Sun Fall
by Jim Al-Khalili, 2019, Bantam Press, 440pp, available through Amazon.
When I learned that Jim Al-Khalili, a top theoretical quantum physicist and world-famous television presenter had written a science fiction novel, Sun Fall, I knew I had to give it a read. In part, it was because [shameless plug follows] my own two novels were titled Ice Fall and Earth Fall. I spotted a blurb from James Lovegrove at the Financial Times that read, “Reminiscent of vintage Arthur C. Clarke…has a chilling, nail-biting authenticity.” Well, Clarke influences my writing to a great degree. Are Doctor Al-Khalili and I sympatico as writers?
There are similarities. His style is more like Kim Stanley Robinson’s—scientifically literate, conversant with academia, and capable of great action sequences. (Nobody is going to forget KSR’s description of the fall of the space elevator in his Mars series!) I think I’m a good writer. I think Al-Khalili is better.
It’s important to remember that Al-Khalili is a leading theoretical physicist because an overview of the plotline sounds like a really bad science fiction movie like the ones they delight in showing on the SciFi channel. Earth’s core is rapidly losing its magnetic field, and scientists plan to bombard the core with rayz to make it magnetic again. (“General, my instruments tell me every neutrino in the universe has suddenly acquired a positive charge!” “What does that mean, you commie egghead?” “Well, for sure, it means volcanoes in Los Angeles.” In reality there would be a bright flash, a loud bang, and the entire universe would cease to exist. “OK, Brainiac, what do we do about it?” “General, I advise building snow berms to divert the lava flows!” “Done. Let me just get 50,000 children in the path of the lava so we have something to talk about for the rest of the movie.”)
Al-Khalili does rationalize the breakdown of the magnetic field on the polar shifts that do occur from time to time, although it is still somewhat unconvincing. That may be the only significant weak plot point.
Al-Khalili begins with a series of vignettes meant to show the approaching crisis. Between the weakening field and a solar minimum (low point in the eleven-year sunspot cycle) cosmic rays are hitting the upper atmosphere, ionizing the upper troposphere and promoting development of cloud droplets. As a result, storms, already enhanced by climate change, become horrific behemoths. His descriptions of Hurricane Jerome are harrowing.
He introduces readers to two new particles—neutralinos, and chargerinos. Neither actually have been discovered, but neutralinos are a valid hypothetical reality amongst physicists in their ongoing struggle to balance the books on the quantum nature of reality. They are the dark matter equivalent of neutrinos. Chargerinos do have a charge (anti-energy?) and so can be manipulated by magnetic forces. The trick is to produce eight streams of neutralinos around the globe, change them to chargerinos, aim them in the microsecond before they impact the Earth, timed to the instant they decay back into neutralinos, which can then penetrate solid matter the way neutrinos do. Riffing off Harold Ramis, one of the protagonists advises, “Don’t let the beams cross!” otherwise a huge magnetic storm is unleashed. Unless, of course, you WANT a huge magnetic storm. Then it’s all just a matter of timing.
Neutralinos might exist. Chargerinos were emitted from Al-Khalili’s south pole, although in his defense, particle physics these days are the most mathematically and logically brain-busting clusterfuck in the history of science.
Dark matter exists. It has to, otherwise all the galaxies would fly apart because there isn’t enough gravity in the observed mass to stop them from doing so. To make the observed phenomena and the math work, you need roughly 20 times as much mass as we can see—what isn’t “there” we call dark matter. The vast majority of the universe that isn’t vacuum (which is seething with anti-energy, something else we can’t detect but merely strongly suspect) is there only in theory. By cubic meter, the universe isn’t very crowded, but it should be. Anti-energy is there to explain why the universe is expanding (and considerably faster than we first thought, according to data just released last year, and even worse, the rate of expansion is increasing. So galaxies aren’t flying apart although they should, but are part of something much larger that IS flying apart, but shouldn’t. Got it? Good. I’m glad we had this little talk.
You might think this would throw theoretical physicists into deep despair, but no. They just get demented glints in their eyes, shout “For Science!” and start scribbling furiously on white boards.
Al-Khalili loves this, and it shows in his writing. There’s a sly humor that permeates the story line. For example, two of his main protagonists are a pair of scientists who gained modest fame by writing a paper showing how anti-matter interacts with itself to create matter. Just an unassuming little paper, you understand. In reality, a discovery like that would be huge; not only would they both get Nobel Prizes, but they would have to set up a subscription with Amazon to have a new Nobel Prize delivered every month. Doctor, you have been in England, I surmise.
Al-Khalili’s characters, including the Iranian cyb girl who is both the driving force and often the MacGuffin thoughout the story, are likable and engaging. (He does rather telegraph the Big Bad, but only the genre-savvy will notice, and he doesn’t spoil the suspense).
And there is plenty of genuine suspense as Al-Khalili build the stakes and the twists and turns ever tighter. The writing is taut, expert, and builds to a great climax. The tactics and counter tactics are ingenious, and scientifically informed.
It’s a terrific first novel, and I look forward to more of his work.