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Timescape (S.F. Masterworks)
 
 

Timescape (S.F. Masterworks) (Paperback)

by Greg Benford (Author)
3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Gollancz; New edition edition (9 Mar 2000)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 185798935X
  • ISBN-13: 978-1857989359
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.2 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 47,164 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #1 in  Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > B > Benford, Gregory

Product Description

Product Description
1962: A young Californian scientist finds his experiments spoiled by mysterious interference. Gradually his suspicions lead him to a shattering truth: scientists from the end of the century are using subatomic particles to send a message into the past, in the hope that history can be changed and a world-threatening catastrophe averted.

From the Author
Great to see a 20 year old novel still read!
I'm grateful to UK & other readers who have reacted to a novel that now lies 20 years in my past... To the Toronto fellow: I felt Peterson had to eventually reach completion (polite word) with Marjorie, to complete the plot arc. It's a sign of things falling apart/center cannot hold in that gloomy 1999. (Whoosh, glad we're not on that timeline here!)

As one reader noted, my more recent COSM is like TIMESCAPE on speed, and my next two, THE MARTIAN RACE (December) and EATER (April) will have the same solid scientific background...

Gregory Benford --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Customer Reviews

38 Reviews
5 star:
 (9)
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 (13)
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2 star:
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Average Customer Review
3.7 out of 5 stars (38 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A great read, just not a brilliant one., 31 Jan 2004
By Butler (Australia) - See all my reviews
I'd read a lot of negative reviews of "Timescape" beforehand, but I went ahead with it anyway and I have to say it was pretty damn good.

OK, a lot of the sidetracking (dinner parties and long walks ad infinitum) was unnecessary, but it wasn't unentertaining. The science was solid and well-explained, though nothing truly mindblowing.

All in all, the sort of book you'd take home to meet your parents.

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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars When entertainment is hijacked by realism., 30 Jun 2003
By C. Foster "sdolemelipone" (St. Helens, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Cult film director Roger Corman once said, "There isn't a film in existence that wouldn't benefit from twenty minutes' worth of cuts". Okay, so we are talking about books and not movies, but this neat aphorism would seem to be remarkably relevant when referencing Greg Benford's technically accomplished yet painfully overwrought Timescape.

A quick synopsis of the story before we proceed:

It's the springtime of 1998 and trouble is afoot. Yes, those damnable scientists have been playing God yet again with their bioengineering tomfoolery, thus conveniently condemning the entire planet to thoroughly depressing ecological oblivion (will these eggheads ever learn?).

Deep within the sleepy halls of Cambridge University, John Renfrew is attempting to send a faster-than-light message, via the use of tachyons, back to 1962, where Californian postgraduate Gordon Bernstein is tinkering around with advanced particle physics.

Renfrew's goal is a simple one: to prevent the ecological catastrophe by telling the people of the past about the plight of the people in their future.

A worthy pursuit to be sure and one that, in my opinion, really shouldn't take much more than two hundred pages to document. Unfortunately for the reader, Mr. Benford is one of these contemporary SF writers who are totally oblivious to the word 'pacing' and the phrase: less is more.

At 400+ pages, this text is far too long; and any genuinely interesting plot developments have the life choked out of them by seemingly endless bouts of mind-numbing characterization.

Not that I have a problem with the creation of three-dimensional protagonists of course, it's just that Benford's attempts appear to go above and beyond the boundaries of overkill, and truth be known, much of it isn't all that good anyway.

To begin with, many of his characters appear to be hopeless stereotypes: Renfrew the typically idiosyncratic, and reserved Englishman; Marjorie his twittering horticulturist wife; Greg Markham the ultra-confident Yank smoothie (no doubt packing some nylons and a couple of Hershey bars); and Peterson, the string-pulling Machiavellian lothario.

The latter deserves special attention for his (preposterous) 007esque ability to take horizontal advantage of any woman who walks within earshot of his predatory charms, irrespective of whether they are happily partnered or not. Wasn't it Nietzche who said that when faced with death, human beings rush to procreate? Well, it seems that the author is in agreement with his assessment.

Quite frankly, Peterson appears to be the compensatory fantasy for every science boffin that ever struggled to get the girl, in fact, the entire book reads as a scientist's compensatory fantasy. Gone are those pesky thick-brained politicians with their deceitful antics and inane 'governments'; no the future (invoking the tropes of 50's pulp SF) will be run by scientific oligarchy, making scientific decisions - messing just about everything up in the most scientific manner possible

Now, my apologies if it appears as if I am totally dissatisfied with this novel because this is not the case. Indeed there are several positives to be gleaned here, and it would be unfair not to give mention to the book's intriguing insight into the unglamorous realities of scientific discovery and university politics. Not to mention Benford's ability to evoke fairly convincing imagery of humanity's whimpering descent into oblivion.

Peterson's departure from the story is particularly haunting, and this is arguably the book's strongest and most memorable chapter.

Unfortunately, the 'juicy bits' just don't arrive fast enough, and for much of the book you are left wondering just how these braniacs can spend so much time painfully missing what would be patently obvious to a carpet-hugging toddler.

Final verdict: an interesting premise heavily diluted by languid tedium.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A very human science-fiction read, 30 Jan 2003
By Neal C. Reynolds (Indianapolis, Indiana) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This is no fast & easy read. It's also one where it is very easy to miss the point. And the point lies in the human element and the very human part of the plot.
There's continual contrast here between the characters on a dying earth and those in an earlier era. The science-fictional theme is, obviously, time-travel or rather the communication through time.

This is a book to be patient with. It's necessary to accept the characters, not dismiss them as dull and uninteresting. The characters are people like you and me who are facing their challenges in the best way they can, same as you and me. These challenges placed against a cosmic type of fate therefore become significant.

This book gives a deep look at life itself through the depiction and contrast of the working life where the characters in two different time periods are dealing with mind-boggling events on the one level and on the living of their personal lives on another.

This book isn't for an action and adventure fan. It's one which presents concepts that will stretch your mind, and at the same time show how everyday life complexities are part of the picture.

If you allow yourself to become absorbed in this book, you'll find much to think about, both on intellectual and on personal levels.

I did have one fault with the book. It begins in 1998, and I would have liked to see it end in 1998 showing the changes in the primary characters as well as the development of those who we meet in the 60's.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Worthy but dull
In the far future of 1998 scientists discover a reverse tachyon positronic sub-space thingy. This is clearly very important. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Blackhorse47

3.0 out of 5 stars not bad - maybe a great short story rather than a novel.
For me this book was nearer standard fiction than sci-fi. It happens to be about scientists - with a small element of "sci-fi" in the quantum physics side to allow the plotline to... Read more
Published 10 months ago by discerningreader

3.0 out of 5 stars hostage to fortune
Sci-fi writers make themselves hostages to fortune by setting their stories in the near future. Quite apart from the fact that no one predicted the internet or mobile phones, Greg... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Michael Scuffil

1.0 out of 5 stars Very boring - stopped reading halfway through
The plot is a catch, but what a disappointment when you start reading: you cope with stereotypical figures, unnecessary descriptions of moments in life and a painful stretching... Read more
Published 18 months ago by Rupf Peter

4.0 out of 5 stars Hardest of the hard SF
Having been a physicist at the very same Cavendish Lab that is described in the book, I can assure you that the descriptions of life in a creaking English institution are 100%... Read more
Published 21 months ago by sam

4.0 out of 5 stars A delight - though a bit too long
This book was recommended to me, but, as I began to read the first chapter, I began to wonder why. The story starts with an unconvincing British family breakfast scene straight... Read more
Published on 22 Mar 2006

2.0 out of 5 stars Avoid This Book
Not long ago I was lucky enough to read Time and Again by Jack Finney, a wonderfully realised and wholly satisfying book which I would recommend to anyone. Read more
Published on 15 Jun 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars Gregory Benford-timescape, great science novels
Gregory Benford has now become a firm fave on a par with the little appreciated Christopher Priest. Both should have some of the novels made into films. Read more
Published on 19 Nov 2003 by macmend

3.0 out of 5 stars Good - but not that good
I have recently finished this book. I found it to be quite good, although over-long. The concept is superb, but for me the book never quite reached high altitude as regards... Read more
Published on 26 Sep 2001

3.0 out of 5 stars Fair attempt to marry science with character development
Timescape's plot centres around an ecological disaster in the late 1990's. Scientists and a British government official, Peterson, are working with tachyons (particles which move... Read more
Published on 8 Dec 2000

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