Customer Reviews

The Light of Other Days

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

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

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.

I don't know whats wrong with that JRH fella below...but he is way off base. This book is about a boy and a girl who like to eat cheese. Sometimes they buy swiss but mostly it's just cheddar. The climax really choked me up - can't go into details because I don't want to spoil it for you but OMG!!111

I had read the Rama series by Arthur C. Clarke, and liked the sequels which had been co-authored with Gentry Lee than the original which Clarke wrote himself, as well as Manifold: Time, by Stephen Baxter, which I hated, so I wasn't sure I would like this book. But it was highly recommended by a co-worker and the subject sounded interesting enough that I gave it a try.

The concept was everything that I had hoped for with the invention of the WormCam and the fall-out from their use. The implications regarding privacy, honesty, history and religion were all very intersting to consider and were presented well in the book. Where I thought the story was lacking was in the more focused plot involving the inventor of the WormCam and his family. That story wasn't terribly interesting, and the characters were all fairly shallow and I didn't care too much about what happened to them. I was also a little annoyed that the authors didn't seem to know when the Colosseum was built, as it appears in the story around 40 years before it existed. There were also some othe minor things that annoyed me, such as how quickly the breakthroughs were made in the WormCam development, and also some of the more practical aspects of using the WormCam that weren't explained well. Like, for example, if someone is walking around "in the past" using his WormCam, how does he avoid walking into walls in the present? Overall, however, I thought the concept of the WormCam was interesting enough to overshadow the other problems, and it's capped off with a very well done ending that ties everything up pretty well.

I would recommend this book even if you don't necessarily like the authors because of the interesting subject, and if you are a fan of Clarke or Baxter, then you will probably enjoy it that much more.

This is one of those rare science fiction books that combine hard science fiction with philosophy in a well-paced and entertaining plot. But then, what would you expect when two masters of the field combine their considerable talents?

The Light of Other Days revolves around the development of microscopic worm holes, and the resulting ability to ingest light from their surroundings. The enterprising developers soon create "WormCams," and society shutters under a complete loss of privacy. Then, just as people start to come to grips with their new "public" life, another shock is unleashed. The WormCam's developers discover a way to see back in time, hence the book's title.

The Light of Other days is a wonderful read, and the surprise ending is very gratifying.

--David Hitchcock, author, VIRTUAL LIFE and PATENT SEARCHING MADE EASY

This book is what science fiction is all about melding the science of tomorrow with an exciting fictional story.

This one of those rare science fiction book that makes you think even long after you finish reading it. The more we learn about quantum physics the less that seems undoable or unimaginable. This book looks at the issue of time travel in a whole new light.

It also deals with the social impacts of technology. Today you see teens dealing with life much differently than the generations before them. This book does a great job of showing the potential social impacts of a technology that lets people see all.

I'm a bit biased Clarke fan, having enjoyed all his works I've read thusfar. This book continues the run. I strongly recommend you give this book a read.

Though I haven't read it yet (it wasn't quite out when I wrote this review) you may want to also look at the next book these two fine authors have written Time's Eye.

This was a well executed concept. Clarke and Baxter do an excellent job exploring the social, cultural, and political consequences of life-changing techology.

The reason for four instead of five stars: the characters, as with many works of sci-fi, are extremely flat and static. I didn't really care about them. Also, for anyone with a modest background in Quantum Mechanics, the science behind the invention will seem rather transparent, i.e. too farfetched to be plausible.

BUT, the end of the novel is very satisfying. The concepts and propositions explored are absolutely fascinating. If you're a deep thinker--one of those people who loves to ponder the Big Questions--you will undoubtedly enjoy this.

The science extrapolations are phenomenal, but unlike some of the other reviewers, I found the foundational theories in the early chapters too vague to be plausible.

Also, although I do not fear to question religion, experience has made me a mystic. Clearly Jesus was a mystic, as well as Mohammed and numerous others. I wonder why the authors did not explore Mohammed. (I doubt they were honoring his adamant demand that no likenesses be made of him and that no one re-enact him.) Speculation on the Vedas could have been fodder, too.

I was surprised by the greatness of this frequently-overlooked book. I have long been a fan of Sir Arthur C. Clarke, having read nearly everything in his vast canon, beginning in my freshman year in high school. It was his writing that ignited my long-time passion for science fiction. With this in mind, I had long stayed away from the various "Arthur C. Clarke and..." books, scared off by the many negative reviews and not wanting to tarnish my opinion of a legend and one of my favorite authors. Indeed, this very book was sitting on my bookshelf, unread, for over a year before I recently finally decided to tackle it, owing to a lack of other materials to read.

I am ashamed that I waited so long. This is a truly excellent book. As the authors themselves readily admit in the Afterward, the concept of a time viewer is not a novel one in science fiction, though it is one that has not been overdone, as have many other SF scenarios and plot devices. This brilliant novel uses the concept of a time viewer -- a device which, as originally designed, could merely see through walls -- to comment upon many different things: corporate ethics, organized religion (a subject that has long been anathema, if you will pardon the pun, to Clarke's agile mind), privacy, government and the citizen's role in it, the moral responsibility of scientists, many aspects of history, and much more. The discovery of such a device, as anyone can see, would drastically alter the course of human society forevermore -- whether for good or for ill, no one, as yet, can say. I, personally, find the Clarke/Baxter vision to be somewhat too optimistic -- but, who knows, it may be closer to the truth than my more cynical outlook. Clarke, as anyone who has read him knows, has always been optimistic about technology's ability to inspire, unite, and help mankind, in stark contrast to seeming Luddites such as Huxley and Vonnegut; anyone who has read his early essays on communications, a field in whose modern creation he played no small part, can hardly help but to agree with him, despite what has happened since. One gets the feeling that Clarke, one of the ablest minds of our times and one of the greatest stars of post-WWII literature, who tesifies that he is still an optimist because he still believes that Man has a 51% chance of survival -- "some days it gets a high as 51%, some days as low as 50.5%, but never below 50%" -- is too good for this world. Hopefully, the afterlife, something which Clarke may or may not believe in, will be, for him, on a much better planet that is more deserving of him. Alas...

The authors use the concept of the time viewer to comment -- speculatively, of course, but very thoughtfully -- on various historical events and persons, ranging from Abraham Lincoln sexuality to Albert Einstein's dying words* to the Crusades to Moses to Jesus Christ Himself. The chapter on the latter figure is one of the book's more interesting: it makes for very good reading, and is highly compelling, thoughtful, and, above all, respectful. Like many atheists and agnostics, Clarke retains a very high degree of respect for the historical Jesus. The book's characters come across as genuinely human and quite believable: I actually felt empathy for them. One gets the feeling that this is more the work of Baxter than Clarke, as the latter has often been accused of writing flat, wooden characters. That said, some of the human aspects of the plot are a bit too soap opera-y, especially for science fiction -- again, probably the work of Baxter -- though it never degenerates to the level that Clarke's collaborations with Gentry Lee sometimes did. Regardless of who did the majority of the writing -- I read an article saying that it was written mostly by Baxter, using Clarke's 8-page outline as a starting point, with them throwing ideas back and forth all throughout the entire process, with Clarke, by virtue of his expertise and connections, doing some research on the side -- the writing is quite good throughout. The prose is often highly poetic and beautiful, much in the style of Clarke's best work, particularly the last chapter and the epilogue. It uses many literary touchstones made famous by such writers as Philip K. Dick, Kurt Vonnegut, and, of course, Clarke himself. The ending is absolutely mind-blowing: completely unexpected, it is immensely interesting and thought-provoking, and sets the entire novel in a heretofore unexpected light. It is a grand, epic ending in the traditon of Clarke's Childhood's End, which is referenced in the Afterward as a previous exploration of the time viewer, along with Clarke's short story The Parasite, which, he has said elsewhere, served as the basis for this novel.

Overall, an immensely rewarding book that I recommend to anyone who is a fan of Mr. Clarke -- and who isn't? Do not be discouraged by the negative reviews you may have seen of this book or of his other collaborations; once again, I repeat, IF YOU LIKE ARTHUR C. CLARKE, YOU OWE IT TO YOURSELF TO READ THIS BOOK. I had not previously read anything by Baxter, but that situation will soon be rectified. A modern hard SF giant, The Light of Other Days is a crowning achievement of contemporary science fiction.

*=If anyone can translate the word that the dying Einstein utters in this novel, please e-mail it to me,... Thank you.