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Ring (Paperback)

by Stephen Baxter (Author)
3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 448 pages
  • Publisher: Voyager; New edition edition (19 Feb 1996)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 000648221X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0006482215
  • Product Dimensions: 17.6 x 11 x 3.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 265,366 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #51 in  Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > B > Baxter, Stephen

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Product Description

Product Description

Wormhole technology has revealed that our sun will die in 5,000,000 years. A race of superbeings, the fabulous Xeelee, owners of the universe, are thought to be responsible. The bizarre and wealthy cult, the Superet, funds two projects aimed at combatting the force that will murder the sun.


About the Author

Stephen Baxter applied to become an astronaut in 1991. He didn't make it, but achieved the next best thing by becoming a science fiction writer, and his novels and short stories have been published and won awards around the world. His science background is in maths and engineering. He is married and lives in Buckinghamshire.

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Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
5 star:
 (2)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.7 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Visionary and gripping, if you skim the science lectures, 13 May 2000
By A Customer
Stephen Baxter is a fascinating teller of tales, although, for me, his highbrow scientific monologues rarely blend well with the plot. In Ring - the last of the Xeelee sequence - his ensemble cast includes several characters who regularly pause the action to make turgid lectures to their colleagues. Some of this science is integral to the story - of the ultimate fate of the Universe - but the interludes are like blocks of concrete around the feet of something of otherwise mercurial pace and, for the average reader (i.e. one without a PhD in astrophysics), they are a hindrance.

Baxter has big ideas and a brilliant imagination, which makes up for the fact that his characters are inclined to be a little unbelievable and repetitive. In Ring, as in his other books, he throws together a disparate group of individuals and explores their adjustments to each other and to dramatic challenges and events, It doesn't quite come off, because, beneath the surface, it seems they weren't really that dissimilar.

Those criticisms aside, Ring stands alone as a work of vision and innovation, which left this human reader feeling very appreciative of the solidity of planet earth. There are some neat links to earlier Xeelee stories, such as Flux and Raft, and, overall, it is gripping stuff on a cosmic scale. Skim the science lessons and you won't be able to put it down.

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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Great ideas drowned in dull textbook science, 7 April 2003
By dogbarkssome (England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)      
The fourth (and, chronologically at least) final novel in Baxter's Xeelee sequence contains some wonderful sf invention at its heart, but is unfortunately let down by the presentation. Every other page we go into needlessly extended (and repetitious) textbook science lectures, primarily on the life cycles of stars, and this slows the book down to a snails pace and ultimately becomes frustrating for the reader.

Essentially a sequel to Timelike Infinity, for readers who've been following the series this book will still be required reading, as it ties up the sequence, but for any novice readers I'd recommend either Raft or Flux, both of which are solid sf novels in their own right and only touch obliquely on the Xeelee continuity.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Science Fiction the way it's meant to be, 19 Mar 2006
By Sondre K. Jacobsen (Trondheim, Norway) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Ring (Mass Market Paperback)
Steven Baxter has a very good knowledge of the physics he writes about and being able to incorporate these into a good story, he captures the essence of Science Fiction. The story is well placed, one feels this really could happen in the future. The technology he describes is truly amazing, and he is so adept in portraying both characters and science that it’ like stepping into a movie. All in all a very well written, highly recommended for hard core Sci-Fi fans. The narrative and story receives a 4 star rating on my behalf, but for the significant knowledge of physics and future science with the ability to elegantly explain it as to make it understood, this is clearly a 5 star novel.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars The sheer scope of this novel is breathtaking
I discovered Baxter through an earlier book in his Xeelee Sequence, but this one is the absolute best. Read more
Published on 10 Jan 2000

1.0 out of 5 stars Painfully Bad.
Baxter proves that he is a text book writer and not one of SF. His characters are arbitrary; there is no attempt at making any one of them remotely likeable. Read more
Published on 16 Dec 1999 by Matthew J. Wolf-Meyer

4.0 out of 5 stars A great, hard Sf book.
This was the first book I read by Stephen Baxter and I thought it was great. There was lots of really hard SF and it had some good twists to it. Read more
Published on 15 Nov 1999

4.0 out of 5 stars my first Stephen Baxter novel - hooked!
I was a little dubious at first, as I was given the book as a present. Didn't know Stephen Baxter beforehand. Read more
Published on 22 Dec 1998

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