Reviews

The latest novel by the author of The Dragon's Egg (1983) tells the life story of remarkable billionaire business mogul Randy Hunter. Hunter excels in everything he does, from choosing a wife to pioneering the latest technologies--including the discovery of an alien life form that can facilitate instantaneous travel through space and time. Forward is one of sf's most imaginative and playful writers, wreaking cheerful havoc with temporal paradoxes in a story that owes a considerable debt to Robert Heinlein's Lazarus Long novels. Unfortunately, the lack of immediacy and suspense makes this otherwise ingenious story a marginal selection for libraries.

Set in 2036, this latest hard - science novel by Forward ( Dragon's Egg ) deals with fringe physics and explores the exciting possibilities of relativity and quantum mechanics. Unfortunately, the author's characters and plot exist only as a pretext for his numerous, inventive gadgets and tricks. Protagonist Randy Hunter's astroengineering firm discovers a lifeform dubbed ``Silverhair,'' which contains negative matter rather than antimatter. By carefully engineering the Silverhair, Hunter and his associates develop a method of building starships that reach near-light speeds. Negative and positive matter are also used to produce gravity-balanced black hole masses, artificial wormholes, means of instantaneous travel, and, eventually, time travel. The scientific speculation is fascinating, well-researched and believable, but the heroes are cardboard, the villain a paper tiger, the plot a wish-fulfillment fluff of cotten candy. Although this book exhibits great potential, it is not up to Forward's standard and will disappoint fans. (June)