Cusp

by Robert A. Metzger

In 2031, a solar flare of incalculable power shifts the Sun’s position as two immense walls erupt out of the earth, encircling it along the equator and from pole to pole. The climatic and geographical chaos that follows pushes civilization to the brink of destruction, and brings about a new world order.   Twenty years later, as a fractured humanity struggles to solve the mystery of the Rings that straddle Earth, an enigmatic entity is pushing its own plan for human evolution, using the supercomputer known as CUSP—the first computer designed to run on the software of the human mind.   “Metzger takes cutting-edge science, roils it with startling action, and grabs you on a rocket-propelled ride. Cusp is hard science fiction at its best.”—David Brin  “Audacious.”—Science Fiction Weekly “Minds will boggle at the extravagance of Metzger’s imagination.”—Kirkus Reviews

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

540 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Science fiction author and electrical engineer

Reviews

[Lee Bee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cusp is one of the few books that I’ve read multiple times and would do so again eagerly…Writing this review right now is making me want to read it again! I would rank it in my top five favorite books. Cusp is a science fiction book set about forty years in the future. It takes a different spin and approach to our evolving technologies. From the beginning where the sun has a mysterious jet of energy that propels it towards the earth…and mankind’s planet wide response to avoid this catastrophe launches off. Unknown to many of the characters in the book, one of the main attempts to stave off this disaster is the creation of a computer with a human mind and soul as it's source of power and computation.

The book is set up from the perspective of a few different characters leading their own lives, some of them working for various competing governmental agencies and different governments entirely. Without revealing too many spoilers, the characters lives end up intertwining all together in ways that make the book skyrocket deep into the imagination. From the military commander that knows certain parts of the future because he knows he has lived it and survived somehow, to the scientist who is being dominated by an enigmatic entity that has been around for millions of years known only as 'The Swirl’, to actually telling portions of the story from the perspective of 'The swirl', the book has an amazing cast of characters.

It takes us on a journey as to what happens when the organic and inorganic merge within humans, and it even reveals to us aspects of history such as what really happened 65 million years ago to the dinosaurs. One of my favorite characters is the computerized sentient companion Shiva, which is placed inside one of the genetically modified soldiers minds in order to heighten her abilities. The book takes you on a wild ride of adventure and greater and greater ‘booms!’ that almost because dizzying in its spectacle that is itself.
The characters have a realism to them in that they are not one dimensional and there is the greater questions being asked within the scope of the book that I love to think about on a personal level. What is going to happen with humanities increasing technologies? Will we become less than human after a certain point? Does fate and causality override freewill? What happens when you discover that you have done something already in the future? Does it override your capacity to change your own fate or is destiny already prewritten?

I find myself wanting to purchase the book right now and read it again. For anyone with any true preconceptions against science fiction or someone that is greatly technologically lacking within their understanding, the book may prove a difficult read as it throws out the window a lot of our current assumptions of technology, humanism and reality; while still being grounded in certain aspects of our world. I would recommend it for anyone that has the capacity to think outside the box, that loves adventure and especially technology, and anyone that has lain awake at night probing some of the deeper questions of what it means to be human and why we are here on this planet.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I quit reading this book when the itelligent dinosaurs showed up living in the interior of Phobos. (Phobos is one of Mars' moons.) That just required that I suspend a little too much disbelief. Parts of the story I really enjoyed. If it could've focused more on the Olmos family and the Philly cop I would have pushed through the rest of the book. I made it to page 229 out of 517.

[Darnoc Leadburger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes I'm rewarded for buying random science fiction books that no one's ever heard of at library sales. Is CUSP a literary masterpiece that changes the genre? No. Is it a unique book that I'll use via reference when discussing other SF books and the genre as a whole in the future? Hell yes. It's hard not to when you find a book that juggles so many concepts and doesn't end up feeling schlocky. Okay, you might feel it's schlocky, but I didn't. To be fair, I honestly don't know if I was smart enough to understand all the crap in this book, but according to my counting it abides by its own insane rules and spins an omni-faceted story that impressed me so much that this review will be more of a rambling recap than a coherent analysis of literary value.

The book kicks off in the year 2031 when we see a scientist interacting with the Swirl - some artificial system within the Void (some kind of Internet?) - as a giant jet engine starts propelling the sun through space. Before long two giant rings splitting the Earth into 4 parts, four kilometers tall and staggered with giant jet engines of their own, spring out of the Earth. Fast forward to 2051 and we're treated to a variety of plots, including a father and daughter on the fringe of multifaceted scientific experiment to bring about a biological Singularity by crossing the 'Point,' (these facets including a man with a version of Bill Gates in his head and a woman who kills herself by diving of the rings), Padmini the cop whose partner is killed and is whisked away by robots and told some of his great secrets, and an ambassador to Mars who is shown reports of 237 planets positioned in a grid in the Alpha Centauri system and the fact that intelligent dinosaurs are living in the center of Phobos, a moon of Mars). Everything comes together surprisingly well by the time we're halfway through the book, and then (if this wasn't enough) things got wild.

One of major themes of the book is breaking through the technological singularity through biological means, and when that's reached through the woman who killed herself, the rings start going off, and then the sun starts coming for us, and then the guy on Phobos finds out that the little Grey aliens are actual 'Clingers,' highly evolved Earth-lemurs from 100,000,000 years ago, and then the sun doesn't burn Earth to a cute little crisp but instead picks it up in its gravitational wave to go to Alpha Centauri, and then we find out that the Clingers live in the middle of one of Jupiter's moons and they're brought along for the ride, and apparently the Alpha Centaurians created the Swirl instead of the humans during the Ten Degree War, and the Swirl's been around manipulating evolution for 100,000,000 years and wants to bring everything back to the Centaurians, but they're gone because they ascended to their own Post-Point world (not because one of their many post-Point experiments destroyed them), there's more dinosaur crap that happens, and then General Sutherland reveals that he found a cube with a picture himself that's bene on the moon for 65,000,000 years, and then Post-Point woman has the Sun collide with Alpha Centauri A, and it happens but then she takes Phobos back in time to cause the extinction of the dinosaurs after a decade of random small-scale time travel, and then Earth is on its merry way to orbit the red dwarf in the Centauri system, and somehow after being jolted around the cosmos more than a rabid Weiner dog on a leash the Earth can still support human life? Um... okay, Robert. One helluva ride.

It's a lot. If you don't read science fiction, don't start with this book; you might never come back to this wonderful genre. That being said, this book does exemplify some of the heights of science fiction in regards to its inventiveness and deft handling of scale. This is one of the reasons I love science fiction written by scientists. Still, things in the first 150/200 pages could be explained better. I was awfully confused by the concept of the Void and crap, and there's barely any hand-holding. Its lack of support, despite being able to tell that Metzger has thought about this work's internal rules a lot, is one of the biggest flaws of the book.

On the other hand, even though SF-written-by-scientists has a reputation for being crappily written, Metzger is a pretty solid writer. Maybe it's because he'd already written two novels and a lot of short stories by this point in his career, but his prose - while not blowing the minds of those who fancy themselves as veteran consumers of 'proper' literature - is pretty smooth and handles description, action, and dialogue with a good balance and never visibly amateurishly. The characters, while not horribly deep, are consistent and obey their internal rules, and that's all I ask for in Hard SF characters. That being said, arguably one of the book's most important characters - Earth - is pretty neglected and the second of my sore points with this novel. After Earth is pulled off on a cosmic road trip by the Sun , we never hear about the state of the human race outside of our principle cast of characters. I get it - there's enough going on that we don't need extra perspectives with characters who don't affect the greater narratives - but I often wondered where all the normal people where at. They say that certain events will kill billions of people, but that means there have to be billions left on Earth... it wouldn't have been hard to slide in some dialogue or exposition, which there's already a lot of, that checks in with the general populace; that would've set the nagging crooks of my mind at ease.

So what does this book amount to besides one hell of a well-thought out (I think) fever dream? If we're talking numbers... probably an 8/10. Usually with these kinds of thoughts on a book, especially when the narrative is outlandish and fuzzy enough, it would amount to a 7.5, but my gut just says 8/10. Four stars. It's not enough of a leap to tell my gut no. All-in-all, a pretty unique reading experience that takes something like your average Stephen Baxter epic and cranks it up to 11. I'll be sure to buy Metzger's Picoverse if I find it in the wild, and I look forward to stumbling across his short stories in various publications. I'm happy to have made acquaintance with another of the great Roberts (Robert A. Heinlein, Robert L. Forward, Robert J. Sawyer, etc), and I hope to grace his Goodreads reviews again soon.

[Paul Coyne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have not and do not plan on finishing this book. I got to page 167 and became flabbergasted. I have a bittersweet relationship with science fictions. Some will keep you attached, but some will let you stray away, and when you return to the book you forget many things. Science fictions in my opinion are the hardest reads due to the fact that they have vivid new vocabulary, and often times present a very hard concept to grasp your head around. This book would be good for mystery buffs who like space.

[Michael O'Donnell · Rating 3 out of 5]

So very expansive ideas but at the expense of character development. Life would not have survived and the fact it does is just a little irritating.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entirely original and huge ideas, but neither the plot nor characters ever really caught my attention, making it a slow trudge.

[Mike Gogulski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of neat ideas to ponder, but suffers from a disjointed, erratic plot and writing style.

[Thomas Morehouse · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hated it. I really struggled with this one. Came close to quitting on it several times. Cannot understand how it rated 3.5 stars.

No character development. The first 200 pages gets bogged down in technology that still doesn't get properly explained.
The story was disjointed and in so many places simply made no sense.

The ending was incredibly unsatisfying.

[Kelly Jennings · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite the page-turner! I love a book like this where you absolutely cannot predict what will happen next — it really kept surprising me. Some really creative ideas and thrilling scenes. If you’re looking for fun, original sci-fi, give this one a try!

[Margaret Windsor · Rating 4 out of 5]

very interesting and intriguing story. hard sf which makes it very hard to read. a lot of science detail, which is fair enough from an author who is a research scientist. can't give more than a 7 due to my difficulty with the science.

[Christopher Bergerson · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's been an age since I read this but I remember liking it except for perhaps the ending (I also may have been way too young to read it and enjoy it properly).

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

what a fun read :)

[Alex Shrugged · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow... this was a pretty good book. "Cusp" by Robert Metzger. Honestly I didn't think I was going to like this book but a couple of authors I liked recommended it and the cover looked cool so I decided to give it a whirl.

Story: Our Sun starts moving away... fast.... and suddenly the Earth develops... well...I know this is going to sound stupid but it is actually reasonable in the book... the Earth develops rockets to keep up with the Sun! Then the Sun stops but we are left trying to figure out who initiated the Sun's movement and who left rocket elements deep in the earth? For what purpose? And apparently a lot of human beings are now modified... mechanically enhanced to the point of being called "Tools" and a lot of people (even those less modified) are networked together through something called The Void". I found this all confusing at first so I'm telling you now.

The characters are trying to reach a new point in human evolution and this involves zero-point energy which seems to scare the crap out of everybody...which it should. And a quantum computer called Cusp. Slap these together with a human brain interface and you get something really scary.

FYI: zero-point energy is theoretical energy source but no one knows if it even exists. It was used in the animated film The Incredibles" And a quantum computer is a very fast computer... so fast that I can't even believe that it could be made but maybe.

The author is a semiconductor research scientist so that means he is like a physicist and while the science in the book is speculative and at times fantastic... it's not stupid. It hangs together.

I don't have too many complaints but there is one... it starts with too many story lines. You know how this goes.... a super scientist escapes but the General brings him back. Then 20 years later an experiment with an ultra-human goes wrong and they are trying to re-purpose this poor sap to help with a new project. THEN ON MARS a new ambassador meets an old space explorer who hands him strange info...and he is new because the old ambassador was... well... he died... kinda slowly... in a gruesome way. THEN there are these Philadelphia cops... AND a farmer in Alabama with a daughter and a dog.... and another scientist who doesn't like spiders...THEN the General's daughter has her own agenda.... you see? It's 100 pages into the book before you see how all these separate story lines might converge. But they do converge and make sense... even the rockets make sense! And I found all of that amazing. :-)

It had what I would call an odd happy ending.... like... your car was stolen but luckily you didn't have to pay for that new set of tires! :-) Yeah... nice... but I would rather NOT had my car stolen in the first place. Know what I mean? It was a fun ride anyway. I liked it.

I'd read this book again.

Is it for kids? No. Middle school? It's kind of creepy but maybe. If you'd let them read Jurassic Park then sure. Otherwise wait. I think I saw some curse words but not many. Actually, I can only recall one but maybe there were others.

[Dave · Rating 2 out of 5]

although quickly paced and such an epic theme, it sort of falls flat with a mix of characters you don't seem to care much for and a sci-fi nature that is outrageously sci fi without prepping the reader or setting the story correctly.
after a few pages you begin to get the hang of it, and it is a good easy read but there is a lack of pull into the world which has been created.
I liked it but it needs a little polish at the beginning.
cool ideas though. i don't like the renaming or reassigning the 'internet/web' as the 'Void,' a new almost dimensional reality of what the net (pseudo sentient) has become it is distracting.
most sci fi you expect certain things this is truly loaded with unexpected almost out of touch spacey bizarreness- again if given a chance it can rope you in, but unlike fantasy book i would have read in younger years which you get into easily this has some awkward stumbling through a new future world which larger portions have been seemingly overlooked.- is there an authors cut of the book to explain more?
eh. ok though
as i finished it I might add the many characters some end up anonymous and unimportant really- some do become special.
the story 'mythos' does solidify into an understandable setting although some aspects still make you scratch your head- it becomes an understandable and very bizarre world. but you do want to see how it all ends up working out, and after 1/3 of the book anyone can be bumped off, after that the next 1/3 you kind of care about certain characters (although most are unlikable in their extremely polarized function and personalities...in a very extreme and polarized world with rings!)
the last third sometimes you think "end already" and well you do want to see the conclusion as well rationalized and improbable it becomes.
but still 2 stars

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in the near future, one day, the Sun throws off a solar flare of record-setting proportions. The Sun actually moves a million kilometers farther away from the Earth, because the solar flare is really a giant jet engine.

Meantime, on Earth, two planet-spanning rings come out of the ground. Many kilometers high and wide, one ring circles the Earth at the Equator, while the North-South ring cuts through eastern North America. Earth's climate is drastically altered, governments fall and millions die. The rings spout huge jet engines, which occasionally test fire. Who could be behind this, and where are the Sun and Earth going?

The destination might be the Sun's nearest neighbor, Alpha Centauri. The first unmanned probe to the system shows an amazing sight: over 200 planets orbiting the star, all at approximately the same distance from the star. Is it possible for the Sun to protect the Earth from space junk during the journey? The answer might have something to do with who is living in an artificial habitat inside the Martian moon, Phobos, which returns to Earth and lands in Alabama. Perhaps the asteroid that hit Earth 65 million years ago, and led to the extinction of the dinosaurs, was not exactly a random cosmic event. Also, CUSP is the newest thing in supercomputers, which gets a chance to interface with the ultimate supercomputer - the human mind.

I hated to reach the end of this book. It has a really interesting story, and enough mind-blowing ideas for half a dozen novels. This is what great science fiction is all about.

[Joeschmoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

CUSP is masterpiece of science fiction. There are few science fiction books I enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed reading CUSP.

To begin with, this book is actually a decent length. Too many times I've read a book that took me less than a weekend or even an afternoon to finish. Don't misunderstand me, there's nothing wrong with a short book. If the story can be told in ten pages, then that's great. However, I hate books that attempt to tell a saga in the space of a paperback. Luckily, this isn't the case with CUSP.

CUSP is a narrative that not only spans multiple light years, but multiple characters, and indeed multiple stories. The book starts off extremely strong. The characters are well written and the story moves along nicely. The only complaint I had about the beginning (and this is stringent nitpicking) is that with so many initial stories, it can take a while to come full story back to a particular story. Once you start getting towards the middle, things start to slow down, and you begin to see how the stories fit together. This is my big gripe with this book. The middle is a bitch to read. Now, this is completely relative. It was still fun to read and well written, but compared to the beginning, and even to an extent, the end, it feels slow and aimless. Things begin do eventually pick back up nicely, but it still irritated the hell out of me.

In conclusion, great book. I own a copy, it's definitely worth more than one read.

[Lord Nouda · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was really hard to understand at first, the initial few pages had a load of techno-jargon that kinda put me off from reading since I kept trying to decipher what it all meant (at the time not knowing that you had to read ahead to be able to get what the beginning bits meant). If you can get past the first few pages (I actually stopped reading it for a few days before picking it up again and forcing myself past that major hurdle), it's a pretty decent sci-fi book, with loads of "science" thrown with sorta logical reasonings for why the physics in the story acts that way. The ending was totally unexpected seeing as how the author successfully made you believe that it was going to end up a certain way, courtesy of one of the main characters who believed that a certain somebody was going to save the day, little realizing that his carefully made plans were all going to hell.

It was originally a 2-star book but went up to 3 star due to the totally unexpected ending that surprised even a hardcore sci-fan like me :o

[Zach · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always loved science fiction and this book has as much energy as a supernova! Though it's length may scare away some readers the actual story holds you in and you don't even think about the length. And the length is long only because everything is explained in great detail. Though the definition of the things may seem technical, in all reality it gives you the perfect mental image and a knowledge of everything they are talking about which lets you enjoy the story more. This story is, in my views, really only for commited readers due to the fact that you may have to read pages over again or actually think about what is being sayed. But the reward is definitly worth the work for this great novel.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yea, this tale starts slow as many characters are introduced and the binding of the story is built. Tried to read it when it first came out but could not devote the focus that is demanded. Finally took the time and found with great pleasure that it was well worth the effort. I'm looking forward to reading it again. This has to be one of the most hard-core sci-fi novels I've ever enjoyed. Outlandish in it's concepts I haven't stopped thinking about it since finishing a few months ago. To me, that is what Science Fiction is all about.

Easily in the Top 10 of my favorite genre - S.F. Also ranks right up there with the thousands of books I've read.

[Krait · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes I feel dispair searching for good hard science fiction among all the fantasy novels that seem to have taken over in the book stores in the last 25 years. And then I come across a book like Cusp and my faith in good science fiction writing is restored.

I won't bore you with a summary of the book here. I'll just say that this one certainly lives up the the statement that "Science fiction is the only truly mind-expanding drug".

[Reads with Scotch · Rating 2 out of 5]

Still reading seems alright so far, still getting into it, so it's a slow starter.

Ok so this is how it breaks down, the first two sections of the book are slow and disjointed, the middle is good, but a pretty weak and boaring ending. But i give it 3 stars for concept and the good 3 sections in the middle.

[Joe Sulock · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was interesting in it's take on how people's interactions with technology will evolve. But the idea that people could move into 3-D interaction with others on the internet and in a virtual world doesn't seem plausible to me. The book got especially ridiculous with the talking dinosaur living inside of Mars. I didn't like this book.

[Joe Slavinsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! This book is what makes hard science fiction fan's little hearts go pitty-pat. Extraordinary concepts(which include the Earth & Sun moving out of their orbits, talking, intelligent dinosaurs, and time travel), a twisted plot, and some great characters, make this a serious page-turner, as well. Do yourself a favor, and read this book. You won't regret it.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some really big ideas - I got into the book and was excited for the end - and it seemed the author was in a hurry to finish. I felt like the end stopped to soon. Its an idea book and not a linear details books - the timeframe is too large to spend a lot of time with characters.

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its a pretty deep sci-fi read, and although it is hard (Mostly because it is heavy sci-fi)to get through, the plot is extremely catching and original. The reason I rated it 4/5 instead of 5/5 is because I would have liked to have some of the characters fleshed out a little bit more.

[Matthew Bryant · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took a while to get into, but it was the concept that really pulled me in. I'd read some of Robert Metzger's short stories before and they've really stuck with me over the years. An amazing story from a great mind in astro-physics.

[Ted · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great ideas, but very poor characterization. I just didn't care about any of the characters at all. Ultimately disappointing as a result.

[Tim · Rating 2 out of 5]

the flyleaf looked interesting... just started

Finished - this was a real chore to get through. OVer 500 pages long - the story itself, i think, could have been done in 300.

[Aramis · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty good stand-alone sci-fi novel.

[Superblinky · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awful. Completely awful.