- Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: Headline Book Publishing; paperback / softback edition (10 Dec 1987)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0747230773
- ISBN-13: 978-0747230779
- Product Dimensions: 17.6 x 11 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,060,218 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"One of the field's most inventively readable practicing scientists ... Sheffield clothes the most advanced speculations of modern science in alluring form. ..."
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
The author of Sight of Proteus and The Selkie brings a unique brand of sci-fi to this riveting story. To long-established worlds of starfaring humans come the Immortals--beings with strange ties to ancient Earth, who seem to live forever, who can travel light years in a day--and who use their strange powers to control the existence of ordinary mortals.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
There are not many books that span the entire age of the universe, and still have the same heroes at the end - but this is one of them.
Sheffield fans will notice familiar themes, world war, the fragmentation of society, space travel, biological medling -they are all here.
Starting not to long from now, part one of the novel tells the fortunes of a group of sleep research scientists, who witness the end to the world, by a violent nuclear free for all, from the relative saftey of a space platform.
Part two, deals with a group of young talented winners of a global competition called 'Planetfest', the planet in question being 'Pentecost', and the year being around 27,000 A.D. The group's prize is to get to meet and work with 'the immortals', legendary beings who peridically return to Pentecost after many years away, travelling light years in days, and generally keeping as aloof and mysterious as they can.
The fun in the novel starts when the characters in parts one and two meet, and the mystery of the immortals - and their own vital mission concerning the future of the galaxy - is revealed.
I'll not give away the central plot device here, but this novel rally does show how we could travel faster than light, and how we could one day see the stars for ourselves.
Format:Paperback
I can't believe that hardly anyone has ever heard of this novel!
Charles Sheffield was a physicist, so of course this novel is meticulously well thought through scientifically, but it's also shot through with a sense of wonder at time, space and living beings which added to the context of the plot ultimately leaves you changed somehow, as good science fiction should. And the hard science is still correct!
This is quite simply one of my favourite science fiction novels of all time. I can't believe this novel is out of print! You should read it, now or sooner.
Charles Sheffield was a physicist, so of course this novel is meticulously well thought through scientifically, but it's also shot through with a sense of wonder at time, space and living beings which added to the context of the plot ultimately leaves you changed somehow, as good science fiction should. And the hard science is still correct!
This is quite simply one of my favourite science fiction novels of all time. I can't believe this novel is out of print! You should read it, now or sooner.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
8 reviews
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful
from here to eternity - book your seat
11 Feb 2000
Format:Paperback
It's not often that a book can start here and now and finish at the end of the universe, and keep the same characters.
If you want to know how to travel faster than light (and forget all that Star Trek warping nonsense) this is the book. The way to the stars is really shown, this really could happen. Charles Sheffield demonstrates the only way the human race could ever venture beyond the solar system, and with a wealth of belivable and sympathetic characters and plot. For and sci-fi fan this is an absolute must read.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
A look into the future.
21 July 2005
Format:Paperback
Sheffield's writing style and use of current scientific facts to create a plausible future is present in all his science fiction books. BTSON is a fresh take on immortality, like his similar book, Tomorrow and Tomorrow. If you are interested in neurology, sociology, or just science fiction, this is a great book.
It is simply one of the best 100 sci-fi books ever writen.
26 May 2000
Format:Paperback
I dont why i've always thougt that BTSON is writen in the same style of Larry niven. Exellent science, cool charecters ( the kind that can take care of themselves in any situation ), and really amzing ideas about big things like immortality, and about small things like the fact that in s-state everything looks a bit different because of pseudo-red shift. Anyway, allthough im a big Niven fan, this time Sheffield took Niven in his own style. get this book. Its really a masterpiece. Its a shame that sheffield is not acknowledged as the giant he is.
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