The end of the beginning
I published my first novel a couple of days ago and am determined to soldier on, despite my doubts.
After all of that work, it would be nice to get at least a few reviews!
After all of that work, it would be nice to get at least a few reviews!
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Wow! Thank you Richard. This is my first review and I'm absolutely thrilled that you liked the story. It was fun to write and I'm still working on developing it in new contexts.
Kirsten,Tales of survival against extreme odds are intrinsically inspirational. When combined with exemplary creativity both during the traumatic experience and its aftermath, all the more so.
My own experience with the physics community is quite unlike, yet consistent with yours. Physicists are human beings--sometimes defensive, territorial, closed-minded, egoistic, greedy and aggressive human beings--not unlike any other human subgroup, especially when populated mostly by males.
Yet the long-term potential for humanity is, I think, largely in the hands of physicists (and other scientists). Most of the technological systems that sustain our high standard of living trace back to Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Faraday, Maxwell, et al. What comes next?
Unfortunately, as you have yourself acknowledged, we are presently in a “dark age,” where multiverses, boojums, holographic stringbranes and other silly entertainments pass for science.
Still, I am an optimist. Discovering your outpouring of critical thinking, compassion, and sense of humor give me hope. You and your work provide reasons to expect that other sources of insight and wisdom could emerge any time, as they too shake off the debilitating dogmas that as yet plague our marvelous species.
Kirsten,"It was fun to write and I'm still working on developing it in new contexts."
Is it a fair inference that this means your second novel will be some kind of sequel?
Alix Echoes the Rotonians, or something like that?
Cheers!
The sequel is a sort of Odyssey or Shrek for sci-fi and it is paired with some pop-sci books and allegorical children's stories written by Alix. I'm trying to get some agents and publishers to look at it before I put it up on Amazon.
Alix, the story’s protagonist, is the first person narrator. This becomes tricky as personalities and their “timelines” split and get woven back again (or not). On a first read, one does not immediately see this taking place, or how deftly the author manages the complexity. It all makes sense—in a splintered timeline kind of way—the second time around.
The debt to Lewis Carroll is already evident in the character’s name, Alix, and by the underground setting. Alix’s work is focused on “the machine,” the heart of a complex of subterranean structures and dwellings. The futuristic high-energy particle accelerator is run by an assortment of cyborg-like “symbiots” and human beings, whose behavior is often technologically adjusted in a variety of ways. For example, two of these symbiots are the matched pair Dean and Duma: counterparts for Carroll’s Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. Carroll-inspired analogs recur throughout the book, not gratuitously, but rather cleverly. Especially entertaining are the nick-of-time appearances of the guardian angel-like character, Chess, the magical cat whose awkward laugh showed “too many teeth.”
Adding to the many ironies in the story is another connection to pop culture. Hacker has made significant contributions to online forum discussions about physics, especially at Quora.com. Among her many posts in these forums are ones that offer real-life impressions of the political and psychological underpinnings of academic physics. At the writers’ forum, Medium.com Hacker has posted a piece wherein she identifies with the character, Kimmy, in the TV series, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt:
“Like Kimmy, . . . I know what it feels like when something snaps inside of you and nothing will ever be the same. After I had spent 20 years studying physics, I stepped out of a metaphorical bunker. . . All I knew was that I needed to fully disengage from the machine I had been a part of.”
Hacker’s novel-writing experience is her admittedly cathartic response, to tell the story of her entrapment and ultimate escape.
For obvious reasons, the publication info page of the book contains the disclaimer: “Any similarity to people alive or dead is purely coincidental.” One cannot help wonder, however, which of the novel’s characters—and to what extent—actually do parallel Hacker’s real-life experience.
The importance of the novel’s message is bolstered by Hacker’s undeniable prowess as a physicist. She is pictured accepting a prestigious award (Faraday Cup) at this link:
https://faraday-cup.com/2010_Faraday_...
and her published work can be found by Googling.
Possibly, the paucity of reviews of her fine novel (published about 6 months ago) is due in part to the extended passages that dwell on famous, though abstract theories and the remaining puzzles that surround and permeate them, in humanity’s efforts to understand the physical world. This is some (overly?) heady stuff to many readers, no doubt.
This reviewer happens to be himself deeply interested in these matters, so I have found Hacker’s perspective—even as presented in a novel— to be most relevant. The relevance stems from what Hacker clearly appreciates as the tentativeness or even flimsiness of theories or experimental claims that are widely regarded as being firmly established. Hacker is a real scientist: highly skeptical and insistent on testing theories with empirical evidence. That part of her, I suspect, will never snap.
I hadn’t heard of Kimmy Schmidt before seeing Hacker’s Medium.com piece wherein she makes the connection. I’ve since viewed several episodes. The theme song that opens the show seems to capture not only the spirit of Kimmy, but also of Hacker: “Unbreakable, [she’s] alive, damnit!” And like Kimmy, Hacker is really funny, too! “No one could not agree.”