Simply dazzling
|
This is the best book I've read in a long time.
Whether it's straight-forward high quality science fiction you're after, or just a good story that you can't put down, or something to challenge those old grey cells into thinking a bit more about whether 17 really IS the "meaning of life, the universe and everything" ... this book is first class at all levels.
|
|
Once you open Pandora's box.....
|
.
This book revolves around the invention by a power hungry business fat cat of the WormCam - a wormhole camera. The development starts as a way of linking points in space so that everything can be witnessed in real time and just as people are getting used to this concept, the technology is developed further to link points in time. To be precise, to view any point, anybody, anywhere in history. And the technology is available to all.
Now humanity has to suffer the escalating consequences of knowing every secret ever kept and the horrific realisation that people of the future are watching them, now.
This is a clever book of unravelling horror. Not for those already pre-disposed to paranoia.
|
|
|
Science fiction without character is just scientific speculation
|
I felt I had to write this review to counteract Robert Holmes' fairly damning comments about the characterisations in this book. I loved the book both for the astounding vision of one possible future it portrays, and because it does manage, within its wide-sweeping history of the effects of a single scientific development, to portray a range of characters - some sympathetic, some not - and create reader interest in their future.
Write a science fiction without believable characterisation and you are left with such travesties as the supposed sci-fi classic, Tau Zero, where in the end, who really cared what happened? I struggled to bother finishing that book, in spite of the amazing "scientific" ideas it detailed.
In contrast, I enjoyed every page of "The Light of Other Days". The effects Mr Baxter and Mr Clarke envisage of having no social privacy are thought-provoking and in many cases convincing, whilst the initial use of "wormcam" for intrusive papparazi journalism is both a damning comment on society today and very believable. I love the way that the human race grows in mental stature over the course of the book as a direct result of controlling their own access to the truth. An optimistic vision that is a welcome change from much of the doom and gloom in today's sci-fi.
There is nothing here that would cause unacceptable offence to any religion in my opinion. It is a fictional, speculative book that contains sufficient believable science and likable characters to be a gripping and thought-provoking read. It makes no claims about the veracity of the supposed "absolute truths" described.
Highly recommended in my opinion, and a must for any fans of ACC.
|
|
|
Thought provoking
|
|
The wealth of ideas in this book are so expansive and in a sence magnificent that it makes the outlook of even religons seem quite small.
|
|
Disturbing light of other days
|
The Light of Other Days is a science fiction novel written by Stephen Baxter, based on an outline, ideas, and extensive editorial input by Sir Arthur C. Clarke. It concerns a concept that has always been an interest of mine, namely a “time viewer,” by which it would be possible to look into the past, to see past events as they really happened, when they happened, as if you were present there. As a historian, this is something that has always fascinated me, but I must say that after having read this book, I fervently hope that such a device never becomes a reality.
Although it must be said that a future such as is portrayed in LOD would be exceedingly unlikely to occur, even if the “time viewer” became a reality. This is one of several flaws in the book, the other major one being the soap opera-like human drama story that develops side by side with the technical stuff. There is the obligatory love story, which is extremely annoying and unnecessary, and almost all the main characters are unpleasant and uninteresting. The technical side is frequently fascinating, though, describing the development of the “WormCam” technology (based on the use of wormholes, through which it ultimately becomes possible to view any place, at any time, in the galaxy), and all its implications (although, again, the impact of this technology on society as it is described is both extremely unpleasant and, in many cases, very unlikely to happen in a real human society). The glimpses into the past are interesting, but a lot more could have been made of it. One particularly annoying detail is the politically correct, feel-good, what-a-nice-guy-our-Jesus-was portrayal of the life of Jesus. All the uncountable atrocities committed by Christians are only briefly touched upon (although there are some nice episodes), but very little is said about the devastating impact of truth on religion, just some brief comments that “some” religions collapsed whereas others were “cleansed” and continued to exist. And, understandably, neither Mohammed nor the evil of Islam is really mentioned at all (the authors probably not desiring all that much to be hit with a flurry of fatwas from a horde of bearded Islamic fanatics). There is also the typical Clarke mysticism and ideas about transcendence, as the concept of the “Joined” is briefly explored (yet another very unpleasant idea). There is, however, a nice twist at the end.
This book is worth reading for its technical aspects, but it is flawed and in many ways disturbing (in that way a bit similar to Childhood’s End).
|
|
|
United States | 
United Kingdom | 
Canada