The Light of Other Days

Rating:
Summary: Not quite the sum of its parts
Review: I was expecting to be completely blown away by this collaboration by two of sci-fi's most illustrious wordsmiths. How could authors that have given us the marvellous Rendezvous with Rama, Songs of Distant Earth, Titan, Moonseed etc, fail to produce a masterpiece? And yet why then did I find this novel quite heavy going?

The basic concept of the "wormcam" is a sound and fascinating one, supported by plausible snippets of technological data. The early chapters, where the wormcam's potential is gradually being realised, are certainly extremely satisfying and hint at greater things to come

And yet, the chapters - the sometimes excessively long chapters, devoted to the political intrigue and human interest, utterly failed to grab my imagination. I simply couldn't get worked up at all about what happened to the stereotypical fat-cat empire-building capitalist, the flashy playboy, the religious fundamentalist, the weak-willed wormcam addict, or even our feisty (yawn!) lady investigator. These paper-thin characters were simply far too cliché'd for me to empathise with.

All things considered, certainly not a bad novel; if TLOOD had been a first book from some young sci-fi hopeful author, it would probably be hailed as a marvellous debut. Clarke and Baxter however have, hitherto, set such very high standards, that, in my humble opinion, TLOOD does not quite live up to them.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: "The Light of Other Days" is a masterpiece. It begins with a startling idea, covers a lot of ground, and finishes with an outstanding ending. Despite the fact that it contains a lot of scientific background, it remains easily readable. I give this novel five stars despite its unnecessary soap opera subplot.

The story centers around the invention of the "wormcam", a device that allows the user to see and hear what is taking place at any location in the world. Although a domineering industrialist attempts to keep this invention to himself, it first shows up in the hands of the government and is then leaked to the general public. Since anybody can now spy on anyone else's activities, this leads to the total elimination of human privacy. Clarke and Baxter show us how this advance totally revolutionizes society. So much of our current culture is built on lies; politicians lie to the people, businesses lie to their own customers, and we lie to our own friends and families. If everyone was able to learn, and thus forced to confront, the truth, our lives would be changed completely.

More developments occurs when a new wormcam is invented that allows people to see into the past. I won't give away what happens next, but I can assure you that this portion of the novel is one of the most fascinating passages that I've ever read. As several of the reviews below can attest, the authors aren't afraid to stake out unpopular positions on controversial topics, or to challenge some of today's most widely held conceptions (and misconceptions). I heartily recommend this work, even to people who haven't read much science fiction.

Rating:
Summary: Loved It
Review: I think the premise of this novel is fascinating: the ability to see anyone, anywhere, both in the present and throughout history. In my opinion, Clarke and Baxter delivered on its potential. While I did not particularly enjoy the technical elements of the story (how exactly the wormholes work--"hard" science fiction stuff), I did not find it very hard to follow, and fortunately there was not that much of it. The real strength of this novel is the examination of the possible implications of such a technology. I would not want to see this technology developed, but nevertheless, the supposed effect that it has on the world is entirely believable. My favorite part of the story was when the past became visible--it dispelled a lot of myths that people hold but ultimately made society stronger with knowledge of the truth. There is one really great surprise at the end, which I will not spoil for anyone, but I'll just say that I found it fascinating and a fitting end to this story.

Rating:
Summary: Great Ideas!
Review: This is a great book with a lot of interesting theories and ideas. The whole premise is that if personal privacy is removed and we can know everything about the world's history, we will have a much superior society where everybody helps everybody. Though I think that the world would be a lot worse off in reality, I respect Mssrs. Clarke and Baxter for their optimistic viewpoint.

As always with any book associated with Clarke, the technology is presented with a lot of detail and is new and exciting. Clarke and Baxter also take a large dare and present "their" truth about many famous historical figures and tear down a lot of what they consider myth. I enjoyed the book a great deal and might have given five stars. However, I found the plot difficult to understand in parts of the book and was let down by the ultimate end. Had not Mr. Clarke been so old and from what I hear in not the best of health, I would assume a sequel would be on the way. Perhaps with another author but it would be hard to replace the "master of science fiction."

Rating:
Summary: Stick to the solo novels
Review: I am a big fan of Clarke's work but if seems the novels that are co-written are his worst. These all lack the straight forward no nonsence approach Clarke uses in his novels. Too much rambling and useless character subplots. Stick to his solo work.

Rating:
Summary: Too much with Too Little
Review: I was seriously disappointed in this book. It seemed insulting through out most of it, as if he were writing to a young adult. There were too few characters to support so much looking into the past. It had its interesting parts but needed more. The twist of the religion aspect being about the only thing that caused me to use my brain. The rest of the time I was just being fed drivel.

The chapters dedicated to looking back were redundant. "OK I got the picture, I see where you're going with this.. now just get there." Was what I was thinking through out most of this.

I spend many hours in my car every week so I got this book on Tape, unabridged. It barely kept me awake through my long drive. I actually had to stop it occasionally to listen to something else. No it wasn't the reader who was putting me to sleep it was the lack of content and the repetition of what little was there.

Basically since he was repeating so much that has been done already, in other works, I found it a waste of my time, as well as money.

I give this one 5 Z's

Rating:
Summary: Claptrap
Review: If you enjoy environmentalist claptrap, bashing evangelists and Jesus, and a plot that takes a great premise and turns it into mud then by all means please read this book from cover to cover.

I was very disappointed, to say the least. The intelligent and fascinating plot device is insufficient to save this poorly constructed story or hide the glaring SERMON of humanism. Rent 2001 instead and remember the light of Clarke's other days.

Rating:
Summary: A GREAT BOOK, WITH INTRIGUING TOPIC
Review: Once I started reading this book, it was intriguing. Until I reached the part about WormCam, an instrument which enabled people to see other people, in other places, which made the world, not only borderless, but also privacy-less, this book was getting frightening. And ... when I entered the part related with Bible issue, this books was getting "confusing". Finally, once I finished the entire book, I could only say, "This is a GREAT book. It is DIFFERENT". Clarke made this book not just mere as a sci-fi book with mere fantasy. He also touched the issue of humanity and interpersonal relationship with present reality. As if, this book was an analogy, and Clarke let the readers guess, this analogy referred to which part of life aspects.
For sure I will read this book again someday. Simply because my mind is still "itchy" and there is "unsettling" feeling. Truly a highly recommended book.

Rating:
Summary: A page-turner.
Review: Though it's a fairly long book I read it almost in one sitting. The central idea is fascinating and I found myself stopping and thinking "what if someone is watching me now?" The characters are the usual one-dimensional staples of science fiction but the plot moves along briskly. Clarke's jingoism leads him to put in some pretty foolish stuff e.g. Britain's membership of the EU is hurting it because of its peripheral location, so it joins the US and suddenly starts booming! Later we're told that the conventional picture of Jesus is totally false, but the most important thing is that he visited England during his life. Whatever... But apart from those points (and some holes in the physics, so to speak) I enjoyed this book and would recommend it highly.

Rating:
Summary: Come, Let us a Build Something, to Save Ourselves
Review: While reading this book I had the constant feeling someone was looking over my shoulder and watching every action I did. Clarke pulls you in that well- you take on the mind(s) of the universe he created. And his ability to predict the near future was as prescient as Brin in Earth. Though not a certain future, it was certainly a strongly possible one.

But I wish I had not been drawn into his universe; it is not one I liked when I looked around. And this is the largest flaw with the novel. It is a strong manifestation of enlightenment humanism, the belief that humanity can truly be it's own salvation. If we just apply our minds well enough, and use our technology in the correct way, there is no greater being to get in our way. Thus the miraculous becomes hoax, psychosomatic, or applied pscyhology. There is room for a God of morality and a great God "watching us from a distance", but the excluded middle of spirituality becomes so strong that Jesus becomes a product of an extramarital affair and his miracles all explainable by modern scientific methods. Relying on long discredited gnostic sources and jesus seminar self-proofs, Clarke creates a Jesus who is merely attempting to create a Hellenistic-Jewish synthesis, partly in response to the loss of his wife. The only bone thrown out is that the history of Jesus' death and resurrection is not observable. As one of the characters says, We may have lost Christ, but we have found Jesus. Indeed, the goal of the Jesus Seminar, but nothing like what finds in history.

Though the episode on Jesus is a minor point in the novel, it is indicative of the overarching theme. While relying on supposed quantum technology, Clarke ignores the inherent uncertainty in life which has been shown to us through the study of quantum mechanics! We have a world where everything can be achieved, by man alone. One day, we will get there. We have the technology. We will just build a better machine, and through that, we can reach transcendence. The worst part of enlightenment humanism is that it is ultimately hopeless and dissapointing. If we are the end of it all, it is a dissapointing future indeed.