Mathematicians in Love

by Rudy Rucker

Book Overview

A riveting new science fiction novel from the writer who twice won the Philip K. Dick Award for best SF novel. Bela and Paul, two wild young mathematicians, are friends and roommates, and in love with the same woman, who happens to be Alma, Bela's girlfriend. They fight it out by changing reality using cutting edge math, to change who gets the girl. The contemporary world they live in is not quite this one, but much like Berkeley, California, and...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 076531584X
• ISBN13: 9780765315847
• Release Date: November 2006
• Publisher: Tor Books
• Length: 364 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.1" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Excellent!

Rudy Rucker is still one of the best science fiction writers around. I love his stuff.

Rucker is the King of hidden truths

This is another great Rucker book. He is the King of hidden truths, sometimes subtle, and more often not! A fun read!

Surfer mathpunks rule, dog!

Another very entertaining Rucker novel -- one of his best. Surfer mathpunk rules, dog! You won't be surprised to learn that Robert Sheckley was his first inspiration to write SF -- see rudyrucker[dot]com[slash]mathematiciansinlove Interesting guy. Cute pix, too. He has a massive pdf of notes for the book online -- -- but for heaven's sake, don't read it first! Some (spoiler-free) samples: "In principle you could hypertunnel from a Zone B world, but in practice you can't get the tech together. The evil rays revel in chaotic class-three and class-four zones." -- p.183 "What is wrong with those stubborn, clannish SF fans, Frek is exactly the kind of book they want, for heaven's sake, it's just like Lord of the Rings or Henry Potter or The Golden Compass..." --p.185 Very cool book, from an underappreciated author. If you've never tried a Rucker, this would be a good place to start. Happy reading-- Peter D. Tillman

amusing not by the numbers satire

In the university, the two mathematic graduate students, Bela Kis and Paul Bridge, are roommates who share much in common besides trying to obtain a PH.D by the numbers and a flat. Both are advised by maniacal mathematician Dr. Roland Haut and each enjoys the lifestyle of an advanced student living in college towns like Humelocke and Klownetown where the zaniest crazies of the universe come together to discuss the meaning of life (more often than not with various forms debating existence). However, what they most share in common is the love of Alma Ziff who is more or less Bela's girlfriend though she zips the bridge at times to be with Paul. The two roommates compete for who gets the girl at a time when their insane faculty advisor has begun developing a mathematical model that predicts the future; that is when he is not seeing monsters. Jumping off of Mad Haut's theory, Bela and Paul inventing the paracomputer "Gobubble" that predicts even more accurately the future as their advisor's monsters prove real and their love triangle even more acutely convex than keenly isosceles than either student calculated. Rudy Rucker lampoons politics, universities, mathematical theories, and humanity as he spins a terrific romantic science fiction satire that takes readers where they have never been before with perhaps the only recent exception being the author's novel FREAK AND THE ELIXIR. The math is highbrow insanity as the shortest distance between two points is an arc, but also augments the humorous story line. Haut is way outside the circle of sanity while Bela and Paul argue number theory to determine who ends up with Alma, monsters aside. Readers will appreciate this zany tale that proves the sum of the angles of a romantic triangle does not equal 180 degrees. Harriet Klausner