Loophole

by Ian Stewart

Don’t poke your nose down a wormhole – you never know what you might find.Two universes joined by a wormhole pair that forms a ‘loophole’, with an icemoon orbiting through the loophole, shared between two different planetary systems in the two universes.
A civilisation with uploaded minds in virtual reality served by artificial humans.
A ravening Horde of replicating machines that kill stars.
Real humans from a decrepit system of colony worlds.
A race of hyperintelligent but somewhat vague aliens.
Who will close the loophole… who will exploit it?

“When universes collide …
A multicosmos at war in a scenario of staggering, but scientifically authentic, invention …
As if the Marvel multiverse collided with 2001: A Space Odyssey …
I am awed, and I don’t awe easily. The highest of high-concept SF.”

–Stephen Baxter, award-winning author of the Xeelee sequence, Time Slip and many others.

“There’s Hard SF. There’s Wide-Screen Baroque. Now with Ian Stewart’s Loophole we have Wrap-Around Rococo. Daringly inventive, Loophole is a mind-fryingly, Möbius-twistingly intense SF adventure of the first order.”
–Henry Gee, Senior Editor at Nature, and author of A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth.

Cover David A. Hardy

Genres: Science Fiction

599 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 21, 2023

About the author

Ian Nicholas Stewart is an Emeritus Professor and Digital Media Fellow in the Mathematics Department at Warwick University, with special responsibility for public awareness of mathematics and science. He is best known for his popular science writing on mathematical themes.
--from the author's website

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See other authors with similar names.

Reviews

[Brian Clegg · Rating 4 out of 5]

The tendency is for science fiction written this century to work on the small, personal scale, focusing more on characters than plot, but there is a long tradition of older SF novelists from E. E. (Doc) Smith, through Isaac Asimov to Larry Niven who took their stories big and bold - and that is the direction taken by mathematician and author Ian Stewart in his chunky (560 page) novel Loophole.

A strange phenomenon is discovered where a moon appears and disappears - it turns out it is orbiting through a wormhole, spending part of each orbit in two different universes. The discovery of this weird phenomenon leads to three sets of main characters being able to interact - something they need to do, as a mysterious fourth force is rapidly destroying stars. The first set we meet are distinctly alien (even though they behave like parish councillors), a second are apparently normal humans who aren't quite what they seem, and the third are humans of our future - between them spanning at least two universes.

It's mind boggling stuff, containing a truly remarkable collection of ideas. Each group has its own, different high-tech abilities, which together it is hoped can save both universes from the superorganism-like mechanical 'horde' that are killing stars. Only it seems that this horde is unstoppable and ever living thing will be destroyed.

It’s those high concept, massive ideas that earn this novel four stars. Beyond that, I have to say that it has significant weaknesses. The book is way too long, in part because Stewart insists on spelling out what’s happening in far too much detail and giving too much time to long, rather dull, expositions. There's something of a tendency to throw in lots of meaningless terms and explain them many pages later, including unnecessary ‘alien’ units: when alien speech is translated, why not translate the units too? This is just obscurity for the sake of it. Then, about 40% through, we suddenly get a flashback and a third set of characters. This does work out effectively, but only after another information dump. And the final chunk of the book is another information dump - after the action has finished, we get page after page of explanations. There are some nice twists in there... but it isn't great fiction.

Stewart, then, isn’t an outstanding novelist. His writing skills are more oriented to the putting across the factual. But just as, for example, Fred Hoyle’s SF was better than his writing skills suggested because of the idea content, the same applies here. It’s a fascinating attempt at portraying both human and non-human future tech on a grand scale.

[John Gribbin · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like old-fashioned SF with aliens who have names like Janhedistrepp, several claws, and keep a benevolent watch on the Galaxy until something goes terribly wrong and humans have to help, then this book is for you. On the other hand, if you like modern hard SF which discusses gravitational radiation, quantum physics, and offers an almost plausible mechanism for faster-than-light travel, then this book is for you. Ian Stewart has achieved a curious mashup of themes, which bizarrely seems to work. It is the kind of book where a willing suspension of disbelief helps, and I would recommend reading it right through in one sitting, if 546 pages is within your scope for instant digestion. If it weren't for the number of pages, I would call it a lightweight piece of fun; but it is certainly fun and it won't make your brain hurt.

[Henry Gee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many will be familiar with Ian Stewart as a mathematician and one of the few of his profession who can explain maths cogently to regular mortals. Many more will know him as an honorary wizard of the Unseen University and co-author (with Terry Pratchett and Jack Cohen, late and lamented both) of the four volumes of The Science of Discworld. But he’s also a considerable author of SF on his own account, and Loophole is his latest. It’s a rambunctious romp involving super-powerful but dotty aliens, a terrifying plague of Von Neumann machines, and a clash of two universes that are not quite as different as they first appear. This is more than just Hard SF. Or Wide-Screen Baroque. With a fiendishly clever plot so twisty it will turn your brain into a Möbius pretzel, it verges on Wrap-Around Rococo. The science is absolutely Out There, but with Stewart as your guide you can be confident that it’s reliable, in one universe or another. At the same time the characters are human, humane (especially the aliens) and there is a generous dose of humour to lighten what might otherwise be a heavy load. If you’ve read The Science of Discworld, or any of Stewart’s books with Jack Cohen (such as Figments of Reality), you’ll know what to expect. DISCLAIMER: I provided an endorsement for the author and received a pre-publication copy.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Checked this out of the library but nearly checked it back in because of the weight (546 pages). Had to read it fast or not at all but now it's over I'm glad I did, so have an extra half star for the ideas and the way the author can confidently throw about science and maths stuff. I did guess quite a few of the twists of the plot but that didn't spoil it for me - it was the unnecessary detail and description that bloated the book to this size that I found difficult.