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43rd out of 101 books
—
79 voters
Raft (The Xeelee Sequence #1)
Stephen Baxter's highly acclaimed first novel and the beginning of his stunning Xeelee Sequence. A spaceship from Earth accidentally crossed through a hole in space-time to a universe where the force of gravity is one billion times as strong as the gravity we know. Somehow the crew survived, aided by the fact that they emerged into a cloud of gas surrounding a black hole,...more
Paperback, 256 pages
Published
1992
by Grafton
(first published 1991)
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This is another of those novels that really gives your imagination a workout. The universe Baxter envisions here is probably as weird as they come. What I really liked about Raft, was that the reading style was actually quite accessible, considering the science behind all of this. Hard science it is, too. Infused with wonder, the world of Raft is discovered little by little as the reader follows the revelations and discoveries of the protagonist, who starts the story with about as much knowledge...more
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What a nice surprise this was.
A highly entertaining science fiction adventure story from an author I have been informed is synonymous with hard SF, huge ideas and complex explanations.
I bought this one over a year ago and totally forgot about it. My recent exploration of new authors with the reading of The Mammoth Book of Future Cops encouraged me to try some Baxter, at which point I saw this book sitting on my overpopulated sci-fi shelf.
It was a remarkably easy read; a traditional adventure st...more
A highly entertaining science fiction adventure story from an author I have been informed is synonymous with hard SF, huge ideas and complex explanations.
I bought this one over a year ago and totally forgot about it. My recent exploration of new authors with the reading of The Mammoth Book of Future Cops encouraged me to try some Baxter, at which point I saw this book sitting on my overpopulated sci-fi shelf.
It was a remarkably easy read; a traditional adventure st...more
9 likes · like · see review
There is nothing in the world of literature that conveys such wonder and love of understanding and knowledge as good hard science fiction. It's really fantasy at its best. It's protagonists are not really main characters in the book, but world, universe itself; humans in it just provide human eyes and emotions through which we experience the beauty.
This book is not an a exception - we find ourselves in the whole different universe, the one in which gravitational force in billions times stronger...more
This book is not an a exception - we find ourselves in the whole different universe, the one in which gravitational force in billions times stronger...more
It's easy to imagine that in his folder of notes for Raft, Baxter has reams and reams of sums and diagrams detailing how the unusual and varied gravitational set-up in this book hangs together. Maybe he even wrote a little program that shows animations of weird orbital mechanics. I'd like to see that.
Sadly, I doubt he can have written more than half a page on the characters who populate the tale, in pretty much the same sense that NPCs populate a Dungeons & Dragons module. Really, no-one in...more
Sadly, I doubt he can have written more than half a page on the characters who populate the tale, in pretty much the same sense that NPCs populate a Dungeons & Dragons module. Really, no-one in...more
Reasonably entertaining novel, although some paper thin characterisations, especially of the bit-part actors such as the giant miner, the undeveloped love interest, and the “boneys”. It felt a bit dated and even a bit ludicrous in parts, especially when it comes to some of the scatological descriptions – relieving yourself out of the stomach of a living, rotating, “whale” whilst travelling through a nebula . Some of the technical explanations seemed unrealistic too, although I’m no scientist, I...more
Raft is a very imaginative book. It takes place in a universe where the force of gravity is much stronger than it is here. A human colony has been living for many generations inside of a nebula orbiting a black hole. The different physical conditions of this universe mean that the atmosphere inside the nebula is able to support human life.
The descriptions in this book are so strange and imaginative that to start with it almost feels like fantasy. However as the main character Rees starts asking...more
The descriptions in this book are so strange and imaginative that to start with it almost feels like fantasy. However as the main character Rees starts asking...more
This book doesn't quite feel like Baxter in some way. Maybe I'm just used to reading his later work, but this just didn't feel like his.
Nevertheless, it was good stuff, though this book does feel like a generic young adult novel. It has a very strong 50-60's YA SF feel to it, which might have been deliberate. Otherwise though, it was very good stuff.
The political stuff never really fealt like it was properly dealt with, and some stuff (especially with the bonies) really didn't make much sense to...more
Nevertheless, it was good stuff, though this book does feel like a generic young adult novel. It has a very strong 50-60's YA SF feel to it, which might have been deliberate. Otherwise though, it was very good stuff.
The political stuff never really fealt like it was properly dealt with, and some stuff (especially with the bonies) really didn't make much sense to...more
This is an alternate universe, lost-technology survival story. I enjoyed this one. A universe where gravity is exponentially stronger than on Earth is definitely a cool breeding ground for ideas.
My one nagging comment is that I was more enamored with the universe and the back-story than what was actually happening on the page. I really wanted more about how the ship got there and what those first minutes would have been like. As with all Baxter books I've read, characters take a back seat to id...more
My one nagging comment is that I was more enamored with the universe and the back-story than what was actually happening on the page. I really wanted more about how the ship got there and what those first minutes would have been like. As with all Baxter books I've read, characters take a back seat to id...more
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Hard science pulp survival piece, centered around the remnants of a human starship crew who stumbled through some sort of gate into a universe with physical laws differing from their native space. Namely, gravity is the dominant force, affecting the composition of everything from stars to life. Many generations later, the small civilization must find a way to survive revolution, revolt, and eventual escape from their surroundings in order to preserve what remains of the human race in the alien u...more
Good story, an engaging hero, and some mind-blowing high-octane concepts. It's been many years since humans were trapped in a universe where gravity is a billion times stronger than it is in ours. Living in micro-gravity in the breathable envelope of a nebula, tenuous relations exist between the Raft - the remnants of the Ship that brought mankind to this place - and the miners who take iron from dead stars to trade for food. Young miner Rees escapes the confines of the mine, and becomes a scien...more
Any book that starts out with flying trees is going to fight an uphill battle with me. Raft does this surprisingly well, but Baxter has set himself a difficult task in this the first book of the Xeelee Sequence. The premise is the following: In the far distant future a space ship has somehow passed into another universe -- one in which Newton's constant of gravity is one billion times greater than in ours. Unable to get back, the explorers had to settle in the new universe and learn to cope with...more
This is a clumsily-written novel (the author's first, which may explain its stylistic flaws) with two-dimensional characters and a clunky plot, but I keep returning to it because of the audacity of the author's speculative premise: what would life be like for humans in a universe where gravity was one million times stronger than it is in our own? In one of the blurbs for RAFT, Larry Niven said "I should have [Baxter] assassinated before it's too late," which is fair praise from one of the past m...more
Bingo! I found a new "favorite author." This book combines the various elements I enjoy - a hard technology perspective set in a fantastical environment with understandable/believable characters. The scenario and situation Baxter weaves is so fantastic, yet peppered with enough "real science" to make it an engaging and fascinating read - one of the more enjoyable reads I've come across in the past few months.
This is the first of many books in Baxter's 'Xeelee Sequence' and I'm now looking forwar...more
This is the first of many books in Baxter's 'Xeelee Sequence' and I'm now looking forwar...more
Baxter always thinks big, but his stories often revolve around small communities on the edge of the main action in his universe(s). Raft is about such a human community living in a universe where gravity is much stronger than in our universe. The ancestors of the community somehow crossed over into this universe about five hundred years prior to the action. It is a solid story of courage and determination, and the need to face one’s destiny.
http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=395
http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=395
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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I was with it until the space whales.
In another story, I might've thought, hey, space whales! What a great idea!
Not so here, especially after the Boney world. (And it wasn't until the space whale that I realised the book hadn't dealt with the atmosphere issue at all - though it does mention that closer to the end.)
In any case, I enjoyed it up until the space whale, and then I tolerated it until the end.
In another story, I might've thought, hey, space whales! What a great idea!
Not so here, especially after the Boney world. (And it wasn't until the space whale that I realised the book hadn't dealt with the atmosphere issue at all - though it does mention that closer to the end.)
In any case, I enjoyed it up until the space whale, and then I tolerated it until the end.
Maybe 3.5 stars. While there's some good SF in this universe, the book belongs to the humans-losing-their-science-and-tech subgenre. And that's not my preference. Also, I read it as the first Xeelee book and was disappointed that the Xeelee weren't there. It also falls into the interesting-setting-but-too-much-about-humans-squabbling type as far as my tastes go.
An great (if sometimes heavy-handed) work of science fiction. As long as you don't let yourself get sidetracked by the differences in tone you should get a lot of enjoyment out of it - I certainly did!
I'm even interested enough that I'll look at what he does with the next book in the series.
I'm even interested enough that I'll look at what he does with the next book in the series.
I hated the first 150 pages of this book, simply because the premise is so preposterous (high gravity) and pervasive in the text that I couldn't suspend disbelief for more than a few paragraphs at a time. After the mumbo-jumbo was done with, I was truly able to appreciate the book for what it is, an interesting piece of Soft Sci-Fi with tree-hugging undertones and all.
Trockene, harte Science-Fiction, die einem aber nach und nach den Kopf explodieren lässt, weil man langsam versteht, wie diese fiktionale Welt funktioniert. Ein Universum mit einer zehntausendfach höheren Gravitationskonstante? Das ist so unglaublich cool.
First exposure in book form to Baxter. Pretty good plot, but really the bizarre alien-ness of another universe with a higher gravity constant, with its strange creatures and celestial structures, was fascinating and intriguing. Thumbs up.
Good solid story with decent characters and and an parallel universe with wacked out physics and creatures to match.
Definitely left me hanging and wanting/needing to read more of the series.
Oh and the Boneys just wigged me out!
Definitely left me hanging and wanting/needing to read more of the series.
Oh and the Boneys just wigged me out!
I loved this book. It is unfortunately no longer on my bookshelf because I broke my rule and lent it to someone and it was never returned. I really need to get another copy of it so I can read it again.
I was looking for an "alien-artifact" book. This came up in one of my searches. Not exactly what I was looking for, but it was still an enjoyable read.
If you think you don't like science fiction, try Stephen Baxter's early novels which are n the same vein as Arthur C. Clarke I.e. believable and engrossing.
Sort of a rip-off of Integral Trees by Larry Niven...
Though, these space-trees have a more interesting mode of travel!
I love how their unit of time is the 8-hour "shift".
Though, these space-trees have a more interesting mode of travel!
I love how their unit of time is the 8-hour "shift".
Absolutely amazing and short too. This was the first Baxter book I read. Here is a physicist who knows the art of spinning a story.
A very strange universe - where gravity is light enough that trees and whales and humans can live in the air between and around small planetoids.
VERY creative take on sci-fi. I wouldn't be inclined to read the rest of the Xeelee chronicles, but I did enjoy this book.
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Stephen Baxter is a trained engineer with degrees from Cambridge (mathematics) and Southampton Universities (doctorate in aeroengineering research). Baxter is the winner of the British Science Fiction Award and the Locus Award, as well as being a nominee for an Arthur C. Clarke Award, most recently for Manifold: Time. His novel Voyage won the Sidewise Award for Best Alternate History Novel of the...more
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