The Omega Theory

December 13, 2010
Science meets geopolitics meets religious fanaticism in Alpert's breathless sequel to Final Theory. Science historian David Swift and his physicist wife, Monique Reynolds, go in search of their autistic adopted son, 19-year-old Michael Gupta, who, savantlike, has memorized Einstein's unified field theory, after members of a religious cult kidnap Michael from the Upper Manhattan Autism Center. The kidnapping occurs on the same day that Iran tests a nuclear device that does more than generate a seismic rumble. According to a Columbia colleague of Swift's, it "severed the continuity of our universe." Accompanied by FBI special agent Lucille Parker, Swift and Reynolds embark on a tiring (and sometimes tiresome) quest that takes them to Jerusalem and Turkmenistan. Those who can identify with characters who are little more than plot devices or mouthpieces for exposition—the good guys rant about advanced physics, the bad ones about the necessity of the coming apocalypse—will be most rewarded.

December 15, 2010

The universe, which may have been programmed like a computer, heads toward a big crash and a reboot in this thriller.

Alpert (Final Theory, 2008) builds his second thriller on the premise that the universe may be running on an operating system like those that power computers, and that with some manipulation the system may crash and be reprogrammed. The idea is not one that belongs in the realm of science fiction: The endnotes make clear that the theory is one esteemed physicists consider plausible. Alpert's storytelling, alas, is not quite up to his arresting theme. In what amounts to another tale of an approaching Armageddon, many plot elements are shopworn, starting with the kidnapping of a vulnerable child, 19-year-old Michael Gupta, the autistic great-great grandson of Albert Einstein. A group of religious fanatics, the True Believers, are after Gupta because he knows the code that will allow them to reprogram the universe. As the Believers whisk Michael to Turkmenistan, his adoptive father, David Swift, speaks at a Physicists for Peace conference, where, in short order, Jacob Steele, once a colleague of Swift's, is assassinated. The Iranians, meanwhile, set off a nuclear blast using methods that indicate they may have been "deliberately tampering with spacetime." Swift, his wife and the FBI track one of Steele's contacts in Israel, hoping he'll provide clues to the whereabouts of the kidnappers. The U.S. president, who has two daughters and is often desperate for a cigarette, launches Operation Cobra to take out Iran's nuclear facilities. The action set pieces that follow have a been-there-read-that quality. A scene in which Michael is nearly thrown into the Burning Gas Crater of Darvaza could have come from a 1950s swords-and-sandals potboiler. Alpert also shoehorns chunks of scientific textbook exposition into dialogue scenes, slowing momentum.

Students of quantum physics may be diverted; others will find it slow going.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

January 1, 2011
Alperts follow-up to his acclaimed first novel, Final Theory (2008), continues the adventures of science historian David Swift. This time Swifts adopted autistic son, Michael, is kidnapped by a radical cult that believes Armageddon is imminent. Buried in Michaels brain is the formula for Einsteins much-sought-after universal theory. The leader of the cult plans to use the theory to create a weapon that will destroy the world and lead his followers to heaven. The weapon he envisions, in fact, will be strong enough to destroy the entire solar system and create a new big bang. David must rescue his son (and the world) while somehow subduing the cult and its ever-increasing team of fanatical followers. With a little less intellectually exciting scientific theory this time and more straight-ahead action, Alpert may lose some of his high-end readers, but he stands to gain many more mainstream thriller fans, those who like a Michael Crichtonlike mix of science and action.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)