"Would, ah, would a hundred trillion dollars be enough?"

The range and depth of McCarthy's imagined technologies are dazzling -- I'm reminded of Eric Drexler's pioneering "Engines of Creation," and I hope McCarthy (or someone) does a speculative science article on the technological implications, if the zero-point field explanation for gravity turns out to be correct. (If you've seen one, I'd appreciate hearing about it.) Lots more neat SF ideas where these came from...

So I was really pumped, reading the first hundred pages -- cool science, nice style, nifty characters, a big-screen space-opera storyline. What's not to like?

Well, the rest of the book? The first thud comes when Bruno is recalled to the inner system -- to fix the same problem again! Then he has to fix it a third time, with even sillier, pulpier results. His scientific competitor, and rival for the Queen's affection, turns out to be a really horrid villain... And the characters are hard to kill, because they have backups, except when they don't -- but wait, maybe they do, after all... And characters start acting, well, out of character. And there's a pointless, dangling subplot, among other loose ends. I suppose McCarthy intended to write a good old-fashioned super-science melodrama, except with real science -- but the last two-thirds of the book just didn't work, for me anyway.

Which is a pity, because "Crushed" is brilliant, and the science is so cool. Oh well -- I'd rather read an ambitious failure than a potboiler. If you're already a McCarthy fan, or crave bleeding-edge hard SF, you won't want to miss The Collapsium -- the good parts anyway. And who knows, your tolerance for melodrama may be higher than mine; other reviewers have been more generous.

But if you're new to McCarthy, I'd start with Bloom or another, earlier book -- and you should try him, he's very good. Usually. Both the Bloom and The Collapsium universes have plenty of room for more stories; maybe next time he should coast a little on the science and work harder on the fiction.