Ring (The Xeelee Sequence)

by Stephen Baxter

Book Overview

Michael Poole's wormholes constructed in the orbit of Jupiter had opened the galaxy to humankind. Then Poole tried looping a wormhole back on itself, tying a knot in space and ripping a hole in time.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061056944
• Release Date: April 1996
• Publisher: Harper Voyager
• Length: 512 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.8" x 1.3" x 4.2"

Customer Reviews

Mind Blowing Sci Fi

I absolutately flew through this book! It was amazing. The story seems predictable at first, though the reader will quickly find that this is not true. I read this book without realizing that is was part of a series (believe me I am going to be reading all the books in this series) and it stands alone just fine. All relative information needed is rehashed for the reader quickly. The imagination this guy has is truely humbling. Bottom line: Buy this book without delay!

"Hall of Fame" material

I'll just say that I'm a hard core Clarke fan. And I really enjoyed this book. Perhaps the story is a little "jumpy" at the beginning, and perhaps, too, the characters are not as well developed as in other works. But still, this book has many of the attributes I look for in sci-fi: an epic view of the history of the universe, a look at humankind in this context, an effort to imagine other types of life, and a scientific support coherent enough to be believable. Again, if you enjoy reading Arthur Clarke, I'd bet you will love this book.

Depressing and Beautiful

Science Fiction has fallen into a woeful state in recent years. A quick glance at the local bookstore will see the shelves chuck full of unimaginative fantasy noveles and long sections of Star Trek, Star Wars, BattleTech books. I have begun to stray away from this side of the bookstore, simply because I have begun to find is depressing. And yet, all hope is not lost! Upon a recent trip to the store I found a novel by Stephen Baxter entitled "The Ring". I had heard good things mentioned about him in the past and figured I might as well check the author out. I bought the book and, several days alter, was finaly able to peel myself away from it. "Ring" is hard-science fiction at its best, tons of theoretical science mixed with characters who we can truly care about as well as descriptive language which still makes the hair on the back of my arm stand up. Baxter's description of the dying solar system still haunts me when I think about it. Buy this book! At the very least its better than "Star Trek: The Mystery of Kirk's Hair".

Grim up Galactic North

Alright; the characters are sketchy, the writing is patchy and the pacing is interrupted by long info-dumps. Fine. If you don't like Hard Sf don't read this book. If you do like a rattling space adventure which not merely nods at science, but is actually inspired by it, then Ring is for you. Particularly impressive at the audaciouness of it all, the scope, the way Baxter reinvents standard SF tropes. A strangely gothic tale for Hard SF, as well; a story of people battling to survive in a dying and hostile ruled beings greater than ourselves, and incomprehensible to us. Baxter understands the majesty of decline and entropy better than the American SF writers (Post imperial Britain and all that), and uses it. The reaction reminds me of what Thomas Disch said of Hal Clement (another hard SF great); '...dense, but so is pecan pie.' Dense, and rich with ideas.

Hard SF on the grand scale

Hard SF the way it can and should be written. Baxter creates well-drawn and interesting characters and sets them loose on an adventure of truly mind-boggling scale. I haven't read any of his stuff before, but that's gonna change, now! "Ring" reminds me most of Kim Stanley Robinson's "Red Mars," which won a well-deserved Hugo Award. It's positively bursting with well-thought-out and captivating speculation and extrapolation, and most of the time I was reading, I just kept shaking my head in amazement at the scope of the ideas. You may learn more about stellar physics or superstring theory than you'd like to, but hey, that's hard SF, and Baxter does a good job of keeping the science understandable. "Ring" occasionally drags a bit, but not for long, and I guarantee it will expand your mental horizons.