Light Of Other Days: A Novel of the Transformation of Humanity

by Arthur C. Clarke (Author)

• New

  Paperback
  2009

  $21.66

• Used

  Paperback
  2001

  $3.28

  'Space is what keeps everything from being in the same place. Right?' With these words Hiram Patterson, head of the giant media corporation OurWorld, launches the greatest communications revolution in history. With OurWorld's development of wormhole technology, any point in space can be connected to any other, faster than the speed of light. Realtime television coverage is here: earthquakes and wars, murders and disasters can be watched, exactly as they occur, anywhere on the planet. Then WormCams are made to work across time as well as space. Humanity encounters itself in the light of other days. We witness the life of Jesus, go to the premiere of Hamlet, solve the enigmas that have baffled generations. Blood spilled centuries ago flows vividly once more - and no personal treachery or shame can be concealed. But when the world and everything in it becomes as transparent as glass and there are no more secrets, people find new ways to gain vengeance and commit crime. And Hiram Patterson meanwhile will try to keep his deadly schemes secret - but even he, its creator, cannot anticipate the power of the all-seeing WormCam.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2000

  $3.28

  In the most exciting SF collaboration ever, Arthur C. Clarke and his universally acknowledged heir Stephen Baxter pool talent, fantastic ideas, unprecedented cosmic insights as well as page-turning plotting skills and breathlessly good writing to produce the most awesome novel of the future since 3001. 'Empty' space is actually full, full of fluctuating energy fields that become at the Planck level a seething probabilistic froth, laced by wormholes. When the Casimir engine, a machine less than a few hundred atomic diameters wide, stabilises these wormholes, the most dramatic communications revolution in history is underway. The Earth itself becomes as transparent as glass -- Wormcams enable unlimited realtime remote viewing. But the technology is developed and owned by OurWorld, Hiram Patterson's broadcasting, news, sport and entertainment empire. Hiram can be counted on to trivialise and exploit the new technology. Fuming inwardly about decadent technology and excess wealth, journalist Kate Manzoni goes to work for Hiram, investigating crank religions -- and dating Hiram's son Bobby. Then a break-through in physics allows the instrument to view not only current events but to look into the past.