About Einstein's Bridge

A Novel of Hard Science Fiction
by John Cramer
Ebook: $6.99

Somewhere in the Multiverse, in a lab distant from the Makers’ Planet, Tunnel Maker, Creator of Bridges, answers an alarm. His inter-universe probe is detecting signals from another bubble universe, indicating that some new high-intelligence alien species is doing high-energy physics and creating hyperdimensional signals. Tunnel Maker knows that, in another bubble universe, the predatory Hive Mind should be receiving the same signals. It is time to make a Bridge . . .

George Griffin, experimental physicist working at the newly operational Superconducting Super Collider (SSC), observes a proton-proton collision that doesn’t make sense. He chases it down and discovers a Bridgehead, a wormhole link to the Makers’ universe. With help from theorist Roger Coulton and writer Alice Lancaster, he establishes communication with the Makers, only to learn that a Hive invasion of Earth is imminent. As the Hive invasion is destroying humanity, by wormhole the Makers transport George and Roger back to 1987, where they must undertake the task of manipulating the Reagan, Bush, and Clinton administrations to change the future and prevent construction of the SSC.

Arriving too late for a full review, physicist-author Cramer's latest hard science fiction yarn (Twistor, 1989) begins in an alternate ``bubble'' universe where the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) project didn't collapse through lack of funding in the 1990s. Instead, in 2004, the search for the elusive Higgs boson begins -- but the operation of the SSC inadvertently sends a signal into another bubble universe, this inhabited by the malignant and utterly ruthless Hive, who colonize new universes by completely obliterating the competition. Fortunately, the benevolent Makers also receive the signal and send a message back alerting Earth to the danger. Cramer splendidly demonstrates just how fascinating and mind- boggling real science can be, and shows exactly how vulnerable basic research is to political whim.

An all-new tale of science and suspense that has already been praised by best-selling author David Brin as "an intriguing look into the world of high-tech physics -- and high energy imagination."

In 1989, world-renowned physicist John Cramer burst on the science fiction scene with his brilliantly inventive high-tech thriller Twistor. That novel garnered admiration and accolades from SF fans, the science community, and general readers alike for its intriguing plot, rapid-fire pace, and heartstopping suspense. Now Cramer does it again, with an all new high-wire science thriller.

It is the year 2004. Two physicists and a writer are drawn together at the site of the giant Superconducting Super Collider -- a particle accelerator recently completed in the Texas outback. When the high-energy experiments produce an unexpected anomaly, they are the first to realize that it is a communication from another universe. Too late, they decipher the warning from an alien life form who informs them that yet another, hostile, intelligence known simply as "The Hive" will also respond to Earth's signals. For, The Hive combs the cosmos, seeking intelligent life, establishing communications and, once it has learned all it can, destroys.

An ingenious mix of real-life science and vivid drama, EINSTEIN'S BRIDGE is an edge-of-your-seat voyage through space, time, and imagination.

"A fast-paced, insider's view of how high energy physics actually works ... I couldn't put it down."--Gregory Benford

"A fascinating look at how real science and the associated politics work...[and] marvelous speculation about the possibilities out at the cutting edge."--Poul Anderson

John Cramer is a professor of physics at the University of Washington. He writes the bi-monthly science column for Analog Magazine. He divides his time between his home in Seattle, and Switzerland, where he is involved in work on the particle accelerator at CERN.

	This is the Einstein's Bridge book jacket from the original Avon hardcover and trade paperback editions (1997). Click on the icon for a larger (25k) image.
	This is the Einstein's Bridge book jacket from the Baen Books eBook edition (2023). Click on the icon for a larger (25k) image.

This is a summary of Einstein's Bridge that was written when the novel was being offered to Avon in 1995.

Einstein's Bridge (130,000 words) is a hard science fiction novel about about high energy physics, wormholes, alien contact, time travel, and the killing of the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) Project. It is set Waxahachie, Texas in the year 2004 when the Superconducting Super Collider, an $8 billion high energy particle accelerator, has just come into operation. The SSC collides two 200 TeV beams of protons, producing concentrations of energy that have not occurred since the early Big Bang. Unknown to the SSC physicists, these collisions produce signals detected by two warring alien civilizations, one benevolent and the other hostile. These aliens are isolated in universes that split off from ours in the Big Bang. They both use wormholes (the "bridge" of the title) to make contact with intelligent life in other universes. The benevolent aliens contact SSC scientists, warn them, and try to help them defend our world from colonization by the hostile aliens, but they are too late. The only remaining way of defeating the alien invaders is to intentionally destroy our own universe - "unravel" it actually - back to a time before the SSC began to operate. Two protagonists are thrown backwards in time to 1987; their mission: to stop the SSC project before history repeats itself.

Einstein's Bridge is a "novel of discovery", in that much of the action involves scientific detective work and problem solving. It is a "novel of ideas", because scientific concepts, theories, and ideas are essential to the story. The novel has strong, fully-developed characters which are necessary for this story, but unusual in hard SF. The portrayal of Texas culture and physics culture both come from the author's personal experience. He was born in Houston and lived in Texas for the first 26 years of his life. His portrayal of high energy physics and the SSC laboratory is based on his work in relativistic heavy ion physics at the CERN laboratory, his study of the planning for the SSC, and personal interviews in Waxahachie during the early stages of the SSC project.

The last part of the novel is also unusual, perhaps unique in SF, because real events and political actions between 1987 and the present are fictionalized and given new significance and meaning by the plot. The author's portrayal of the inner workings of national politics also comes from personal experience in presenting the case for the value of basic research to members of several Administrations and to members of Congress and their staff. Media reports were studied in detail for the period from 1987, when the SSC project was announced by Reagan, to 1993 when the project was killed by the US Congress. Quotations used on the part number pages are usually taken from Science, Nature, Physics Today, or the American Physical Society's "What's New" electronic newsletter.

Einstein's Bridge is John Cramer's second novel. It may be compared to his first novel,Twistor, which received very favorable reviews, was nominated for several awards, and was commercially successful, with SF Book Club and British editions and a new (1996) Japanese edition from Hayakawa. Both works are novels of discovery in which the principal protagonist is a physicist who makes an important and unexpected discovery. Both use scientific problem solving as an important plot element. Both have strong characterization. Both, in fact, involve other universes, but in very different ways. The novels differ in that Twistor was about small-scale condensed-matter physics research in a university laboratory, while Einstein's Bridge is played on the broader stage of national politics and of high energy physics, with its multi-billion dollar accelerators and teams of a thousand physicists working together to discover the inner secrets of the universe.

John G. Cramer

Very difficult book to find, but one of my favorite sci-fi novels. If you understand anything about Superconducting Super Colliders, this book will be very entertaining. Sheldon Cooper (Big Bang Theory) would find this most entertaining. It takes the SSC project that was being built in Texas, but funding was unfortunately canceled by Congress in 1993, a horrible mistake that turned high energy particle physics research leadership to the Europeans and the Large Hadron Collider, the most powerful particle accelerator ever built, in CERN, Switzerland. Anyway, the book follows the completion of the SSC in Texas and opens a subspace signal picked up by a war- like race of aliens that started the enslavement of the human species. I’ll stop there. But it is very sci-fi entertaining. Unfortunately, it never made it to audio books.

Believe it or not, it was the Acknowledgements that made me buy Einstein's Bridge. John Cramer wrote that when the Superconducting Super Collider project was scrapped in 1993, it was a year before he could bear to look at his unfinished manuscript. I "felt his pain." Those who have an interest in particle physics will especially enjoy this book, although I think any fan of hard sci-fi will be delighted with it. The characters are great--likable and believable. The real beauty of this book is its highly original plot. The backdrop is Waxahachie, Texas, (yes, that was to be the SSC site) in the first decade of the 21st Century -- in other words, 'bout now. Our high-energy physics experiments have attracted notice of two different groups of aliens. We have the bad guys, who invade and take over other worlds, and the good guys, who empower other civilizations to defeat the bad guys before the invasion can be completed. They do this by contacting us and teaching us to "read" and "write." (These words will never have the same mundane meaning to you again after this book!) There is plenty of good science mixed in with the fiction, and enough twists to keep you wondering how on earth it will resolve itself. Much to my delight, time travel was even introduced. I don't want to say more, as it would spoil the plot. This book takes you along on a great ride--enjoy it!

     All right, so if you were ever involved with high energy physics [I was], and especially if you're American [I'm not], this is going to remind you of lot of things, even if you've missed the latest developments (basic string theory all right? QCD is now obsolete, in case you hadn't noticed. Bubbles, bubbles, anybody remembers bubble chambers?).
     Dr. Cramer's gift is to be able to paint skillfully the inside of a modern physics lab ten years ago, the hierarchical pecking order therein, going down from top dog - the head of a facility - to the electrician servicing some parts of an experiment, and shows them as people, with the complex pattern of their relations, not as empty formula-spouting cardboard characters, which is unfortunately so often the doom of the not-too-crafty hard science fiction writer, even when the author is a scientist.
     Dr. Cramer shows also a more-than-basic knowledge of the legislative arm of the US federal government, and effectively describes some of its failings, as well as the mystique in "science research financing" which actually is pork in disguise, in a fairly interesting way.
      Also, his physics is good and it takes a reasonably good experimental physicist (alas, I no longer am) to understand when he deviates from real science to fairy tale (though at least partially credible).
     I am sure this will appeal to all scientists who read SF (I admit being one), but its ease of writing, its 3D characters and the plot twists should reach beyond this specialized audience.
      Excellent book, entertaining and as good or even better than "Twistor".
      A must for the hard SF fan.

      I don't know how many times I read and enjoyed this novel when it came out 19 years ago. I lent my copy to someone who moved on and didn't return it (perhaps I did the same with one of his!), so recently when I got the itch to re-visit the story I was lucky enough to find a very good and affordable used copy.
     The concept is ingenious, the plot brilliantly presented. I find both the science and the fiction to be deeply involving.
      Central characters (except for the villains) are all likable and relatable. The historical facts are deftly integrated with the fiction, and the author's afterword teases them out from each other in an honest and helpful manner.

     After having enjoyed Twistor some years ago, I have been waiting for a possible sequel to that novel. The tantalizing glimpse of an alien world accessible through a "gateway" bore the promise of much adventure.
     Einstein's Bridge is certainly no sequel to that book, though the concept of parallel universes also forms its basis. It is an exceptionally good "hard science" story. The physics is credible and presented with such clarity that very few readers will be discouraged. They will indeed learn quite a lot about high energy physics along the way and gain much insight concerning the way scientific research is done and how the related "politics" works. The characterization of the protagonists is good, the plot is excellent for its rigor and unpredictability. There are some truly terrifying moments (when the "Hive" is found and breaks loose) that have the same kind of impact as the claustrophobic anguish of being embedded inside a tree in Twistor. Like in that novel, the ending is also open, though more ominous ...
     An exciting adventure that no reader will ever forget. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and encourage the author to continue practicing his considerable talent for SF. He can at least count on one unconditional reader of his next novel: me!