MATHEMATICAL FICTION:

a list compiled by Alex Kasman (College of Charleston)

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The Rock (1996)
Robert Doherty
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"Five people--including an Australian Air Force computer operator, a Mexican engineering professor, a New York housewife, a Colombian Special Forces officer, and an English mathematician--are invited to help save the world.". I'm afraid I haven't gotten around to reading it yet so All I know, from reading the sample pages at Amazon, is that it has something to do with the recordings from the space probe Voyager emanating from inside Ayers Rock (Uluru) in Australia!! I don't know how significant the math is. But then, isn't that what the internet is for. You, reading these words right now, have you read "The Rock"? If so, please help me out by telling me more about this book!

Contributed by Jerry Summers

The Rock is a Terminator-style novel that employs the skills of a ex-military special forces major, mining engineer from New Mexico, child prodigy female physicist and female mathematician. The mathematician utilizes statistical projections to predict future economic/world events. There is no direct mathematics except some discussion of statistical projections using probabilities. In the Country of the Blind by Michael Flynn is a much better novel about statistical projection especially if it includes Flynn's submissions to Analog magazine.

More information about this work can be found at www.amazon.com.
(Note: This is just one work of mathematical fiction from the list. To see the entire list or to see more works of mathematical fiction, return to the Homepage.)

Works Similar to The Rock
According to my `secret formula', the following works of mathematical fiction are similar to this one:
  1. In The Country of the Blind by Michael Flynn
  2. Foundation by Isaac Asimov
  3. Bellwether by Connie Willis
  4. Dark as Day by Charles Sheffield
  5. Habitus by James Flint
  6. Manifold: Time by Stephen Baxter
  7. Diamond Dogs by Alastair Reynolds
  8. Snow by Geoffrey A. Landis
  9. Catch the Lightning [Lightning Strikes Vols. I-II] by Catherine Asaro
  10. The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter
Ratings for The Rock:
RatingsHave you seen/read this work of mathematical fiction? Then click here to enter your own votes on its mathematical content and literary quality or send me comments to post on this Webpage.
Mathematical Content:
1/5 (1 votes)
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Literary Quality:
2/5 (1 votes)
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Categories:
GenreScience Fiction,
MotifFemale Mathematicians, Future Prediction through Math,
TopicProbability/Statistics,
MediumNovels,

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Exciting News: The 1,600th entry was recently added to this database of mathematical fiction! Also, for those of you interested in non-fictional math books let me (shamelessly) plug the recent release of the second edition of my soliton theory textbook.

(Maintained by Alex Kasman, College of Charleston)