From Library Journal
In his second novel, following No Man's a Mountain (Mayhaven, 1996), physics professor Cramer writes elegantly about the ramifications from the high-particle physics superconducting supercollider (SSC). Two alien races notice the SSC activities?the Hive assimilates and destroys civilizations while the Makers share knowledge. In a race toward first contact with Earth, we can only hope the Makers reach us first. Recommended for hard sf collections.Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Kirkus Reviews
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. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.



"Plenty of futuristic, alternative universe excitement."


SF REVU, June, 1997 by Ernest Lilley
John Cramer's second book snuck up on me. It bills itself on the cover as a novel of hard science fiction, and that's just the way I like my SF, so I picked it up.... John Cramer is a working physicist, that class of Hard SF author that writes science from the inside out. I have to go back and read Twistor, his first book, to see if it was nearly as good as Einstein's Bridge. One can only hope. Comparisons to the best of Gregory Benford, Robert Forward, and James Hogan are in order. If John Cramer can maintain the quality of his work, he will more than give them a run for their money.


SF Site, June, 1997 by Wayne MacLaurin
Billed as a novel of Hard Science Fiction, Einstein's Bridge is the latest from the author of Twistor. Set in the near future of the early 21st century, Einstein's Bridge uses advanced high-energy physics as a method of introducing First Contact with an alien race (The Makers)....

John Cramer is both a novelist and a physicist at the University of Washington, and at times I found that the novel required a Ph.D. or two itself to really catch all the nuances (much as Carl Sagan's Contact did). But it doesn't really matter -- nuances aside, what fuels a good read is the plot....

Cramer weaves a compelling tale and even manages to deal with the paradox of the two physicists meeting their younger selves. All things considered, Einstein's Bridge is definitely worth the read.


Locus "The Newspaper of the Scinece Fiction Field", December 1997, Vol. 39 Number 6 by Russell Letson
John Cramer's Einstein's Bridge is subtitled "A Novel of Hard Science Fiction" but manages to encompass at least one other subgenre as well Despite the mixing of genres, I guess this really is "a novel of hard science fiction," in both the sense of "getting the science right" and "being about the work of scientists." For all the melodrama of its demonstration, the physics behind the the cosmology is pretty authoritative - Cramer is a world-class physicist and formulator of the transactional interpretation of quantum mechanics which figures prominently in the book's second half. He is also well-situated to show how Big Science projects operate internally, what their relationship to government should be, and what happens when that relationship is distorted.... On a whole, though, I came away from the book admiring the clarity of its arguments about science and politics and the ingenuity of its science-fictional Ideas, from nearly- here telepresence devices to way-out-there organic nanotechnology. Cramer's sensibility is closer to Analog than to, say, Greg Egan, but I'm glad to have both of them.


StarLog Magazine, August, 1997 by Jean-Marc Lofficier
Fans of hard science fiction novels will love John Cramer's new book, which combines the grandiose vision of an Arthur C. Clarke with the good old-fashioned nasty aliens of a Jack Williamson or Larry Niven.... The presumably impeccable cutting edge science is fascinating, and the author's afterword, distinguishing fact from speculation, makes a good read. One hopes that Cramer will someday revisit the worlds of the Makers and the Hive.


Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact Magazine, December, 1997 by Tom Easton
John Cramer's Einstein's Bridge is a very different sort of tale from Preuss's, yet it is also a historical novel of a sort. The history is more recent, however.... The end result thus offers plenty of futuristic, alternate universe excitement, but it takes us beyond the standard SF approach to explain why the present is the way it is, at least in one respect.


Book Description
In a newborn twenty-first century, tunnels through spacetime have connected our planet with hitherto unimagined alternate universes. After many years, the genius minds working at the SSC project have reached out into the vast cosmos to achieve their greatest dream: contact. But with whom. . .or what? And at what cost? For something has received their message--an ancient, hostile entity searching for knowledge and life to absorb and annihilate; and entity that has now locked onto a faint, persisting signal emanating from a distant, uncommonly fertile feeding ground. . .called Earth.


About the Author
John Cramer is the author of the acclaimed hard-SF novel, Twistor, and writes a bi-monthly column for Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact magazine. He lives in Seattle, WA, where he is a professor of physics at the University of Washington, and travels regularly to Switzerland to work at the particle accelerator at CERN.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In a newborn twenty-first century, tunnels through space-time have connected our planet with hitherto unimagined alternate universes. The genius minds working at the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) project - a fifty-three-mile-long underground particle accelerator - George Griffin and Roger Coulton have realized their greatest dream, and novelist Alice Lancaster is there to witness their triumph. Reaching out into the vast cosmos, Griffin and Coulton have finally made contact. But with whom? Or rather...with what? For their message has been received by an ancient, hostile entity that combs the many universes searching for knowledge and life to absorb and annihilate. And now the entity has locked onto a faint, persisting signal emanating from a distant, uncommonly fertile feeding ground...called Earth.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

In his second novel, following No Man's a Mountain (Mayhaven, 1996), physics professor Cramer writes elegantly about the ramifications from the high-particle physics superconducting supercollider (SSC). Two alien races notice the SSC activitiesthe Hive assimilates and destroys civilizations while the Makers share knowledge. In a race toward first contact with Earth, we can only hope the Makers reach us first. Recommended for hard sf collections.

Kirkus Reviews

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.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

A fast-paced, insider's view of high energy physics actually works -- and why its brightest people may be its worst enemies. I couldn't put it down. — Gregory Benford