The God Particle by Richard Cox Review

Ballantine, May, 2005
Trade Paperback, 304 pages
ISBN: 0345462858
Ordering information:
Amazon.com

The God Particle
by Richard Cox Two men's lives become intertwined in a search for the ultimate power in this cerebral, exciting speculative thriller. Mike McNair is the chief physicist and director of the North Texas Superconducting Super Collider, which was privately funded by a billionaire after the government lost interest in the project. McNair is determined to identify the elusive Higgs boson (known as the God Particle), a field of energy that is theorized to hold our universe together. Meanwhile in Zurich, auto parts manufacturing executive Steve Keeley finds his highly-ordered life thrown into chaos when he discovers his fiancé's infidelity. The drunken spree that followed that discovery lands him in a hospital where he is told he fell out of a third-floor window (thrown is more like it) and that he had brain surgery. After the surgery, Steve starts seeing a mysterious white field all around him. As his powers increase, he finds he can read people's thoughts and see the particles that make up our world. Concerned he's losing his mind, Steve asks himself: "Is insanity simply reality that no one else can see?" When he reads about Mike McNair's research, some of what is happening to him makes sense and he knows he has to head to Texas to find the physicist. The two men meet up, just as McNair discovers that someone has been altering the test results of his experiments with the super collider. Slowly, the agenda of the shadowy figures behind the funding of the super collider begin to emerge.

Author Richard Cox combines particle theory, suspense and speculation about the nature of God and the universe, with excellent results. Explaining physics to readers without a scientific background can be tricky: Cox navigates those waters with ease. By using clever metaphors, he makes complex theories easily understandable without sacrificing the underlying science. The atmosphere is perfectly drawn: an air of genuine paranoia suffuses the hapless Steve Keeley, for example. There are at least two romantic subplots, but the tale resonates most when the focus goes back to the super collider and what secrets it might reveal. McNair, the brilliant and somewhat shy physicist is the most engaging character by far. In fact, after he handled all the adventure and intrigue in The God Particle, he really deserves a sequel all to himself.

--Claire E. White





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