Big Bounce, The

A casual evening between friends becomes something far more dangerous when a laboratory curiosity refuses to behave like anything science has seen before. What begins as an amusing demonstration quickly grows into a problem that accelerates beyond calculation, feeding on its surroundings and gaining power every time it touches the world. As the implications sink in, excitement gives way to urgency. Each attempt to control the discovery only sharpens the risk, turning ingenuity into a race against scale, distance, and time. The further it travels, the harder it becomes to stop, and the cost of failure grows with every bounce. The story unfolds with mounting tension and dry, uneasy humor, balancing scientific speculation with a creeping sense of inevitability. What starts inside a private basement threatens to spill into public space, forcing a decision between containment, destruction, and consequences no one can fully predict. Walter S. Tevis brings a sharp, disciplined intelligence to the page, grounding speculative ideas in believable human reactions. Best known for later novels such as The Hustler, The Man Who Fell to Earth, and The Queen’s Gambit, Tevis began his career writing tightly constructed science fiction that treated ideas as physical forces, not abstractions. The Big Bounce reflects that approach perfectly, turning one elegant concept into an escalating chain of real-world danger.