The Twin Paradox: Soon to be a Major Motion Picture

The twins in this book are not twins in the true sense of the word. They are clones of famous people, such as Albert Einstein, Leonardo Davinci, Isaac Newton, Catherine the Great and Martin Luther King. The concept of cloning alone would provide many plot lines for any book, but the clone concept isn’t even the source of the main plot line in this novel. That would be the manipulation of time based on the principle of relativity, with the mechanism being a huge particle accelerator. Scientists build this device to create an artificial world in Texas that runs on its own time, orders of magnitude faster than the outside world. The purpose of this experiment is to speed up the development of new technologies. The downside is that the people who live in this world age much faster than those on the outside and don’t really get to enjoy the fruits of their work. If one member of a real set of twins lived in this accelerated world and one stayed on the outside, the one on the inside would be much older when he met his twin on the outside again. This situation is the classical twin paradox, which of course, was proved by Einstein not to really be a paradox, as the two twins travel down different spacetime pathways.Another plotline involves the creatures and societies that result in this accelerated world, so as you can see, there is really a lot going on in this book. Not to mention some nefarious forces and sinister people from other countries who are out to sabotage the heroes of the story.Very original and very creative. You’ll have a fun time reading this entertaining novel.

The Twin Paradox is such a fun ride I'm really sad I finished it. I started the book with - not exactly low expectations - but with a willingness to stop reading if it got too silly. Nope, uh-huh, never happened.The story of a bunch of misfit genius teenagers cloned from the greatest minds in history could've degenerated into Scooby Doo and the Time Machine but almost from the start it took off from its possible cartoony possibilities into a mature adventure in lands never dreamed of.The teenagers discover they're the nucleus of a secret experiment conducted by the dastardly Gene-E (get it? Genie?) Corp. and the equally dastardly U.S. government to save a Cern-like super collider that's gone rogue, crashing planes, wrecking an oil rig and unleashing a colorful menagerie of marine animals into the ocean. And, of course, not only is the supercomputer top secret but also the fact that it's allowed the mad scientists in charge to take control of time.It's all done so plausibly that there's no time to wonder where the MS (mad scientists) found DNA from Leonardo da Vinci and Galileo and others or how anyone could keep the lid on such a massive undertaking.I have to admit that the scientific jargon and theories almost threw me out of the book's hypnotic grip, but once I adjusted to it it was ... OK? Not too bad? And I just kept on reading. As should you.

A very interesting premise: What if an extra large supercollider could somehow accelerate time inside the ring? And if Wachter had stuck to this plot line and developed his characters, it could have been an amazing book.Unfortunately, Wachter pretty much kitchen-sinked the novel with all sorts of subplots involving cloning, teen angst, espionage, wormholes, monsters, and a partridge (or salamander) in a pear tree. Cutting the cast of characters in half would have strengthened this book tremendously. Hint: You don't make up for thin character development by suddenly dedicating three pages of backstory to a character 2/3 of the way through the book.Adult characters are reasonable; the teen characters are written as if they were 10, not 16 or 17. And one of them, thanks to the oddities of the time acceleration plot, ages a full year in isolation (from his POV) in one minute (from everyone else's POV), but there's not a word of the mental and emotional toll this would take on an adolescent. Much of the heroics near the end become cartoonish and absurd.The hard science, while somewhat plausible, is never really checked for continuity, so there are lots of head-scratching deviations from logic. Still, the book moves along well, and with a lot of work, I could see this overall plot as an interesting scifi/action movie.I might be interested in further work from this author, if he can land a decent editor who can steer him correctly.

The first third of this book was a good SF story, well written, with some interesting characters and ideas. Some of the science was very dodgy, but Watcher spins a good enough yarn that you can consign them to 'artistic license' or simple errors. This is not a time travel story (which is good, because those are nearly always disappointing) but it does make interesting, and novel, use of time, as well as cloning, evolution, and other ideas.Once everyone arrives at Cornerstone, however, the book becomes a thriller, with all the flaws of a typical thriller. The author has to find all sorts of perilous situations to put his characters into, and in so doing, starts to create less and less believable scenarios, and even less believable ways for the characters to survive them. For example, one character loses enough blood in one scene that their vision is starting to blur around the edges, then loses more, but when they get rid of the immediate cause of the blood loss, within a paragraph or two, despite still bleeding, they are up and into the action again, as if nothing bad had happened. And you know that, despite all the danger, by the end, everyone will somehow get back together and make it out alive, apart from one, sacrificial character, who had the lowest life expectancy anyway. That's thrillers for you, and the forced peril just starts to drag.The thriller part of the book is not entirely dreadful (I did read it to the end). There are still some interesting, and clever parts. I enjoyed the time vaults, and the uses they were put to, and the 'game' in the bunker, which was reasonably scientific, amongst others. But the thriller elements stitching them together were rather tiresome. So I doubt I will buy the sequel.I see the book is 'soon to be a major motion picture', and it will probably make quite a good action adventure, if you totally suspend your disbelief from the outset. They will have to condense the story, which will get rid of some of the tedium, but probably also some of the interesting SF ideas. If you enjoy thrillers, and can put up with their predictable nature, then you will probably enjoy this book. If you are looking for straight, hard SF, then maybe wait until it is on offer for 99p again.

I'm sorry, but this is a jumbled mess.Just because you think of an idea, it doesn't mean you have to use it. Sadly, that is what seems to happen in this story, we get everything and the kitchen sink.The original premise is a good one, but it's spoiled by where they go next.A multi billion operation depend on a diver and his sick father. NOLiquid helium pipelines, NO.Massive creatures living underground evolved from bears. NOLeeches the size of cars. NO.A Giant battery made from sea water. NO.Try a dose of logic, please. If you don't understand how something works, then leave it out, it helps those who like their sci-fi to have a bit of usable science.This was just too much to swallow.

SPOLIERS*****I wanted to love this book, the premise was interesting & it has a fairly strong start. Its peppered with mathematical references & equations & some of the science is not so far-fetched. However, there are some really irritating inconsistencies & continuity errors that just really spoiled it for me. They just jag on the mind & when they start to pile up, my irritation grows.The ending is also quite rushed & despite explaining some parts of the book in minute detail, the basis for their escape at the end is not explained even remotely well & appears to be glazed over.Just not right for me, I dont think I'll be continuing with the next book.

Struggled to understand what the hell I was reading, stilted prose, painful...gave up on the book as I could not take any more - which is very rare. Shame, the idea sounded great, but the delivery was awful

this is Mockinjay and The Dome, with confusing clones (are they clones? are they twins??who knows and why Martin Luther King ?? as a girl?) and a bit of weird cannibalismI couldnt actually visualize the characters as well as I could the Crypt and it all got a bit much