I received an advance review
copy for free and am leaving this review voluntarily.
When Dr. Mikhail Gladkikh
contacted me via email asking if I would read his new book, and sent the blurb
along, I did not know what to expect. I just finished reading Out of Time and I
will admit, it left me breathless. It is an amazing roller coaster ride of
scientific discovery, political intrigue, and mayhem perpetrated by those who
are power hungry megalomaniacs. There are a plethora of characters, both good
and bad, who embark on a journey to save, or destroy, the very universe we live
in.
This story is based on concepts
constantly under the scrutiny of real astrophysics every day. Chiefly, some
concepts explore the nature of spacetime, dark matter/energy, and the effects
of gravitational waves. When I read or listen to podcasts dealing with much of
this subject matter, I come away only partially understanding what I've taken
in. This story discusses these concepts as well, but the author does a great
job making it easier to understand for the common person.
The tale itself is well paced,
moving from chapter to chapter, following the exploits of the characters in
their various roles.
In short, if you only read one
hard sci-fi novel this year, this should be it.
Set in the year 2057, humanity
seems to have gotten itself together enough to move off planet and explore the
solar system. The people of Earth have changed little in the future, and there
are those who have massive amounts of wealth and power, but enough is never enough.
It's politics as usual. Things go awry when something strange happens in the
outer solar system.
On Oberon, the outermost moon
of Uranus, an anomaly seems to increase the gravitational pull of this body.
When a team is sent to investigate, a probe is destroyed, revealing few
answers. Not long after, the same type of anomaly grips the Earth's moon and
sends the satellite on a collision course with the planet.
A crack team of scientists is
gathered to address the problem. As they work on this, a college student, Jim Steel,
begins having visions of the future and helps police solve a crime.
There are several threads to
this story that weave together into a complete tapestry of deeper scientific
understanding of the workings of our universe, and the dangers presented by
those who would manipulate the laws of nature to their own advantage.
My favorite point of the plot
in Out of Time was how the science was written. At one point, a character
proposes what she conjectures to be the mechanics of how the universe continues
to expand and what is causing the anomalous problems that exist in the story.
What I most enjoyed about this is how Galdkikh made the prose so clear even I
could understand the explanation, while still making it sound more like science
than science fiction. There are two hypotheses put forth that seem so plausible
that they must be something under study in the real world.
At another point, there is some
discussion of how the universe will end. This takes place within the mind of
the character Jim Steel, a college student who has glimpses of the future and
helps solve some problems presented in the story. The idea deals with the
theory that since the universe was created in a massive explosion, it would end
in just the opposite way, with a Big Crunch.
In the first idea, it is the
addition of (dark) matter/energy that inflates the universe, and in the second,
the universe will in a kind of overcrowding of matter and energy, which will
lead to a Big Bang; the creation of a new universe in a new epoch.
Whatever the truth is, we may
never know, but it is fun to think about and come up with new ideas and argue
about the old ones. In any case, my point is that the science in this book is
written so anyone can understand what is being discussed. The handling of
science in this story made it more accessible to me and easier to visualize,
which I appreciate.
My takeaway from Out of Time is
how science can be corrupted by introducing politics into problem solving. We
see this today when we look at the problem of global climate change and how
this debate is developing. I will not offer my personal views here, but I will
say that it disturbs me how everything science, which is supposed to be the
search for the truth, is spun to fit whatever one tends to believe.
This story is a perfect example
of how scientists are charged with finding truths and solving problems and when
politics become involved, how the issues become clouded to where the common
person doesn't know what to think.
This tale is engaging and
entertaining and at no point was I bored with this book. There is a lot in this
book to keep track of, but it is so well written and organized that there are
no problems with understanding the action taking place. I love the way the
threads of the story, which in many cases seem unrelated, come together at the
end. I give Out of Time my highest recommendations for a high-quality hard
sci-fi story.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Mikhail Gladkikh, Ph.D. Applied
Mathematics, is a new fiction author. His sci-fi short stories are published in
multiple online journals. Mikhail’s short story “Sea-born” has been selected as
the story of the month for November 2021 and nominated for the Pushcart Award
by “The Big Purple Wall” magazine. His professional career provides him with a
unique perspective on the technologies of the future. He spent sixteen years at
Baker Hughes, an Energy Technology Company, where he is working at the
forefront of the 4th Industrial Revolution, advancing 3D Printing, Industrial
Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, and Digital Supply Chain.
Well, there it is...
Qapla!
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