Strangely I was attracted to this book by negative reviews on amazon. Lots of people were saying how it was odd the TV show better than the book. Now I’ve not seen an episode of the TV show because the ads I did see gave the impression the global leap of human consciousness into the future was caused by terrorists. Frankly I’d have believed alien intervention was more probable explanation! Fortunately the book chooses neither of these scenarios and instead centres on the more plausible explanation of experiments at the Large Hadron Collider going awry.
Of course time travel would mess with the fabric of physics as we understand it (look at the fuss that was caused when neutron might have travelled faster!!) so there’s plenty of nerdy science in this version of the story. I’m guessing that’s what gave for some poor reception in those expecting a copy of the TV show. I’m the opposite – in fact the physics is central to the book and I’ve no idea how the TV show worked without it. Mainly because the underlying theme of the book is the notion of free will and whether the future is fixed or full of a multitude of alternative (parallel) futures. So in the book you get to learn about some of the new mind boggling theories from physics about the nature of reality while being pulled along by a fascinating detective story.
Giving a glimpse of the future is an excellent narrative tool to build intrigue without spoiling the end – I’ve seen loads of films recently that begin with the end then jump back. For me the balance of science and story was just right but judging by the reviews it’s not for everyone. And likewise I won’t be rushing out to grab the DVD as I believe I’ve witnessed the best execution of this story possible.
No comments:
Post a Comment