Book details of 'Standing Wave'

Title	Standing Wave
Author(s)	Howard V. Hendrix
ISBN	0441005535
Language	English
Published	September 1998
Publisher	Ace Books

---

Back to shelf Science Fiction
Amazon.com info for Standing Wave

Score:

Vote for this book

The Virtual Bookcase Reviews of 'Standing Wave':

Reviewer Rob Slade wrote:
To say what this novel is about would be to deny its buddha-nature. Or something. The plot, such as it is, seems to be primarily a structure for stringing together endless pseudo-profound lectures. It is very hard to get into the book as such. Indeed, a sizable chunk at the beginning reads like a collection of short stories, seemingly intent on presenting a random set of future technologies in order to buttress the claim of the work to be called science fiction. As in the endless novel that is being written by "Peanuts'" Snoopy, these threads are eventually related, if not woven together, but much of the book does read like a series of intercut novellas, tied to each other by random coincidences. How about the technology? Well, it's very hard to comment, since trying to nail down an idea in this book is like trying to pin jello to the wall. However, one technology that plays a large part in this roughly fifty-years-hence future is the infosphere, a sort of supercharged Internet. A great many of the plot devices used throughout rely on functions that simply are inconsistent not only with existing telecommunications, but with basic ideas about information processing and transfer. I suppose I have only myself to blame: when the jacket copy talks about "philosophical ore" and "thoughtful science fiction" it should be a warning. While there is a limited amount of technology in this book, there really isn't any science. Oh, certainly there are mentions of quantum physics, "bubble" cosmology, topological transformations, and a number of other high level topics, but these topics are not explained or examined in any real sense. Even the title is a mistake: the author confuses the concept of multiple or reflected wave functions interacting in such a way as to create a certain function at a stationary point, with the idea of moving (and self-reinforcing) solitons. As is usual in works of this calibre, the author hasn't even mastered simple math. An analysis of the number of options of holding up fingers on a hand figures that there are only five, rather than the correct thirty two. This is newage science: vague ideas gleaned from popularizations and tending to rose coloured mysticism. There is a kind of continual namedropping of technical terms from a variety of fields. This is "X- Files" science, or possibly worse: a few pieces of jargon misrepresenting the basic foundations and holding to the more egregious philosophical and pseudo-scientific attitudes of our age, such as the belief that evolution has some objective, or that a sufficiently large aggregation of unsorted facts or events will somehow create something magical (and wonderful). In opposition, one is inescapably reminded of Stephen Crane: A man said to the Universe: "Sir, I exist!" "However," replied the Universe, "the fact has not created in me a sense of obligation." or Mark Twain: Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first. Word play seems to be very important to the book. There are a number of deeply buried puns such as a book entitled "Myth's Edge and Nation" that refers to miscegenation. This should give you an idea of the level of profundity we are dealing with here. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1999
Add my review for Standing Wave

Book description:

It began with Lightpaths... And now, in the near future, humanity will encounter a vast new intelligence. It is virtually immeasurable. It is beyond alien. And it is coming... * Hendrix has been nominated for the Nebula Award and the Pushcart Prize for his short fiction