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Raft (novel)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Author | Stephen Baxter |
|---|---|
| Country | Great Britain |
| Language | English |
| Series | Xeelee Sequence |
| Genre(s) | Hard science fiction |
| Publisher | Voyager (UK) |
| Publication date | 1991 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-246-13706-1 (paperback edition) |
| Followed by | Timelike Infinity |
Raft is a 1991 science fiction book by author Stephen Baxter. Raft is both Baxter's first novel and first book in the Xeelee Sequence, although the Xeelee are not present. The book serves as a worthy introduction to the imaginative Xeelee sequence, although some of the later books in the series received greater acclaim.
The novel is an elaborated version of his 1989 short story of the same title[1]. 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.
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.
The book's appeal is likely to remain limited to fans of hard science fiction due to a lack of character development.[2] The book excels in the detailed imagination of a world with different physical laws and what life might be like in that universe.
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Books by Stephen Baxter
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| Xeelee Sequence: Raft – Timelike Infinity – Flux – Ring – Vacuum Diagrams – Reality Dust – Riding the Rock |
| Xeelee story elements: Great Northern - Other technology - Qax - Other species |
| Destiny's Children: Coalescent – Exultant – Transcendent – Resplendent |
| Manifold Trilogy: Time – Space – Origin – Phase Space |
| The Mammoth Trilogy: Silverhair – Longtusk – Icebones – Behemoth |
| A Time Odyssey: Time's Eye – Sunstorm – Firstborn |
| The Web Series: Gulliverzone – Webcrash |
| Time's Tapestry: Emperor – Conqueror |
| NASA Trilogy: Voyage – Titan – Moonseed |
| Others: Anti-Ice – The Time Ships – The Light of Other Days – Evolution |
| Unrelated collections: Traces – The Hunters of Pangaea |
| Non-fiction: Deep Future – Omegatropic – Ages in Chaos |
