Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
 
Raft
 
See larger image 
Share your own customer images
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.

Raft (Paperback)

by Stephen Baxter (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

Available from these sellers.


8 used from £4.95
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Hardcover 6 used & new from £4.49
Paperback 5 used & new from £3.19
Paperback £9.99 £9.47 3 used & new from £9.40

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Flux

Flux

by Stephen Baxter
4.0 out of 5 stars (3)  £9.47
Timelike Infinity

Timelike Infinity

by Stephen Baxter
3.7 out of 5 stars (6)  £6.64
Ring

Ring

by Stephen Baxter
3.7 out of 5 stars (7)  £8.53
Vacuum Diagrams

Vacuum Diagrams

by Stephen Baxter
4.3 out of 5 stars (6)  £5.01
The Time Ships

The Time Ships

by Stephen Baxter
4.5 out of 5 stars (19)  £5.48
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd; New edition edition (2 Aug 1992)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0586210911
  • ISBN-13: 978-0586210918
  • Product Dimensions: 17.6 x 11.2 x 2.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 118,363 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

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

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Product Description

Review

'Raft is fast paced, strong on suspense, efficiently written, and has moral weight, but it is in the creation of a genuinely strange and believable new universe that Baxter excels! rigorous, vigorous SF at its enjoyable best' Time Out 'Almost perfect! Raft is very, very hard SF and it's great fun' Interzone 'This debut novel polishes its ideas with such realistic brilliance you can see a whole civilization in it' The Times


Product Description

Stephen Baxter's highly acclaimed first novel and the beginning of his stunning Xeelee Sequence. A spaceship from Earth accidentally crossed through a hole in space-time to a universe where the force of gravity is one billion times as strong as the gravity we know. Somehow the crew survived, aided by the fact that they emerged into a cloud of gas surrounding a black hole, which provided a breathable atmosphere. Five hundred years later, their descendants still struggle for existence, divided into two main groups. The Miners live on the Belt, a ramshackle ring of dwellings orbiting the core of a dead star, which they excavate for raw materials. These can be traded for food from the Raft, a structure built from the wreckage of the ship, on which a small group of scientists preserve the ancient knowledge which makes survival possible. Rees is a Miner whose curiosity about his world makes him stow away on a flying tree -- just one of the many strange local lifeforms -- carrying trade between the Belt and the Raft. Accepted as an apprentice scientist, he learns that their world is dying, and that in order to live these survivors must contemplate a journey even more perilous and fantastic than that of their ancestors.
See all Product Description

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(1)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Raft
43% buy the item featured on this page:
Raft 4.0 out of 5 stars (6)
Ark
20% buy
Ark 4.0 out of 5 stars (9)
£7.77
Flood
14% buy
Flood 3.5 out of 5 stars (32)
£4.49
Xeelee: An Omnibus: Raft, Timelike Infinity, Flux, Ring
13% buy
Xeelee: An Omnibus: Raft, Timelike Infinity, Flux, Ring
£14.00
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
5 star:
 (2)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Hard SF, 18 Sep 1999
By A Customer
I first heard of Raft in an SF encyclopedia about extensive time lines in science fiction series. Raft is the first book in a series of 5 that span the life of the universe, from the big bang all the way to the end. The series is called "The Xeelee Sequence" and was written by Stephen Baxter, a British science fiction author whose earlier work like Raft is fairly scarce in the U.S. The books that make up the Xeelee Sequence, Raft, Timelike Infinity, Flux, Ring and Vacuum Diagrams, were written and published in this order (with the exception of Vacuum Diagrams which is a collection of short stories with some that were written and published before the appearance of Raft) but take place at different times on the time line. Ex.: Raft which was written a published before the others takes place over a million years after it's sequel, Timelike Infinity. This pattern continues with the rest of the Xeelee Sequence. Raft Takes place in an alternate universe where the force of gravity is one billion time stronger than in this one. Humans have accidentally, it appears, stumbled into this universe and somehow managed to survive. The main character, Rees, is a mine rat who lives in the belt which orbits around a collapsed star where they extract the iron ore. The story is of the Rees' search for the reasons humans are in this universe and not in one where it's easier to survive. On his journey Rees stumbles across many horrific and and amazing discoveries. Raft is one of the most imaginative books I've ever read. Baxter's universe is filled with nebulae where the breathable air is so tightly packed towards their cores that there are miles of space where a person could safely float around without a spacesuit. There is also native life in these nebulas, some of which is hunted by the Boneys; the most frightful class of survivors in the entire nebula. Baxter is, in my mind, the most under appreciated SF author in the U.S., but I don't know about his success in his native Britain. I encourage you to read his other books if you are a SF fan.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Hard SF, soft underbelly, 28 Feb 2004
Reasonably entertaining novel, although some paper thin characterisations, especially of the bit-part actors such as the giant miner, the undeveloped love interest, and the “boneys”. It felt a bit dated and even a bit ludicrous in parts, especially when it comes to some of the scatological descriptions – relieving yourself out of the stomach of a living, rotating, “whale” whilst travelling through a nebula . Some of the technical explanations seemed unrealistic too, although I’m no scientist, I would have thought that in a universe with an enormous gravity constant there would be far greater challenges than those presented. The main character was reasonably rounded, although his intellectual curiosity in the midst of blind, dull acceptance is reminiscent of other SF books (e.g. City and the Stars by Arthur C Clarke). The hero’s amazing intuition doesn’t seem that amazing, only the stupidity of some of those around him. Worth a read, but no classic.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars A decent read but should have stuck to hard-SF more, 7 Jan 2002
While this book is one of the most imaginative I have read, I felt it had a lot of faults. The character development felt tacked on to the very good science fiction elements of the story. Unfortunately this book also lacks the immensely grand scale of the other Xeelee sequence books (I started by reading Vacuum diagrams), and isn't really too relevant to the rest of the series, so I wouldn't recommend it as the introduction to this otherwise good series of books.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Baxters ideas are cool
Another classic. This time we are floating about in a nebulae. Apparently, and who am I to argue with SB, we could breathe in space if the gas density was right. Read more
Published on 7 Nov 2003 by Chris

4.0 out of 5 stars Mind-Bogglingly Inventive SF
Raft is hyped as being the first book in the "Xeelee Sequence", so it's fairly surprising that this word doesn't appear a single time within the book itself, but despite a... Read more
Published on 2 Jan 2003 by dogbarkssome

4.0 out of 5 stars Intelligent Sci-fi.
This really is a good solid piece of Science fiction. Stephen Baxters first in the Xeelee sequence it sets up his style of writing and the background to the story very... Read more
Published on 27 Jan 2001 by Mr. Paul J. Stephen

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject







i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Ad

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.