Rating: 
Summary: Spaceland...
Review: Spaceland is a good science fiction book, but it doesn't appear to be much more than that. Overall, the book as a whole is a good read, but for those who are looking for something which is more of the tune of Flatland, you would probably be better off looking for a different book. The twist in the entire story is probably one of the best "scientific" reasoning which make it plausible, but it could have been expanded better.
Rating: 
Summary: A sprightly homage to Abbott
Review: Spaceland isn't the first attempt to honor Abbott's classic "Flatland", it won't be the last, and it probably won't be the best. And it isn't, by a fair stretch, Rudy Rucker's best novel. But it's a rollicking comic strip of a ride. It's every bit as good at teaching neophytes about the fourth dimension as its model, and (dare I say it?) in prose that's far less tedious. (For one thing, Rucker's hero Joe Cube unabashedly explores the sexual possibilities of every dimension he enters. Don't assign this text for extra credit to your sixth grade math class.)It's superior to most other updates of "Flatland", in that it captures the full flavor of the original, which was one third math instruction, one third humane philosophical musing, and one third sharp social satire. As a professional mathematician, and perhaps the best popularizer of math around today in nonfiction, Rucker is more than equal to the first task. The war between the sort-of-animals living on one 4D "side" of our universe, and the Loki-like sort-of-plants dwelling on the other, takes on a nearly theological dimension before it's through, although it's a zany kind of Pixar-production theology drawn in primary colors. Rucker's satirical target is less timeless than the simple bead that Abbott drew on heirarchy and stratification: Silicon Valley society at its frenetic dot-com peak. Better read it now while it's still funny - but it sure is comical now. What Rudy Rucker does best is to take a premise, build consequences on it, then tease out meta-consequences and meta meta consequences in a dizzying tower of speculation. His fiction can be pretty mind blowing. He doesn't build his tower all that high in this effort. But maybe he just didn't feel it was fitting, in a tribute, to upstage old Edwin too far.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining but very similar to prior works
Review: This is an entertaining book, that provides useful and informative analogies for thinking about higher dimensions. Unfortunately, Rucker has already written this book before, multiple times (e.g., _White Light_ and _The Sex Sphere_). But fortunately, it's just as entertaining as ever, and perhaps a bit more polished. If you want to *really* get into the higher mathematics, get _White Light_, which goes into more detail and looks at more philosophical puzzles regarding infinity as well as higher dimensions, and in which the main character has more of a mathematical background than Joe Cube in this book.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining but very similar to prior works
Review: This is an entertaining book, that provides useful and informative analogies for thinking about higher dimensions. Unfortunately, Rucker has already written this book before, multiple times (e.g., _White Light_ and _The Sex Sphere_). But fortunately, it's just as entertaining as ever, and perhaps a bit more polished. If you want to *really* get into the higher mathematics, get _White Light_, which goes into more detail and looks at more philosophical puzzles regarding infinity as well as higher dimensions, and in which the main character has more of a mathematical background than Joe Cube in this book.
Rating: 
Summary: strange satirical science fiction
Review: To add spice to his sagging marriage on the millennium's New Year's Eve, hi tech middle manager Joe Cube plans a special night with his increasingly discontented wife. He brings food, drink, and an experimental TV. However, Joe's idea of fun fails to match that of Jena, who prefers a night of hot sex than watching another of her husband's electronic gadgets. While Jena finds solace in the arms of Joe's engineering buddy, the three dimensional TV he brought home thrusts Momo, a siren from the fourth dimension, into our world. Momo tricks Joe into assisting her people the Kluppers in the fight with their mortal enemies the Dronners as the techie "controls" the three-dimensional reality of SPACELAND that separates the warring races. SPACELAND is a strange satirical science fiction tale that successfully mixes humor with mathematical theory in order to slice the sacred technological icons of modern society. The story line simply asks at what prices do we sell our souls to the Gods of technology, but does so with humor. Using mirth and irony, Rudy Rucker provides a powerful indictment of the technological damning of all of us. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Spoofy, Goofy Science Fiction
Review: What if you could peer into four-dimensional space? See through walls? Slip into bank vaults and "borrow" thousands of dollars without being seen? What if you could create a cell phone that would communicate directly with cell phones all over the earth without going through a telephone company? What if an alien being from four-dimensional space offered you these possibilities in return for your assistance in a great struggle between two four-dimensional cultures? Great opportunity? Well, as always in science fiction, the answer is--maybe not. There might be unthinkable complications, not least of which might be the end of the world as we know it. Whew! Well, there you have it, the plot of Spaceland in a nutshell. Drawing on the classic "Flatland," the author explores the interaction of a four-dimensional world with our own, as worked out through the characters--four immature silicone valley techies who would like to be millionaires. The book is funny, witty, and moves right along from one amazing episode to another. A lot of it is simply not believable, but then, who cares? It's fun. Sometimes the author goes overboard with strange new beings, cultures, places and adventures. It becomes a little difficult keeping everything straight. The characters are shallow and hard to connect with, even if some of them have supernatural abilities. But the hero keeps trying to get it right and work things out with his equally shallow wife, Jena. And in the end he does, after a life-changing encounter with an n-dimensional guru, who teaches him, "Love, don't deal." Pretty cool wisdom. And a pretty good Sunday afternoon read!
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