Customer Reviews

Twistor

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Cramer's blend of physics and a believable story in the near future makes for a book that is difficult to put down. The physics is real with only slight modification to make it acceptable in a fictional novel. This makes for more realistic fiction than the more far-fetched 'star wars' type. All in all, it's a book that I found very readable. The only annoying feature was the continual break in story line to recount a fairy-tale to the two children. I hope he writes more books along the same lines.

I am often bemused by customer reviews that criticize a science fiction book because it has science in it. This is the type of book that a lot of "science fiction" fans won't like: It contains some actual, fairly believable science; it takes place in the present; it is not a space opera. Twistor uses the concept of a shadow universe to provide us with a most interesting thriller. If the modest amount of science is over your head you can safely skim through it.

My only annoyance was with the fairy tale that the protagonist told to two children in stages throughout the book. While I can grasp the author's intent in telling it, I didn't like the plot interruption. All in all a most worthy book.

I really enjoyed this book. It is set in the present time and approaches the story as something that could be happening at a University lab right now. Some people won't like it because the characters aren't morally bankrupt, but if you like hard science fiction with a happy ending this is it.

The story is somewhat predictable, but keeps you interested.

I remember reading this book back in 1990 or so and not being able to put it down. It completely captured my imagination and remains one of my all-time favorite hard sci-fi books. For comparison, my other favorites include works of James Hogan and Greg Bear. Each of my friends that borrowd my copy of Twistor share my enthusiasm for this book and author. In addition to some really well thought and written hard sci-fi, I really enjoyed the main character who is a graduate student that is easy to relate to. I am very excited to discover that John Cramer has written more books! (I hadn't realized this until surfing Amazon.com for the first time last week.)

If you want realistic science fiction, this is it! As a scientist, I really appreciate Cramer's physics background and his ability to write about it in a captivating way. Real science is sometimes even more intriguing than science fiction. And both of Cramer's books begin with a strong foundation in cutting-edge physics and then step into scientific speculation, not wild frictionalizing.

While time/dimensional travel might not be a new topic, Cramer deals with it in an incredibly realistic way. It is also quite easy to follow and understand the complex physics he talks about. Twistor is one of the best science fiction books EVER! His second book, Einstein's Bridge, is even better!

My search for this book was a long one. I first learned about the author and his book when I downloaded a computerized periodic table for the Macintosh written by John Cramer. (It was a Hypercard stack, I believe.) It was freeware that, incidentally, advertised his book Twistor. I put the book on my mental "to buy" list but it was YEARS before I spotted a copy on a bookshelf. (Still a first printing. Go figure.)

What goes around comes around, though, and I did wind up "paying" for Cramer's excellent periodic table with my purchase of his book. Meanwhile it's a fine book, a thoroughly well crafted hard science fiction tale with a little mystery and fantasy thrown in. Highly recommended to fans of "good old SF" -- like me! And infinitely more deft than, say, Crichton's recent expedition into vaguely similar territory.

I was surprised by Twistor...The cover promotes it as a "hard science fiction" book, which I like and looked forward to reading. However, this book is NOT hard in the sense that it is a thoroughly enjoyable book. It drew me in nearly as well as many of my other favorite authors' work. The "hard" science is truly deep, but well explained, while the story is rich and visual. I also highly recommend Cramer's other book, "Einstein's Bridge".

Like Einstein's Bridge, this is _totally_ a great book to read especially now that so much has changed since they were penned. In addition to as well-put-together story that has a lot of hard science in it, they have hackers using Macintosh computers and 14K baud modems, laptops called "Portable Power PC" and other wacky stuff. Best of all is this quote from the back of the book, from 1987: "The Internet is a worldwide computer network that has been in very active use by the physics community for over a decade." Isn't that cute?

My edition of "Twistor" was published in 1989. I found Cramer's predictions in the afterword to be quite an accurate reflection of what the internet has become...starting from BitNet. Its a good story with the kind of plot that is hard to put down. Now if only he'd write that sequel he alluded to in the afterword...

It's fun to read, except that I feel the author was trying too hard to impress the readers [me] by writing lots of stuff in jargon.. like I'm really interested in those [?].. I mean, a simple explanation will suffice and I'm pretty sure I'll get the idea, he didn't have to tell me the nitty gritty details, it's frustrating to read such a long paragraph when all he needed to say was that this does this.

The ending really disappointed me. I wish the lead character and his partner thought twice before coming to that [terrible] decision, coz you know.. the invention they got in their hands could really mean trouble if bad guys have access to it..