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A review by dorhastings
Svit vzdálených dní by Stephen Baxter, Arthur C. Clarke
4.0
This is actually my second time reading Arthur C. Clarke. I was not fond of Childhood's End, so I didn't have really high hopes for this book. I'm glad to be wrong!
The premise of scifi, as I understand it, is that there must be some fictional (at the time) scientific event or technology (like time travel). What I suppose I didn't really understand about scifi is not just about the promise and possibilities of that type of future, but what adjustments happen to get from this current world to that one, and how to people and society change. To my limited reading, scifi can get a little more focused on The Bigger Picture, which is obviously important, but can also make it difficult to have character-driven plot. This book does a somewhat nice balance of both, I think. Characters like Bobby, David, and Kate made this book work for me. David has sort of a personal, existential crisis. We follow Bobby throughout the book and learn about him as he learns more about himself. It's hard to not like Bobby. And I loved Kate. I love how forthright she is, her determination to the right thing throughout the book, the way she is completely upfront with Bobby. On the flipside, it's easy to strongly dislike Hiram, Bobby and David's father. (Okay, it's a little more complicated with Bobby. I get it, even though the complication there, I needed a little more explanation.) He is focused on fame, notoriety, and monopolization. He's also a phenomenal scientist who knows how to use his resources.
What is more fascinating about this book is the focus on societal attitudes. Eventually society finds out that an object called the Wormwood is a non-asteroid that will crash into Earth and destroy everything. Unfortunately it's too late for us to knock Wormwood off its course or find another place to live. So what do people do? Whatever they heckin' want! Why work when you can just enjoy the time you have left? Why go to school or into business or science if you know it's all for nothing in the long-term? So I get that, and I love that it was part of the book. Eventually Hiram creates the WormCam, which initially has the ability to give you a view of any other spot in the world (and eventually beyond it. Of course the government is interested in getting this tool (imagine the implications for domestic and foreign matters and government surveillance overall), and eventually the cat is out of the bag and the entire world knows about WormCams. Now everyone can have one. And then it gets better/worse: now you can use WormCams to look into the past. So folks in society do an even more abrupt halt, and several spend their entire lives looking into the past. This has fascinating implications: now we can really see How Things Happened, separate the truth from lies. And, as David points out, it's more transformative as real events to watch versus reading books about them.
The ending of the book continues to focus on those human relationships, perceptions, and behaviors. I enjoyed the picture of David and Bobby, who have this lifelong brotherly relationship, looking into the very depths of existence (more than the descriptions themselves, if I'm honest). The Very Ending felt weird to me. It's a different weird from me not wanting to read about a fictional end to the world. I suppose that's the main reason for not giving that last star, because otherwise I found the book to be an enjoyable enough read (and I can't always say that about this genre, and that makes me think I'm less into scifi than I used to be).
--
Having gotten a little more into reading scifi, I realize now that I am better able to read it during the day (not at night time) when I have significant time (also known as a break from work). It's just difficult for me to process the genre otherwise. I'm curious to read more, especially newer works by diverse authors.
The premise of scifi, as I understand it, is that there must be some fictional (at the time) scientific event or technology (like time travel). What I suppose I didn't really understand about scifi is not just about the promise and possibilities of that type of future, but what adjustments happen to get from this current world to that one, and how to people and society change. To my limited reading, scifi can get a little more focused on The Bigger Picture, which is obviously important, but can also make it difficult to have character-driven plot. This book does a somewhat nice balance of both, I think. Characters like Bobby, David, and Kate made this book work for me. David has sort of a personal, existential crisis. We follow Bobby throughout the book and learn about him as he learns more about himself. It's hard to not like Bobby. And I loved Kate. I love how forthright she is, her determination to the right thing throughout the book, the way she is completely upfront with Bobby. On the flipside, it's easy to strongly dislike Hiram, Bobby and David's father. (Okay, it's a little more complicated with Bobby. I get it, even though the complication there, I needed a little more explanation.) He is focused on fame, notoriety, and monopolization. He's also a phenomenal scientist who knows how to use his resources.
What is more fascinating about this book is the focus on societal attitudes. Eventually society finds out that an object called the Wormwood is a non-asteroid that will crash into Earth and destroy everything. Unfortunately it's too late for us to knock Wormwood off its course or find another place to live. So what do people do? Whatever they heckin' want! Why work when you can just enjoy the time you have left? Why go to school or into business or science if you know it's all for nothing in the long-term? So I get that, and I love that it was part of the book. Eventually Hiram creates the WormCam, which initially has the ability to give you a view of any other spot in the world (and eventually beyond it. Of course the government is interested in getting this tool (imagine the implications for domestic and foreign matters and government surveillance overall), and eventually the cat is out of the bag and the entire world knows about WormCams. Now everyone can have one. And then it gets better/worse: now you can use WormCams to look into the past. So folks in society do an even more abrupt halt, and several spend their entire lives looking into the past. This has fascinating implications: now we can really see How Things Happened, separate the truth from lies. And, as David points out, it's more transformative as real events to watch versus reading books about them.
The ending of the book continues to focus on those human relationships, perceptions, and behaviors. I enjoyed the picture of David and Bobby, who have this lifelong brotherly relationship, looking into the very depths of existence (more than the descriptions themselves, if I'm honest). The Very Ending felt weird to me. It's a different weird from me not wanting to read about a fictional end to the world. I suppose that's the main reason for not giving that last star, because otherwise I found the book to be an enjoyable enough read (and I can't always say that about this genre, and that makes me think I'm less into scifi than I used to be).
--
Having gotten a little more into reading scifi, I realize now that I am better able to read it during the day (not at night time) when I have significant time (also known as a break from work). It's just difficult for me to process the genre otherwise. I'm curious to read more, especially newer works by diverse authors.