardcover is printed on bright white, heavy, probably acid-free paper, so if you can find a copy, it should last a long time.

I would give Project Pendulum 3 1/2 stars if that option were available.

5.0 out of 5 stars traveling the candle at both ends, January 2, 2009

By 

Edward A. Schatz "architectural archivist" (lakewood, california) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Project Pendulum (Millennium Book) (Hardcover)

A very interesting and convincing story of time travel for two individuals. At times a bit hard to follow. There are several numbered, slipcased copies about, signed by both silverberg and moebius, both masters in their own field, grab that copy if you can. Read the story and love the art.