Singularity

Singularity, by William Sleator, is by far one of the most interesting science-fiction novels I have read. I recently finished it with my reading tutor, who was a former physics professor at the University of Illinois. Sleator also taught at the U of I, and my tutor got to meet him shortly before Sleator's death. The book revolves around two twins, Harry and Barry. Harry is the nerdy twin, and Barry is the athletic one. Whenever they go out, Barry's always the one that gets talked to, and Barry is always acting like he's better than Harry.

Both of the twins go to their uncle's house, who died a little while before from an unknown cause. The twins' parents drop them off there, where they spend the next couple of weeks. Initially, the twins just explore their uncles mansion, which is a little spooky. After they finish exploring the mansion and not finding anything too weird, they go outside and find the most important place in the story; The Playhouse. The Playhouse (as their uncle called it) was really a box of metal. Harry and Barry decide to spend some of their time by cleaning it up. 

Barry goes into The Playhouse, while Harry goes inside. What Harry doesn't know at that moment, is that he had unkowingly locked Barry in The Playhouse. When Harry comes back 3 minutes later and opens the door, something odd has happened. Barry did not look the same as he did just five minutes ago; he had changed. He was unshaven, and looked fithly in general. Barry angrily asks Harry why he locked him in there for a whole day?? Harry is confused, as it only seemed like 3 minutes had passed for him, until he realizes something; time passes much faster inside the shed then compared to the outside world (about 480 times).

Harry looks into this more, and realizes something; The Playhouse is built upon a Singularity (hence the name of the book), which affects the rate time is moving. A "Singularity" is a single point with infinite mass. It is so dense, it can affect the Spacetime warp. 

Soon after this, Harry and Barry meet a girl, Lucy, who they both take a liking to. Lucy naturally chooses the athletic twin, Barry, making Harry upset. He makes his decision which will affect the rest of the story, as well as the rest of his life. He decides to spend a night in The Playhouse; or, at least, a night for everyone else. For him, this night will be almost a year long. The rest of the story is about Harry's time in The Playhouse, which is honestly pretty dull. All he does is exercise, eat, and then sleep, although there are some interesting psychological factors. For example, Harry feels obliged to do the same thing every day, and tries to have fun with it, perhaps illustrating some of Sleators' learnings back when he was head of Psychology and the University of Illinois.

In conclusion, Singularity by William Sleator is an extremely captivating, science fiction story which takes in many physics as well as psychology to create an extremely interesting story. I would 100% recommend to everyone.