''Twistor'' (1989) is a hard science fiction novel by physicist and science fiction writer

John G. Cramer John Gleason Cramer, Jr. (born October 24, 1934) is a Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, known for his development of the Transactional Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. He has been an activ ...

. The novel was first published in hardcover by William Morrow in 1989, then in mass market paperback by

Avon Books Avon Publications is one of the leading publishers of romance fiction. At Avon's initial stages, it was an American paperback book and comic book publisher. The shift in content occurred in the early 1970s with multiple Avon romance titles rea ...

in 1991. It was reprinted by Avon Books in 1997 with slight revisions.

Plot

A physics experiment on condensed-matter in a university's physics lab causes an unexpected result when the equipment starts swapping normal and "shadow matter." After industrial espionage causes problems, physicist David Harrison finds himself lost with two small children in an alternate universe where the six-legged wildlife is dangerous and aggressive. David has to find a way back home, while dealing with the spies that caused the problems in the first place.

Twistor theory In theoretical physics, twistor theory was proposed by Roger Penrose in 1967 as a possible path to quantum gravity and has evolved into a branch of theoretical and mathematical physics. Penrose proposed that twistor space should be the basic arena ...

Twistor space In mathematics and theoretical physics (especially twistor theory), twistor space is the complex vector space of solutions of the twistor equation \nabla_^\Omega_^=0 . It was described in the 1960s by Roger Penrose and Malcolm MacCallum. According ...

is the geometry that results from solutions of Twistor equations. In 1967

Roger Penrose Sir Roger Penrose (born 8 August 1931) is an English mathematician, mathematical physicist, philosopher of science and Nobel Laureate in Physics. He is Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics in the University of Oxford, an emeritus f ...

developed a

general relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity and Einstein's theory of gravity, is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of gravitation in modern physics. ...

approach called Twistor theory to apply to the study of

quantum gravity Quantum gravity (QG) is a field of theoretical physics that seeks to describe gravity according to the principles of quantum mechanics; it deals with environments in which neither gravitational nor quantum effects can be ignored, such as in the v ...

. This theory proposes that the relationship between events in spacetime is crucial and focuses on causes as key to understanding the byproducts of these events.

Critical reception

''Publishers Weekly'' called the central situation appealing, but the reviewer noted, "Given Cramer's dry, stiff, academic prose and the equally dry, stiff, academic characters, the interesting and dramatic kernel of physics speculation will open only to the most persistent of readers." ''SF Signal'' called it an "excellent, page-turning, hard sf thriller."

References

1989 American novels 1989 science fiction novels Hard science fiction American alternate history novels William Morrow and Company books {{1980s-sf-novel-stub