Core: A Novel - Hardcover

Preuss, Paul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 068809662X ISBN 13: 9780688096625

Publisher: William Morrow & Co, 1993

Synopsis

Armed with his father's discovery of a superhard crystal, Leidy Hunter teams up with fiercely independent scientist Marta McDougal to develop a machine to bore through the earth's crust to its core. 20,000 first printing. $15,000 ad/promo.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews

Maybe-here-and-now yarn about a project to drill a hole down to the Earth's core in order to study the source of the planet's magnetic field, which is breaking down and wobbling about and threatening to cause all sorts of disasters. From the author of Starfire, Human Error, etc. In the embers of the first atomic explosion at White Sands during WW II, Cyrus Hudder discovers an extraordinary new crystal, harder than diamond, impossible to melt. Cyrus has long dreamed of drilling down to the Earth's core; now, if he lines the hole with ``hudderite,'' the idea seems feasible. Eventually, however, having screwed up his life, Cyrus disappears, an apparent suicide. Fortunately, Leidy, Cyrus's estranged son, shares his dream; so Leidy teams up with researcher Marta McDougal for years of experiments and fund-raising in order to get the project underway. Cyrus, meanwhile, has been recruited by a mysterious oil company to engineer a deep hole in great secrecy somewhere in the Middle East. Just as Leidy's hole reaches the core, Cyrus discovers that he's been working for Arabs whose real purpose is to wipe Israel off the map by triggering monster earthquakes. Notwithstanding the inherent improbability of any such material as hudderite: a fascinating scientific-technical spectacle, and never mind the tepid romancing, humdrum father-son clashes, and generally creaky plot. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly

This flawed and uneven futuristic techno-thriller by the author of the Arthur C. Clarke Venus Prime series turns on an apocalyptic crisis. The Earth's magnetic field is collapsing, creating chaos with navigation and telecommunications systems and leaving segments of the population unprotected from lethal solar radiation. Maverick geologist Leiden Hudder, working with a brilliant but abrasive scientist, Marta Cellini-Sanchez McDougal, has a plan to confront this calamity, making use of a superhard substance discovered by his father. He and Marta propose to manipulate the magnetic field at its source by drilling all the way to the Earth's core. But first Hudder must contend with bureaucrats, politicians, his own rocky family relationships and the awesome destructive potential of the Earth's fiery depths. Despite the tantalizing premise and some brisk, exciting passages, the narrative falls flat, defeated by tediously detailed scientific and technical explanations, the protagonist's cliche-ridden family history, digressive character development and a ludicrous, melodramatic climax that diverges from the book's central premise.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: William Morrow & Co
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 068809662X
• ISBN 13: 9780688096625
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 350