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Raft (novel)
Encyclopedia
Raft is a 1991 hard science fiction
book by author Stephen Baxter
. Raft is both Baxter's first novel and first book in the Xeelee Sequence
, although the Xeelee are not present. Raft was nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1992.
where the gravitational force is far stronger than our own, a "billion" times as strong. Planets do not exist, as they would immediately collapse under their own gravity; stars are only a mile across and have extremely brief life-spans, becoming cooled kernels a hundred yards wide with a surface gravity of five g
. Human bodies possess a "respectable" gravity field in and of themselves. "Gravitic chemistry" also exists, where gravity is the dominant force on an atomic scale.
of relatively breathable air, existing in divided communities. The society is highly stratified, with the elite living on the "Raft" (the remains of the starship that contains almost all the high technology), workers/miners living on various "Belt" worlds (where they mine burned-out star kernels), and the "Boneys", a nomadic band of "unmentionables" who live on worlds created out of corpses.
It is unknown exactly how the humans came to the universe, but hints within the story indicate that the Raft ship came through a rift in our universe into this alternate reality
(though whether intentionally or unintentionally is never specified). A glimpse of the high-gravity universe is seen in the book Ring, implying that the humans in Raft came from the main universe of the Xeelee Sequence, although during which time period they escaped is not clear.
The alternate universe the humans live in follows same laws as our universe, except that it has a gravitational constant
which is orders of magnitude larger than our own universe.
The physics of the alternate universe has slowly turned the nebula into an increasingly hostile environment and the humans, along with the bizarre native species, are suffering the effects of environmental collapse.
Hard science fiction
Hard science fiction is a category of science fiction characterized by an emphasis on scientific or technical detail, or on scientific accuracy, or on both. The term was first used in print in 1957 by P. Schuyler Miller in a review of John W. Campbell, Jr.'s Islands of Space in Astounding Science...
book by author Stephen Baxter
Stephen Baxter
Stephen Baxter is a prolific British hard science fiction author. He has degrees in mathematics and engineering.- Writing style :...
. Raft is both Baxter's first novel and first book in the Xeelee Sequence
Xeelee Sequence
The Xeelee Sequence is a series of novels and short stories by British science fiction author Stephen Baxter. The novels span several billions of years, describing the future expansion of Mankind, its war with its arch-nemesis , and the Xeelee's own war with dark matter entities called photino birds...
, although the Xeelee are not present. Raft was nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1992.
Setting
The novel is an elaborated version of his 1989 short story of the same title, Raft. The story follows a group of humans who have accidentally entered an alternate universeParallel universe (fiction)
A parallel universe or alternative reality is a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality...
where the gravitational force is far stronger than our own, a "billion" times as strong. Planets do not exist, as they would immediately collapse under their own gravity; stars are only a mile across and have extremely brief life-spans, becoming cooled kernels a hundred yards wide with a surface gravity of five g
G-force
The g-force associated with an object is its acceleration relative to free-fall. This acceleration experienced by an object is due to the vector sum of non-gravitational forces acting on an object free to move. The accelerations that are not produced by gravity are termed proper accelerations, and...
. Human bodies possess a "respectable" gravity field in and of themselves. "Gravitic chemistry" also exists, where gravity is the dominant force on an atomic scale.
Plot summary
The few thousand humans survive in a nebulaNebula
A nebula is an interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen gas, helium gas and other ionized gases...
of relatively breathable air, existing in divided communities. The society is highly stratified, with the elite living on the "Raft" (the remains of the starship that contains almost all the high technology), workers/miners living on various "Belt" worlds (where they mine burned-out star kernels), and the "Boneys", a nomadic band of "unmentionables" who live on worlds created out of corpses.
It is unknown exactly how the humans came to the universe, but hints within the story indicate that the Raft ship came through a rift in our universe into this alternate reality
Parallel universe (fiction)
A parallel universe or alternative reality is a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality...
(though whether intentionally or unintentionally is never specified). A glimpse of the high-gravity universe is seen in the book Ring, implying that the humans in Raft came from the main universe of the Xeelee Sequence, although during which time period they escaped is not clear.
The alternate universe the humans live in follows same laws as our universe, except that it has a gravitational constant
Gravitational constant
The gravitational constant, denoted G, is an empirical physical constant involved in the calculation of the gravitational attraction between objects with mass. It appears in Newton's law of universal gravitation and in Einstein's theory of general relativity. It is also known as the universal...
which is orders of magnitude larger than our own universe.
The physics of the alternate universe has slowly turned the nebula into an increasingly hostile environment and the humans, along with the bizarre native species, are suffering the effects of environmental collapse.