Time Crystal nominated for People's Book Prize

April 4, 2010 - PRLog -- The People's Book Prize is a UK national competition aimed at discovering talented authors judged on-line by members of the public. It has support from senior figures in the world of publishing with Patrons such as Dame Beryl Bainbridge and Paul Blezard.

Time Crystal Volume One is the first work of fiction by British author Wyken Seagrave and he says 'I am thrilled that Time Crystal has been nominated for the People's Book Prize. Winning a prize is one of the main ways that a new author can raise their profile above the flood of new books which pour onto bookshop shelves every year, and I hope that listeners to my free podcasts will want to support the book by voting.'

People can vote at http://www.peoplesbookprize.com/book.php?id=382

Time Crystal is that rare thing, a work of science fiction with a serious educational purpose. It is probably the first work of fiction ever to use the whole history of the Universe as its backdrop. It starts by exploring a feasible and scientifically unassessed risk that a persistent black hole could be created at the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) at CERN by capturing a cosmic monopole in the strong magnetic fields and feeding it with the stream of particles from the beams until it grows into a black hole.

Having convinced the reader that this risk is real the story then takes a leap of imagination and supposes that two characters can be absorbed by said black hole and find themselves outside the universe. This is perhaps the least scientific aspect of the story, but it gives the author the opportunity to look at the Universe as no more than an element in his far larger story. It turns out to be a cosmic egg, an element of the reproductive cycle of creatures who live outside the Universe, and one character, Chinese-Irish scientist Michael Zhang, breaks the egg's shell and causes time to stop everywhere inside the Universe except near fragments of blue crystal.

The story's protagonist is fourteen-year-old Irish school-girl Catriona O'Brien who is called to go down the tunnel created by these fragments, carrying them down so that the other character, Sam Fitzpatrick, can stick them back together and restart time. On her way down she passes through every phase of history, having adventures and seeing a wide range of basic science by having adventures to rescue lost crystal fragments.

The novel is both entertaining and educational. It has taken Wyken eight years of effort so far and will require another five years to complete. 'I'm very hopeful that people will fall in love with the characters as well as getting tied up with the plot. We've got a long way to go together so I've spent a lot of time and effort on the emotional engagement with the characters.'

The novel is supported on-line by the author's blog, by a weekly newsletter, by an on-line game and a range of other attractions available at www.timecrystal.co.uk

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Penny Press publish of books, podcasts, on-line games and websites connected with the history of the Universe and introductions to basic science.
We passionately believe we should all know where we came from and how we relate to the Universe around us.