Subject: THE MISSING MATTER by Thomas R. McDonough

From: [email-masked] (Evelyn C Leeper +1 908 957 2070)
Date: 9 Apr 92 20:37:03 GMT

THE MISSING MATTER by Thomas R. McDonough
                        A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
			 Copyright 1992 Evelyn C. Leeper

        This book is sitting on my review stack staring at me, saying, "Okay,
   now that you've read me, say something about me."  The problem is I don't
   know what to say.  (All right, you out there who just said, "But you've
   never let that stop you before"; I heard that!)

        Well, I'll start with basics.  This is the third book in the "Next
   Wave" series packaged by Byron Preiss.  Each book consists of a novel based
   on some hard science concept, prefaced by a short science article on the
   subject by Isaac Asimov (though his recently-announced retirement may change
   that), and followed by a somewhat longer science essay by a "real"
   scientist.  The first two novels were RED GENESIS by S. C. Sykes and ALIEN
   TONGUE by Stephen Leigh. Now, somewhat delayed from its originally announced
   release date, is the third volume, THE MISSING MATTER by Thomas
   R. McDonough.

        The science concept behind the novel is that of "black matter," or
   "missing matter." That is, it has been postulated that there isn't enough
   matter in the universe to explain the physical laws.  So where is this
   "missing matter"?  McDonough *seems* to be saying that it's stuck in parallel
   universes and that there are planets traveling between (among?) these
   universes.  I say "seems" because none of this was very clearly stated or
   shown in the novel itself; I conclude this only because of the essays.

        And that may be one of the problems with packaging THE MISSING MATTER
   this way--a perfectly good novel which could stand on its own is turned into
   a novel appearing to illustrate some point in physics, and not to do it very
   well.  The story is that of a Plutonian colony which discovers a planet
   moving towards our solar system and sends a team to explore it.  Once on the
   planet, however, the team finds itself traveling between universes, because
   that's what the planet is doing.  It's a good old-fashioned adventure story,
   with interesting characters (well, okay, the bureaucrat is a bit two-
   dimensional, but think of her as comic relief), and works far better as a
   story if you don't try to learn physics from it.  As with the others in this
   series, if you like the sort of science fiction of the 1950s but with better
   characters and up-to-date (i.e., non-outdated) science, you'll probably
   enjoy THE MISSING MATTER.

   %T      The Missing Matter
   %A      Thomas R. McDonough
   %C      New York
   %D      January 1992
   %I      Bantam Spectra
   %O      paperback, US$4.99
   %G      ISBN 0-553-29364-8
   %P      297pp + 8pp +53pp

Evelyn C. Leeper   |   +1 908 957 2070   |   att!mtgzy!ecl or [email-masked]