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Cargando... The Amazing Crystal: Revelationspor Gerald Lizee
Ninguno Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro.  SheilaDeeth | Nov 13, 2014 |  sin reseñas | añadir una reseña
In the summer of 2025, Lydia's grandfather sent her a strange diamond pendant admonishing her to handle it with utmost care. From the moment that she receives the small package, her life changes. She becomes engulfed in a series of life-threatening events that lead her to realize the incredible properties of the pendant. Slowly she learns that the diamond contains an alien intelligence able to communicate directly with the human brain. Rumors of its powers spread, the Mafia designs a Machiavellian plot to seize the extraterrestrial gem, whose value is estimated at $ 100 billion. An unprecedented confrontation occurs between mercenaries hired by the Mafia and American security services. As rumors continue to grow, the American authorities are forced to release stunning revelations about the life and mission of the alien genius to the peoples and nations of the world. The news throws the scientific world into turmoil. Economic and political ideologies are brought into question and religious beliefs are shaken. But the Mafia wants to have the last say: confrontation is inevitable.This science fiction novel addresses questions relevant to a growing number of readers. Recent discoveries in astrophysics suggest that there is a large number of exoplanets likely to contain liquid water and a breathable atmosphere able to contribute to the emergence of life. If aliens exist, are they scientifically and technologically ahead of Earth by thousands, millions or even billions of years? If so, have they already colonized or visited Earth? How could they overcome intergalactic distances given the limitations inherent in the barrier provided by the speed of light? Is it possible that aliens have been present on earth for billions of years? If so, what form would they take? Can they communicate with us? If the answers to these questions are positive, how would humans react when informed of these facts via a large television news chain? What would your own answers be after reading "The Amazing Crystal"? No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
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The year is 2025, and Lydia, whose “gently innocent appearance belied the fact that just a few months before she had obtained a doctorate magna cum laude in physics,” receives a parcel containing two USB drives and a crystal pendant, with instruction from her grandfather to hide them. (Reader beware! Some perfectly normal women with doctorates might take offense at Lydia's description.) Meanwhile Mafia specialists with “infallible methods to make the toughest of their victims talk” are out to get her, and an “ultra-secret group of scientists” is coming to the end of its work deciphering secrets surrounding the amulet.
The Amazing Crystal is an amazingly detailed story, where every room of a house and every item of clothing is lovingly described before an abduction. Scientific discoveries are laid out at similar length, frustrating perhaps for scientists who might wonder why the world’s best representatives can’t ask better questions, and also for lay-readers who might struggle to care about string theory in three pages. But Lydia conquers her “legendary shyness,” becoming positively loquacious as she divulges the world’s new history, science and social science on global TV. Religions object and scientists cling to old ways in dismay; the Mafia fights back; and the power of the mind (combined with the alien of course) might conquer all.
The English translation reads somewhat stiltedly, especially where dialog is concerned, and, while the storyline contains the sort of serendipity you might expect in a middle-grade novel, an underlying romance leads to a somewhat more adult scene. Meanwhile the science, despite an “annex... meant specifically for readers having an adequate mastery of the science of elementary particle physics,” remains unconvincingly supplied with loopholes and unasked questions, at least in the eyes of this Cambridge mathematician. The "What if" definitely intrigues, but I guess I'm not the intended reader.
Disclosure: I was given a free ecopy and I offer my honest review. (