Rating: 
Summary: Interesting yet confused
Review: A sequel, of sorts, to Edwin Abbott's classic novel, 'Flatland'. Joe Cube is a high tech executive waiting for his company to be IPOed. One night, while playing with his company's product (a TV screen that turns standard television broadcasting into a 3D image), Joe is contacted by Momo, a creature from the fourth dimension. Momo 'augments' Joe, giving him the ability to see into the fourth dimension, and also the ability to see into our dimension using a four dimension perspective. This gives Joe the unique ability of seeing inside people and objects, naturally, Joe tries to use this to make money... Momo only asks (demands, to be more exact) that Joe start a company that will create a specific product that she will supply. The plot gets complicated when another race of four-dimensional creatures, the Wackles, seem intent on stopping Joe. What is going on? Try the book and see.
This sounds like a very cool premise and it really is. The author truly captured the feeling of a 4D universe, a 3D universe from a 4D perspective, as well as a one dimensional and a two dimensional universe. The book is worth reading if only for this.. or perhaps, only for this: The book suffers from the worst characterization I've ever read in a book. The characters are completely unbelievable, obnoxious, annoying, self-contradicting. They are ridiculous. It feels like a cartoon of a cartoon. Maybe that was the purpose? I've never read any other book by the author, so I can't really say if it's his style. It's a pity, because the book could've been so much better. At the end I couldn't stand any of the characters (including the protagonist). Another weakness is the plot itself: Until the middle of the book it's really quite a good story, but then the quality goes downhill from there.. Shame. I'm giving the book 4/5 stars, but if I could, 3.5/5 would be more appropriate.
Rating: 
Summary: Provides an intuitive sense of the fourth dimension
Review: After reading "Seek!", a collection of non-fiction essays, I wrote to Rucker to say how much I enjoyed it, as well as his other non-fiction books (on infinity and the fourth dimension). I also mentioned that not being a science fiction fan, I had not read his works in that area.He wrote a nice note in reply, suggesting that I read "Spaceland," which I have just finished. I wasn't particularly interested in the plot (which does a fine job of taking Silicon Valley to task), but thought that his description of the fourth spatial dimension (as opposed to time) was excellent. Using both diagrams and narrative, and drawing on Abbott's "Flatland," he does an fine job of providing the reader with a sense of what it would be like to look at our world from the fourth dimension. Along the way, he provides similar views of one and two-dimensional worlds. All in all, a fascinating and entertaining book.
Rating:
Summary: Provides an intuitive sense of the fourth dimension
Review: After reading "Seek!", a collection of non-fiction essays, I wrote to Rucker to say how much I enjoyed it, as well as his other non-fiction books (on infinity and the fourth dimension). I also mentioned that not being a science fiction fan, I had not read his works in that area. He wrote a nice note in reply, suggesting that I read "Spaceland," which I have just finished. I wasn't particularly interested in the plot (which does a fine job of taking Silicon Valley to task), but thought that his description of the fourth spatial dimension (as opposed to time) was excellent. Using both diagrams and narrative, and drawing on Abbott's "Flatland," he does an fine job of providing the reader with a sense of what it would be like to look at our world from the fourth dimension. Along the way, he provides similar views of one and two-dimensional worlds. All in all, a fascinating and entertaining book.
Rating:
Summary: Plot secondary to concept
Review: I enjoyed this book, but thought that the fourth dimension concepts somewhat overpowered the plot. I found the Flatland references appealing, but readers who have not read Flatland may find this book difficult to enjoy. On the other hand, serious Flatland students might find this too lighthearted. At times Rucker over-explains the science; at times he under-explains the science; and sometimes he makes significant plot twists without enough context. That said, this is a very creative story. The silicon valley references, and its characters, are amusing. I also appreciated Rucker's sketches sprinkled throughout the book. I think this book would be most appealing to casual Flatland readers looking for a light, humorous read.
Rating:
Summary: Plot secondary to concept
Review: I enjoyed this book, but thought that the fourth dimension concepts somewhat overpowered the plot. I found the Flatland references appealing, but readers who have not read Flatland may find this book difficult to enjoy. On the other hand, serious Flatland students might find this too lighthearted. At times Rucker over-explains the science; at times he under-explains the science; and sometimes he makes significant plot twists without enough context. That said, this is a very creative story. The silicon valley references, and its characters, are amusing. I also appreciated Rucker's sketches sprinkled throughout the book. I think this book would be most appealing to casual Flatland readers looking for a light, humorous read.
Rating: 
Summary: A good exposure to the fourth dimension, but...
Review: It is clear that Rucker has read Edwin Abbott's "Flatland," and bases his story loosely on it. Even his choice of "Joe Cube" as the hero's name (a cube is the 3-dimensional analog of a square, and Abbott's hero was literally a square!) is an allusion to Abbott's book. It is really hard to write why I did not like the book without giving away the ending, however. My biggest problem is that, early on in the book, you decide on "good guys" and "bad guys," but in reading the whole book, you end up having to change your earlier assignment of those roles, in a way I find unnerving. I read this book at about the same time as Ian Stewart's "Flatterland." Both are in a sense alike in being fictional sequels to "Flatland," though Stewart's book is more closely resemblant to Abbott's original. This book is more of an adventure, while Stewart's is more didactic in terms of conveying a good impression of the spaces it treats; it also covers more varieties of spaces than this book. I rather prefer Stewart's book, though I can imagine that people more interested in the novel aspects may reverse this preference.
Rating:
Summary: Nice mix of math with humor and saving the universe
Review: Joe Cube's marriage is in trouble and he's frustrated with his life. On the turn of the Y-2-K, none of his fantasies of disaster are coming true. What does happen, however, is even weirder. A fourth dimension woman slides into his life, gives him a fourth dimension skin and a third eye at right angles to the three dimensions of "spaceland" and sets him up with a can't lose business opportunity--cellphones that can communicate without interference by transfering their messages through fourth dimension space. Even with his marriage down the tubes, Joe thinks he is on something. Better, with his third eye, he can see the upcoming cards in Las Vegas blackjack. The opportunities are without limit. Joe soon learns that the fourth dimensional actors are far from united. The three dimensional Spaceland of normal space separates two fourth dimension universes that would war on one another if the Spaceland barrier were to vanish. Meanwhile, back on earth, Joe is having trouble finding another woman, and gangsters are after him. Author Rudy Rucker has created a light and fun novel with a bit of a message, a bit of math, and some intriguing drawings of Flatland space and linear space. Joe, with his worries about his marriage and women, his dreams of making millions in an IPO, and his increasing addiction to a fourth dimension drug makes a sympathetic anti-hero who is finally given a chance to save the universe--and trundled off to jail for doing so. SPACELAND is a thought-provoking and amusing tale with a bit of a slanted--maybe even fourth dimension--moral to it.
Rating:
Summary: 4th Dimensional Fun
Review: Rudy Rucker must be one strange guy. _Spaceland_ is one of the most imaginative, but at the same time grounded, novels I've ever read. The premise of the novel is out there: What if there were an actual fourth dimension? Rucker goes even further into imaginative realms with his incredibly bizarre characters that inhabit the dimension. Brief summary: Warring creatures of the fourth dimension want to take each other's land but are blocked by our world, or Spaceland, which lies between them. A fourth dimensional being, Momo, induces hapless Silicon Valley manager Joe Cube to market a marvelous new instantaneous messaging device that will tear Spaceland apart, allowing warfare between the two sides. Amazingly Rucker is able to tell his 'far out' story in such a way that it never seems too implausible. This is a marvelous science fiction novel. Unfortunately, Mr. Rucker is below the radar of most popular SF readers so this entertaining award-worthy novel will undoubtedly go unnoticed by the SF populace. Don't miss this stand-out novel. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: 4th Dimensional Fun
Review: Rudy Rucker must be one strange guy. _Spaceland_ is one of the most imaginative, but at the same time grounded, novels I've ever read. The premise of the novel is out there: What if there were an actual fourth dimension? Rucker goes even further into imaginative realms with his incredibly bizarre characters that inhabit the dimension. Brief summary: Warring creatures of the fourth dimension want to take each other's land but are blocked by our world, or Spaceland, which lies between them. A fourth dimensional being, Momo, induces hapless Silicon Valley manager Joe Cube to market a marvelous new instantaneous messaging device that will tear Spaceland apart, allowing warfare between the two sides. Amazingly Rucker is able to tell his 'far out' story in such a way that it never seems too implausible. This is a marvelous science fiction novel. Unfortunately, Mr. Rucker is below the radar of most popular SF readers so this entertaining award-worthy novel will undoubtedly go unnoticed by the SF populace. Don't miss this stand-out novel. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece.
Review: Rudy Rucker's Spaceland is a masterpiece. I must admit that I haven't read the classic Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott which inspired it, but nevertheless Spaceland is one of the weirdest most mysterious books I've ever read. Thanks to Mr. Rucker and his mathematical savvy, 4+ dimensions are a bit less mind boggling to me now.
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