Final Theory (novel)
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| Author | Mark Alpert |
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| Original title | Final Theory: A Novel |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction, Techno-thriller |
| Publisher | Touchstone |
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Publication date
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June 3, 2008 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback, Hardcover) |
| Pages | 368 pp |
| ISBN | (first edition, hardcover) |
Final Theory is a 2008 techno-thriller novel written by Scientific American editor Mark Alpert and published by Touchstone Books. The novel fictitiously posits that Albert Einstein actually achieved his life's ambition of discovering a unified field theory. If he had been successful in developing this theory, it would have large consequences to the world, including the development of a weapon of mass destruction. Final Theory is Alpert's debut novel.
The narrative begins with the brutal attack on the aged theoretical physicist Hans Walther Kleinman by Simon. Simon was acting on the orders of the mysterious Henry Cobb to extract information on the Einheitliche Feldtheorie - the unified theory that Einstein worked during his last years. Dr. Kleinman was one of the four close students of Einstein and one of the secret keepers of the great theory. David Swift, a former student of Kleinman, and a professor of History of Science at Columbia University was summoned to the hospital where Kleinman was undergoing intensive care after his attack. Just before succumbing, he pulls David close and wheezes two words in German: "Einheitliche Feldtheorie" and tells him a sequence of numbers. Soon, Swift is intimidated by Lucille Parker, a sixtyish FBI Agent who is also after the theory. Simon attacks the garage where the FBI held David, and David escapes.
Meanwhile, the FBI takes Karen, David's ex-wife and his son Jonah into custody. David on the other hand, succeeds in boarding a train headed for Princeton. He decides to meet an old friend of his, Monique Reynolds a string theorist at Princeton University. Monique at first is skeptical about his story. David soon comes to know of the deaths of two close students of Einstein, Jacques Bouchet of the University of Paris and Alastair MacDonald, who was under treatment for mental disorder. The sequence of numbers that Kleinman gave David, pointed to the location of The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University where another close student of Einstein, Amil Gupta worked. They decided to tell him the news, and head to Pittsburgh. Simon and the FBI succeeds in following them to CMU.
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