Egan, Greg Schild's Ladder ISBN 13: 9780061073441

Schild's Ladder - Softcover

9780061073441: Schild's Ladder
View all copies of this ISBN edition:
 
 

Twenty thousand years into the future, an experiment in quantum physics has had a catastrophic result, creating an enormous, rapidly expanding vacuum that devours everything it comes in contact with.

Now humans must confront this deadly expansion. Tchicaya, aboard a starship trawling the border of the vacuum, has allied himself with the Yielders -- those determined to study the vacuum while allowing it to grow unchecked. But when his fiery first love, Mariama, reenters his life on the side of the Preservationists -- those working to halt and destroy the vacuum -- Tchicaya finds himself struggling with an inner turmoil he has known since childhood.

However, in the center of the vacuum, something is developing that neither Tchicaya and the Yielders nor Mariama and the Preservationists could ever have imagined possible: life.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:
Greg Egan's ability to imagine wonders of cosmic scale is shown again in his SF novel Schild's Ladder, with future galactic society confronting a disaster of almost unimaginable vastness--or is it a springboard to new hope?

The fatal experiment was right at the edge of theoretical physics. Could there be an alternative structure for vacuum itself, the void underlying our cosmos? Unfortunately, yes. Once created, this artificial "novo-vacuum" successfully competes with normal space, expanding at half the speed of light in an all-consuming sphere. Inside, physics is radically, incomprehensibly different...

Six centuries later, thousands of inhabited solar systems have been gobbled. Scientists investigating the novo-vacuum from starship Rindler are split between trying to destroy it with tailored spatial viruses ("Planck worms") and hoping to understand the teeming richness beyond that deadly interface.

In a lonely galaxy where only humans are intelligent, whole planets have been evacuated to give microscopic alien organisms their chance to evolve. The novo-vacuum may be bursting with new orders of life, so that killing it would be a monstrous act of genocide. But frightened people dare dreadful things. Violence erupts on the Rindler.

Building up from ideas of human intelligence in disembodied storage or artificial bodies, Egan finally takes his lead characters on a mind-boggling joyride through novo-vacuum, mapping them into a space where a tense eight-hour flight from deadly predators covers just one millimetre. There's a lot of room in there.

Schild's Ladder makes easy reading out of terrifying physics, generating a real sense of wonder even as your jaw drops at the immensity of its implications. --David Langford

Book Description:
A modern masterpiece from 'One of the genre's great ideas men' (THE TIMES) nelwy packaged for a new audience

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

  • PublisherEos
  • Publication date2004
  • ISBN 10 006107344X
  • ISBN 13 9780061073441
  • BindingPaperback
  • Number of pages352
  • Rating
Buy Used
Condition: Good
SHIPS FROM USA. Used books have... Learn more about this copy

Shipping: £ 1.97
From U.S.A. to United Kingdom

Destination, rates & speeds

Add to Basket

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9781597805445: Schild's Ladder: A Novel

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9781597805445
Publisher: Night Shade Books, 2015
Softcover

  • 9780575082069: Schild's Ladder

    Gollancz, 2008
    Softcover

  • 9780061050930: Schild's Ladder

    Eos, 2002
    Hardcover

  • 9780575081116: Schild's Ladder (GOLLANCZ S.F.)

    Gollancz, 2007
    Softcover

  • 9780575070684: Schild's Ladder

    Gollancz, 2002
    Hardcover

Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace

Stock Image

Egan, Greg
Published by Eos (2004)
ISBN 10: 006107344X ISBN 13: 9780061073441
Used Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Irish Booksellers
(Portland, ME, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: Good. SHIPS FROM USA. Used books have different signs of use and do not include supplemental materials such as CDs, Dvds, Access Codes, charts or any other extra material. All used books might have various degrees of writing, highliting and wear and tear and possibly be an ex-library with the usual stickers and stamps. Dust Jackets are not guaranteed and when still present, they will have various degrees of tear and damage. All images are Stock Photos, not of the actual item. book. Seller Inventory # 3-006107344x-G

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy Used
£ 10.22
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: £ 1.97
From U.S.A. to United Kingdom
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Egan, Greg
Published by HarperCollins Publishers (2004)
ISBN 10: 006107344X ISBN 13: 9780061073441
Used Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Better World Books
(Mishawaka, IN, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: Good. Reprint. Used book that is in clean, average condition without any missing pages. Seller Inventory # 2191400-6

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy Used
£ 8.87
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: £ 5.55
From U.S.A. to United Kingdom
Destination, rates & speeds