EonEonAbove our planet hangs a hollow stone, vast as the imagination of Man. The inner dimensions are at odds with the outer: there are different chambers to be breached, some containing deserted cities; the furthest chamber contains the greatest mystery ever to confront the Stone's scientists...
But the Stone is not an alien structure. It comes from the future of our humanity. Tombstone or milestone, the war that breaks out on earth beneath it's pressure seems to bear witness to it's prowess as oracle...
Definitely one of the most ambitious science fiction books I have read, and also one of the more successful. In parts it seems reminiscent of 1984 or Brave New World with the author taking the politics of the time (I really should have used the word zeitgeist somewhere in there, I am just never sure of the correct usage) and extending them a handful of years, and mixing in the Stone. I found it hard to think back to the early 80's, when I would be a mere handful of years old, and to a time when the Cold War, though apparently over, was still in the air, and the wind of cultural and political distrust blew from East to West, and back again, creating a veritable maelstrom of hatred (and yet another torturous metaphor). I cannot really imagine a climate when people thought of people simply as being citizens of a country, rather than being people, though many still do so, and many will continue. In my eyes the distrust of a nation to the extreme witnessed within the story, is something I personally would wish to see discarded to the pages of history, alas I feel it may not be so easy.
Perhaps however my own goodness (and modesty?) prevents me from seeing the base and inhuman nature of humanity, and perhaps it is a true today as it was then, whatever, it must be said that the politics did seem all-too-plausible, given the situation that was present, but I just wished someone would 'remove' the politicians who seemed to be the purveyors of the 'potent distrust and even hatred' (to add to a list of sayings I should be compiling, that I believe are wholly mine, 'only a man with no scruples could destroy the world; but only a man with no scruples could save it').
The story itself holds up well to scrutiny, and the plot is easily one of the best I have read as of yet.
Score 10/10
Just a couple of words on the science contained within, firstly, why was 'slash aitch' being measured, when h would have been more appropriate. As far as I am aware from my quantum physics work, h is the measured quantity, where as slash aitch is a derived value used for ease, numerically being equal to h/2Pi, hence if Pi changed so would slash aitch... thus h would make more sense... however, as I have barely started quantum crap, I could quite probably be talking complete bollocks. The other is not a criticism, merely an amusing fact, the vague measurements given are entirely self-consistent if taken accurately, i.e. given the rotational speed, and a height given, the 'centrifugal force' is equal (to within a decimal place) of the value given, not entirely remarkable, but something I found amusing (damn physicists...)
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