- Raft (novel)
Infobox Book
name = Raft
title_orig =
translator =
image_caption =
author =Stephen Baxter
cover_artist =
country =Great Britain
language = English
series =Xeelee Sequence
genre =Hard science fiction
publisher = Voyager (UK)
release_date = 1991
media_type = Print (Paperback )
pages =
size_weight =
isbn = ISBN 0-246-13706-1 (paperback edition)
preceded_by =
followed_by =Timelike Infinity "Raft" is a 1991
science fiction book by authorStephen Baxter . "Raft" is both Baxter's first novel and first book in theXeelee Sequence , although the Xeelee are not present.Plot introduction
The novel is an elaborated version of his 1989 short story of the same title [http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/raft.htm] . The story follows a group of humans who have accidentally entered an alternative universe where the
gravitational force is far stronger than our own, a billion times as strong. A planet, or cooled star kernel, a hundred yards wide has a surface gravity of five "g". Stars are a mile across and have extremely brief life-spans. Humans possess a "respectable" gravity field in and of themselves. "Gravitic chemistry" exists, where gravity is the dominant force on an atomic scale.Plot summary
The few thousand humans survive in a
nebula of relatively breathable air, existing in communities divided by gravity and social status; from the floating Raft containing almost all the high technology and possessing a highly stratified society down through the various Belt worlds with their miners, to the 'unmentionable' Boneys. The different physics of the universe has slowly turned the Nebula into an increasingly hostile environment and the humans, and the bizarre native species, are suffering the effects of environmental collapse.Literary significance & criticism
The book's appeal is likely to remain limited to fans of
hard science fiction due to a lack of character development. [http://www.star-forge.com/index.php?module=Pagesetter&func=viewpub&tid=5&pid=43] The book excels in the detailed imagination of a world with different physical laws and what life might be like in that universe.
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
