The Omega Theory

by Mark Alpert

Book Overview

David Swift and Monique Reynolds desperately try to stop a group of religious zealots from re-creating the Big Bang, in this second thriller from the author of the international bestseller, "Final Theory."

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1416595341
• ISBN13: 9781416595342
• Release Date: February 2011
• Publisher: Touchstone Books
• Length: 308 Pages
• Weight: 1.16 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.4" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Outrageous SciFi. But could it happen? The ultimate weapon.

This is a science fiction action packed thriller that is top notch. A sequel to Final Theory, which should be read first, science historian David Swift and his quantum physicist wife Monique Reynolds discover that their autistic teenage son, Michael, has been kidnapped by religious fanatics. It’s not an ordinary kidnapping. Michael has memorized Albert Einstein’s Unified Field Theory, a set of equations that explains absolutely everything about physics in the Universe. It is the fundamental nature of reality. It shows how particles and forces in the universe originate from the convoluted folds of spacetime but also how spacetime could be manipulated to release the immense energies contained in these folds. And that is why the bad guys want him. The book also centers around an actual theory about the nature of reality in which reality is essentially a binary system. Am I sitting in a chair? yes/no. Am I working on a laptop? yes/no. Is that a car? yes/no. Is the grass green? Yes/no. Is there a floor beneath my feet? Yes/no. Rather like a binary computer operating on a program of 0-1. It’s either on or off, the Universe is also a binary computing system. Don’t be too quick to scoff at this. Go to your search engine and type “It From Bit” and see what pops up. But like any computer system, it can be overloaded and crash. So what can make the entire Universe crash? That’s right, the Big Bang, 14 billion year old Universe? Well, a group of religious fanatics led by Brother Cyrus and his True Believers have found the way in Michael and his memorized Unified Field Theory equations. These equations, combined with nuclear warheads and a super powerful laser called Excaliber, properly aimed and timed, could overload a certain point in the Universe and begin a tearing of space/time that would bring about the absolute crash of the entire sinful Universe and initiate the promised Kingdom of God where everybody who ever lived would then be resurrected and live peacefully and happily ever-after in the loving embrace of God. David and Monique know this to be true, at least the destruction part, and lead a team to prevent it from happening. Considering the outrageous storyline, I don’t think there are too many authors who could get away with writing a story like this in a very convincing fashion. But Mark Alpert majored in astrophysics at Princeton, no less, earned an MFA in poetry from Columbia, and was a contributing editor to Scientific American. And he does a masterful job of tackling a tricky theme in a most convincing fashion. His writing style is engaging, his characters are interesting and diverse, and we are most fortunate in that he is still active today. I am looking forward to reading whatever else he may write.