The Collapsium

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.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining solid sci fi
Review: The Collapsium is McCarthy's best story to date. The story is lively and entertaining, with lots of new technology adequately explained for us non-physicists. I found the main character, Bruno, to be a more human and likeable protagonist than McCarthy's prior protagonists. All in all, an excellent story for readers who enjoy hard science fiction.

Rating:
Summary: A fun, entertaining, intelligent novel
Review: The Collapsium is one of the best books I've read. It has a style that is reminescent of earlier pulp sci-fi stories, and yet all its own. This is the first book by Wil McCarthy I've read, and I was impressed. McCarthy's writing style in this book is quite entertaining and laden with wry humor, and is intelligent throughout.

I won't go through what the story's about; the book description does a good enough job of that. I must admit that at first it failed to really capture my interest, but once the element of sabotage came in, the plot really started gathering momentum and I was drawn in. The storyline is well-concieved, and I really liked the characters in this book - especially the endearing robot, Hugo. I found that idea interesting. The lighthearted tone that seems to pervade most of this book is dashed to pieces around the beginning of the third section, where the cataclysmic peril comes into play and people actually get killed. The world McCarthy created in The Collapsium is really intriguing. Even I'd like to live there. This book is, in my opinion, a terriffic read.

Rating:
Summary: Ambitious and Enduring
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Huh?
Review: This is a strange and confusing book. People travel through space by faxing themselves to new locations. People can finally be in the same place at once. This helps people be more effective, but causes a number of problems. How does the knowledge gained by the faxes come back to the original? They all go back into the fax machine and are re-integrated.

I found this book to be silly. The science was too incredulous for my taste. The characters were not developed well. I didn't sympathize with Bruno when he lost his love Tamra. The ending was trite. It was more of a magical fairy tale with confusing science.

Rating:
Summary: Minus 1 star for a character development
Review: This is a sweet little gem of a book that combines good storytelling with wild science that really hangs together quite well.

Since I see so many glowing reviews (and really agree with most of them), let me just tell you what disappointed me about the Collapsium: the story is brilliant and witty as it begins and seems to become less so as it progresses, until at ending (despite saving the solar system several times) our protagonists are roughed up and punished with imposed roles as "fitting rewards" to their efforts.

An interesting comment on the culture created here, but a bit of a downer for this reader.

I enjoyed the craft and storytelling, loved the characters and science, but found an entertaining read becoming too suddenly grim and sad.

Rating:
Summary: Quite different
Review: This is one of the most original works of SF that I have seen in a while. Of all the stories that deal with the subject of black holes, I don't think it ever occured to anyone before that they can be mere tools in the hands of humans. What would that mean for human endeavors and history?

McCarthy creates a world where this does happen, and it so happens that a public works project goes awry, the consequence would be the death of the sun! Oops. It would be a spoiler to tell you what happens.

There are some disturbing aspects to this world that arises from very specualtive technology. For example, they have "fax" machines that can transmit a human from one place to another, a form of travel. But the device can also be used to create a complete duplicate of that person. With memories and everything, the duplicate has no idea that they are not the original. The problem is that the law is that the duplicate does not have any legal rights whatsoever. Imagine an enemy being able to steal a copy of you and torture that copy for their own amusement, then dispose of and then go get another. Would that bother you? Yikes.

Very much worth it.

Rating:
Summary: Quite different
Review: This is one of the most original works of SF that I have seen in a while. Of all the stories that deal with the subject of black holes, I don't think it ever occured to anyone before that they can be mere tools in the hands of humans. What would that mean for human endeavors and history?

McCarthy creates a world where this does happen, and it so happens that a public works project goes awry, the consequence would be the death of the sun! Oops. It would be a spoiler to tell you what happens.

There are some disturbing aspects to this world that arises from very specualtive technology. For example, they have "fax" machines that can transmit a human from one place to another, a form of travel. But the device can also be used to create a complete duplicate of that person. With memories and everything, the duplicate has no idea that they are not the original. The problem is that the law is that the duplicate does not have any legal rights whatsoever. Imagine an enemy being able to steal a copy of you and torture that copy for their own amusement, then dispose of and then go get another. Would that bother you? Yikes.

Very much worth it.

Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly Engrossing and Entertaining
Review: 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. Although the science is a little fuzzy this led to the creation of the greatest of inventions, "The Fax", which could not only send a clone of a person to another location but simultaneously fixed all that was wrong with the copy. In other words, it guaranteed imortality.

The world of the future is a matriarchy with a Virgin Queen (who just happens to love our hero). An arch-villian, a desolute madman with the charms of a playboy, sets on a course that will destroy the Solar System. It sounds outlandish but the way the future is presented, particularly with well stone and the amazing nano-technology (the descriptions are perfect), is truly amazing. The tone and setting "sound" plausible. Especially endearing was the way the hero allowed one robot to develop on his own.

This was an unlikely hit, mostly underground, the story carried by word of mouth. I'd love to see this on the big screen but shudder at the horror that the editors would do - they would butcher the story, reduce it to a royal affair with about as much seriousness as a Mars candy bar. The success of this book generaged another by the author, a sequeal of sorts. I can't wait to find out what happens!

Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly Engrossing and Entertaining
Review: 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. Although the science is a little fuzzy this led to the creation of the greatest of inventions, "The Fax", which could not only send a clone of a person to another location but simultaneously fixed all that was wrong with the copy. In other words, it guaranteed imortality.

The world of the future is a matriarchy with a Virgin Queen (who just happens to love our hero). An arch-villian, a desolute madman with the charms of a playboy, sets on a course that will destroy the Solar System. It sounds outlandish but the way the future is presented, particularly with well stone and the amazing nano-technology (the descriptions are perfect), is truly amazing. The tone and setting "sound" plausible. Especially endearing was the way the hero allowed one robot to develop on his own.

This was an unlikely hit, mostly underground, the story carried by word of mouth. I'd love to see this on the big screen but shudder at the horror that the editors would do - they would butcher the story, reduce it to a royal affair with about as much seriousness as a Mars candy bar. The success of this book generaged another by the author, a sequeal of sorts. I can't wait to find out what happens!