The Light of Other Days [Paperback]

Distance is no obstacle. Neither are walls. Early WormCams allow daringly invasive newspaper scoops--and once the general public can buy them, personal privacy vanishes forever. Anyone can spy on you anywhere. Or anywhen, because next-generation WormCams peer through time as well as space ... at your embarrassing old secrets, at mysteries of the past, at the truth about old murders, Princess Di, the Mary Celeste, Abraham Lincoln, and even Jesus.

As WormCams steadily improve, they probe into deep time: spying on early man, walking with dinosaurs, back and back to a poignant SF vision of what came before life as we know it. It builds towards an utopian dream of the wonders humanity could achieve if given total access to its past.

Clarke and Baxter ramble intriguingly in all directions, exploring every implication. Their imaginative set-pieces are linked by a slightly soap-operatic plot featuring the megalomaniac entrepreneur whose labs built the WormCam, the sons he's manipulated like puppets, and one son's girlfriend who becomes a spanner in (as the lab's nicknamed) the WormWorks. Wide-ranging, ambitious and enjoyable. --David Langford --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

‘Two titans of hard SF team up for a story of grand scientific and philosophical scope… The large-scale implications addressed are impressive in this potent story’
Publishers Weekly

‘A sweeping, mind-boggling read’
Booklist

In the most exciting SF collaboration ever, Arthur C. Clarke and his acknowledged heir Stephen Baxter pool talent and unprecedented cosmic insights as well as page-turning plotting skills and breathlessly good writing to produce the most awesome novel of the future since 2001: A Space Odyssey.

’Space is what keeps everything from being in the same place. Right?’ With these words Hiram Patterson, head of the giant media corporation OurWorld, launches the greatest communications revolution in history. With OurWorld’s development of wormhole technology, any point in space can be connected to any other, faster than the speed of light. Realtime television coverage is here: earthquakes and wars, murders and disasters can be watched, exactly as they occur, anywhere on the planet.

Then WormCams are made to work across time as well as space. Humanity encounters itself in the light of other days. We witness the life of Jesus, go to the premiere of Hamlet, solve the enigmas that have baffled generations. Blood spilled centuries ago flows vividly once more – and no personal treachery or shame can be concealed.

But when the world and everything in it becomes as transparent as glass and there are no more secrets, people find new ways to gain vengeance and commit crime. And Hiram Patterson meanwhile will try to keep his deadly schemes secret – but even he, its creator, cannot anticipate the power of the all-seeing WormCam.

'"Space is what keeps everything from being in the same place. Right?"'

Hiram Patterson, head of the giant media corporation Ourworld, is launching the greatest communications revolution in history. By manipulating wormholes in space, his WormCams can connect any point to any other, faster than the speed of light.

Realtime television coverage is here: earth quakes and wars, murders and disasters can be watched, exactly as they occur, anywhere on the planet. And that's just the beginning…

When WormCams are made to work to access time as well as space, humanity will encounter itself in the light of other days.

See the evolution of life! Witness the lives of Jesus and Mohammed! Go to the premiere of 'Hamlet'! Solve the enigmas that have baffled generations! Who killed Marilyn Monroe, Mother Teresa, Diana, Princess of Wales? When the world and everything in it becomes as transparent as glass, there are no more secrets…In the most exciting collaboration ever, Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter combine cosmic insights and page-turning storytelling to produce the most awesome novel of the future since '3001'.

"Arthur C. Clarke is a true prophet"
T.L.S.

"Clarke is blessed with one of the most astounding imaginations ever encountered in print"
NEW YORK TIMES

"Stephen Baxter is in the top league of world-spinners"
THE TIMES

Born in Somerset in 1917, Arthur C. Clarke has written over fifty books, among which are the science fiction classics 2001, A Space Odyssey. He has won all the most prestigious science fiction trophies, and shared an Oscar nomination with Stanley Kubrick for the screenplay of the film of 2001. He lives in Sri Lanka.
Stephen Baxter is the author of the highly acclaimed Xeelee Sequence of fiction and many other award-winning science fiction novels. He lives in Buckinghamshire.