Does anyone know the title of this science fiction book?
August 3, 2011 11:43 PM Subscribe
Please help me recall the title of a young adult novel science fiction that was a favorite of mine as a child
OK Here is what I recall: the novel was about the daughter of a woman that was part of an experiment to go into another dimension. The protagonists name was Meg I believe. The experiment involved cooling a cube down to absolute zero . Everyone who went into the chamber and looked at the cube went insane except for the protagonists mom who developed the ability to "twist" into another dimension after looking at the cube and move about and come out in a different place in our world.
The daughter inherited the ability and was taught how to twist into the other dimension by her mom. Both the daughter and the mom were being sought after by the government (or some nefarious corporation) in order to use their ability but the mom just pretended that she could no longer twist . The book taught me the word tessaract (I had to look it up when I was a kid) and it was a fave of mine but I can no longer recall the title. Does anyone remember this book? Thank you !
OK Here is what I recall: the novel was about the daughter of a woman that was part of an experiment to go into another dimension. The protagonists name was Meg I believe. The experiment involved cooling a cube down to absolute zero . Everyone who went into the chamber and looked at the cube went insane except for the protagonists mom who developed the ability to "twist" into another dimension after looking at the cube and move about and come out in a different place in our world.
The daughter inherited the ability and was taught how to twist into the other dimension by her mom. Both the daughter and the mom were being sought after by the government (or some nefarious corporation) in order to use their ability but the mom just pretended that she could no longer twist . The book taught me the word tessaract (I had to look it up when I was a kid) and it was a fave of mine but I can no longer recall the title. Does anyone remember this book? Thank you !
Response by poster: Thanks jet_silver but sadly I don't think that it is. When I googled some time ago "A Wrinkle in Time " had plot elements that I would have recalled such as traveling in space. In the book that I recall everything takes place on earth. Furthermore the cooled absolute-zero cube was an essential part of the plot (which does not exist in Madeleine l'Engle's novel. As I recall the book opens with the experimenters talking about the cube and how everyone went insane by just standing in the room with the cube the shows the protagonists mom going in the room and learning how to twist into the other dimension. I think it then fast forwards 10 or 20 years and focus on the daughter.
So nice try - but that's non the one :)
posted by Poet_Lariat at 11:49 PM on August 3, 2011
So nice try - but that's non the one :)
posted by Poet_Lariat at 11:49 PM on August 3, 2011
Best answer: This is The Universe Between by Alan E. Nourse, my favorite science fiction novel of all time when I was a kid. You do have it a bit confused with A Wrinkle in Time, but the mom's name is Gail and her son's name is Robert.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 11:56 PM on August 3, 2011
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 11:56 PM on August 3, 2011
Response by poster: YAYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!
Hugs and kisses - that's it! Been thinking about it for a year to no avail - just googled the title and say the book jacket and it was the same as I remember. How very odd tough that I remember the protagonists as being distinctly female (wtf??!) . But you are amazing and so is Metafilter. Now to Amazon !
posted by Poet_Lariat at 12:01 AM on August 4, 2011
Hugs and kisses - that's it! Been thinking about it for a year to no avail - just googled the title and say the book jacket and it was the same as I remember. How very odd tough that I remember the protagonists as being distinctly female (wtf??!) . But you are amazing and so is Metafilter. Now to Amazon !
posted by Poet_Lariat at 12:01 AM on August 4, 2011
Curiously, chapter 10 of A Wrinkle in Time is titled "Absolute Zero."
posted by mumkin at 12:02 AM on August 4, 2011
posted by mumkin at 12:02 AM on August 4, 2011
The plot is from a short story by Alan Nourse, "High Threshold". Maybe he expanded it or somone stole it for a novel. There is only one woman in the story, a tough sociopathic type; she figures out how to solve the problem and, at the end, also how to deal with dimensional travel. Some lines from the story:"..a pencil that I inserted halfway into the area...it came out a thin layer of graphite all around a solid wooden core. We dropped a mouse into it, and...well, it was something of a mess."
"The answer came to her with blinding clarity, and she knew the answer to the investigation problem. And the solution to the threshold. A new-born baby!"
"Paranoiac withdrawal would appear logical, to McEvoy. Infuriating but logical. It would block him... And if he tried to force her -- she could simply come back here. Inside. She wouldn't need an entrance any more, for any place could provide and entrance, and she now knew where to look."
On preview: it looks like Nourse turned the story into a novel. Kudos, Harvey.
posted by CCBC at 12:09 AM on August 4, 2011
"The answer came to her with blinding clarity, and she knew the answer to the investigation problem. And the solution to the threshold. A new-born baby!"
"Paranoiac withdrawal would appear logical, to McEvoy. Infuriating but logical. It would block him... And if he tried to force her -- she could simply come back here. Inside. She wouldn't need an entrance any more, for any place could provide and entrance, and she now knew where to look."
On preview: it looks like Nourse turned the story into a novel. Kudos, Harvey.
posted by CCBC at 12:09 AM on August 4, 2011
Response by poster: Yup CBCC that is it all right ! :) I just found someone selling a hardcover edition for 27 bucks with the weird green cover that I remember. It was one of the first books after Red Planet that I got out of the library . I must have been about 8 or 9 . I remember it was always almost too high on the shelves for me to reach :)
posted by Poet_Lariat at 12:12 AM on August 4, 2011
posted by Poet_Lariat at 12:12 AM on August 4, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by jet_silver at 11:43 PM on August 3, 2011