Subject: Baxter: Timelike Infinity

From: [email-masked] (Dani Zweig)
Date: Mon, 17 May 1993 01:45:39 GMT

Stephen Baxter's "Timelike Infinity" is a member in good standing of
one of the older sf traditions -- the book-length physics lecture
interrupted or connected by bits of story.  A great deal of modern
physical theory is waved before the reader (though most of it is
just evoked, rather than explored in any detail), including wormholes,
exotic matter, grand unification theory, and singularities -- naked and
otherwise.

The story, what there is of it, is just an excuse for the lectures.
A group of refugees flee the conquered Earth of the future and travel
through time to their past (still our future).  There are theories
which could allow them to change history without triggering any paradoxes,
and we get to hear about them at some length.

That's about it.  The author manufactures some tension and some time
pressure by having them inexplicably delay a year before acting on their
plan, until the one they're fleeing can follow.  And the author makes
the pursuer act like an idiot, so the story won't end swiftly and
anticlimactically.  And the writing is poor.

The author's earlier book, "Raft", was better.  "Raft" took one
small slice of physics (a universe with a much higher gravitational
constant), explored it in depth, and actually told a story in the
process.

People who value hard sf for its science-content may appreciate
"Timelike Infinity", but I don't recommend it for readers who are
looking for good story-telling.

-----
Dani Zweig
[email-masked]

   If you're going to write, don't pretend to write down.  It's going to be the
   best you can do, and it's the fact that it's the best you can do that kills
   you! -- Dorothy Parker