Timescape, however, is not simply another disaster novel. Benford offers no lantern-jawed scientists to singlehandedly save the day, no last-minute, jury-rigged miracle machines to zap the algae, no superhuman feats of heroism. Rather, he uses the crisis to present a penetrating look at the way real science is done. As one of the few working scientists to also write science fiction (David Brin, Robert Forward, Joan Slonczewski, and Charles Sheffield are others), Benford knows how research is actually conducted, and one of his purposes is to demolish the cliches about scientists that are found in so many science fiction novels. Benford's physicists, both those in 1998 and those in 1963, are complex men and women who, with very few exceptions, love their work, but whose lives are full of distractions.
Although they may yearn to.....
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