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The Queendom of Sol #1
The Collapsium (1)
A MODERN SCIENCE FICTION CLASSIC FROM WIL MCCARTHY
SAVE THE SOLAR SYSTEM FROM THE ULTIMATE COLLAPSE
In the eighth decade of the Queendom of Sol, three commodities rule the day. The first is wellstone, a form of programmable matter capable of emulating almost any substance. The second is collapsium, a deadly crystal composed of miniature black holes, vital for the transmission of information and matter—including humans—throughout the Solar System. The third is the bitter rivalry between Her Majesty's top scientists.
Bruno de Towaji, famed lover and statesman, dreams of building an arc de fin, an almost mythical device capable of probing the farthest reaches of spacetime. Marlon Sykes, de Towaji's rival in both love and science, is meanwhile hard at work on a vast telecommunications project whose first step is the construction of a ring of collapsium around the Sun. But when a ruthless saboteur attacks the Ring Collapsiter and sends it falling into the Sun, the two scientists must put aside personal animosity and combine their prodigious intellects to prevent the destruction of the Solar System—and every living thing within it.
About The
“Ingenious and witty . . . as if Terry Pratchett at his zaniest and Larry Niven at his best had collaborated.”— Booklist
"Fresh and imaginative. From a plausible yet startling invention, McCarthy follows the logical lines of sight, building in parallel the technological and societal innovations."— Science Fiction Weekly
"The future as McCarthy sees it is a wondrous place." — Publishers Weekly
"[McCarthy] studs his narrative with far-out scientific concepts. . . . He certainly has a sense of humor."— The New York Times
“An ingenious yarn with challenging ideas, well-handled technical details, and plenty of twists and turns.”— Kirkus
SAVE THE SOLAR SYSTEM FROM THE ULTIMATE COLLAPSE
In the eighth decade of the Queendom of Sol, three commodities rule the day. The first is wellstone, a form of programmable matter capable of emulating almost any substance. The second is collapsium, a deadly crystal composed of miniature black holes, vital for the transmission of information and matter—including humans—throughout the Solar System. The third is the bitter rivalry between Her Majesty's top scientists.
Bruno de Towaji, famed lover and statesman, dreams of building an arc de fin, an almost mythical device capable of probing the farthest reaches of spacetime. Marlon Sykes, de Towaji's rival in both love and science, is meanwhile hard at work on a vast telecommunications project whose first step is the construction of a ring of collapsium around the Sun. But when a ruthless saboteur attacks the Ring Collapsiter and sends it falling into the Sun, the two scientists must put aside personal animosity and combine their prodigious intellects to prevent the destruction of the Solar System—and every living thing within it.
About The
“Ingenious and witty . . . as if Terry Pratchett at his zaniest and Larry Niven at his best had collaborated.”— Booklist
"Fresh and imaginative. From a plausible yet startling invention, McCarthy follows the logical lines of sight, building in parallel the technological and societal innovations."— Science Fiction Weekly
"The future as McCarthy sees it is a wondrous place." — Publishers Weekly
"[McCarthy] studs his narrative with far-out scientific concepts. . . . He certainly has a sense of humor."— The New York Times
“An ingenious yarn with challenging ideas, well-handled technical details, and plenty of twists and turns.”— Kirkus
496 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
27 people are currently reading
1068 people want to read
About the author
Wil McCarthy
57 books87 followersScience fiction author and Chief Technology Officer for Galileo Shipyards
Engineer/Novelist/Journalist/Entrepreneur Wil McCarthy is a former contributing editor for WIRED magazine and science columnist for the SyFy channel (previously SciFi channel), where his popular "Lab Notes" column ran from 1999 through 2009. A lifetime member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, he has been nominated for the Nebula, Locus, Seiun, AnLab, Colorado Book, Theodore Sturgeon and Philip K. Dick awards, and contributed to projects that won a Webbie, an Eppie, a Game Developers' Choice Award, and a General Excellence National Magazine Award. In addition, his imaginary world of "P2", from the novel LOST IN TRANSMISSION, was rated one of the 10 best science fiction planets of all time by Discover magazine. His short fiction has graced the pages of magazines like Analog, Asimov's, WIRED, and SF Age, and his novels include the New York Times Notable BLOOM, Amazon.com "Best of Y2K" THE COLLAPSIUM (a national bestseller) and, most recently, TO CRUSH THE MOON. He has also written for TV, appeared on The History Channel and The Science Channel, and published nonfiction in half a dozen magazines, including WIRED, Discover, GQ, Popular Mechanics, IEEE Spectrum, and the Journal of Applied Polymer Science. Previously a flight controller for Lockheed Martin Space Launch Systems and later an engineering manager for Omnitech Robotics, McCarthy is now the president and Chief Technology Officer of RavenBrick LLC in Denver, CO, a developer of smart window technologies. He lives in Colorado with his family
Engineer/Novelist/Journalist/Entrepreneur Wil McCarthy is a former contributing editor for WIRED magazine and science columnist for the SyFy channel (previously SciFi channel), where his popular "Lab Notes" column ran from 1999 through 2009. A lifetime member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, he has been nominated for the Nebula, Locus, Seiun, AnLab, Colorado Book, Theodore Sturgeon and Philip K. Dick awards, and contributed to projects that won a Webbie, an Eppie, a Game Developers' Choice Award, and a General Excellence National Magazine Award. In addition, his imaginary world of "P2", from the novel LOST IN TRANSMISSION, was rated one of the 10 best science fiction planets of all time by Discover magazine. His short fiction has graced the pages of magazines like Analog, Asimov's, WIRED, and SF Age, and his novels include the New York Times Notable BLOOM, Amazon.com "Best of Y2K" THE COLLAPSIUM (a national bestseller) and, most recently, TO CRUSH THE MOON. He has also written for TV, appeared on The History Channel and The Science Channel, and published nonfiction in half a dozen magazines, including WIRED, Discover, GQ, Popular Mechanics, IEEE Spectrum, and the Journal of Applied Polymer Science. Previously a flight controller for Lockheed Martin Space Launch Systems and later an engineering manager for Omnitech Robotics, McCarthy is now the president and Chief Technology Officer of RavenBrick LLC in Denver, CO, a developer of smart window technologies. He lives in Colorado with his family
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 59 reviews
dnf-not-my-cup-of-coffee
April 4, 2024DNF @16%
It should have been right up my alley being a hard SF, but the retro writing style ruined it for me.
It feels like a Golden Age novel although it was written in year 2000. Not to mention the fax gate, and the fairytale trope of the titles, ie: “Chapter X: In Which …. something happens” – all of them are the same.
Clearly not for me.
It should have been right up my alley being a hard SF, but the retro writing style ruined it for me.
It feels like a Golden Age novel although it was written in year 2000. Not to mention the fax gate, and the fairytale trope of the titles, ie: “Chapter X: In Which …. something happens” – all of them are the same.
Clearly not for me.
February 7, 2024
Some novels are just mental. Have you ever read something and just thought “how does all this live in anyone’s head?”.
References and comparisons range anywhere between the likes of E.E. "Doc" Smith and Neal Stephenson, but The Collapsium is a unique approach in its own right in many ways. And perhaps, therein might also lie the rub; this novel is so unusual in some aspects that it can be a challenging read. For myself, I was also reminded of Arthur C. Clarke. Now, it is imperative that I add: you need to understand the tech that the author is envisioning here, otherwise much of the novel either won’t make sense or just come across as really hokey and, well, implausible (even accounting for the genre). Fortunately, the novel contains technical notes, which helps in clearing the water.
“Ah!” He said, grasping the idea at once. The speed of light was much higher in the Casimir supervacuum of a collapsium lattice than in the half-filled energy states of normal space. A ring of collapsium encircling the sun could admit signals at one side, expel them at the other, and reduce the time not only of the trip around, but of the trip through as well. Like a highway bypass where the speed limit was a trillion times higher than in the crowded streets of downtown. Why crawl through when you could blaze the long way around in half an instant, cutting light-minutes off your journey?
“Very elegant, very impressive. Very enormously expensive, I’d imagine.”
The Doc Smith comparison is apt in as far as the protagonist is concerned, I think. McCarthy here presents us with a scientific sorcerer, like a far future Archimedes with the highest of high technology at his fingertips, and for whom no challenge is insurmountable. Presented with calamitous emergency? No problem, he’ll engineer a solution before you can wrap your mind around the exact nature of the challenge. It’s big stuff.
A handful of collapsons in low orbit had become—seemingly overnight—a nested cage of fractured spacetimes, one within the other like wooden babushka dolls, magical ones, straining at the very underpinnings of universal law. And orbiting right overhead! A structure too massive to relocate, too delicate to risk disassembling, too dangerous and disruptive to leave where it was.
What had he been thinking?
There are some comedic moments in The Collapsium (which is actually of a fairly light and optimistic nature, despite being deceptively dense and a hard, hard, Science Fiction book). It is a book of ideas, presented in rather blasé fashion. The author throws a lot of stuff out there, and the hits keep coming. The fact that everything hangs together so good is no small accomplishment.
Another reviewer here likens it to a Hard Science Fable, which I think is a good description. The author was obviously having a lot of fun, but I can’t think that casual SF readers will enjoy this. It seems to cater to people who have a love for the genre, especially with the seeming nod to the golden era of Science Fiction.
“Estimated time of depletion?”
“Two minutes, twenty-four seconds, sir.”
“Oh, dear. Is there enough fuel to back us out of here safely?”
“Negative, sir.”
“Blast. Use some imagination, you! Bring matters like this to my attention before they become irrevocable!”
“I am extremely taxed,” the ship said in its own defense.
All in all, an admirable achievement, but the opinions will be divided on this one.
The Collapsium was nominated for the 2002 Nebula award.
---------------------
Like choir music through the rafters of heaven, He would later write, to be quoted out of context for tens of thousands of years. In truth the passage continues, It was grand, enormous, an absurdity of unprecedented scale and scope. A glimpse of heaven, yes, but as we dream it, beach monkeys fond of glitter. If it’s God we hope to impress, I daresay a tower of socks would serve as well.
References and comparisons range anywhere between the likes of E.E. "Doc" Smith and Neal Stephenson, but The Collapsium is a unique approach in its own right in many ways. And perhaps, therein might also lie the rub; this novel is so unusual in some aspects that it can be a challenging read. For myself, I was also reminded of Arthur C. Clarke. Now, it is imperative that I add: you need to understand the tech that the author is envisioning here, otherwise much of the novel either won’t make sense or just come across as really hokey and, well, implausible (even accounting for the genre). Fortunately, the novel contains technical notes, which helps in clearing the water.
“Ah!” He said, grasping the idea at once. The speed of light was much higher in the Casimir supervacuum of a collapsium lattice than in the half-filled energy states of normal space. A ring of collapsium encircling the sun could admit signals at one side, expel them at the other, and reduce the time not only of the trip around, but of the trip through as well. Like a highway bypass where the speed limit was a trillion times higher than in the crowded streets of downtown. Why crawl through when you could blaze the long way around in half an instant, cutting light-minutes off your journey?
“Very elegant, very impressive. Very enormously expensive, I’d imagine.”
The Doc Smith comparison is apt in as far as the protagonist is concerned, I think. McCarthy here presents us with a scientific sorcerer, like a far future Archimedes with the highest of high technology at his fingertips, and for whom no challenge is insurmountable. Presented with calamitous emergency? No problem, he’ll engineer a solution before you can wrap your mind around the exact nature of the challenge. It’s big stuff.
A handful of collapsons in low orbit had become—seemingly overnight—a nested cage of fractured spacetimes, one within the other like wooden babushka dolls, magical ones, straining at the very underpinnings of universal law. And orbiting right overhead! A structure too massive to relocate, too delicate to risk disassembling, too dangerous and disruptive to leave where it was.
What had he been thinking?
There are some comedic moments in The Collapsium (which is actually of a fairly light and optimistic nature, despite being deceptively dense and a hard, hard, Science Fiction book). It is a book of ideas, presented in rather blasé fashion. The author throws a lot of stuff out there, and the hits keep coming. The fact that everything hangs together so good is no small accomplishment.
Another reviewer here likens it to a Hard Science Fable, which I think is a good description. The author was obviously having a lot of fun, but I can’t think that casual SF readers will enjoy this. It seems to cater to people who have a love for the genre, especially with the seeming nod to the golden era of Science Fiction.
“Estimated time of depletion?”
“Two minutes, twenty-four seconds, sir.”
“Oh, dear. Is there enough fuel to back us out of here safely?”
“Negative, sir.”
“Blast. Use some imagination, you! Bring matters like this to my attention before they become irrevocable!”
“I am extremely taxed,” the ship said in its own defense.
All in all, an admirable achievement, but the opinions will be divided on this one.
The Collapsium was nominated for the 2002 Nebula award.
---------------------
Like choir music through the rafters of heaven, He would later write, to be quoted out of context for tens of thousands of years. In truth the passage continues, It was grand, enormous, an absurdity of unprecedented scale and scope. A glimpse of heaven, yes, but as we dream it, beach monkeys fond of glitter. If it’s God we hope to impress, I daresay a tower of socks would serve as well.
December 16, 2009
A lot of science fiction literature takes a somewhat negative view of scientific progress, 'cautionary tales' that point out the problems with scientific inquiry. I enjoy a lot of stories like that, but, when that type of story becomes too dominant within the genre, you end up with a very pessimistic view of things - I once heard an author refer to Michael Crichton's entire publishing history as "Here's a great scientific idea - AND HERE'S HOW IT WILL KILL US ALL."
Fortunately, there are also books like The Collapsium, which take the view that the ultimate problem isn't science; if anything, it's people, who are going to be the ones to use science to evil ends. Fortunately for us, people are also the solution to all of our problems, because they're capable of incalculable acts of greatness and determination. Hanging between the two is the act of being human, the definition of which has been a driving force throughout all artistic endeavours since the dawn of humanity.
This was my first exposure to McCarthy's writing style, and I fell in love with it right away. At first it seems kind of flat and workmanlike, but then he has these brilliant little moments of wonderfully crafted literature in the middle of it, like the stars themselves puncuating the vacuum of space. The more I get into it, though, the more I realized that it isn't flat at all, but that there's a lot more subtlty going throughout it. I found myself rereading several passages mid-paragraph to make sure I got all of the nuance within it.
I enjoyed this book so much that I feel kind of bad that I only got it out of the library; I'll have to get a copy for my bookshelf some day.
Fortunately, there are also books like The Collapsium, which take the view that the ultimate problem isn't science; if anything, it's people, who are going to be the ones to use science to evil ends. Fortunately for us, people are also the solution to all of our problems, because they're capable of incalculable acts of greatness and determination. Hanging between the two is the act of being human, the definition of which has been a driving force throughout all artistic endeavours since the dawn of humanity.
This was my first exposure to McCarthy's writing style, and I fell in love with it right away. At first it seems kind of flat and workmanlike, but then he has these brilliant little moments of wonderfully crafted literature in the middle of it, like the stars themselves puncuating the vacuum of space. The more I get into it, though, the more I realized that it isn't flat at all, but that there's a lot more subtlty going throughout it. I found myself rereading several passages mid-paragraph to make sure I got all of the nuance within it.
I enjoyed this book so much that I feel kind of bad that I only got it out of the library; I'll have to get a copy for my bookshelf some day.
January 7, 2016
I loved this book for many reasons. The plot was strong (didn't seem to be going anywhere at first, but my patience was rewarded), the science was "hard" (I love hard scif, especially with explanatory appendices, glossaries, equations and backstory, as this one had!), and the antagonist was particularly interesting. In addition, McCarthy could have gone down some gratuitous paths when the book made a very, very dark turn about half way through, but he chose not to be gratuitous, and that really made me love the book, and it kept the story fresh. I don't usually write re-caps of books in my reviews because there's one right on the book's page, AND almost every other reviewer usually re-caps, but I must say that I love referring to this book as a book about "black hole-facilitated faster-than-light telecomm." Because effectively, that's what it is, and what all of that could actually mean to a society.
My husband found book 4 of this series on a 25¢ shelf at The Strand in Manhattan and picked it out for me based on the cover alone. So glad he judged the book by its cover! After reading some reviews of the series, I picked up books 1 and 2. Collapsium is the first book in the Queendom of Sol books, and now that I've read books 1 and 2, I can't wait to read the rest!
My husband found book 4 of this series on a 25¢ shelf at The Strand in Manhattan and picked it out for me based on the cover alone. So glad he judged the book by its cover! After reading some reviews of the series, I picked up books 1 and 2. Collapsium is the first book in the Queendom of Sol books, and now that I've read books 1 and 2, I can't wait to read the rest!
January 21, 2017
The Collapsium opens with a wonderful novella, "Once Upon a Matter Crushed" (first published in SF Age 5/99). In the late 25th century, in the 8th decade of the Queendom of Sol, gravitation and the zero-point field are pretty well understood. "Neubles," diamond-clad neutronium spheres, are in everyday use -- a standard industrial neuble masses a billion tonnes, and has a radius of 2.67 cm. Our hero, wealthy super-scientist Bruno de Towaji, is experimenting with collapsium, a dangerous, metastable material made of proton-size black holes, when he receives a Royal Summons: the new near-solar collapsiter ring is unstable, and will fall into the sun (and eat it) unless something is done...
The story is written in an engaging neo-Victorian style -- McCarthy's first experiment with literary style versus his previous 'transparent' prose. I liked it. Witty repartee, amusing pratfalls and shrewd insights abound. Bruno meets a well-married couple at a celebrity fund-raiser on Maxwell Montes, Venus:
"The love, shyness and exasperation between them radiated out in invisible rays, like infrared. Warming."
Befuddled by a bottomless beer mug, Bruno warms to the pitch:
"Would, ah, would a hundred trillion dollars be enough?"
McCarthy's sci-tech extrapolation is exotic, fun and reasonably plausible. He's clearly done his homework -- the book includes 30 pages of appendices, a glossary, technical notes (including the working equations to synthesize neubles), and respectable references. Fun stuff (really!) -- one of the highlights of the book.
The range and depth of McCarthy's imagined technologies are dazzling -- I'm reminded of Eric Drexler's pioneering "Engines of Creation," and I hope McCarthy (or someone) does a speculative science article on the technological implications, if the zero-point field explanation for gravity turns out to be correct. (If you've seen one, I'd appreciate hearing about it.) Lots more neat SF ideas where these came from...
So I was really pumped, reading the first hundred pages -- cool science, nice style, nifty characters, a big-screen space-opera storyline. What's not to like?
Well, the rest of the book? The first thud comes when Bruno is recalled to the inner system -- to fix the same problem again! Then he has to fix it a third time, with even sillier, pulpier results. His scientific competitor, and rival for the Queen's affection, turns out to be a really horrid villain... And the characters are hard to kill, because they have backups, except when they don't -- but wait, maybe they do, after all... And characters start acting, well, out of character. And there's a pointless, dangling subplot, among other loose ends. I suppose McCarthy intended to write a good old-fashioned super-science melodrama, except with real science -- but the last two-thirds of the book just didn't work, for me anyway.
Which is a pity, because "Crushed" is brilliant, and the science is so cool. Oh well -- I'd rather read an ambitious failure than a potboiler. If you're already a McCarthy fan, or crave bleeding-edge hard SF, you won't want to miss The Collapsium -- the good parts anyway. And who knows, your tolerance for melodrama may be higher than mine; other reviewers have been more generous.
But if you're new to McCarthy, I'd start with Bloom or another, earlier book -- and you should try him, he's very good. Usually. Both the Bloom and The Collapsium universes have plenty of room for more stories; maybe next time he should coast a little on the science and work harder on the fiction.
The story is written in an engaging neo-Victorian style -- McCarthy's first experiment with literary style versus his previous 'transparent' prose. I liked it. Witty repartee, amusing pratfalls and shrewd insights abound. Bruno meets a well-married couple at a celebrity fund-raiser on Maxwell Montes, Venus:
"The love, shyness and exasperation between them radiated out in invisible rays, like infrared. Warming."
Befuddled by a bottomless beer mug, Bruno warms to the pitch:
"Would, ah, would a hundred trillion dollars be enough?"
McCarthy's sci-tech extrapolation is exotic, fun and reasonably plausible. He's clearly done his homework -- the book includes 30 pages of appendices, a glossary, technical notes (including the working equations to synthesize neubles), and respectable references. Fun stuff (really!) -- one of the highlights of the book.
The range and depth of McCarthy's imagined technologies are dazzling -- I'm reminded of Eric Drexler's pioneering "Engines of Creation," and I hope McCarthy (or someone) does a speculative science article on the technological implications, if the zero-point field explanation for gravity turns out to be correct. (If you've seen one, I'd appreciate hearing about it.) Lots more neat SF ideas where these came from...
So I was really pumped, reading the first hundred pages -- cool science, nice style, nifty characters, a big-screen space-opera storyline. What's not to like?
Well, the rest of the book? The first thud comes when Bruno is recalled to the inner system -- to fix the same problem again! Then he has to fix it a third time, with even sillier, pulpier results. His scientific competitor, and rival for the Queen's affection, turns out to be a really horrid villain... And the characters are hard to kill, because they have backups, except when they don't -- but wait, maybe they do, after all... And characters start acting, well, out of character. And there's a pointless, dangling subplot, among other loose ends. I suppose McCarthy intended to write a good old-fashioned super-science melodrama, except with real science -- but the last two-thirds of the book just didn't work, for me anyway.
Which is a pity, because "Crushed" is brilliant, and the science is so cool. Oh well -- I'd rather read an ambitious failure than a potboiler. If you're already a McCarthy fan, or crave bleeding-edge hard SF, you won't want to miss The Collapsium -- the good parts anyway. And who knows, your tolerance for melodrama may be higher than mine; other reviewers have been more generous.
But if you're new to McCarthy, I'd start with Bloom or another, earlier book -- and you should try him, he's very good. Usually. Both the Bloom and The Collapsium universes have plenty of room for more stories; maybe next time he should coast a little on the science and work harder on the fiction.
October 12, 2021
Space opera SF.
What to do if you're the richest and smartest man in the solar system? I guess, build your own planet out in the Kuiper Belt with its own mini-sun, and spend years experimenting with compacted matter (collapsium) for an inertia-less drive and a time machine to the end of the universe, among other pre-occupations. But ... the rest of humanity still needs you, and here they come beckoning with their emissary, the Queen of Sol (also, your ex), to beg you to help out with a sticky engineering problem that could ... send civilization back to the primordial ooze; i.e., as tadpole stage. What to do, Bruno de Towaji?
If it sounds like a really tall tale, yes it is, but told with such strong SF elements that swallowing the big pill of disbelief is not an issue. One such element is a ring around the sun. Sounds like the classic, Ringworld, but this ring is for faster telecommunications, rather than a breeding ground for hominids, though the problem seems resonantly similar --- the ring is unstable. Programmable matter is another interesting SF construct, and the author finds ingenious uses for it that stem from some postulations on its atomic properties. There's more but - why not read the book?
Totally enjoyed this novel. Engaging and inventive. It starts out larky, when the Victorian tone seems to fit, but turns more serious later on, when it no longer does but by then one is well invested. Anyway, a good find for the hard SF fan and highly recommended. 5 out of 5.
What to do if you're the richest and smartest man in the solar system? I guess, build your own planet out in the Kuiper Belt with its own mini-sun, and spend years experimenting with compacted matter (collapsium) for an inertia-less drive and a time machine to the end of the universe, among other pre-occupations. But ... the rest of humanity still needs you, and here they come beckoning with their emissary, the Queen of Sol (also, your ex), to beg you to help out with a sticky engineering problem that could ... send civilization back to the primordial ooze; i.e., as tadpole stage. What to do, Bruno de Towaji?
If it sounds like a really tall tale, yes it is, but told with such strong SF elements that swallowing the big pill of disbelief is not an issue. One such element is a ring around the sun. Sounds like the classic, Ringworld, but this ring is for faster telecommunications, rather than a breeding ground for hominids, though the problem seems resonantly similar --- the ring is unstable. Programmable matter is another interesting SF construct, and the author finds ingenious uses for it that stem from some postulations on its atomic properties. There's more but - why not read the book?
Totally enjoyed this novel. Engaging and inventive. It starts out larky, when the Victorian tone seems to fit, but turns more serious later on, when it no longer does but by then one is well invested. Anyway, a good find for the hard SF fan and highly recommended. 5 out of 5.
November 5, 2015
A gem from the dark age of Science Fiction of the "00s"
It seemed that during period of 2000-2009, we had lot of SF that attempted to really push the envelope of possibility in the realm of physics. You have some notable authors that really excelled at it and some that published works that little more than a physics lecture with a spaceship on the cover. There are authors that did blend entertainment with science to fashion great stories. This is one of them. The concept of Programmable Matter might be one of those civilization changing ideas if it ever comes to fruition and this novel serves at it's showcase. The story appealed to both a a hard SF fan and as a programmer. This story is much lighter than a Hamilton or Reynolds novel but the idea are no less mind-blowing. This book is a fable, a fable that blew. my. mind. I have not been able to get into the rest of the series but I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
It seemed that during period of 2000-2009, we had lot of SF that attempted to really push the envelope of possibility in the realm of physics. You have some notable authors that really excelled at it and some that published works that little more than a physics lecture with a spaceship on the cover. There are authors that did blend entertainment with science to fashion great stories. This is one of them. The concept of Programmable Matter might be one of those civilization changing ideas if it ever comes to fruition and this novel serves at it's showcase. The story appealed to both a a hard SF fan and as a programmer. This story is much lighter than a Hamilton or Reynolds novel but the idea are no less mind-blowing. This book is a fable, a fable that blew. my. mind. I have not been able to get into the rest of the series but I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
August 8, 2011
Humanity has discovered Collapsium and Wellstone, substances that have made possible immensely powerful computers, teleportation and even immortality. “Faxes” allow the creation of any conceivable thing, from food to servitor robots to spaceship components. “Fax gates” allow teleportation and even duplication of people. The inventor of said substances, Bruno de Tovaji, is now living in self-imposed exile on his own asteroid in the Oort Cloud. Here he conducts experiments aimed at “seeing” the end of time. One day he receives a visitor, the Queen of the Solar System, who is also his former lover. Apparently there is trouble in paradise. A grandiose ring around the sun, aimed at reducing communication lag among disparate locations, is under construction. But it is slowly falling into the sun. This starts a long series of adventures aimed at putting an end to what turns out to be the scheming of a mad saboteur.
I had high hopes for this book after the first fifty or a hundred pages. Interesting universe, grand designs, all the stuff you could find in a good Larry Niven yarn. Unfortunately it all became very tedious as the story went on. And on. And on. I kept waiting for the really interesting stuff to start but it was all a bit petty and small. Yawn.
This is hard science fiction. Very hard. The science content is all in there. And yet I often felt as if the author was plucking solutions to his problems out of thin air. One of the basic principles of science fiction is that and author must stay within constraints that he creates within his universe. Unfortunately, McCarthy keeps coming up with new ideas that neatly solved the posed problems. McCarthy also completely misses the opportunity to explain his society or give a decent guided tour of something apart from deep space structures. What is London like nowadays anyway? Surely a page or two exploring these things would have served the story well, and made it a bit less sterile. And that’s the main gripe I have with this book. It is all a bit sterile and bland. Mankind’s achievements are falling apart around him and de Towaji is pondering his love life. Seriously…
http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=952
I had high hopes for this book after the first fifty or a hundred pages. Interesting universe, grand designs, all the stuff you could find in a good Larry Niven yarn. Unfortunately it all became very tedious as the story went on. And on. And on. I kept waiting for the really interesting stuff to start but it was all a bit petty and small. Yawn.
This is hard science fiction. Very hard. The science content is all in there. And yet I often felt as if the author was plucking solutions to his problems out of thin air. One of the basic principles of science fiction is that and author must stay within constraints that he creates within his universe. Unfortunately, McCarthy keeps coming up with new ideas that neatly solved the posed problems. McCarthy also completely misses the opportunity to explain his society or give a decent guided tour of something apart from deep space structures. What is London like nowadays anyway? Surely a page or two exploring these things would have served the story well, and made it a bit less sterile. And that’s the main gripe I have with this book. It is all a bit sterile and bland. Mankind’s achievements are falling apart around him and de Towaji is pondering his love life. Seriously…
http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=952
January 30, 2025
I really wanted to like this more, but now I'm sure if I'll continue the series. It wasn't my cup of tea. I often found my mind drifting, which is why this took so long to read.
It has some REALLY interesting world building and science, which elevates it.
It has some REALLY interesting world building and science, which elevates it.
July 12, 2014
The first half was a bit of a merry go-round of a story. It seemed to go round in circles going nowhere.
Problem occurs, help sought, problem fixed.
The problem- the Collapsium, a highly dangerous project that will put a ring of crystals, composed of tiny black holes, around the sun that would increase the efficiency of transferring data and people.
The Collapsium comes into danger of falling into the sun a handful of times, and seems to be fixed by ideas that come from the brain of one Bruno de Towaji.
Sounds exciting, but it's not. He fixes it largely by staring into space, grumbling a bit, making a fool of himself at parties, and then coming up with a brilliant this'll fix it speech before disappearing off to his own little planet to work.
That's the first half of the book, poss more.
If you can get beyond that that's where things get good.
The Collapsium's problems are not an accident at all, but and act of malicious intent, but who could possibly benefit from destroying the Queendom and everything in it?
Well, those would be called spoilers.
There are some intriguing little concepts in this book, such as the fax machine, that can make anything you want, from food to clothes, and as an added benefit it can transport you to other fax machines across the Queendom. Not only this but you can clone yourself and program those clones, or even save copies. Thus death has been eradicated.
If I were judging this book on the first half I'd give it a two, maybe a three, cups of tea.
Taking the second half into account I'd give it a 4, which is cemented in place by the list of terms and descriptions of how plausible each of the seemingly impossible sounding technologies actually are.
There were a few interesting characters, and you get to see a hear LOT about the high society, but the everyday is only vaguely mentioned here and there. I wonder what a world of immortals would be like. Alas, you never find out.
Problem occurs, help sought, problem fixed.
The problem- the Collapsium, a highly dangerous project that will put a ring of crystals, composed of tiny black holes, around the sun that would increase the efficiency of transferring data and people.
The Collapsium comes into danger of falling into the sun a handful of times, and seems to be fixed by ideas that come from the brain of one Bruno de Towaji.
Sounds exciting, but it's not. He fixes it largely by staring into space, grumbling a bit, making a fool of himself at parties, and then coming up with a brilliant this'll fix it speech before disappearing off to his own little planet to work.
That's the first half of the book, poss more.
If you can get beyond that that's where things get good.
The Collapsium's problems are not an accident at all, but and act of malicious intent, but who could possibly benefit from destroying the Queendom and everything in it?
Well, those would be called spoilers.
There are some intriguing little concepts in this book, such as the fax machine, that can make anything you want, from food to clothes, and as an added benefit it can transport you to other fax machines across the Queendom. Not only this but you can clone yourself and program those clones, or even save copies. Thus death has been eradicated.
If I were judging this book on the first half I'd give it a two, maybe a three, cups of tea.
Taking the second half into account I'd give it a 4, which is cemented in place by the list of terms and descriptions of how plausible each of the seemingly impossible sounding technologies actually are.
There were a few interesting characters, and you get to see a hear LOT about the high society, but the everyday is only vaguely mentioned here and there. I wonder what a world of immortals would be like. Alas, you never find out.
July 26, 2020
This was an entertaining and at times challenging read, hard science fiction done well.
June 20, 2024
The first part of this book may have started out as a standalone novella, it was a very interesting build-up to, too pat of an ending.
The rest of the novel brings up the same problem, a method of teleportation travel called faxing can be made interstellar by using the titular wonder material collapsium (made from black holes) in special structures built near the sun. Of course this is problematic because if the collapiusm falls into a sun it will most likely destroy it.
Bruno de Towaji is the super scientist, inventor of collapsium and the envy of his rival Marlon Sykes. What seems like a friendly rivalry on the surface is actually very bitter, and leads to sabotage as well as some other evil deeds made possible by their far future version of the Fax machine.
The Fax machine uses a form of quantum teleportation, so it actually makes a copy of the person on the receiving end, while destroying the orginal on the transmission end. The novel doesn't go into the existential problem of this, and to compound things because Bruno is such a genius they allow copies of him to exist along with the orginal. So the book loses a couple of point for me there.
And because I see everything through a Dr. Who lens, I couldn't help but think that this was perhaps the authors imagined origin story for the Time Lords of Gallifrey, as we later find out that Sykes had a plan to use the collapistor (the sturcture that holds the collapisum by the sun) to create time-travel.
An interesting story too padded out.
The rest of the novel brings up the same problem, a method of teleportation travel called faxing can be made interstellar by using the titular wonder material collapsium (made from black holes) in special structures built near the sun. Of course this is problematic because if the collapiusm falls into a sun it will most likely destroy it.
Bruno de Towaji is the super scientist, inventor of collapsium and the envy of his rival Marlon Sykes. What seems like a friendly rivalry on the surface is actually very bitter, and leads to sabotage as well as some other evil deeds made possible by their far future version of the Fax machine.
The Fax machine uses a form of quantum teleportation, so it actually makes a copy of the person on the receiving end, while destroying the orginal on the transmission end. The novel doesn't go into the existential problem of this, and to compound things because Bruno is such a genius they allow copies of him to exist along with the orginal. So the book loses a couple of point for me there.
And because I see everything through a Dr. Who lens, I couldn't help but think that this was perhaps the authors imagined origin story for the Time Lords of Gallifrey, as we later find out that Sykes had a plan to use the collapistor (the sturcture that holds the collapisum by the sun) to create time-travel.
An interesting story too padded out.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 17, 2023
Author is much too focused on building an overly specific world that demands an astrophysics background, something I have and still found the scifi elements overly dense and confusing. The characters are barely more than 2 dimensional, with nearly all problems being solved with a paragraph of their inception. There is very little set up that a reader can cling onto for the plot of the final third of the book, leaving a lack luster resolution, as it feels like many characters are doing things because the plot demands it, rather than their own personal drive (or lack there of).
However, the world that McCarthy builds is unique and well thought through. Though it is overly complex, the scifi aspects of collapsium and other "magical" metals really serve to tell the story he sets out to tell.
Overall, the story suffers from an overly complex world with too little character motivation to make the climax or resolution feel earned.
However, the world that McCarthy builds is unique and well thought through. Though it is overly complex, the scifi aspects of collapsium and other "magical" metals really serve to tell the story he sets out to tell.
Overall, the story suffers from an overly complex world with too little character motivation to make the climax or resolution feel earned.
September 25, 2025
Bruno de Towaji is a reclusive genius who lives on a 600 metre diameter worldlet made of ultradense matter at the edge of the solar system - he is periodically called upon to solve calamitous problems of the inner solar system and the Ring Collapsiter - an enormous artifact of collapsium - and then retire to his immortal ponderings. And so McCarthy sets us up for a modern version of 1940s super-science, where a sociopathic rival genius is hell-bent on pushing the Ring Collapsiter into the Sun and extinguishing it violently. Thanks to matter transmission copying of patterns multiples of people can be crafted from their patterns and when Bruno teams up with a rescued copy of himself - Muddy - to find and stop the evil plans, the fun really begins! Entertaining, if a little overblown, but I suspect that it's intentional! :)
May 27, 2020
In the Queendom of Sol centuries from now the genius Bruno De Towaji lives on a very small planet in Kuiper belt working by himself on obscure problems when he is called in to fix problems with The Collapsium (trade from Baen) Ring that was being built to speed communications between Earth and Mars. The problem is that it is falling into the Sun and will destroy the Solar System. It’s a time of utopia with the problems of death fixed and no human suffering. The first time the problems is easily fixed. The second time the problem is the result of murder. But the third time it’s sabotage. There’s a silliness to the tale, but Wil McCarthy tells a fun tale in this finale of the series.Review printed by Philadelphia Free Press
April 20, 2018
Barely 5 stars, and I can't think of anyone I'd recommend this to. It had just the right amount of faux, plausible-ish science for this faux, wannabe theoretical physicist. I enjoyed the appendices and the end notes. A few times characters devolved into monologues exploring different ideas (e.g. love in the face of immortality), which usually seems like bad writing, but here I liked the explorations so didn't mind so much. The characters and plot and big ideas almost read more like a comic book than a novel. Just a really fun read for me, even if it might not be a "good book", whatever that means. (book 1 was hard to get through, books 2 and 3 much more engaging)
September 13, 2021
Bruno lives alone on a tiny planet he designed orbiting a sun he constructed so that he can experiment with dangerous man-made black holes. His solitude is interrupted by a request from the queen to save humankind from a doomed invention based on technology he developed.
The Collapsium takes place in a universe where technology has eliminated aging and hunger. The novel gets heavy into some of the physics but sections off a lot of the technical info into the appendix so you can choose how much to absorb. While I was intrigued by some of the technology I felt like it overshadowed the story. I’m hoping for a thicker plot in the sequel.
The Collapsium takes place in a universe where technology has eliminated aging and hunger. The novel gets heavy into some of the physics but sections off a lot of the technical info into the appendix so you can choose how much to absorb. While I was intrigued by some of the technology I felt like it overshadowed the story. I’m hoping for a thicker plot in the sequel.
February 13, 2024
I wasn't surprised by the science backing the story and the fiction, given Mr. McCarthy's intellect and past publications. Nor was I surprised by the footnotes and appendixes covering glossary and physics formulae. I was a little surprised by the quirky and sometimes whimsical characters, and I was downright shocked, pleasantly so, by the poetic prose of the story itself.
Collapsium contains three stories, each building on the previous. The stakes get larger as the stories progress but our protagonist rises to each challenge. The technology is mind-blowing and the societal ramifications are well thought out and detailed.
You'll be hard pressed to find better sci fi.
Collapsium contains three stories, each building on the previous. The stakes get larger as the stories progress but our protagonist rises to each challenge. The technology is mind-blowing and the societal ramifications are well thought out and detailed.
You'll be hard pressed to find better sci fi.
July 1, 2018
Fantastic sci fi. Really high quality work. I didn't see any of it coming from beginning all the way to the end. Fantastic use of unreliable narrator and really masterful melding of what I view as archetypes in different genres (the bumbling genius, the problem-solving sleuth, the reluctant hero all rolled into one). I will happily read every other book in this series.
July 9, 2021
The story plods along with hardly anything to say.
I’m 80 pages in, and it’s still the characters talking about the problem, over and over. The plot can’t seem to jumpstart itself and plods along with stilted dialogue and random techno-babble. It’s an easy decision to move on.
I’m 80 pages in, and it’s still the characters talking about the problem, over and over. The plot can’t seem to jumpstart itself and plods along with stilted dialogue and random techno-babble. It’s an easy decision to move on.
March 19, 2024
***.5
Good for fans of Charles Stross and Hannu Rajaniemi, but wished there was 300% more physics and don't mind wading through somewhat clunky writing to get at the ravishing science. If only the plot was half as good.
Good for fans of Charles Stross and Hannu Rajaniemi, but wished there was 300% more physics and don't mind wading through somewhat clunky writing to get at the ravishing science. If only the plot was half as good.
August 13, 2025
Not perfect, and very very science-heavy, but it's a utopian society for once! Bit of a deus ex machina ending, but the whole book is deus ex machina in a sense so that's not so bad. Book 1 of 4 - I read book 1-3 years ago and will now probably read all four, finally. About time!
May 2, 2018
A lot of ideas, but they are only partially explored. And the ideas to not make up for the bad structure, almost non-existent characters, and weak plot.
September 4, 2024
DNF at 32%. Maybe I'll get back to it later.
Want to read
September 28, 2024DNF @ 34%
February 2, 2025
Not Sci-Fi but who cares?
A good story is a good story no matter how you classify it. I think this story of a future that can hardly be imagined is a fine start to this quadrilogy.
A good story is a good story no matter how you classify it. I think this story of a future that can hardly be imagined is a fine start to this quadrilogy.
November 13, 2025
I'm already scared of the internet today. I can't imagine what it would be like if it was made out of black holes, and people were constantly cloning themselves and dying.
November 6, 2013
'In the eighth decade of the Queendom of Sol, three things form the backbone of civilisation:
WELLSTONE: programmable matter of almost magical properties
COLLAPSIUM: a deadly crystal composed of miniature black holes, indispensable for the transmission of matter and information through the solar system.
And…
RIVALRY: a bitter competition between Her Majesty’s two most brilliant scientists. It is a rivalry that will threaten everything.
Combining rigorous hard science with the lyrical beauty of Michael Moorcock’s Dancer’s at the End of Time novels, Wil McCarthy takes us into a mythical realm of physics, court intrigue and stellar catastrophe.'
Blurb from the Gollancz 2001 paperback edition.
Wil McCarthy’s stylish and baroque tale of laconic scientist Bruno de Towaji is both original and refreshing, set in a Solar System where Tamra, immortal Queen of Tonga has been elevated (due to – it would appear – popular demand) to the position of Queen of the Solar System, attended by a court of Declarants and a royal guard of robots.
This novel could also be considered as the 21st Century version of Gernsback’s ‘Ralph 124C 41+’ since it features the most brilliant scientist in society as the hero, a dastardly foe, women to be rescued and problems to be solved by power of the scientific mind.
Bruno is the inventor of Collapsium, a material constructed of interlocked neutron sized black holes. It is a substance which has many varied uses, the royalties from which have made him inestimably rich.
Because of the dangerous nature of his further experiments, Bruno has been ‘banished’ to an tiny artificial world in the Outer System which orbits a just-as-artificial miniature sun. One day his solitude is interrupted by the arrival of the Queen who demands that he return to court to work on a scientific problem. A rival of Bruno’s, Marlon Sykes, has begun the construction of a Ringworld-style band of Collapsium around the Sun, a construction which will vastly increase the speed of human and data transmission across the system. The partly constructed ring however, has lost its position and is beginning to fall into the Sun. It goes without saying that the consequences of millions of tiny black holes falling into the Sun would be disastrous.
It is up to Bruno to find a solution and save the Solar System from Stellar collapse.
The joy of this book is both in its preposterously believable neo-Elizabethan social structure and the way McCarthy seamlessly welds it to the complex scientific theories around which the substance of Collapsium is based. It is also laced with a dry wit and a degree of characterisation absent from the work of many of McCarthy’s contemporaries.
Bruno travels from outrageous setting to outrageous setting – a banquet in a domed enclave atop a mountain on a partly transformed Venus; Marlon’s cylindrical space-habitat whose inner surface is dotted with Athenian architecture, and there is the Collapsiter Ring itself. These journeys are achieved by the use of the Fax, essentially a matter-transmitting device which destroys the original and reassembles a duplicate at the destination.
With the fax of course, one can make copies of oneself in order to work on several projects at once, and later conflate the copies back into one individual, complete with the memories of all the copies.
It’s a fascinating notion and one which McCarthy explores but perhaps doesn’t exploit as much as he could have, although the basic concept is important to the plot.
Having stabilised the Collapsiter, Bruno is called back again when the Ring is sabotaged, following which copies of Marlon Sykes are murdered at their various stations along its circumference. A solution to the crisis and the identity of the apparent saboteur are discovered, but four years later Bruno is visited by a dishevelled and psychologically damaged copy of himself who has been imprisoned and tortured for years by the real saboteur, Marlon Sykes. Once again, Bruno is called upon to save the Solar System from destruction
McCarthy’s retro writing style of course helps to add a certain verisimilitude to the baroque nature of the Queendom’s social structure which, in other hands, might appear a trifle ludicrous but here seems perversely a natural and inevitable political development. It has hints of Moorcock, of PG Wodehouse and of Gernsback but is nonetheless a unique voice.
WELLSTONE: programmable matter of almost magical properties
COLLAPSIUM: a deadly crystal composed of miniature black holes, indispensable for the transmission of matter and information through the solar system.
And…
RIVALRY: a bitter competition between Her Majesty’s two most brilliant scientists. It is a rivalry that will threaten everything.
Combining rigorous hard science with the lyrical beauty of Michael Moorcock’s Dancer’s at the End of Time novels, Wil McCarthy takes us into a mythical realm of physics, court intrigue and stellar catastrophe.'
Blurb from the Gollancz 2001 paperback edition.
Wil McCarthy’s stylish and baroque tale of laconic scientist Bruno de Towaji is both original and refreshing, set in a Solar System where Tamra, immortal Queen of Tonga has been elevated (due to – it would appear – popular demand) to the position of Queen of the Solar System, attended by a court of Declarants and a royal guard of robots.
This novel could also be considered as the 21st Century version of Gernsback’s ‘Ralph 124C 41+’ since it features the most brilliant scientist in society as the hero, a dastardly foe, women to be rescued and problems to be solved by power of the scientific mind.
Bruno is the inventor of Collapsium, a material constructed of interlocked neutron sized black holes. It is a substance which has many varied uses, the royalties from which have made him inestimably rich.
Because of the dangerous nature of his further experiments, Bruno has been ‘banished’ to an tiny artificial world in the Outer System which orbits a just-as-artificial miniature sun. One day his solitude is interrupted by the arrival of the Queen who demands that he return to court to work on a scientific problem. A rival of Bruno’s, Marlon Sykes, has begun the construction of a Ringworld-style band of Collapsium around the Sun, a construction which will vastly increase the speed of human and data transmission across the system. The partly constructed ring however, has lost its position and is beginning to fall into the Sun. It goes without saying that the consequences of millions of tiny black holes falling into the Sun would be disastrous.
It is up to Bruno to find a solution and save the Solar System from Stellar collapse.
The joy of this book is both in its preposterously believable neo-Elizabethan social structure and the way McCarthy seamlessly welds it to the complex scientific theories around which the substance of Collapsium is based. It is also laced with a dry wit and a degree of characterisation absent from the work of many of McCarthy’s contemporaries.
Bruno travels from outrageous setting to outrageous setting – a banquet in a domed enclave atop a mountain on a partly transformed Venus; Marlon’s cylindrical space-habitat whose inner surface is dotted with Athenian architecture, and there is the Collapsiter Ring itself. These journeys are achieved by the use of the Fax, essentially a matter-transmitting device which destroys the original and reassembles a duplicate at the destination.
With the fax of course, one can make copies of oneself in order to work on several projects at once, and later conflate the copies back into one individual, complete with the memories of all the copies.
It’s a fascinating notion and one which McCarthy explores but perhaps doesn’t exploit as much as he could have, although the basic concept is important to the plot.
Having stabilised the Collapsiter, Bruno is called back again when the Ring is sabotaged, following which copies of Marlon Sykes are murdered at their various stations along its circumference. A solution to the crisis and the identity of the apparent saboteur are discovered, but four years later Bruno is visited by a dishevelled and psychologically damaged copy of himself who has been imprisoned and tortured for years by the real saboteur, Marlon Sykes. Once again, Bruno is called upon to save the Solar System from destruction
McCarthy’s retro writing style of course helps to add a certain verisimilitude to the baroque nature of the Queendom’s social structure which, in other hands, might appear a trifle ludicrous but here seems perversely a natural and inevitable political development. It has hints of Moorcock, of PG Wodehouse and of Gernsback but is nonetheless a unique voice.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 6, 2020
With "The Collapsium", Wil McCarthy takes his place alongside Robert Sawyer and Charles Sheffield as a purveyor of exciting, fast-paced, “hard SF”. McCarthy offers us a future world based on the premise that black holes are not collapsed stars, but billion-ton elementary particles, whose energy could be tapped to control physical reality. Using this energy, humanity can clean their bodies of decay (effective immortality), transport themselves across space instantaneously, and design their own planetary systems. Most of humanity, however, chooses to enjoy their freedom living with the Solar system, under the governance of Her Majesty Tamra Lutui, descendent of the Tongan royal family and Queen of Sol. But Queen Tamra has inadvertently sown the seeds of disaster by taking as lovers first Marlon Sykes and after him Bruno de Towaji, the two most brilliant scientists in her queendom. As disaster after disaster strikes, each engineered by Marlon and forestalled by Bruno, the stakes mount until the survival of all humanity becomes the prize in their deadly rivalry. This tension, combined with the fascination of watching how Bruno solves each problem, makes for an enjoyable book the reader is reluctant to put down.
August 30, 2019
This book is pretty awesome.
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