The Collapsium

Written by Wil Mccarthy

Narrated by Matt Godfrey

A MODERN SCIENCE FICTION CLASSIC FROM WIL MCCARTHY

In the eighth decade of the Queendom of Sol, three commodities rule the day. The first is wellstone, a form of programmable matter capable of emulating almost any substance. The second is collapsium, a deadly crystal composed of miniature black holes, vital for the transmission of information and matter—including humans—throughout the Solar System. The third is the bitter rivalry between Her Majesty's top scientists.

Bruno de Towaji, famed lover and statesman, dreams of building an arc de fin, an almost mythical device capable of probing the farthest reaches of spacetime. Marlon Sykes, de Towaji's rival in both love and science, is meanwhile hard at work on a vast telecommunications project whose first step is the construction of a ring of collapsium around the Sun. But when a ruthless saboteur attacks the Ring Collapsiter and sends it falling into the Sun, the two scientists must put aside personal animosity and combine their prodigious intellects to prevent the destruction of the Solar System—and every living thing within it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 13, 2021
• ISBN: 9781705024546

Reviews for The Collapsium

[ennui2342 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Not as good as I expected from the reviews. It was certainly imaginative, and a solid grounding in Physics and the current state of the art was evident, but for me it was too much of the EE Doc Smith with a single scientist hero running around solving all the worlds ills on the spot. It also read as three shorts bolted together rather than one overall narrative which was a little disappointing as this wasn't obvious from the blurb.

[woodge_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A few weeks ago I was flipping through the New York Times Book Review when I came across a brief, favorable review for this science fiction tale. This one was pretty wild too. The author is a former rocket scientist who now works in the field of commercial robotics so the science within The Collapsium is both informed and a little dizzying. But you don't need to be a rocket scientist to enjoy this book (or even a super genius like me). The hero of the story is the brilliant scientist Bruno de Towaji, the inventor of collapsium, and a royal consort of Queen Tamra Lutui of Tonga, the figurehead queen of the solar system. Collapsium is collapsed matter in the form of egg-sized black holes which allow virtually instantaneous transmission of information and matter — including humans — throughout the solar system. Basically collapsium allows people to fax themselves to various fax ports set up throughout the solar system via a collapsium network. You can also create copies of yourself! While Bruno has been enjoying a self-imposed exile conducting experiments on his own manufactured planet, rival scientist Marlon Sykes has been busy building a ring of collapsium around the sun to improve the current collapsium network. But then a saboteur causes this Ring Collapsiter to fall toward the sun, imperiling the entire solar system, and Queen Tamra calls on Bruno de Towaji for help. I found this book to be as entertaining as it is bizarre. Not only does the author do wildly fun things with the element collapsium, but another element called wellstone is thrown in as well. Wellstone is programmable matter capable of emulating almost any substance whether it be natural, artificial, or even hypothetical. McCarthy spins this improbable tale with wit, verve and humor and the result is a thrill-ride of wild science and adventure.