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The Wormhole Project #1
The Wormhole Project
The first attempt to create a wormhole resulted in an uncontrollable beast that killed many of the world's top scientists.
Dr. Harry Stevenson and his sidekick Wanda, a human-like hologram who wants to escape cyberspace, lead a new effort to recreate the technology that folds and bends space, opening the door for mankind to explore the galaxy.
Terrorist moles infiltrate the project, devise an ingenious plan to steal the wormhole technology, and convert it to a black hole weapon of mass destruction. Deadly computer viruses delay the project and buy time for the terrorists to steal and adapt the technology-subversive acts that cause an already highly unstable and risky technology to become more dangerous and unpredictable.
Researchers die fighting viruses as they endeavor to implement the complex technology.
In its stable mode the wormhole is docile, but as Harry and his team soon realize, it can quickly morph into a monster.
Convinced they have eliminated the threats, Harry and his team venture through the wormhole on deep space missions.
The first trip to Alpha Centauri is plagued with acts of sabotage that kills crew members attempting to launch a deep space telescope. Harry barely escapes with his life then goes EVA, without assistance or backup, to save a teammate hopelessly adrift in space. A rescue attempt that backfires.
On the final mission, a sleeper virus routes the star ship to an uncharted part of the galaxy, erases all flight history, and shuts down the wormhole.
Stranded above an alien world, Harry makes an amazing discovery: a rare and extremely valuable mineral needed to fuel the Earth's power grid. To investigate the find, he leads an excursion to the surface. They encounter bloodthirsty predators and meat eating plants that consider the away team a part of the food chain. An intense struggle to survive ensues, and only a few return to the ship.
The team must somehow find out where they are in the galaxy, communicate with Earth, and reestablish the wormhole, or spend the rest of their lives, however short, on a hostile and alien world.
Completing their plan to steal the technology and create an indefensible weapon of mass destruction, the terrorists unleash the monster and wage a campaign of fear and devastation. The world's population cringes in absolute terror as the black hole ravages the earth. Emboldened by success, they give the United States three days to surrender or face total annihilation.
Harry and his team become the nations only hope to defeat the merciless beast and save America.
Dr. Harry Stevenson and his sidekick Wanda, a human-like hologram who wants to escape cyberspace, lead a new effort to recreate the technology that folds and bends space, opening the door for mankind to explore the galaxy.
Terrorist moles infiltrate the project, devise an ingenious plan to steal the wormhole technology, and convert it to a black hole weapon of mass destruction. Deadly computer viruses delay the project and buy time for the terrorists to steal and adapt the technology-subversive acts that cause an already highly unstable and risky technology to become more dangerous and unpredictable.
Researchers die fighting viruses as they endeavor to implement the complex technology.
In its stable mode the wormhole is docile, but as Harry and his team soon realize, it can quickly morph into a monster.
Convinced they have eliminated the threats, Harry and his team venture through the wormhole on deep space missions.
The first trip to Alpha Centauri is plagued with acts of sabotage that kills crew members attempting to launch a deep space telescope. Harry barely escapes with his life then goes EVA, without assistance or backup, to save a teammate hopelessly adrift in space. A rescue attempt that backfires.
On the final mission, a sleeper virus routes the star ship to an uncharted part of the galaxy, erases all flight history, and shuts down the wormhole.
Stranded above an alien world, Harry makes an amazing discovery: a rare and extremely valuable mineral needed to fuel the Earth's power grid. To investigate the find, he leads an excursion to the surface. They encounter bloodthirsty predators and meat eating plants that consider the away team a part of the food chain. An intense struggle to survive ensues, and only a few return to the ship.
The team must somehow find out where they are in the galaxy, communicate with Earth, and reestablish the wormhole, or spend the rest of their lives, however short, on a hostile and alien world.
Completing their plan to steal the technology and create an indefensible weapon of mass destruction, the terrorists unleash the monster and wage a campaign of fear and devastation. The world's population cringes in absolute terror as the black hole ravages the earth. Emboldened by success, they give the United States three days to surrender or face total annihilation.
Harry and his team become the nations only hope to defeat the merciless beast and save America.
490 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 25, 2012
8 people are currently reading
18 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 10, 2013
I give up. I only made it about a third of the way through. The misspellings and grammatical errors are annoying enough, but the poorly written characters, the multiple hair's-breadth escapes, the amazingly low-probability events one after another and the scientific implausibilities piling higher and higher have left my suspension of disbelief in such tatters that I just don't care any more.
Examples (and spoilers):
The previous wormhole project was destroyed and everyone involved killed when their wormhole went unstable. This project thinks they have that solved, but instead of creating their test wormhole in space (which they're perfectly capable of, since they do so later, with no special effort), they create it in their lab, and are almost killed also when it goes unstable.
They find and remove the cause (a virus planted by a spy), so they make their very next test a manned flight to Alpha Centauri. No tests, no unmanned probes to see if the wormhole conforms to their models (it doesn't), and no confirmation they can keep it open and stable for the 25 days of mission.
And a secret AI program created by the hero's mother is given full access to the lab's files, data, and systems, but no one notices the unexplained access even after they allegedly tighten security after finding the virus and that they have a mole.
The commander of the flight asks for two antimatter "torpedoes" (in space they're called "MISSILES"!) "just in case". And gets them without one single eyebrow being raised. And oh, gosh, sure enough, there just happens to be an asteroid on a collision course during a dangerous maneuver, boy it's a good thing he asked for those torpedoes. (Yes, it's a random event. Just one of the many unlikely things that all happen in this story.) Too bad the spy sabotaged them so they won't "defuse" and fire. But Captain Sterling (yes, that's his name) manages to dodge the asteroid.
Remember the AI? Well, she also commissioned a robotic body for herself, completely human, right down to having a uterus and being FERTILE?! Seriously? What kind of genetic material does an ANDROID have that's compatible with human sperm? (In all fairness, I did quit reading this, so if this was explained later, I didn't see it.)
So, with the spy still undiscovered, and assuming they've cleaned out all the viruses, they take another flight, but the spy's new virus drops them in a "random" location and erases all the data of where they now are. Fortunately, there just happens to be an Earth-like planet within reach, with a perfectly breathable atmosphere and tolerable climate. Oh, and it has huge deposits of pure crystalline selenium, which will revolutionize Earth's energy systems! No explanation of how or why, just that it will, so they need to go down and check it out. Which allows them multiple encounters with dinosaur-insect-like creatures, giant man-eating plants, giant snakes that are both venomous and constrictors, and a spider-scorpion with poison fangs and a stinger. (I know it's another planet, but there's no good reason for a venomous snake to also constrict. Nor for a creature to have both venomous fangs and a stinger. Evolution is very conservative.)
Back on Earth, the rest of the team finds and removes the new virus, then starts looking for their lost travelers, finding them on the very first try! No explanation of how they knew where to look when the data was erased, but every impression from the story is that it wasn't that thoroughly erased.
And that's just the ones that stick out most in my mind. I gave up. If you take your science fiction at all seriously, I strongly urge you not to even start.
Examples (and spoilers):
The previous wormhole project was destroyed and everyone involved killed when their wormhole went unstable. This project thinks they have that solved, but instead of creating their test wormhole in space (which they're perfectly capable of, since they do so later, with no special effort), they create it in their lab, and are almost killed also when it goes unstable.
They find and remove the cause (a virus planted by a spy), so they make their very next test a manned flight to Alpha Centauri. No tests, no unmanned probes to see if the wormhole conforms to their models (it doesn't), and no confirmation they can keep it open and stable for the 25 days of mission.
And a secret AI program created by the hero's mother is given full access to the lab's files, data, and systems, but no one notices the unexplained access even after they allegedly tighten security after finding the virus and that they have a mole.
The commander of the flight asks for two antimatter "torpedoes" (in space they're called "MISSILES"!) "just in case". And gets them without one single eyebrow being raised. And oh, gosh, sure enough, there just happens to be an asteroid on a collision course during a dangerous maneuver, boy it's a good thing he asked for those torpedoes. (Yes, it's a random event. Just one of the many unlikely things that all happen in this story.) Too bad the spy sabotaged them so they won't "defuse" and fire. But Captain Sterling (yes, that's his name) manages to dodge the asteroid.
Remember the AI? Well, she also commissioned a robotic body for herself, completely human, right down to having a uterus and being FERTILE?! Seriously? What kind of genetic material does an ANDROID have that's compatible with human sperm? (In all fairness, I did quit reading this, so if this was explained later, I didn't see it.)
So, with the spy still undiscovered, and assuming they've cleaned out all the viruses, they take another flight, but the spy's new virus drops them in a "random" location and erases all the data of where they now are. Fortunately, there just happens to be an Earth-like planet within reach, with a perfectly breathable atmosphere and tolerable climate. Oh, and it has huge deposits of pure crystalline selenium, which will revolutionize Earth's energy systems! No explanation of how or why, just that it will, so they need to go down and check it out. Which allows them multiple encounters with dinosaur-insect-like creatures, giant man-eating plants, giant snakes that are both venomous and constrictors, and a spider-scorpion with poison fangs and a stinger. (I know it's another planet, but there's no good reason for a venomous snake to also constrict. Nor for a creature to have both venomous fangs and a stinger. Evolution is very conservative.)
Back on Earth, the rest of the team finds and removes the new virus, then starts looking for their lost travelers, finding them on the very first try! No explanation of how they knew where to look when the data was erased, but every impression from the story is that it wasn't that thoroughly erased.
And that's just the ones that stick out most in my mind. I gave up. If you take your science fiction at all seriously, I strongly urge you not to even start.
July 9, 2013
If you accept this book for what it is - escapist, simplistic science-fiction, easy on the science - you will enjoy it. If you are looking for Stephen Baxter or Arthur C Clarke, you are looking in the wrong place.
While the science is skated over and the characterisations isn't great, this is a decent story that made perfect train reading for me. Just enjoy it for what it is.
While the science is skated over and the characterisations isn't great, this is a decent story that made perfect train reading for me. Just enjoy it for what it is.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews