FIRST EDITION, p
ublished by Voyager, 2000, hardcover, 312 pages, condition; as new. Two titans of hard SF -- multiple award-winning British authors Clarke (Rendezvous with Rama, etc.) and Baxter (The Time Ships, etc.) -- team up for a story of grand scientific and philosophical scope.
Ruthless Hiram Patterson, the self-styled "Bill Gates of the twenty-first century," brings about a communication revolution by using quantum wormholes to link distant points around Earth. Not content with his monopoly on the telecommunications industry, Patterson convinces his estranged son, David, a brilliant young physicist, to work for him. While humanity absorbs the depressing news that an enormous asteroid will hit Earth in 500 years, David develops the WormCam, which allows remote viewers to spy on anyone, anytime. The government steps in to direct WormCam use -- but before long, privacy becomes a distant memory. Then David and his half-brother, Bobby, discover a way to use the WormCam to view the past, and the search for truth leads to disillusionment as well as knowledge. Only by growing beyond the mores of the present can humanity hope to survive and to deal with the threats of the future, including that asteroid.
The exciting extrapolation flows with only a few missteps, and the large-scale implications addressed are impressive indeed. For both authors the novel's conclusion takes place in familiar thematic territory, offering a final, hopeful transcendence for humanity.
The Light of Other Days is hard sci-fi done right, very accessible, yet interesting, intelligent and mind blowing. The basic conceit is the invention the WormCam, a camera that can see through wormhole mouths which can be placed anywhere in the world, or even out of it, all it needs is the geographical coordinates of what you want to see. Initially, the WormCam is only used by the corporation that funds its research, then government agencies get wind of it and it is used to track criminals with great success. Soon details of this invention are leaked to the general public and this eventually leads to mass production and public dissemination. The WormCam becomes a world-changing product of internet proportions. Once everybody has one, the idea of privacy becomes obsolete. The novel charts the impact on culture and social mores in fascinating details; for example, public nudity becomes commonplace as everybody can be seen at any time. Many politicians resign as secrecy also becomes practically obsolete as a concept.
