Rating: 
Summary: Has promise but perhaps still needs a lot of work
Review: Upon picking up the book, it looks like it was either self-published or that the publishers don't have the vaguest idea of what entails publishing a book. The back cover blurb is headed by the word "Synopsis", which is in the field of writing what a writer presents to the editor in summarising their book. The front cover is also somewhat off-putting; it appears to be a computer printout of a planet image. A poor resolution one at that. I could not believe the cover price of US$19.95 -- especially not for a book this thin. However, all of this does not tell us about the quality of what is written on the pages within. The best part of this book is that I learnt what pseudo-prime (or Carmichael) numbers are. I had never heard of them prior to this. The book itself was not altogether original -- anyone who has read Sagan's _Contact_ will see this. Pseudo-primes = prime numbers. Details for creating a machine = details for creating a wormhole device. And so on. I must admit though, that the idea of having a computer program totally change the _insides_ of a computer to be a new one. I would not know if this would be possible -- you'd have to ask a computer engineer that -- but I must say that I found it entertaining. The plot was well done, and engrossing to a point, but the characters are leaden and it destroys the effect that the plot created. The characters are little more than pawns twisted and turned to lead the plot on, but could never sustain their own ground. The only character whose viewpoint I thought was strong did not last very long. The main characters though, or what I think were supposed to be the main characters! -- were weak and did nothing for the story. One thing that was somewhat annoying what D'Alembert's constant explanations of common acronyms. There were explanations of CIA and NSA, which any person who reads this type of book should already know from previous encounters. There were a number of typos that I gritted my teeth over -- but then, I'm pedantic and get into a snit whenever a typo breaks my concentration of a story. Something that he should not have done was begin chapter five in the way he did. It appears like he had a long spell where he did not write anything and then came back to the manuscript without reading what he had done previously. Going over the characters again when he had introduced them well - one could say almost too well - in the previous chapters is overkill. I believe that perhaps his editor should have gone over the manuscript a little more carefully and picked up on the things I have mentioned. His writing does have some promise, but this book should have been published much later, when D'Alembert had the time to look upon it cold and work with it until the obvious flaws had been ironed out.
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