Singularity
Nov. 27th, 2011 01:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
The book I finished today: Singularity, by William Sleator.
If you discovered an event horizon in your playhouse, would you:
(a) Run like crazy
(b) Die of extreme gravitation long before you even knew what was going on
( c) Have an adventure centered around the time dilation effect that would "obviously" arise from the proximity of the event horizon due to relativistic effects
In our universe, you don't really have a choice: it's (b) if you come anywhere near a black hole's event horizon. Sleator, in a mangling of science so bad it isn't even funny, instead declares that time is experienced roughly one-sixtieth as fast inside the playhouse (in the event horizon) as outside it. Furthermore, there's a sharp and absolute border between the timestreams inside the playhouse and outside it, defined by the doorway. Add the idea that what's inside the playhouse is really the other end of a black hole in some other universe and that Things can come through from that other universe, and you've got a recipe for a teen sci-fi adventure. Not necessarily a good one, mind you.
If you manage to ignore the dreadful explanations of what's going on and why, Sleator's true focus comes through. His stars are a pair of identical twins, Barry and Harry. Barry, the elder twin, is an outgoing adventurous fellow who wants to mess around with the event horizon and not tell any adults about it. In contrast, Harry, the narrator, generally thinks before he acts and believes that someone responsible should know about the singularity, especially once Things start coming through from .. wherever. The first half of the book establishes Barry's disdain for his twin and Harry's wish to gain Barry's respect. The second half shows how their perspectives of each other change with time - literally. That development and changing of perspective is the meat of the book, and Sleator does a fine job with it. It's just a pity that he had to sacrifice the laws of physics so brutally to do so.
If you discovered an event horizon in your playhouse, would you:
(a) Run like crazy
(b) Die of extreme gravitation long before you even knew what was going on
( c) Have an adventure centered around the time dilation effect that would "obviously" arise from the proximity of the event horizon due to relativistic effects
In our universe, you don't really have a choice: it's (b) if you come anywhere near a black hole's event horizon. Sleator, in a mangling of science so bad it isn't even funny, instead declares that time is experienced roughly one-sixtieth as fast inside the playhouse (in the event horizon) as outside it. Furthermore, there's a sharp and absolute border between the timestreams inside the playhouse and outside it, defined by the doorway. Add the idea that what's inside the playhouse is really the other end of a black hole in some other universe and that Things can come through from that other universe, and you've got a recipe for a teen sci-fi adventure. Not necessarily a good one, mind you.
If you manage to ignore the dreadful explanations of what's going on and why, Sleator's true focus comes through. His stars are a pair of identical twins, Barry and Harry. Barry, the elder twin, is an outgoing adventurous fellow who wants to mess around with the event horizon and not tell any adults about it. In contrast, Harry, the narrator, generally thinks before he acts and believes that someone responsible should know about the singularity, especially once Things start coming through from .. wherever. The first half of the book establishes Barry's disdain for his twin and Harry's wish to gain Barry's respect. The second half shows how their perspectives of each other change with time - literally. That development and changing of perspective is the meat of the book, and Sleator does a fine job with it. It's just a pity that he had to sacrifice the laws of physics so brutally to do so.
no subject
Date: 2011-11-27 11:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-06 12:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-29 04:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-06 12:16 am (UTC)So I take it that the old saw that "nothing escapes black holes... not even light!" isn't strictly true?
no subject
Date: 2011-12-06 02:59 am (UTC)