- Mass Market Paperback: 544 pages
- Publisher: Tor Books (Dec 15 1988)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0812531787
- ISBN-13: 978-0812531787
- Product Dimensions: 17 x 10.4 x 4.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 136 g
- Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
"Benford is a rarity: A scientist who writes with verve and insight not only black holes and cosmic strings, but about human desires and fears."-- "The New York Times Book Review""A major book by a major author and highly recommended."-- "Booklist"
--This text refers to an alternate
Mass Market Paperback
edition.
Book Description
Artifact
A small cube of black rock has been unearthed in a 3500-year-old Mycenaean tomb.
An incomprehensible object in an impossible place; its age,its purpose, and its origins are unknown.
Its discovery has unleashed a global storm of intrigue, theft andespionage, and is pushing nations to the brink of war.
Its substance has scientists baffled. And the miracle it contains does not belong on this Earth.
It is mystery and madness -- an enigma with no equal in recordedhistory. It is mankind's greatest discovery ... and worst nightmare.
It may have already obliterated a world. Ours is next.
A small cube of black rock has been unearthed in a 3500-year-old Mycenaen tomb.An incomprehensible object in an impossible place; its age, its purpose, and its origins are unknown.
Its discovery has unleashed a global storm of intrigue, theft and espionage, and is pushing nations to the brink of war.
Its substance has scientist baffled. And the miracle it contains does not belong on this Earth.
It is mystery and madness-an enigma with no equal in recorded history. It is mankind's greatest discovery. . .and worst nightmare.
It may have already obliterated a world. Ours is next. --This text refers to an alternate Mass Market Paperback edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Indiana Jones meets Particle Physics,
By
This review is from: Artifact (Mass Market Paperback)
Perhaps I'm biased because I like Benford's style: I couldn't put the book down. I read it straight through, just stopping once for lunch. It's not Benford's best book because his others are all so great, but it was much better than I expected after reading the other reviews here. Benford mixes in plenty of realistic science, archaeology, and university politics with the action of the plot. At the end of the book, an interesting "Technical Afterword" puts the sci-fi in context with "real" physics.My favorite line from the book is typical Benford: "He had noted that the noise in a room rose as the square of the number of people in it..."
2.0 out of 5 stars
BARELY ENTERTAINING AND HARD TO READ,
By A Customer
This review is from: Artifact (Mass Market Paperback)
I've read other Benford books before, and this does not compare to his previous work! The heroine here is an immature and reckless and chain-smoking, crazy woman called Claire. She's an amateur archeologist who STEALS a precious artifact from Greece just to get revenge on the Greek co-director of the dig site. The Greek dude, Kontos is guilty of sexual harrasment to Claire, but Claire, the crazy woman that she is, is guilty of GRAND THEFT of a national Greek treasure. I also consider her GUILTY of all the TROUBLE caused by her theft! Her utterly brainless ... actions lead to a WASTE OF US TAXPAYER MONEY because the US has to launch a major military operation to try to FIX UP the consequences of HER THEFT! Lots of people lose their lives (Greek and American) because of HER STUPIDITY!!!!!!! And guess what? She lives in the end, she gets her man and has a happy ending! How stupid! The plot of this book is totally majorly [dumb]! Mr. Benford, if this is what has become of your writing talent, I believe you should stick to PHYSICS and stop trying to be an SF/Adventure/Romance writer!!!!!!!!!
2.0 out of 5 stars
Good science; Bad fiction,
By
This review is from: Artifact (Mass Market Paperback)
While I basically have difficulties with "hard science-fiction", I enjoy reading it in order to expand my mind and seek a better understanding of theoretical science. Gregory Benford is good for this, and he is capable, as in "Timescape", of writing a good story embodying the science. For me, "Artifact" just does not fill the bill. I honestly had the impression that he was trying his darndest to write something that could possibly be turned into a movie. The heroine is a typical educated woman trying to prove herself professionally, faced with a military type adversary who wants to bed her. She enlists a conveniently weaker though intellectually capable guy to help her smuggle a mysterious object out of Greece into the U. S. Naturally, the object turns out to be a scientific oddity with sinister capabilities. I'm not one to say that you won't enjoy this quite long novel. All I can tell you is that I believe I'm a very literate and also a very tolerant and diversified reader who likes much of what he reads....and I found this to be a chore to read.
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