Rating: 
Summary: Piers Anthony meets Mr. Spock
Review: "The Collapsium" is the kind of book that gets written when the character development nazis get hold of a good conceptual writer and convince him to turn his sf into a soap opera. This is an incredibly unballanced book. On the one hand it tries VERY hard to engage the reader on a social/character development level that reads like an adolescent fairytale (it also borrows HEAVILY from Michael Moorcock's Victorian writing style). Collapsium wants to be cute but ends up being tedious and umbelievable. I never once bought this story took place in a society of "hundreds of billions" as the story suggests. The depth just isn't there. On the other hand you have some very challenging and original scientific concepts which I, sf veteran though I am, had to read slowly and repeatedly to comprehend--including footnotes that direct the reader to the back of the book for more complete explanations. I like this, and I liked his earlier book, "Bloom", for its straighforward, hard sf concepts. Mr. McCarthy is clearly at his best writing as an idea guy--something sf desperately needs more of! Readers like me will comb the shelves looking for new concepts like "neubles", but we won't wade through a bunch of cutesy garbage.
Rating: 
Summary: Fun
Review: 'Light' on the science and heavy on fiction but fun to read and that the most important part.
Rating:
Summary: Enchanting!
Review: Easily one of the most enchanting, touching, books I have read in a long time. Do yourself a favor: just read the first few pages. You'll be immediately hooked!
Rating:
Summary: Plausible yet startling
Review: How would people behave given the ability to "fax" themselves anywhere--incidentally eliminating mortality as if it were a bug in our operating system? What issues would arise that even they wouldn't expect? This is a book of questions, with a hard SF setting. Highly recomended.
Rating: 
Summary: Science too heavy for mere mortals
Review: I *really* wanted to love this book. I was excited when it came out because of the author's background as a *real* rocket scientist. But, after spending hours trying to understand the first two pages with the science of Collapsiums and such, and frantically flipping to the apendices, I must say the science is too much. I am a Software Engineer with a BSEE and I can't understand a word of the science. One must come equipped with an advanced physics degree it seems. However, it isn't all a total loss. The story is a typical but nice fantasy story. The theory of fax transfer of people is intriguing.
Rating: 
Summary: Fun!
Review: I need to preface this review by stating that I have no scientific background. I've never studied physics and have little to no interest in hard science fiction. That being said, I really enjoyed this book. My lack of scientific background helped me to enjoy this book much more than previous reviewers did. Many of the previous reviewers pointed out the scientific impossiblities (or implausibilities). My scientific ignorance allowed me to sit back and enjoy the ride. And a great ride it is. 'The Collapsium' is a great ride, much like the previous reviewer noted, in the tradition of the old SF pulps. The book is exciting, well-written with compelling characters. I enjoyed the main character's brilliance and his reclusive nature. Also the name, Bruno de Towaji, is tremendously fun to roll around in the mind. McCarthy seems to have a knack for creating interesting character names. I enjoyed everything about this book. If you're like me with little to no scientific background, you'll probably enjoy this one. If you are a quantum physicist who simply cannot get past scientific irregularities, you may want to stay away.
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Summary: Modern Fairy Tale
Review: In the 24th century, mankind has elected a queen and a fascination with a scientist who fears social entanglements so much he creates his own private planet to work alone. Of course this doesn't work as the queen needs him to rescue the solar system. The writing is almost fairy-tale simple, yet both the science and the character development show hints of far greater depth. Take your time with this one and it may well repay the investment.
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Summary: Entertaining retread of science fiction cliches.
Review: Let's, see, in _The Collapsium_ we have two mad scientists -- one malevolent, the other merely socially retarded -- vying for the affections of the Queen of the Solar System. In their final confrontation each one pulls out his super-weapons, one of them invented on the spot, to foil each other's advanced technologies. Oh, and the fate of both the sun and the human race are at stake. Haven't we seen SCORES of stories like that already? Still, I found myself entertained, despite my observation that if you've read a couple dozen science fiction novels, you've pretty much read them all. I liked McCarthy's description of how the characters deal with the existence of multiple copies of themselves made possible with their matter-faxing technology, and how said gadget keeps them "immorbid," that is, no longer vulnerable to disease and the programmed deterioration we call aging. And his description of the protean "wellstone" technology just barely sounds plausible, since as I recall from my college chemistry, the chemical properties of matter depend entirely on what the outermost electrons are doing. By manipulating the quantum states of electrons using advanced silicon chips, you could conceivably have a programmable sort of matter like wellstone that can assume the chemical characteristics of most physically possible solids, if not the physically impossible ones McCarthy alludes to. Despite the recycling of very old science-fictional ideas, this novel is worth a read, though I recommend waiting for the paperback.
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Summary: Immortality: Gift? Or Curse?
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: A Long Time to Mature
Review: 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, including the human body. Moreover, these facsimile (or fax) machines can be connected to transmitters and receivers to send one or more copies of someone's body pattern to other locations on the planets or in space and then to merge the copies back to a single individual. All illness, injuries, and aging are filtered out of the body pattern during transmission, thereby ensuring effective immorbidity and extreme longevity for everyone. Now that everyone is planning on living forever and has all the wealth that they can possibly use, mankind has become tired of democracy and individual responsibility, so they have created the Queendom of Sol. Fortunately, one royal personage remains after all the years of slaughtering monarchs to obtain liberty: Princess Tamatra Litui of the tiny kingdom of Tonga. Without asking her opinion on the matter, mankind has elected her Queen of Sol with an overwhelming majority and has carefully ensured that she has responsibilities, obligations and moral authority, but no real power. Furthermore, mankind has decided that she should be the Virgin Queen, but her first official act as Queen was to Censure all involved in forcing the position upon her, then her second act was to ensure that her virginity would be renewed as needed, and her third act was to call for suitors. In this novel, Bruno de Towaji is a Declarant-Philander; that is, he has been granted the highest honor in the Kingdom for his construction of the Iscog (Inner-System Collapsiter Grid) linking the inner planets and he has been further honored as one of the Queen's consorts. He is also unbelievably rich from his royalties from Iscog; for example, he donates a hundred trillion dollars to the Venus terraforming effort. Bruno has spent the last eleven years alone on his tiny world with its miniature mountains, low-flying clouds, and neubles to provide gravity. He is attempting to build an Arc de Fin, to see the light at the end of the universe. However, trouble comes knocking in the form of the Queen herself. While Bruno has been away, Declarant-Philander Marlon Sykes has started a giant project to build a bypass collapsiter ring around Sol to speed messages and matter patterns through the inner-system. However, a solar flare has knocked many grapple stations offline and the incomplete ring is dropping inward. Although Marlon and others have tried everything that they can conceive to slow or reverse the fall, nothing has worked and they are running out of time. Tamra asks that Bruno come to assist in the recovery and he agrees. In this novel, Bruno and Marlon are understandably uneasy around each other. Both are Declarants, an elite group of only twenty-nine persons in the entire history of the Queendom. Moreover, they are both former consorts of the Queen and both are still deeply enamored with her, although she is partial to Bruno. Nevertheless, they are both genius-level scientists, far superior to any other person in the Queendom, and neither has any other peers, so they can only really talk shop with each other. Bruno has problems fitting into Queendom society, yet the public seems to lionize him. He keeps making faux pas in conversation and behavior, but the people forgive him. He can't understand what they want from him and it deeply embarrasses him that he doesn't know how to meet their expectations. Moreover, they cut into his think time, so he goes off to his little world and works. This story is mostly about the maturation of Bruno. Although he is continually being asked to solve complicated problems, they present no real difficulties, at least not as much as his relationships with Tamra and others whom he meets and likes. This story is also full of wonders, scientific and technological marvels based on bleeding edge speculations in contemporary Physics. While many similar ideas have been around for some time, current speculations in science and technology have provided new rationales for such notions. Much of this future technology is based on collapsium, particle sized structures constructed from synthetic black holes. Another technology of the future is wellstone, artificial atoms constructed from semiconductor chips, that can be programmed to emulate any kind of matter. Overall, this novel has almost everything a hard science fiction story should have. Maybe Bruno makes the solutions seem too easy, but he IS a supergenius. While the plot is fantastic and old-fashioned, it is not improbable. The characters are unusual, yet consistent with their histories. The dialogue is flamboyant, but so are the times. A very enjoyable read. Highly recommended for McCarthy fans and anyone else who enjoys hard science fiction stories with decent plots and good characterization.
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