Picoverse (Hardcover)

by Robert A. Metzger (Author) "The Nunn Physics Building, a six-story sprawl of red brick and smoked glass, dominated the northern boundary of Georgia Tech's campus, throwing a long shadow..." (more)
Key Phrases: carrick knot, twin black holes, interface room, Miss Alice, Alexandra Mitchell, Pocket Accelerators (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
This fast-paced romp through multiple manmade universes from Metzger (Quad World) will appeal to hard SF fans who like their science served straight up. In 2007, a team of physicists working on fusion power stumble onto a way to create new, smaller universes picoverses which replicate everything in our universe but smaller. After a disastrous test of the Sonomak machine, the mysterious Alexandra takes over the project. She has her own priorities, which include escaping her bosses into one of the picoverses, and she needs researchers Katie, Horst and Jack to execute her plan. Naturally, things go awry, and Katie and company find themselves exiled to a picoverse that duplicates Earth in the 1920s. The Sonomak is a reality there, too though made with vacuum tubes and run by researchers who include Werner Heisenberg and Albert Einstein. This is just the start of a race through a number of picoverses, as our heroes attempt to get home and defeat the nonhuman Alexandra. Alternate realities collide, with the very fate of Earth and the universe at stake. The preponderance of characters with superhuman powers gets old, as does the author's holding back crucial information about events and then springing it on us just in time to save the day. But the book hangs together thematically turns out saving the universe is not about manipulating the fabric of space-time, but about manipulating someone who can manipulate the fabric of space-time and the happy ending satisfies. Agent, Richard Curtis. (Mar. 5)Forecast: Supportive blurbs from the likes of Gregory Benford, F. Paul Wilson and Charles Sheffield should help, but some readers may be put off by the author's over-reliance on deus ex machina.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Physicists Katie McGuire and Horst Wittkowski believe in their latest development in plasma physics, an energy process known as Sonomak. The government also has an interest in Sonomak's capabilities, but its agenda strays far from the path of pure science. The author of Quad World has produced a scintillating foray into hard sf and speculative science that masquerades as a fast-paced technothriller complete with government heroes and villains, dedicated scientists, and a child-genius whose mind bridges the space between worlds. For most sf collections.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Ace Hardcover; 1st edition (March 5, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441008992
• ISBN-13: 978-0441008995
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,945,486 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Liked the Science. Hated the writing., June 3, 2002

By	Jerry W Davis (Cedar Park, TX United States) - See all my reviews

I love hard science fiction. But Mr. Metzger's sense of timing, mystery, and constant changes in point of view is completely off in my opinion.

Just as I get comfortable with a really good piece of the story and enter that warm "movie in the mind" state I enjoy so much, Metzger rudely slaps me back to reality with an ill-timed change in scene or character narration. When the main characters learn (WAY to early in the story I might add) that "aliens" from another universe have been living and working among them for millions of years, there is absolutely no believable response. After all, the scientific community of this story's universe has spent Billions attempting to decode SETI signals. I would have thought that discovering the existence of an advanced alien culture would have had more of an impact on the characters. Instead Katie is more worried about what Jack is thinking. By the way, isn't that "aliens among us" line a bit overused?

Which leads me to the author's sense of character dialog and development. It's really bad. For example, Mr. Metzger immediately starts the "sweaty palms" routine after Katie and Jack meet. Before the close of the story's first act, Katie starts spouting such internal dialog as, "She would tell Jack about this. In fact, she was sure that very soon there would be nothing she wouldn't tell Jack". God-Awful! What a stinker! Pulp romance material! And right in the middle of a good piece of writing at that. This pattern of good hard science fiction writing, interrupted with predictable plot devices and dialog that is just unbelievable is my biggest complaint with the story.

Katie is constantly jacking around with some piece of technology on her face called a "Virtual" to the point that it becomes a serious distraction to the reader. How many times do we have to read "Katie <did something> with her Virtuals". This just kills me! This story element was completely worn out in the first 30 pages. How many times do we have to be reminded that Alexandra is "highly advanced" and Quinn is "slimy"? Does Alexandra, with her millions of years of experience, have to constantly remind us that humans are "animals" even though they continuously surprise her with their ingenuity? I don't believe it! Couldn't Metzinger have come up with a better term for the creators of the universe than "The Makers"? Please help me! Aliens that shoot "knowledge crystals" into the foreheads of their "victims". Now you have gone too far! Although that part almost made me giggle.

But I really hate plot twists being used to cover for weak storyline. Sort of a "see.. the beginning wasn't as wonky as you thought because this plot twist explains why everything was screwed up in the beginning". I hate being lectured to outside of the story. Surely Mr. Metzger can do better than that!

Good (fictional) hard science, completely ruined by weak storytelling.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book, August 12, 2003

By	James W. Nason (Bellefontaine, OH USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Picoverse (Paperback)

I bought and read Picoverse due to receiving a mailing advertising the book. I am a simple man with an average IQ and I usually don't read Hard SF. I prefer Dan Simmons, Paul Wilson, David Brin, etc. But I wanted to let everyone know that I couldn't put the book down. It is hard to put my finger on it, but this book gave me a sense of "wonder". I wanted to find out what would happen next so I kept reading. At no point was I overwhelmed by the science or physics in the book, which is a huge feet of writing in of itself. The last time I felt a sense of wonder this strongly was when I read Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clark or Heart of the Comet by David Brin. This was a great book. I am orderering Quad World from Amazon.com immediately.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fun Adventure, June 13, 2003

By	Tom Richardson (Austin TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Picoverse (Paperback)

Hard-SF can at times be a tough grind to work through - very serious stuff where the characters and plot plod along as every bolt is fully tightened and the electron's mass is figured correctly to the tenth decimal place. While Picoverse is hard-SF it suffers from none of this. Packed with a wide range of science, it is obvious that Metzger intended this to also be a FUN ADVENTURE - probably over the top for those hard-SF readers worried about that tenth decimal place. In a story where you've got new universes being spewed out, Neanderthals in asteroids, planets bouncing around like ricochetting marbles, and Joseph Stalin in nothing but a pair of shorts, you should not expect standard hard-SF. And thankfully you don't get it here. Instead you find an adventure, an incredibly fast story where the plot whips you from one reality to the next, with entire universes threatening to roll up over the characters, and all of this adventure driven by some really interesting fictional physics (though a lot of it seems like it could be real). It's hard-SF, it's adventure, it's mighty fun to read, and the twisty plot takes you places you would have never expected to go.