This was Stephen Baxter's debut novel, set in a universe in which it seems improbable that humans could live there, but his writing ablity makes even the improbable seem possible.

The Story

It has been 500 years since the human explorers passed through a phenomenon known as 'Bolders Ring' and entered an alternate universe where the gravity is 1000 times greater than that in our own universe and where stars only exist for a matter of days.

The survivors of the original craft have divided into two seperate camps. First there are the miners, working out on the belt they endure great hardship as they mine the surface of a dead star for the raw materials needed by the other camp known as the scientists. All is not well, after years of complacancy the belt is depleting at an alarming rate and the lives of all are in danger...

First Impressions

For a debut novel 'Raft' is stunning, a first class piece of hard sf, well worth a look!

This novel is definitely for those who like their sf to have scope, and scope it has!

The Story

The Earth has been occupied by a brutal race known as the Qax for two centuries, the planet and its people forced into slavery producing alien foodstuffs.

Into this new dark age appears the end of a tunnel through time, mankind's greatest achievement in the pre-Qax era. The other end remains firmly anchored in the past, and a small group of dangerous fanatics escape into the past but do not inform the people of Earth that the Qax are sure to follow them back in time.

Michael Poole, the architect of the tunnel through time, boldly confronts the consequence of his genius.The battle for Earth's future begins with colossal violence in the eerie light of Jupiter and ends at TIMELIKE INFINITY...the strange region at the end of time where the owners of the universe are waiting...

First Impressions

This book is awesome, the sheer scale of the story is breathtaking. This is a time-travel novel with a difference!