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The Collapsium (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "IN THE EIGHTH DECADE OF THE QUEENDOM OF SOL, ON A MINIATURE planet in the middle depths of the Kuiper Belt, there lived a man..." (more)
Key Phrases: ring collapsiter, grapple station, collapsiter grid, Marlon Sykes, Cheng Shiao, Bruno de Towaji (more...)
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Wil McCarthy is a certified science fiction treasure. A real-life rocket scientist with a gorgeous writing style and rapier wit to boot, McCarthy continually sets a very high standard for good old-fashioned space stories. In The Collapsium, McCarthy builds on a lovely novella to tell the far-future story of two scientists entrenched in a rivalry that may save, or destroy, the solar system. Tamra Lutui, the Queen of Sol, brings together the brilliant enemies in order to prevent the Ring Collapsiter, a vast ring of strange matter, from falling into the sun. So it is that Bruno de Towaji, inventor of collapsium--crystals made up of tiny black holes that can transport matter instantaneously across vast distances--must find a way to work with Marlon Sykes, who came up with the Ring to change the nature of communication forever. McCarthy makes liberal use of his extensive science knowledge, especially when he describes the nature of high-concept physics ideas like collapsium or wellstone (programmable matter!), but luckily, his literary skills are up to the task of moving the narrative along, keeping us in suspense, and creating characters who are worth reading about. His descriptions of the physical phenomena surrounding the artifacts of high-energy material manipulation are deft and fascinating:

A handful of collapsons in low orbit had become--seemingly overnight--a nested cage of fractured spacetimes, one within the other like wooden babushka dolls, magical ones, straining at the very underpinnings of universal law. And orbiting right overhead!

Towaji and Sykes labor to save the Queendom and outwit the saboteur trying to wreck the Ring, all the while burdened by a byzantine and bureaucratic social structure with demands for party appearances, verbal sparring, and quick thinking. While those of us who aren't physics mavens might quail at some of the terms and ideas McCarthy casually uses, it's his characters and story that make The Collapsium a book to savor, a complex and layered story in the grand tradition of science fiction's masters. --Therese Littleton



From Publishers Weekly

Even when faced with multiple disasters created by mankind's over-reaching itself, the future as robotics expert McCarthy (Bloom) sees it is a wondrous place, filled with interesting scientific problems and intelligent people eager to tackle those problems. Foremost among the titans of the future is Bruno de Towaji, a scientific genius so exceptionally rich he has built his own miniature planet. There he performs experiments on collapsium, a crystalline matter composed of black holes that allow for the "bending and twisting of spacetime to his personal whims." He has been at this for many years of his immortal life, until he is called out of his happy hermitage by his former lover, Her Majesty Tamra Lutui, the Virgin Queen of All Things. Her scientists, led by Declarant Sykes, have built a collapsium ring around the sun that is now dangerously unstable; Bruno's expertise is needed to save the day. Bruno is used to having people need too much of him. Yet as the story progresses, what with murder and treachery being uncovered and the problems the queendom faces growing ever more complex, Bruno grows nobly into his role of both scientific and heroic savior. While there are amusing attributes and quirks to McCarthy's characters (such as Queen Tamra's virginity being a renewable asset), the greater pleasures of this novel lie in its hard science extrapolations. McCarthy plays up his technical strengths by providing a useful appendix and glossary for the mathematically inclined reader. (Aug.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Del Rey; 1st edition (August 1, 2000)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 034540856X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0345408563
  • Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 5 x 1.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,928,516 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Wil McCarthy
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Front Cover | Front Flap | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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First Sentence:
IN THE EIGHTH DECADE OF THE QUEENDOM OF SOL, ON A MINIATURE planet in the middle depths of the Kuiper Belt, there lived a man named Bruno de Towaji who, at the time of our earliest attention, was beginning hi 3088th morning walk around the world. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
ring collapsiter, grapple station, collapsiter grid, nasen beam, fax gate, collapson nodes, schemers plotting, helmet dome, royal committee, network gate, acceleration couch, boat gods, true vacuum, instrument room
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Marlon Sykes, Cheng Shiao, Bruno de Towaji, Declarant Sykes, Deliah van Skettering, Good Lord, Sykes Manor, Ernest Krogh, Maxwell Montes, Virgin Queen, Vivian Rajmon, Wenders Rodenbeck, Kuiper Belt, Queendom of Sol, Rhea Krogh, Marion Sykes, Venders Rodenbeck
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Customer Reviews

27 Reviews
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 (8)
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 (11)
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Average Customer Review
3.9 out of 5 stars (27 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Immortality: Gift? Or Curse?, April 17, 2003
By Neal C. Reynolds (Indianapolis, Indiana) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
This review is from: The Collapsium (Mass Market Paperback)
Maybe it's because I'm an old f**t, but I think a lot of reviewers have missed a key theme of this book.

I'll quickly mention points made by others before I center in on the immortality & "meaning of life" themes I've found here.

First, this is hard science fiction, but if like me you're no scientist, there is a way to read it and get the gist of the science without getting hopelessly confused.

Secondly, while the second half of the book is more serious with bad things happening, there's a playful perspective to the entire book that can be compared to fairy tales, or to "Tom Swift" solutions, or to glorious "pulp" science-fiction of the '30's and '40's. This might put off some readers and charm others.

However you react to the hard science and/or the allusions to
more faniful genres, don't overlook what is being said about immortality.

The novel's protagonist and antagonist are both among the first to embark into immortal life and are reacting to such a life's implications. As if immortality isn't enough to deal with, there's also the faxing of people creating copies of individuals who have the memories and personalities of the originals but go into divergent paths.

The principal character, after a long period of being the Queen's "Philander", has become a hermit buried in endless scientific research which will hopefully enable him to see the end of time. His opposite number, also for a time the Queen's "Philander", has a similar goal, but due to his immortality has become what could be thought of as a souless entity, with little regard for humanity. We're also given glimpses at other characters, each of whom attempt to deal with the prospect of immortality and the challenge to make unending life meaningful.

The question of God, of religion, or of lack of either is also looked at. In fact, it seems to me that contemporary science-fiction as a whole is giving religion and its impact on society much more consideration than it once did. Either that, or I'm noticing it more.

At any rate, if you bear in mind that this book does have a serious philosophical theme along with the "technobabble" and is framed in a pulpish, Tom Swiftian, fairy-tale like mold, you should find it well worth your time.

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Ambitious and Enduring, February 16, 2001
By Ben (The Other Side) - See all my reviews
This is a story with fabulous science, easily the equal of anything Larry Niven or Stephen Baxter have served up, or better. You can't swing a dead cat in this book without hitting another mind-blowing concept. Yet McCarthy's style is not the stiff deadpan of a NASA flight controller (which he is), but the romping satire of a Neal Stephenson or Salman Rushdie. It's an eerie combination. The language is deceptively simpler and more casual than "Bloom" or "Murder in the Solid State", but hiding behind it are layers of technical and human detail that lend this book the feel of a genuine classic.

The world and characters are quirky and compelling. Never mind that the sun is going to be crushed into a black hole, I wanted to live here anyway. The author's love of the place is obvious and infectious. The story moves from court politics to murder to battles in space, heady sf fare with a hard strange twist, but the opening and closing scenes which bookend this action set it apart, as a work of genuine thought and depth. I've read it twice in six months, and still want more.

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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars A good primer, January 8, 2007
This review is from: The Collapsium (Mass Market Paperback)
Collapsium is the start of a series of novels that follow in its wake. Curiously, the opening act is actually far worse than what is to follow: "Wellstone," "Lost in Translation," and "To Crush the Moon" provide both better entertainment and better exploration of the implications of the marvelous technology that Maccarthy dreams up. So let us be clear on what Collapsium is and what it is not:
1) It IS a great appendix to reading the aforementioned novels. Besides having a scientific (sci-fi) appendix of its own that explains the (hypothetical) physics behind the technology, Collapsium is really kind of an appendix in its own right, and a decent enough reference to backgrounds of characters that are more fully developed in later novels.
2) It IS a book full of imaginative ideas. Sometimes overly so. Maccarthy's physics is solid, while his speculations on future physics span the full range of plausibility, from "maybe" to "no way!" - but all of it is imaginative, interesting, and good fun to think about.
3) It is NOT a particularly good novel in its own right. Really, the book consists of three somewhat independent and weak novellas: though ordered chronologically they do not share the coherence of ordinary chapters in a single book, and each presents an adventure of its own. The plot (or plots) are not all that engrossing, mainly because they all have a very simple "hero vs disaster" or "hero vs villain + disaster" linearity to them. And since these types of plotlines invariably end with a triumph of our hero, the intrigue is, for the most part, not there. Finally, as other reviewers have mentioned, the character development is somewhat lackluster.

The main raison d'etre for this book, as I see it, is that ideas in it have great POTENTIAL for a full-fledged development. Chief among these is not programmable matter or instant comminication afforded by the collapsiter grids, but the achievement of immorbidity. From this novel alone, it is hard to say what the author makes of it, but the promise is there.

So let me conclude with a recommendation. Skip this one and go straight for "Wellstone." If you enjoy it (which you should), but find yourself wanting details on the background of the Queendom of Sol, its historical figures, and its technological marvels, THEN read Collapsium.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Problem-solution style SF with Science and Humor
There's a lot of marketing done in the SF publishing world, where the marketing isn't reflecting the book properly. Read more
Published 9 months ago by M-I-K-E 2theD

3.0 out of 5 stars Readable, but not great...
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3.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining, some good ideas, but nothing spectacular
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5.0 out of 5 stars Wow! It's like living in a future full of excitement and (very) clever people!
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5.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly Engrossing and Entertaining
This is the story of the future and the people who molded it and lived it. Our hero is a genius who invented / worked with a product that is actually a miniaturized black hole... Read more
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4.0 out of 5 stars Dazzling hard-SF opening fades to melodrama
______________________________________
Rating: science "A+", fiction "B-" -- a dazzling hard-SF opening fades to melodrama. Read more
Published on December 30, 2003 by Peter D. Tillman

5.0 out of 5 stars A Long Time to Mature
The Collapsium is a novel of the intermediate future. Many years from now, at least a century and probably more, mankind has machines that can build anything from a pattern,... Read more
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4.0 out of 5 stars Minus 1 star for a character development
This is a sweet little gem of a book that combines good storytelling with wild science that really hangs together quite well. Read more
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