Twistor

A university physics experiment unexpectedly opens a door into an alternate universe in this first novel by physicist and science writer Cramer. Before he leaves his protagonist, professor David Harrison, stranded, with a colleague's two children, in the gargantuan forest of the shadow world, Cramer has set in motion several other plots, from the problems of a venal department head to the more serious threat by a nefarious corporation determined to make off with the invention. These busy, rather artificial developments, not to mention a romantic subplot, detract from the appealing central situation. Given Cramer's dry, stiff, academic prose and the equally dry, stiff, academic characters, the interesting and dramatic kernel of physics speculation will open only to the most persistent of readers. Science Fiction Book Club featured alternate. (Mar.)