The World at the End of Time

by Frederik Pohl

Wan-To was the oldest and must powerful intelligence in the universe, a being who played with star systems as a child plays with marbles. Matter occupied so tiny a part of his vast awareness that humans were utterly beneath his notice. The colonists of Newmanhome first suffered the effects of Wan-To's games when their planet's stars began to shift, the climate began to cool down, and the colony was forced into a desperate struggle to survive.

Viktor Sorricaine was determined to discover what force had suddenly sent his world hurtling toward the ends of the universe. And the answer was something beyond the scope of his imagination—even if he lived for 4000 years...

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Space Opera, Fantasy, Audiobook, Science Fiction Fantasy, Speculative Fiction

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Frederik George Pohl, Jr. was an American science fiction writer, editor and fan, with a career spanning over seventy years. From about 1959 until 1969, Pohl edited Galaxy magazine and its sister magazine IF winning the Hugo for IF three years in a row. His writing also won him three Hugos and multiple Nebula Awards. He became a Nebula Grand Master in 1993.

Reviews

[Lost Planet Airman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A brief aside, brought to you by the Small Complaints Department:
-- Audible has changed delivery methods, breaking up books into several, unseamless, downloads. Bah.
-- This book ends with an optimistic minor cliffhanger. Was there a planned sequel? Was Mr. Pohl up against a deadline with no extensions? In a book with themes on the meaning of things, why am I made to wonder about the meaning of the ending?
-- Sex. Don't get me wrong, I like sex. Even occasionally in books. But, in proportion to action and thought, I'd like the proportion to somewhat normal. Here, way to much bang for the buck, wink wink, nudge nudge.
-- Despite the seemingly over-achieving title, it _is_ true.

We now return control to the normal review.

My "n-minus-one twin", Denis, captures my thoughts here: Denis's review.

Monopoly Space Opera move.

[Denis · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is obvious that Frederik Pohl loved math and science, and often wrote stories laced with detailed facts of specific subject matter in those fields. "The World at the End of Time" is especially recommended for those who are interested in the life and death of stars and the mechanics of the universe. There are two parallel stories here. One is of Wan-To, an intelligent plasma-being that lives inside stars. The other is centred around Viktor Sorricaine who lives throughout an extremely long time span due to several occasions of being held in cryogenic suspension.

The novel is large in scope though is an easy read, as it is written with clear and simple language; the human interactions, though set in the future and eventually the far future, seem natural and believable – we humans really don't change that much over time – very reminiscent of Asimov's style of writing fiction.

An enjoyable ride through time and space.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of Pohl's longest novels, and may be his best straight hard-sf novel outside of Gateway. It's a parallel story of a man who's life is extended via cryogenic suspension, and a truly alien, very powerful and convincing being who lives inside a star. The ending is a little ambiguous, and I wonder if Pohl planned to write a sequel someday or if he deliberately left it up to his readers to determine their own preferred resolution. It's a very thought-provoking and challenging work.

[Geri Valent Pankova · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible pure-science-fiction book!The breathtaking quest of a man and a plasm-organism through time and space is presented in parallel together with their experiences and problems and everything is described scientifically in huge details which doesn't disturb the fast track of a tiny galaxy through the universe while it collapses together with all the stars.So what shall that part of mankind which survived on the newly colonated Newmanshome do without a sun or any other source of energy?And what does the plasm-organism Wan-to who/which hasn't even heard of material beings have in common with this catastrophe?

[Consuelo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aunque empieza un poco lenta, va ganando interés a medida que avanza. Y sentido de la maravilla, a raudales

[Olethros · Rating 3 out of 5]

-Con personajes individuales en medio de escenarios científicos realistas de escala masiva.-

Género. Ciencia ficción.

Lo que nos cuenta. Wan-To es una entidad de plasma inteligente que vive en el corazón de una estrella G-3 de tamaño mediano que, a diferencia de otros como él (o ello), no cree que la materia sólida pueda crear inteligencia. Victor Sorricaine es un joven pasajero de una de las tres naves humanas interestelares con la misión de poblar nuevos mundos y extender la especie en la galaxia; la mayoría de los pasajeros, por cuestión de ahorro de recursos, duermen en criosueño y tienen una edad real mayor de la que aparentan tener.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com....

[Chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF

If you’re going to pack your novel full of filler due to editorial mandate, make sure you don’t tell the reader that’s what you did. It annoys us.

In chapter 2, young Victor is awoken from cryosleep. We follow Victor for a while, and he tells us all about how boring his life is on the ship. Sure he has all the movies and (recorded) sporting events he would ever want to watch, but he’d rather get to spend some time with his dad who’s too busy working on The Problem, aka the reason they were woken up in the first place.

Not to worry, as Victor has other things to keep him occupied. He explores the ship; it’s huge. He is a regular babysitter for two younger boys. He REALLY likes the boys’ mother, who is apparently a 25 year old MILF. He’s gotten to know the ship, the people, and he’s growing up fast.

Then, on page 25, we are told that Victor has only been awake for FOUR DAYS. What?

All that backstory about his life on board could not possibly have happened in 3 days. Ludicrous.

So what really happened here? What happened was Frederick Pohl got a note from editorial that said “we ain’t publishing anything if it’s not 400 pages minimum”. So, starting with chapter two, all this FILLER material began to be added. But the editors didn’t bother to correct obvious errors like taking note that it’s not possible for Victor’s explanations of shipboard life could have occurred in only 3 days.

Very, very annoying. I’m out.

[Justin hight · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was great. Not the best when it comes to character development, but the story and scientific ideas were fascinating. Great classic hard sci-fi at its best. If you just want a plain fun interesting story that plays with scientific what-ifs check this one out. Highly entertaining and a book that makes you think.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting treatment of the effects of living through relativistic time dilation, characters are reasonably well drawn, and technology is well represented. The main issue I had with it was that the billion-year-old intelligences behaved and thought like precocious toddlers and teens. Despite the antics of the plasma intelligence Wan-To, the book was enjoyable, and the bleakness of a sky without stars was effective.

[Tim Hicks · Rating 4 out of 5]

I guess I'm getting old. This 1990 book contains all sorts of hard-SF stuff that I would have thought more recent. As I recall, Pohl has always been good at writing "you, see, Billy, it all started with ..." in a way that's actually palatable. Here he's particularly good at explaining astrophysics as if he's speaking to an intelligent listener.

The plot is meh, but it serves as a framework for the science, and that's good enough for me.

Worthwhile, even 28 years later.

[Chani · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Pohl's mind and the concepts he comes up with, but this book wasn't very well written. And I didn't care about the characters. Nothing sucked me in sadly.

[Rubén Horcajada · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sci-fi relatada tal como lo recordaba por parte del escritor (tras leer la saga Heechee) mezclando, como marca el estilo, buenas dosis de ciencia con una ficción interesante. Bueno. Dos ficciones realmente -un protagonista humano y otro ente plasmático (o lo que sea)-, particularmente relacionadas, que se intercalan y reparten los capítulos.
Al principio me resultó más atrayente y atractiva la historia del primero, con retazos de los mejores libros de sci-fi colonizadora y terraformista, desarrollada por personajes interesantes. Pero según pasa el tiempo en el relato (muuuuuuucho tiempo) el interés torna hacia el ente, siendo esto de tal manera que la historia humana se va diluyendo progresivamente según se acerca el final (el cual por cierto me pareció forzado, predecible y simplón), esperando con más ansia el desenlace de los avatares del ente que los de mis semejantes.
Igualmente, lectura recomendable para todo aficionado al género, principalmente para aquel que disfrute con las estrellas y los viajes espaciales relativistas.

[Carmelo Medina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Novela de 3. Muy interesante reflexión de la evolución de la humanidad pero no tiene una historia que enganche especialmente. No empatizas con el protagonista y lo lees en plan "veamos como acaba esto" más que deborarlo.

[Charles Daney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pohl offers in this work an extremely imaginative plot (though I don't know how original it is). But the story built around the plot is disappointing.

The plot entangles the fate, over a period of 10^40 years, of humans and a small family of sentient plasma-based entities. The latter, represented chiefly by one named Wan-To, possess not only high intelligence and power over physical matter and energy, but also very human traits such as jealousy, anxiety, paranoia, loneliness, and boredom. Wan-To's fear of aggression from clones he's created himself leads, inadvertently, to the acceleration to almost light speed of a small group of stars and a small human colony on a planet around one of the stars. As a result of the extreme relativistic time dilation - extremely slow aging - a small remnant of the human colony is able to survive 10^40 years, as experienced by the rest of the universe, including Wan-To.

At that very late era the "heat death" of the universe is almost complete, with all stars and even almost all protons having disintegrated. The residual human community has experienced a time lapse of only about 4000 years. And despite severe hardships along the way, they are enjoying somewhat of a renaissance, oblivious in their own private solar system to the near total demise of the universe around them. Wan-To, on the other hand, is apparently unable to tolerate existence in a pure void and is driven to consider seeking refuge in a surviving black hole (though even those are gradually evaporating).

This sort of scenario could plausibly be extrapolated into one in which the universe is able to sustain individuals and colonies of sentient inhabitants almost ad infinitum in spite of finite life spans. This would amount to circumventing the apparently inexorable progress of entropy. Unfortunately, Pohl didn't attempt (as far as we know) this extrapolation either in this book or possible sequels.

The plot, certainly, is imaginative and complex. It's also, except for the plasma creatures, based on reasonably good science (as known circa 1990). (Readers who find the science interesting shouldn't rely entirely on the accuracy of all details in the book.) There's a goodly amount of suspense. There are also surprises, although the ultimate final "surprise" was fairly predictable. Oddly, the main (human) character, Viktor Sorricaine, is clever and resourceful, yet he never seems to expect the final surprise until it happens.

The story's narrative leaves quite a bit to be desired. Of the various characters, only Victor is fleshed out to a decent extent - enough that the reader is able to feel somewhat sympathetic to his hardships and can feel a measure of elation with how well things turn out for him in the end. The other human characters are pretty much just stage props. There's little to admire in the plasma creatures, Wan-To and his clones. Apart from how they drive the plot, perhaps their best role is to provide a little comic relief.

Most of the narrative relates exhaustive details of the early triumphs and later tribulations of the human colonists on their adopted planet. Little of that detail is essential for the plot. It's just a fictional version of much of the devolution that's so typical of most real human societies into anarchy and cruelty. A later stage portrays a vestigial society dominated by several comical religious sects, whose divergent, risible belief systems aren't all that different from actual contemporary human religions.

The early ascendant stage of the human colony is notable for the prevalence of a "free love" ethic in which procreation is strongly encouraged for the sake of rapid population growth. While monogamous marriage exists, it's only one alternative. Unfortunately, the details recounted aren't salacious enough to be very interesting. Curiously, though the novel was first published in 1990, all the procreative activity is referred to antiquatedly as "making love", instead of simply "having sex".

Frederik Pohl was certainly one of the leading science fiction writers of the 20th century. His award-winning novels, especially the Heechee series, are much better examples of his best work than The World at the End of Time.

[Joseph Sobanski · Rating 3 out of 5]

The World at the End of Time is a work of hard science fiction by Frederik Pohl. It is reminiscent of earlier golden era works by authors such as Asimov and Clarke, and I was surprised to see that The World at the End of Time was published in 1990. As a work of hard science fiction it suffers from weak characters and a paper thin plot, which are of course second thoughts to the primary purpose of this novel, to explore the life cycles of stars and galaxies. The cosmology here is excellent and enthralling as this novel spans thousands of years in deep space observing the life cycle of planets and stars.

For me though, the characters, in particular our protagonist Viktor Sorricaine, distracted from the hard science elements of this novel. We meet Viktor as a young boy, newly awaken from cryogenic sleep on his way with his family to colonize a distant planet. He is petulant and self absorbed , which is fine for a child, but as he ages he remains just as selfish and entitled as when we first met him. Combine that with Pohl's awkward writing about sex and you have a entirely detestable main character. Wan-To (the plasma based entity the story also follows) is a complete joy in comparison, and it probably shouldn't surprise me that in a work of hard science fiction the alien entities feel more human than the actual humans.

To further drive home the point, towards the end of the novel Viktor is reawoken from cryogenic sleep in the far future, and becomes a "partner" to a female scientist (he isn't given a choice). I kid you not, this is what that scientist says at the end of the chapter: "...I want very much to know, how you people from Old Earth made love." Just imagine if the genders were reversed, instead of a male fantasy it becomes a horror story...

Nevertheless, if you take out the awkward sex and poorly aged gender stereotypes The World at the End of Time is an astounding and impressive work of hard science fiction focusing on cosmology and the life cycle of stars. That alone makes this book an interesting read, and pushes it up from 2 stars to 3 for me. Also, I found some of the cringe character writing unintentionally amusing, so there is that too.

[Prakhar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Throughout the novel's roughly four thousand year span, two main themes were eternally present, albeit in different forms - survival and perspective. The premise of the story is a human civilization that has mastered space travel and cryogenic freezing technology and with the rigor expected of a hard science fiction novel, this story too explores several interesting scientific and technological phenomena. This novel follows the life of the main character, Viktor Sorricaine, throughout three main periods of his life: (1) the journey in space to the new colony planet of Newmanhome and the subsequent colonization of it, (2) his revival after being frozen for 400 years to find a society characterized by hardship, authoritarianism, and religious fervor, and (3) his revival after being frozen again for 4000 years to find a high tech society dedicated to pleasure and creative pursuits. In each period, Viktor yearns to understand and investigate the strange phenomena affecting the local cluster of stars, but there are differing societal conflicts that make this difficult to do (sometimes resulting in him getting frozen). What Viktor and the other colonists do not know, however, is that there is another race of hyper intelligent plasma based life in the universe. The actions of these beings are conducted on a galactic scale and destroying star systems is routine. This novel explores the interesting parallel interplay between humanity and these plasma creatures, conducted over a span of 4000 years (or several billion, depending on how you account of relativistic time dilation), and how different civilizations respond to and cope with the unknown galactic developments that result from beings that they do not know exist.

[Jiří Pavlovský · Rating 2 out of 5]

Říkal jsem si, že bych mohl zkusit nějakou klasiku... a na Frederika Pohla jsem měl docela příjemné vzpomínky a tohle jsem ještě nečetl. Je to kniha z jeho už pozdních let, takže si nejsem jistý, na kolik vystihuje jeho tvorbu, ale rozhodně to řadím do kategorie "nic pro mě". Postrádá to dvě věci, které potřebuju k životu. Postavy a příběh.
Co se týče postav, tak mám pocit, že Pohl si hodně potrpí na nepříliš sympatické hrdiny. Ale tady fakt vede. Dokud je hrdina ještě mladý, tak se dá trucovitost nějak omluvit, ale jak stárne, je to s ním čím dál horší. Rozhodně nemá hrdina nic, co by čtenáře nutilo mu nějak zvlášť fandit... tedy kromě toho, že tam nikdo jiný není. Navíc většinu knihy hraje spíš pasivní roli a obvykle je k zásadním událostem přibrán až na poslední chvíli.
A ohledně příběhu... Svět na konci času je spíš mozaika astronomie a různých společenských systémů. Celé se točí kolem všemocné bytosti Wan-To, která si začíná upravovat hvězdný systém podle své potřeby... k velké nelibosti lidí, kteří se ten systém právě snaží kolonizovat. Mění se podnebí, s ním i vztahy lidí, jenže než se může něco stát, je hrdina uložený k ledu a rozmražený po pár stovek letech, kdy je situace zase jiná. A pak znova. Nic není uzavřené ani doladěné k něčemu, co připomíná děj, dokonce chybí u většiny situací (a vlastně i celé knihy) nějaké řešení. Spíš je to prohlídka sci-fi muzea. Mrkněte sem... a popojdeme do dalšího sálu, čtyři tisíce let vzdáleného. Navíc, jak známo, čím starší spisovatel, tím tlustší knihy. A tuhle knihu psal někdy v sedmdesáti.
Celá kniha má zajímavý nápad, ale v podstatě je ten nápad využitý jen k sérii situací a postřehů, bez nějakého vyústění. Plusem je ale ustavičně lehce ironický Pohlův styl, díky kterému je kniha pořád ještě čitelná.

[Nikola Bornova · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinující hard scifi, která se chvílemi čte jako deníček nadšeného astronoma.

Hlavní hrdina tu putuje díky teorii relativity skrz čas a to dává čtenáři náhled na vývoj lidstva i vesmíru samotného z větší perspektivy. Nepamatuju si žádnou jinou knihu, po jejímž dočtení bych měla tak silný pocit nepatrnosti vlastního jsoucna v gigantickém časoprostoru.

Co četbu téhle výjimečné knihy kazilo byly postavy - z nějakého důvodu tu prakticky schází kdokoli aspoň trochu sympatický, a to včetně hlavního hrdiny. V původní třetině mi byli všichni hrdinové tak nesympatičtí, že jsem dokonce uvažovala o tom, že knihu odložím. Jsem ráda, že jsem to neudělala a pokud se do ní pustíte, určitě zvláštní odtažitý rozjezd překonejte, stojí to za to :-)

[Woko · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jedna z mych nejoblibenejsich scifi knizek. Je to hodne subjektivni, ale na me zapusobila fakt hodne. Poprve jsem ji cetl jako male decko, a zpusob jakym podava neskutecnou velikost/cas vesmiru, relativisticke efekty atd je proste uzasny. Pribeh je taky dobry, misty trochu pritazeny za vlasy, ale celkove se me to proste hafo libilo. Knizku jsem cetl asi 4x a urcite dam nekdy znovu :)

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now I remember why I love Sci-fi so much. This was a great science fiction story. I loved how the two main characters' stories (Wan To - the godlike plasma being and Viktor the human being originally from Earth)were told simultaneously but separately. Very thought provoking!!

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cool story. It isn't particularly well written in terms of storytelling, but the novel creatures and the historic length of the storyline makes it a good read. It cannot be far from the truth to say that the time span covered in this story is the longest in SF history.

[The Professor · Rating 4 out of 5]

“That bright thing - it was what they call the 'universe'…” Quite the road trip. An all but God-like, plasma-based, distributed intelligence residing in a star – as you do – causes cosmic trouble for puny human colonist Viktor Sorricaine and, exhilaratingly, we track both to the goddamn end of the Universe – yes, the Universe – thanks to some plausible sounding science and some very moreish story-telling. Anita Brookner this is not but if it’s scope you want Frederik Pohl is your man.

“End Of Time” is a very enjoyable read and Pohl really conjures a sense of cosmic sweep. For such a relatively short novel we cover a ludicrous span of time with chapters swapping between teenage Viktor trying to get his end away on the colony planet of Newmanhome and “Wan-To” whose star-based partitioned selves appear to be trying to kill him. Pohl creates a distinct sense of the bickering Greek Gods casually interfering in the lives of men in “End Of Time”; Wan-To’s kind routinely throw solar flares at each other and accelerate planets to near the speed of light without the slightest concern for other forms of speck-like life, all the while scheming and refusing to answer each other’s calls. This is a novel shot-through with bathos and Pohl works to contrast his almost-Gods with the all too human concerns of young Viktor who is – interesting choice alert – by no means The Hero. He’s “some bloke”, fixated on a married woman, prone to impulsive decision making and it takes him a good couple of hundred thousand years for the berk to realise he loves his wife. The character is also a touch homophobic, getting skittish when welcomed into the house of a gay couple and their young son but slowly building friendships. Pohl – delivering positive representation of a gay couple two clear years before Star Trek The Next Generation falteringly attempted something similar in “The Outcast” – for some reason seems to be actively sabotaging our sympathy for Viktor in this fleeting character moment. When he’s not doing that Pohl is legitimately emphasising the importance of reproduction in a new colony but less legitimately contriving for randy Viktor to end up as a kept man ("I want very much to know how you people from Old Earth made love"). You could intellectualise all this as a flawed man overcoming his faults and prejudices to end up tending to the garden of Eden while a petulant God ends up as a stream of tachyon particles but mainly the sense is of a great big wodge of eccentricity in amongst all the cosmology and some readers may therefore find their patience with Pohl’s choice of protagonist tested by “End Of Time”. Make it to the finale, however, and Pohl does nail his humanist (and, arguably, naïve) colours to the mast. This is just as much a rites of passage novel as it is cosmic SF and Viktor does get to grow up.

Meanwhile, there’s much else going on in “End Of Time” which is touched upon in passing rather than explored – the rise of religion among the colonists, the rather hand-wavey means by which humanity goes from borderline extinction to orbiting habitats, the casual eugenics (which Pohl clearly disagrees with), the off-stage death of Earth – but this is acceptable as we’re mainly on board to see how far Pohl is going to take us. Slightly more questionable is the structure of the novel itself: Pohl’s Wan-To chapters precede the Viktor chapters meaning we readers are always way ahead of stoopid Viktor who spends the majority of the novel tearing his hair out over why the stars are going out when we already know. This builds a sense of frustration with a character Pohl already depicts as fairly disagreeable. The last third of the novel then switches to straight procedural descriptions of Viktor going gosh-wow at the orbiting habitats, a late-in-the-day hurrah for planetary colonisation and a moment of blatant audience-pandering in the return of a long-lost character. “End Of Time” is awash with scientific verisimilitude – Pohl loves his tachyons and Einstein-Rosen-Podolsky packets – but he outs himself as a shameless entertainer with this move. It almost tanks the novel but coming so close to the sentimental finale which keeps faith with humanity you put the novel down feeling there was at least a beating heart behind all the gonzo-bananas cosmology. So an unconventional read then, featuring two unconventional protagonists but that refusal to take the easy route plus the scope plus the readability made “End Of Time” a great find. This star-based distributed intelligence is therefore not going to wait until the end of the Universe for more from the remarkable Mr Pohl. “He saw everything”.

[Antoni · Rating 2 out of 5]

2/5

He trigat molt a acabar aquest llibre. Massa. I l'he llegit a batzegades, sens dubte a causa de la seva longitud i del ritme que imposen les més de quatre-centes pàgines. Potser això m'ha provocat un sentiment de desgrat major que si l'hagués llegit tot seguit, però la sensació general és que m'ha resultat avorrit en molts dels seus trams.

Pohl ens presenta aquí una ciència-ficció d'alta volada, ciència-ficció que en molts moments resulta massa hard, amb un cert to alliçonador que no m'ha agradat gens; personalment, si vull aprendre conceptes tècnics, busco un altre tipus de volum. El llibre té dos vessants molt clars en funció d'on posa el focus narratiu l'autor. D'una banda, coneixem els exploradors espacials, un grup d'humans seleccionats per les seves aptituds que seran els encarregats de colonitzar i terraformar nous mons. Se'n sortiran en un grau o un altre depenent de fets que no depenen d'ells. Tota aquesta història es carrega sobre les espatlles d'en Viktor, un individu a qui seguirem el rastre durant una quantitat d'anys sorprenentment gran. Aquesta part està prou bé, sobretot al principi, quan podem bastir uns fonaments sòlids d'acord amb una realitat propera o que ens podem imaginar, si bé cap al final deriva en una societat que m'ha resultat poc atractiva i he acabat perdent l'interès.

Després tenim en Wan-To, una entitat còsmica de la qual en sabem poc. Aquesta és sens dubte la part més interessant de la narració, si més no al principi, quan la concepció de la mateixa agafa al lector per sorpresa. No és l'única representació d'ens còsmic ignot que he llegit; recordo amb molt d'afecte el que va plasmar l'Alice B. Sheldon a Up the Walls of the World. En aquell cas, però, l'autora crec que li va donar un enfocament més realista, o com a mínim un que jo em vaig creure més. Quan Pohl atorga consciència a Wan-To, ho fa antropomorfitzant-ne el comportament en excés: si bé els seus coneixements tècnics i científics, així com la percepció de l'Univers, disten molt de la d'un humà, el seu comportament vers els seus congèneres i la seva descendència resulta massa pueril, com si en realitat fos un nen humà que es dedica a jugar. I el fet que l'autor constantment faci símils amb la nostra espècie, si bé ajuda a entendre les situacions a les quals fa referència, ens allunya massa del que hauria de ser una entitat d'aquesta magnitud. Per això crec que la creació d'Alice B. Sheldon resulta més atractiva des del punt de vista narratiu.

Dit això, sembla que les dues línies argumentals hagin d'acabar relacionant-se, si bé l'escala còsmica i temporal ho fa inviable i a mesura que llegim queda cada cop més clar. En això l'autor es manté inflexible —i coherent— i les interseccions entre ambdues trames es limiten a un únic contacte i després esdevenen tangencials, provocant un biaix narratiu que mai acaba convergint. Assistim, això sí, a una mena d'evolució còsmica de proporcions similars a la que va plantejar Poul Anderson a Tau Zero, i això sí que és interessant, sobretot pel que fa a termes conceptuals i sentit de la meravella, si bé no resulta original si ja s'ha llegit una cosa similar amb anterioritat.

En definitiva: la novel·la m'ha provocat una certa frustració perquè ben bé podien haver sigut dues novel·les independents, ja que a penes hi ha relació entre elles. Cal afegir a més que la longitud se m'ha fet extremadament llarga, i que les eventualitats que fan que en Viktor sobrevisqui als seus coetanis i descendents m'ha acabat traient de la història: m'he sentit una mica com ell quan surt de la criogenització, totalment fora de lloc i orfe d'una realitat que coneixia. Això m'ha obligat a tornar a entendre el nou món, a creure en la bona fe de l'autor i confiar que la trama discontínua realment acabarà lligant tota la vida del protagonista amb un cert sentit o rigor, cosa que crec que al final no aconsegueix. La sensació en acabat és massa irregular, i m'atreveixo a dir que el llibre no m'ha agradat. El podrien salvar alguns aspectes puntuals, però crec que no són prou originals per generar en mi un record més afable i durador d'El mundo al final del tiempo.

[Dalibor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Příběhy v knize se dají rozdělit do dvou částí. Jedna z nich je vztahové a sexuální skoro infantilní blábolení - kdo po kom touží, s kým spí nebo by spát chtěl a po kom se mu stýská. Díky těmto částem jsem uvažoval o nižším hodnocení. Druhá část má ale velice originální myšlenku a příběh je popsán čtivě.
V blíže neurčené budoucnosti se lidé ze Země vypraví kolonizovat planetu v blízké hvězdy. Vyšlou postupně 3 lodě, ve kterých většina posádky čeká v hybernaci, až přečkají několik set let dlouhou cestu. První loď už je na místě a příběh sledujeme z pohledu postav na druhé lodi, která už se blíží k cíli. Je neplánovaně probuzeno několik astrofyziků a navigátorů, protože několik blízkých hvěz nečekaně explodovalo a tím se změnila intenzita záření - a lodě jsou poháněny hlavně solární plachtou. Po přepočítání kurzu ale loď i tak bezpečně dorazí a společně s první začnou budovat kolonii. Po několika letech ale dojde k další anomálii - na jedné neobyvatelné planetě v jejich soustavě jsou zaznamenány neobvyklé emise záření. Později se celý jejich solární systém začne urychlovat a mířit pryč z galaxie. To je pohroma pro třetí loď, která nikdy nedorazí, protože se nakonec pohybuje pomaleji, než se jí cíl vzdaluje. Kolonisté vyšlou jednu z mezihvězdných lodí na průzkum podivného jevu na druhé planetě, jsou ale po přiblížení rozstříleni a přistávací tým zajat. Lidé na planetě postupně všichni zemřou a na orbitě se někteří zachrání zmrazením a probuzeni jsou až za stovky let.
Druhý děj sleduje úvahy mimozemské téměř božské inteligence, která žije ve hvězdách a cítí se osamocená, takže tvoří své kopie v jiných hvězdách. Po miliardách let se mezi nimi ale vyvine podezřívavost a nepřátelství. Bojují spolu tak, že ničí hvězdy, které by mohl soupeř obývat. Tak je zničeno i Slunce a jediné přežívající lidé jsou kolonisté. Ti jsou ale také ovlivněni touto hvězdbou válkou - anomálie na jejich druhé planetě je zapříčiněna přítomností jedné hmotné kopie hvězdné bytosti, která má za úkol urychlit několik sousedních hvězdných systémů na rychlost světla, aby si její nepřátelé mysleli, že se tak snaží opustit galaxii a zaútočili na ni. Aby nedošlo k ohrožení tohoto úkolu, tak lidské průzkumníky zničí, ikdyž na jiných místech se o ně nazajímá. Urychlení má za následek relativistickou dilataci času oproti okolnímu vesmíru. A také pokles zářivého výkonu jejich slunce a nástup doby ledové na kolonizované planetě. Většina lidí zemře a zbytek se zachrání životem pod zemí. Do tohoto zmrzlého světa jsou probuzeny postavy, které přežily průzkumnou misi. Pracují tam jako otroci na podzemní houbové farmě a poté jsou opět zmrazeni za porušení přísných nařízení po zničení druhé kolonizační lodě.
Potřetí jsou probuzeny asi za dalších 2000 let. Lidé nyní žijí ve vesmírných habitatech kolem blízkého hnědého trpaslíka a daří se jim dobře. Žijí v pohodlné utopii a o okolní vesmír se už nezajímají. Ten totiž přestal existovat - v průběhu letu relativistickou rychlostí v okolí neuběhlo 2500 let ale biliony let. Všude je tma a mrtvo, hvězdy vyhořely. Jejich slunce už svítí opět plnou silou a jejich soustava zastavila. Doba ledová skončila, ale planeta je pustá a nikdo nemá chuť ji opět kolonizovat. Lidé si zvykli na život ve vesmíru. Kopie bytosti na druhé planetě splnila svůj úkol a vypla se. Před tím ale vyslala zprávu pro svého tvůrce, že úkol splnila s hvězdy stále existují mladé.
Probuzení lidé z minulosti obnolí touhu lidstva po průzkumu a kolonizování. Vrátí se zpět na planetu a vyšlou sondy k okolním existujícím hvězdám.
Poslední existující hvězdná inteligence daleko v prázdném kosmu ale zachytí zprávu své primitivní kopie a natěšeně se vypraví ke stále mladým hvězdám. Jak dopadne její střet s budoucím lidstvem se dá jen hádat, protože zde kniha končí.

[David Sarkies · Rating 4 out of 5]

An Isolated Society
5 October 2024

I was sort of wondering how the title would be explained, but as I got deeper into the book it actually started to make sense. The thing is that this is hard sci-fi despite that fact that it involves plasma creatures who live in stars and are almost god-like in their nature (they are at war with each other and randomly blow up stars to attempt to kill their enemies – though it turns out that many of the enemies are actually the main character’s children – in the sense of how an amoeba reproduces).

Well, it is not just about these creatures that live in stars, it is also about a group of colonists who set out from Earth to a new home and the struggles that a new colony provides. In fact the story revolves around Victor Sorricaine, who starts off the book as a teenager who is woken up from deep freeze at the beginning when the ship is being turned around, and then spends other parts of the book in deep freeze.

Actually, that is the way that Pohl jumps ahead in time, namely by putting Victor in deep freeze, and waking up in the future to see how the civilisation has developed. However, there is another interesting aspect of this story because all of the sudden they discover that the section of space in which the planet is located is moving, and moving at quite a rapid pace. This is why the world is at the end of time – relativity – the faster we move through space the slower time moves for us. Well, that and the fact that when a cluster of stars are moving at speed through the universe the stars will begin to cool.

It is an interesting take on how cultures develop, particularly when they are cut off from each other, and how over vast centuries cultures change, as does the knowledge of historical events. Further, it is not just that but it is also the question of science and looking for truth. Either it isn’t important and people who seek to explore these questions are ridiculed and considered bad influences, or worse they are considered a danger to society and are conveniently made to disappear.

Sure, there may not be creatures living in our stars, though the thing is that these creatures live for billions of years, and these events take billions of years to unfold. It is like the idea of a supernova, which is probably the last thing we should be worrying about because humanity will probably be extinct when that happens (and at the rate we are going we are probably going to be extinct in the not-to-distant future after we finish completely trashing the planet). However, Pohl does put this into perspective by creating a world that actually exists beyond the confines of the universe, but also acknowledging that our roles are to lay the foundations for the better lives for our children and grandchildren. Sadly, that doesn’t seem to be what is happening.

[Shannon Cooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was one of the first “adult” sci-fi books I ever read, more than 25 years ago. At the time, I found it revolutionary and through-provoking. Now as an adult, I find that it mostly holds up, but it has some issues of storytelling and pacing, and a few uncomfortable moments where its age shows through.

The central story follows one human and an alien plasma being. While they never meet, their stories intersect continually in very satisfying ways. Our human protagonist travels into the ever-farther future of humanity, getting frozen in one era and thawed out in another. He is our eyewitness to human history, even as his alien counterpart survives through billions of years of the history of the universe.

For the most part, our human protagonist is little more than a vehicle for Pohl to engage in some social engineering, just like the plasma alien exists to teach the reader about astrophysics and stellar evolution. I will say that Pohl does a great job of blending the science lectures into the story, but that science is often more then focus than the characters are.

The most troubling section for me happens toward the end, when the narrator spends a couple pages being homophobic. He appears to deal with those feelings in time, although never explicitly. If nothing else, it’s a jarring note in such a futuristic setting. With all the wonders on display, and the ways that humanity has evolved, do we really need to cast judgment on a healthy same-sex couple and their happy, well-adjusted son?

Regardless, The World at the End of Time was a very enjoyable read for me. I’m glad to have been able to read it again after all this time.

—

Objective Worth: Medium
Enjoyability: High
Rereadability: Medium
Recommended: With a few reservations
Warning: Did not age well, in places.

[Michael Gerardi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I want to like this book better than I do. The author is one of the greats of SF. The story started out with a great premise: an incredibly powerful, incredibly ancient, incorporeal being can affect stars and even galaxies, yet is completely aware of planet-bound life forms. His interactions with others of his kind (whom he himself created) impacts whole star systems. Including the Solar System and the planet Newmanhome, which is beginning to be colonized by humans. Stars are destroyed, and clusters of stars are sent careening off to the ends of the universe. How will humans survive? WILL they survive?

And yet . . . by the time I got to the end of the book, I felt like I had been set up for a big finish, and suddenly the projector ran out of film, the screen went blank, the theater lights went on and someone yelled out, "That's all, folks!" There was 400 pages of set-up, but no real payoff. The world literally went to the end of time, without the main character or any other human ever learning anything about what had happened to them or why it had happened. They apparently just went on, rebuilding their planet, building more habitats, exploring one of the few remaining planets in the UNIVERSE, and one which MIGHT have provided some kind of information on what had happened, or even about the being who was behind it all, for ever and ever, the end.

I was disappointed. I expected a better ending from an author of Pohl's stature, especially after having read his "Heechee" series.

[Kevin Phyland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Viktor Sorricaine was only a child when he and his family left Earth on the settlement ship New Mayflower for Newmanhome. A trajectory change induced by a flare star however, wakens some crew and they must nurse the ship to their new home. Unbeknownst to them the flare star was part of a battle between strange entities of plasma that live inside a star, and the dominant one, Wan-To, is seeking to destroy any star types he thinks may harbour copies of himself that he made for companionship, but now seek his demise. After a disastrous trip to Nebo, a different planet in the same system, a dumbed down copy of Wan-To called Five, destroys any attempt to land. This unfortunately alerts Wan-To’s more savvy copies and he comes up with a plan: he will get Five to accelerate the entire small area of stars to near lightspeed and head away from Wan-To as a decoy. It works. Now the stars and their attendant planets are travelling so fast that relativistic effects come into play and while a few thousand years pass on Newmanhome, untold quintillions of quintillions of years have passed in the outside cosmos and the stars have all gone out! But Wan-To is still feebly flickering and he finds that some stars have survived… Frederik Pohl has given us an entertaining tale of the furthest reaches of time and space, incredible creatures and a healthy dollop of astrophysics and cosmology. Minor Pohl but even minor Pohl is good.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ending rather abruptly, the whole story builds for hours of listening (I had the audiobook) towards a conflict that never arrives. I don't know if this was simple sequel baiting or an exercise in "what do you think happened?", but I'd have liked an actual conclusion to the two threads that twirled themselves through the book in parallel and seemed to head for some kind of conversion. No cigar.

That being said, the story was interesting - if literally anti-climactic - in the way that chronicles tend to be. And that's what this book was: a chronicle of a sleeper who lives his life in chunks across vast amounts of time. The physics plot, particular as relating to relativistic speeds and the time dilation they come with, are a rarely used plot device and I was happy to explore it.

I also liked the idea and description of Wan To, the god-like creature, which did serve as a fascinating attempt at imagining what immortality and omnipotence just might look like.

But again, in the end, the threads though nearing each other, never met by the end of the story and I am not sure if a sequel would even be the right place to fill in that hole.

Anyway... Happy to have read it, slightly disappointed by the end.

[Gonzalo Morales · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tras leer la saga de los Heechees (muy recomendada), busqué otro éxito del autor, para decantarme por esta obra grandilocuente, que cumple con las expectativas y reafirma al autor como gran novelista de ciencia ficción.

El comienzo es un tanto típico y tópico: dos naves humanas se preparan para terraformar y vivir en un nuevo sistema solar, alojado por un planeta que cumple a la perfección. Y a partir de ahí se expande a mucho más allá de lo inimaginable, guiado a través de nuestro protagonista Viktor hasta casi el fin de los tiempos. Por otro lado, tenemos un coprotagonista llamado Wan-To, que es un ente de plasma inteligente, el cual abarca un tamaño inconmensurable y se alimenta de lo núcleos de las estrellas. Ambas especies comparten un objetivo: la supervivencia.

Las dos historias se entrelazan, se desarrollan e incluso llegan a coincidir en cierto momento temporal. De hecho, todas las acciones tomadas por el ente extraterrestre implican de alguna manera el devenir de la humanidad, un punto fresco y original que hace que la obra sea muy resultona.

Personalmente, la conclusión no es el broche de oro que se merecía el relato, incluso con un final abierto a la especulación que deja en manos del lector. No obstante, el viaje cumple a la perfección y se hace muy entretenido.