- Paperback: 112 pages
- Publisher: Arrow Bks.; n.e. edition (4 Oct 1976)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0099132206
- ISBN-13: 978-0099132202
- Product Dimensions: 17.6 x 11 x 1 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 950,887 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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1st edition paperback, vg++
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Readers mainly interested in 'stories' are bound to be disappointed by this concise novel: the narrative, as James Blish himself states in the introduction, is minimal. The book's starting point seems simple enough: a machine (the Dirac) enabling instant communication throughout the whole 'human empire' has been built late in the 21st century; those who initially thought that they were its sole inventors are soon concerned with a mysterious person who knows even more about it than they do. These basic ideas serve as the backdrop of a set of provocating speculations about man, time, knowledge, causality, free will, responsibility, history, science and technology, as the three main characters, prompted by the yet untapped potential of the Dirac, explore multiple possibilities. 'The Quincunx of Time' reads like a philosophical dialogue since it's structured around a few, still scenes in which successive (and sometimes contradictory) views are suggested and evaluated through discussion. Each problem is pared down to specific parts, so that all of its angles - from philosophy to psychology, physics, etc. - are considered. Common science-fiction themes, such as the (possible) role of science and technology in the life of man and in the hands of the world leaders, are given original and nuanced interpretations which go a lot further than where extreme resolutions would have gone. Strongly recommended.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3 reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Fascinating speculations
6 Oct 2002
Format:Paperback
Readers mainly interested in `stories' are bound to be disappointed by this concise novel: the narrative, as James Blish himself states in the introduction, is minimal. The book's starting point seems simple enough: a machine (the Dirac) enabling instant communication throughout the whole `human empire' has been built late in the 21st century; those who initially thought that they were its sole inventors are soon concerned with a mysterious person who knows even more about it than they do. These basic ideas serve as the backdrop of a set of provocating speculations about man, time, knowledge, causality, free will, responsibility, history, science and technology, as the three main characters, prompted by the yet untapped potential of the Dirac, explore multiple possibilities. `The Quincunx of Time' reads like a philosophical dialogue since it's structured around a few, still scenes in which successive (and sometimes contradictory) views are suggested and evaluated through discussion. Each problem is pared down to specific parts, so that all of its angles - from philosophy to psychology, physics, etc. - are considered. Common science-fiction themes, such as the (possible) role of science and technology in the life of man and in the hands of the world leaders, are given original and nuanced interpretations which go a lot further than where extreme resolutions would have gone. Strongly recommended.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Classic SF with a great idea.
19 Feb 1999
Format:Paperback
I read this book a long time ago and I liked it a lot. It is based on a great idea: scientists have discovered a faster-than-light means of transmitting data (actually it's *instantaneous*, regardless of distance), a kind of infinite distance radio system. However there is always a 'beep', a glitch at the beginning of every transmission. Engineers cannot remove it from the signal.
Then someday, someone has the idea of slowing down this beep, to find that it contains every transmission using this technology from the beginning to the end of time !
Highly recommended.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Blish at his best.
17 Jan 2004
Format:Hardcover
This is an expanded version of a short story that didn't tie into any of Blish's other fiction originally. As with the other short story that became an expanded work, Surface Tension, he kind of 'cannibalises' from his writings the way the French composer Berlioz used his earliest music as the basis for greater and more developed musical works.
Oh, and Blish was a music critic on the side, so he probably would've dug being compared to Berlioz.
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