Author:	Paul Preuss
Copyright:	1983
Date Reviewed:	7/20/85
Rating:	5.0

Synopsis: Peter Slater is a physicist working at TERAC, a high energy particle physics research facility in Hawaii. The most important project at the lab is the generation of I-particles, atoms that contain an inside quark. Peter believes that the I-particle is unstable but is disputed by the project director Martin Endovich. Reporter Gardner Hey and his photographer Anne-Marie arrive in Hawaii to cover a conference at TERAC. Days before the conference, an explosion occurs at the lab killing one scientist and injuring another. What follows is an investigation of the cause of the explosion. Sabotage is initially suspected but ultimately the cause is found to be the unstable I-particle. In the process, Anne-Marie has an affair with Peter and Gardner is killed by Charles Tolliver, a spy selling the I-particles to the Defense Department for weapons research. In the end, Tolliver is also killed when the I-particles he stole reaches critical mass aboard an airplane.

Review: Lately I've read three science fictions that dealt with some aspect of hard science research. Besides this one there was another story about particle research ("The Genesis Machine" by Paul Hogan) and one about the search for extra-intelligent intelligence ("The Listeners" by James Gunn) All three were incredibly boring. Is it so impossible to write an interesting science fiction about research or are all research topics sleepers? "Broken Symmetries" spends the first 130 pages setting up the characters, then goes to the explosion. The next 130 pages could have been describing an industrial accident. There was nothing here that hinted of science. By the time I-particles were suspected things did become interesting but it was too late.