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I'm trying to find the name of a book I read awhile ago. It involved a bunch of gateways that you could sort of fax yourself to. You could have multiple copies of yourself running around and if one of them died they could be recreated from the last time they went through the portal. The story is about someone going around and killing all the copies of this guy, I also remember a part where he found copies of himself and of his attempted murderer that that guy had tortured almost beyond recognition.

Anyone know this book?

John Rennie
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Silver
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  • Was the main character a famous physicist who'd invented the portal technology who was trying to create a similar creation through which he could observe the end of the universe? – user867 Sep 30 '15 at 07:56
  • I remember he was an important guy, creator of the tech sounds like it could be right, I don't remember his goals tho – Silver Sep 30 '15 at 08:38
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    http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Twinmaker – Valorum Sep 30 '15 at 08:41
  • I remember a book where the cloning part was illegal or accidental. The police checks if somebody was cloned by comparing the energy that enters and leaves the system. If more energy leaves than entered, somebody was cloned. They found murdered clones of people and could not explain how they were cloned because the energy was balanced. It turned out that the clones where stored (and tortured) in a virtual reality and the clone was created later when the dead body was deposited. The police made the mistake to just check the energy balance at the time of the transport of the original. – Hothie Sep 30 '15 at 08:47
  • That sounds very interesting, wouldn't mind knowing that one too, lol. This one the cloning was a method of travel or being in 2 places at once. You could also rejoin the memories of all the copies into a single person again – Silver Sep 30 '15 at 08:59
  • Possibly the same as this: What short story has teleportation from Mars (or another planet) to Earth? Sounds similar with the teleport / cloning idea. – Reinstate Monica - Goodbye SE Sep 30 '15 at 09:08
  • @Richard noooooooooooo! –  Sep 30 '15 at 09:15
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    No that's not it wikis. I think this one mostly revolved around him trying to figure out who was trying to kill him – Silver Sep 30 '15 at 10:08
  • Hothie is likely referring to "The Resurrected Man" by Sean Williams, but in that one, it's a man who thinks his clone may be torturing and killing clones of woman going through the transport network, so I don't think it's a match. – FuzzyBoots Sep 30 '15 at 12:34
  • 93% certain you are in fact referring to Charles Stross''s book Glasshouse. – keshlam Sep 30 '15 at 16:01
  • Did the clones differentiate between each other by their middle names? The original had a middle name starting with A, clones from him had B, etc? – Politank-Z Sep 30 '15 at 16:50

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This sounds very much like the "The Queendom of Sol" series of books by Wil McCarthy. It includes "fax" machines that allow the transportation and duplication of objects (including people). There were several people who had multiple "copies" in these books, including the antagonist as well as a tortured version of the protagonist (a brilliant scientist who created some of the technology in use). Two of the major "sciences" in the books is Wellstone (basically a mutable form of matter) and "Collapsium" (ultradense matter). http://www.amazon.com/The-Collapsium-Wil-McCarthy/dp/055358443X

Nathan
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  • I need to read it to be sure but I think this might be it. Thank you – Silver Oct 02 '15 at 02:21
  • Your welcome. Seeing your comment above about recombining the clones only makes me more sure that this is the correct series. I will not spoil the book(s) by explaining why. – Nathan Oct 02 '15 at 22:01
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The method of long distance travel matches that in Frederik Pohl's and Jack Williamson's Saga of Cuckoo books (Farthest Star and Wall Around a Star). Tachyon gateways were moved into place at slower-than-light speeds, and then you could beam an exact copy of yourself to the remote gateway. The original stayed behind. More duplicates could be created at the far end as needed, exact copies of the version that originally passed through the gateway.. The rest of the plot you describe is totally different, though.

LAK
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  • That sounded so close but reading the summaries for them it's not the one I'm looking for. Might just add it to my to read list tho – Silver Oct 01 '15 at 04:35
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I'm officially betting Glasshouse, by Charles Stross. The mention of the vivisected adversary was the clincher for me, combined with this being a relatively recent book and there was an sfbc edition. I could call out a few other points from the description but they would be spoilers so I'd rather not. The OP can probably find a blurb or quote somewhere to check; I'd lend my copy, but...

keshlam
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