- Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
- Publisher: Tor Science Fiction; First Edition edition (Jan 15 2001)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0812576403
- ISBN-13: 978-0812576405
- Product Dimensions: 17 x 10.6 x 2.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 181 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (74 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,185,414 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon.com
The crowning achievement of any professional writer is to get paid twice for the same material: write a piece for one publisher and then tweak it just enough that you can turn around and sell it to someone else. While it's specious to accuse Stephen Baxter and Arthur C. Clarke of this, fans of both authors will definitely notice some striking similarities between Light of Other Days and other recent works by the two, specifically Baxter's Manifold: Time and Clarke's The Trigger.
The Light of Other Days follows a soulless tech billionaire (sort of an older, more crotchety Bill Gates), a soulful muckraking journalist, and the billionaire's two (separated since birth) sons. It's 2035, and all four hold ringside seats at the birth of a new paradigm-destroying technology, a system of "WormCams," harnessing the power of wormholes to see absolutely anyone or anything, anywhere, at any distance (even light years away). As if that weren't enough, the sons eventually figure out how to exploit a time-dilation effect, allowing them to use the holes to peer back in time.
For Baxter's part, the Light of Other Days develops another aspect of Manifold's notion that humanity might have to master the flow of time itself to avert a comparatively mundane disaster (yet another yawn-inducing big rock threatening to hit the earth); Clarke, just as he did with Trigger's anti-gun ray, speculates on how a revolutionary technology can change the world forever. --Paul Hughes --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Publishers Weekly
HTwo titans of hard SF--multiple award-winning British authors Clarke (Rendezvous with Rama, etc.) and Baxter (The Time Ships, etc.)--team up for a story of grand scientific and philosophical scope. Ruthless Hiram Patterson, the self-styled "Bill Gates of the twenty-first century," brings about a communication revolution by using quantum wormholes to link distant points around Earth. Not content with his monopoly on the telecommunications industry, Patterson convinces his estranged son, David, a brilliant young physicist, to work for him. While humanity absorbs the depressing news that an enormous asteroid will hit Earth in 500 years, David develops the WormCam, which allows remote viewers to spy on anyone, anytime. The government steps in to direct WormCam use--but before long, privacy becomes a distant memory. Then David and his half-brother, Bobby, discover a way to use the WormCam to view the past, and the search for truth leads to disillusionment as well as knowledge. Only by growing beyond the mores of the present can humanity hope to survive and to deal with the threats of the future, including that asteroid. The exciting extrapolation flows with only a few missteps, and the large-scale implications addressed are impressive indeed. For both authors the novel's conclusion takes place in familiar thematic territory, offering a final, hopeful transcendence for humanity. With Clarke's and Baxter's names behind its potent story, this one could sell big--and to the movies as well as to the reading public. $250,000 ad/promo. (Feb.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
A little after dawn, Vitaly Keldysh climbed stiffly into his car, engaged in SmartDrive, and let the car sweep him away from the run-down hotel. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
A little after dawn, Vitaly Keldysh climbed stiffly into his car, engaged in SmartDrive, and let the car sweep him away from the run-down hotel. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting ideas,
By Kathi Mills (Lilburn, GA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Light of Other Days (Hardcover)
I picked this book up because of Arthur C. Clarke, and it is my first time reading Stephen Baxter. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The exploration of how society reacts when all privacy is absolutely stripped away, and when all of Earth's history - back to the first life form - is available for everyone to see with 100% accuracy, could have been explored at greater length. "True biographies" of famous people such as Jesus and Abraham Lincoln are obtained with the WormCam technology, and found to be significantly different from what is widely believed. I found the book somewhat predictable, but the ideas were engaging.
5.0 out of 5 stars
If you like to think, this book is for you.,
By
This review is from: The Light of Other Days (Hardcover)
This book was excellent. I am a long time fan of Arthur C. Clarke and a fan of Stephen Baxter. I was surprised that some reviewers thought it was such a grim perspective on the future of Humanity. I thought it was very positive and thought provoking
2.0 out of 5 stars
disappointing,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Light of Other Days (Mass Market Paperback)
The Light Of Other Days, by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter (though by the style of writing, it appears Clarke had little input outside of the basic concept), was sadly a tremendous disappointment.The premise is simple: In the near future, scientists discover how to generate tiny wormholes that can peer anyplace, anytime - even into the past. They are cameras of unlimited and unstoppable power. Naturally, society must adapt to this great change. The idea of scientists being able to unravel the past makes for a great story that could really touch on some fantastic issues. Filled with promise, it fell flat. The themes and situations that could have been explored were barely touched on. What could have been thought provoking was instead a gigantic let down. It wasn't even worth it for the revelation near the end, which was interesting but anti-climatic in much the same way as "Clarke's" Rama sequels were. The story touched on privacy issues and other such concerns, because the device central to the plot acts as a kind of remote camera, able to see anywhere and everything, but that theme is badly managed and poorly handled. An underground society that arises is painted half-heartedly, and the paranoia of those gripping with this changed world does not come across. Even the writing is less than gripping, often slow and boring. The characters are stale, the prose sloppy. Both men are better writers than this. Fans of either author would do well to save their money.
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