Call number
Series
Genres
Publication
Spectra (1992), Reissue, Paperback
Pages
499
Description
Winner of the 1980 Nebula Award, Timescape has since become a classic of the science fiction genre, combining hard science, bold speculation, and human drama--a challenging and triumphant tale told by a master storyteller. 1998. Earth is falling apart, on the brink of ecological disaster. But in England a tachyon scientist is attempting to contact the past, to somehow warn them of the misery and death their actions and experiments have visited upon a ravaged planet. 1962. JFK is still president, rock 'n' roll is king, and the Vietnam War hardly merits front-page news. A young assistant researcher at a California university, Gordon Bernstein, notices strange patterns of interference in a lab experiment. Against all odds, facing ridicule and opposition, Bernstein begins to uncover the incredible truth . . . a truth that will change his life and alter history . . . the truth behind time itself.… (more)
Awards
Nebula Award (Nominee — Novel — 1980)
John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (Winner — 1981)
British Science Fiction Association Award (Shortlist — Novel — 1980)
Gigamesh Award (1985)
Ditmar Award (Winner — 1981)
Locus All-Time Best (Science Fiction Novel — 38 — 1987)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1980
Physical description
499 p.; 7.1 inches
ISBN
0553297090 / 9780553297096
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User reviews
LibraryThing member iamza
I usually hate time travel stories because they make my head hurt, but this one makes a pleasant change from the norm. It's not people travelling back through time, and requiring some FTL technobabble device, but messages streamed through time by means of already FTL tachyon particles.
The story is
It's interesting to compare and contrast between the two worlds: Gordon is an assistant professor at La Jolla, hungry for promotion and his chance to procure tenure. As with many of the greatest discoveries, his scientific breakthrough comes quite by accident: Bernstein and Cooper, his assistant, are running a series of experiments whose results are plagued by seemingly random noise. It is only when Bernstein analyzes the noise more completely that he realizes what he has found, and then he faces an uphill struggle to persuade his peers that he has found something worthy of further study.
Renfrew and Markham, by contrast, come across as much older and more worn. They're not at the start of their scientific careers, searching for glory and acclaim or to gain a quick promotion. Rather, their experiments offer hope, a last chance measure to stop the environmental disaster unfolding in their time before it has a chance to overshoot.
One of the things that I like most about this novel is the detailing of everyday academic life. The idea that a brilliant scientific discovery might be put on hold or pooh-poohed by the academic community at large because of departmental politics, or that one should refrain from publishing anything the slightest bit controversial because it might impact your standing amongst your fellow peers felt horribly familiar.
The story is
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told through the eyes of two sets of scientists. One team is based in Cambridge in the late nineties, in a world which is falling apart. The earth's climate has changed, algal blooms caused by pesticides are wreaking havoc on the oceans, and civilization is slowly starting to crumble under the pressure of sustained ecological chaos. The second team, consisting mostly of physicist Gordon Bernstein, is based in La Jolla, California in the early sixties. It's interesting to compare and contrast between the two worlds: Gordon is an assistant professor at La Jolla, hungry for promotion and his chance to procure tenure. As with many of the greatest discoveries, his scientific breakthrough comes quite by accident: Bernstein and Cooper, his assistant, are running a series of experiments whose results are plagued by seemingly random noise. It is only when Bernstein analyzes the noise more completely that he realizes what he has found, and then he faces an uphill struggle to persuade his peers that he has found something worthy of further study.
Renfrew and Markham, by contrast, come across as much older and more worn. They're not at the start of their scientific careers, searching for glory and acclaim or to gain a quick promotion. Rather, their experiments offer hope, a last chance measure to stop the environmental disaster unfolding in their time before it has a chance to overshoot.
One of the things that I like most about this novel is the detailing of everyday academic life. The idea that a brilliant scientific discovery might be put on hold or pooh-poohed by the academic community at large because of departmental politics, or that one should refrain from publishing anything the slightest bit controversial because it might impact your standing amongst your fellow peers felt horribly familiar.
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LibraryThing member ScoLgo
Physicists as rock stars. Meh. While I did find Benford's style of writing to be very readable, the overall problem I had with this book; it's kind of boring. Benford has an almost mystical reverence for 'The Equations' and spends an inordinate amount of time inside his character's heads as they
My other complaint is - with a couple of exceptions - the lack of character development. Also, the rather provincial depiction of the female personalities. For a book published in 1980, Timescape feels like a book at least 10-20 years older. The tone makes Benford appear to be an author out of touch with his times.
On the plus side, the central concept of the story is actually very interesting and I really enjoyed the way Benford dealt with how the 'time-travel' aspect affected his characters and their worlds. Too bad it all gets bogged down by paragraph upon paragraph of exposition about the coolness of physics. Not really my cuppa...
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think about and work upon 'The Equations'. Sorry, but that does not make a compellingly nail-biting storyline. At least not for me.My other complaint is - with a couple of exceptions - the lack of character development. Also, the rather provincial depiction of the female personalities. For a book published in 1980, Timescape feels like a book at least 10-20 years older. The tone makes Benford appear to be an author out of touch with his times.
On the plus side, the central concept of the story is actually very interesting and I really enjoyed the way Benford dealt with how the 'time-travel' aspect affected his characters and their worlds. Too bad it all gets bogged down by paragraph upon paragraph of exposition about the coolness of physics. Not really my cuppa...
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LibraryThing member orderflow
Captures the feel of an experimental physics lab very well. Not that every day is this exciting of course :-)
LibraryThing member clark.hallman
Timescape by Gregory Benford was first published in 1980. It won the Nebula Award and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel that year. It is a work of “hard” science fiction, i.e., it is based upon science instead of social science. The story emphasizes physics
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(mostly theoretical physics), and I found it to be difficult to cope with all the scientific explanations. Surprisingly, that beginning physics course that I completed in college 43 years ago did not help me understand the seemingly endless physics lesson that I plodded though in this book! It is true that Benford also included much character development, considerable relationship experiences for the many characters, and much flavor of the times (1963, 1998, and 1974) and settings (mostly La Jolla California in the US and Cambridge in England). Unfortunately, I did not particularly like the characters in this book and I found most glimpses of their lives provided by Benford to be boring. The basic story of the book is interesting, but not unique for a science fiction book. The characters in 1998 were experiencing an ecological disaster that was escalating to apocalyptic proportions. Their scientists attempted to contact scientists in 1963 to warn them about certain scientific/industrial processes that were leading to the ecological disaster. They hoped to change the future by changing the scientific/industrial processes of the past. They attempted to send a beam of tachyon particles (which travel through time) carrying a message to the 1963 scientists. That story line was interesting and the results brought some interesting paradoxes. However Benford’s propensity to dwell on detailed theoretical physics and scientific processes required much more knowledge then this reader could bring to the book. That scientific content is what makes this book unique. If you are interested in details about scientific experimental processes, and you know a little about physics, you would probably get more out of this book and enjoy it. Unfortunately, I am not a physicist and I have never even played one on TV! I should have skipped this book. Show Less
LibraryThing member sturlington
This science-fiction classic is lauded for marrying hard physics-based sci fi with strong character stories, but the characters were precisely the reason I didn’t like the book. The plot is intriguing: in a future (actually 1998) plagued by environmental catastrophes, a couple of physicists hatch
For example, in an early chapter, the wife of one of the physicists is approached by a squatter asking for some milk for her child. She refuses, saying she only has enough for her family. Okay, I can understand that reaction; food supplies are obviously running short. But then, a few days later, she hosts a lavish dinner party for her friends, where she serves three desserts! This brought to mind what I most dislike about humans and what is really at the root of a lot of our problems, including climate change: that we can rationalize that avoiding our own minor discomforts and deprivations is more important than helping to meet the basic needs of a fellow human being. I really couldn’t like any of the characters after that scene, no matter how hard they tried to save the world.
Abandoned before finishing.
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a plan to send a message back in time, hoping that the scientists of the past can avert the catastrophe. But I couldn’t get into the story because all of the characters were unlikeable, stereotyped or just plain flat.For example, in an early chapter, the wife of one of the physicists is approached by a squatter asking for some milk for her child. She refuses, saying she only has enough for her family. Okay, I can understand that reaction; food supplies are obviously running short. But then, a few days later, she hosts a lavish dinner party for her friends, where she serves three desserts! This brought to mind what I most dislike about humans and what is really at the root of a lot of our problems, including climate change: that we can rationalize that avoiding our own minor discomforts and deprivations is more important than helping to meet the basic needs of a fellow human being. I really couldn’t like any of the characters after that scene, no matter how hard they tried to save the world.
Abandoned before finishing.
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LibraryThing member librisissimo
Substance: Scientists living on the fatally polluted earth of 1998 seek desperately to stave off disaster by sending a message to scientists in the past, using tachyons pulsed in Morse code.
Excellent scientific info and worthwhile story. Interesting characters, very individual.
Style: The shifts
NOTES:
p. 87: important; p. 89: chlorinated flurocarbons in fertilizer are the culprit (one of the US scientists in 1963 discovers why);
p. 90-103: time and tachyons;
p. 112: AGW side effects & ethanol;
p. 119: mercury is a poison, what is it doing loose in the sewers and gathered by unshielded children?
p. 131-132: clues, but not enough info;
p. 136: rapping on the elderly and Social Security;
p. 144: independent somethings;
p. 159: 1950s nostalgia;
p. 199: ah yes!
p. 203: signal overlays - slow on the uptake here!
p. 207-212: paradoxes;
p. 283: PC science;
p. 349: forecasting and why it doesn't work;
p. 356: test of new development;
p. 363: paradox as a probability wave;
p. 473ff: splitting universes;
p. 480: ho ho ho.
Excellent scientific info and worthwhile story. Interesting characters, very individual.
Style: The shifts
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between past and present are handled well, as are the shifts from English to American settings and characters.NOTES:
p. 87: important; p. 89: chlorinated flurocarbons in fertilizer are the culprit (one of the US scientists in 1963 discovers why);
p. 90-103: time and tachyons;
p. 112: AGW side effects & ethanol;
p. 119: mercury is a poison, what is it doing loose in the sewers and gathered by unshielded children?
p. 131-132: clues, but not enough info;
p. 136: rapping on the elderly and Social Security;
p. 144: independent somethings;
p. 159: 1950s nostalgia;
p. 199: ah yes!
p. 203: signal overlays - slow on the uptake here!
p. 207-212: paradoxes;
p. 283: PC science;
p. 349: forecasting and why it doesn't work;
p. 356: test of new development;
p. 363: paradox as a probability wave;
p. 473ff: splitting universes;
p. 480: ho ho ho.
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LibraryThing member joeteo1
In this story, Earth is undergoing an ecological holocaust and scientists attempt to send a message backwards in time to try and avoid the human actions that precipitated it. Overall it is a compelling story although it does get slow in places. Gregory Benford makes the error of using actual dates
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in the story so that the parts that take place in the "future" are occurring in 1996. (The movie 2001 is still great even though we have not yet visited Saturn or have a moon base however). The discussions on the physics of time travel and in depth as one would expect from a "hard" SF story and may not be for everyone. Gregory Benford was a professor in the physics department at UCSD and the descriptions of the experiences of the protagonist as an assistant professor are spot on. Show Less
LibraryThing member Gwendydd
This book has two plotlines; one in the late 1990s, as the world is crumbling due to global warming. Scientists have discovered a way to send messages back in time, so they send warnings to 1962 in the hopes that global warming will be averted. The other storyline is in the early 1960s, where a
This is a pretty intriguing plotline, but there just isn't enough story there to fill such a long novel. I felt like most of the novel was filler - there is a lot of focus on the wives, girlfriends, and personal lives of the main characters that really has nothing to do with the story. There is also a lot of discussion of physics and science, which is quite interesting, but seemed to drag on longer than necessary to tell the story.
[spoiler alert]
The most disappointing part of the book is that the characters in the 1960s realize they are getting a message from the future, but they never seem to understand that the message is a warning. History changes, but it's not clear if global warming is actually averted. At times, I thought that the message from the future was actually going to bring about global warming, because as soon as they read what causes the disaster, they start recreating the disastrous technology 20 years too early - that would have been an interesting plot twist.
[/spoiler]
Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of the book was the examination of the culture of academia, especially the comparison of how easy it is to get scientific funding in the 1960s and how hard it is to get funding in the 1990s.
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scientist's experimental data is corrupted by weird noise, which he eventually realizes is a message from the future.This is a pretty intriguing plotline, but there just isn't enough story there to fill such a long novel. I felt like most of the novel was filler - there is a lot of focus on the wives, girlfriends, and personal lives of the main characters that really has nothing to do with the story. There is also a lot of discussion of physics and science, which is quite interesting, but seemed to drag on longer than necessary to tell the story.
[spoiler alert]
The most disappointing part of the book is that the characters in the 1960s realize they are getting a message from the future, but they never seem to understand that the message is a warning. History changes, but it's not clear if global warming is actually averted. At times, I thought that the message from the future was actually going to bring about global warming, because as soon as they read what causes the disaster, they start recreating the disastrous technology 20 years too early - that would have been an interesting plot twist.
[/spoiler]
Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of the book was the examination of the culture of academia, especially the comparison of how easy it is to get scientific funding in the 1960s and how hard it is to get funding in the 1990s.
Show Less
LibraryThing member jwhenderson
This is a novel of scientific discovery that does not neglect the story of the people who make the science. It is a better novel as much due to both its fusion of detailed character development and interpersonal drama and the science fiction narrative that includes time travel, an alternate
The story is written from two viewpoints, equidistant from the novel's publication in 1980. One narrative is set in a 1998 ravaged by ecological disasters and is on the brink of large scale extinctions. It follows a group of scientists in the United Kingdom connected with the University of Cambridge and their attempts to warn the past of the impending disaster by sending tachyon-induced messages to the astronomical position the Earth occupied in 1962–1963. Given the faster-than-light nature of the tachyon, these messages will effectively reach the past. These efforts are led by John Renfrew, an Englishman, and Gregory Markham, an American most likely modeled on Benford himself.
Another narrative is set in La Jolla, California at the University of California-San Diego in 1962, where a young scientist, Gordon Bernstein, discovers anomalous noise in a physics experiment relating to spontaneous resonance and indium antimonide. He and his student assistant, Albert Cooper (also likely based on the author and his experiences at UCSD), discover that the noise is coming in bursts timed to form Morse code.
The resulting message is made of staccato sentence fragments and jumbled letters, due to the 1998 team's efforts to avoid a grandfather paradox. Their aim is to give the past researchers enough information to start efforts on solving the pending ecological crisis, but not enough that the crisis will be entirely solved (thus making a signal to the past unnecessary and creating a paradox). Due to the biological nature of the message, Professor Bernstein shares the message with a professor of biology, Michael Ramsey. Since the message also gives astronomical coordinates, he also shares it with Saul Shriffer, a fictional scientist who is said to have worked with Frank Drake on Project Ozma. Initially, these characters fail to understand the true meaning of the message. Ramsey believes it to be an intercepted military dispatch hinting at Soviet bioterrorism, while Shriffer thinks the message is of extraterrestrial origin. Shriffer goes public with this theory, mentioning Bernstein in his findings. However, Bernstein's overseer, Isaac Lakin, is skeptical of the messages and wants Bernstein to keep working on his original project and ignore the signal. As a result of this interruption in their experimentation, Bernstein is denied a promotion and Cooper fails a candidacy examination. The signal also exacerbates difficulties in Bernstein's relationship with his girlfriend, Penny.
In 1998, Peterson recovers a safe deposit box in La Jolla containing a piece of paper indicating that the messages were received. Meanwhile, it is clear that the viral nature of the algal bloom is spreading it faster and through more mediums than originally expected. Strange yellow clouds that have been appearing are said to be a result of the viral material being absorbed through the water cycle, and it soon affects the planet's agriculture as well, resulting in widespread cases of food poisoning. Flying to the United States, Markham is killed in a plane crash when the pilots fly too close to one of the clouds and experience seizures.
In the past narrative, now advanced into 1963, Bernstein refuses to give up on the signals. He is rewarded when the signal noise is also observed in a laboratory at Columbia University (a nod "Tachyons were the sort of audacious idea that comes to young minds used to roving over the horizon of conventional thought. Because of Feinberg I later set part of my tachyon novel at Columbia towards the inventor of the tachyon concept, Gerald Feinberg of Columbia). Using hints in the message, Ramsey replicates the conditions of the bloom in a controlled experiment and realizes the danger it represents. Bernstein finds out that the astronomical coordinates given in the message represent where the Earth will be in 1998 due to the solar apex. He also receives a more coherent, despairing message from the future. Having built a solid case, Bernstein goes public and publishes his results.
The remainder of the story involves the possibility of an alternate reality and some surprising consequences. The combination of science, the impact of the scientists' work on their interpersonal relations, and the impact of the science itself on the future made this an excellent work of science fiction. It is no surprise that it won several awards including the Nebula Award in 1980.
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reality, and ecological issues.The story is written from two viewpoints, equidistant from the novel's publication in 1980. One narrative is set in a 1998 ravaged by ecological disasters and is on the brink of large scale extinctions. It follows a group of scientists in the United Kingdom connected with the University of Cambridge and their attempts to warn the past of the impending disaster by sending tachyon-induced messages to the astronomical position the Earth occupied in 1962–1963. Given the faster-than-light nature of the tachyon, these messages will effectively reach the past. These efforts are led by John Renfrew, an Englishman, and Gregory Markham, an American most likely modeled on Benford himself.
Another narrative is set in La Jolla, California at the University of California-San Diego in 1962, where a young scientist, Gordon Bernstein, discovers anomalous noise in a physics experiment relating to spontaneous resonance and indium antimonide. He and his student assistant, Albert Cooper (also likely based on the author and his experiences at UCSD), discover that the noise is coming in bursts timed to form Morse code.
The resulting message is made of staccato sentence fragments and jumbled letters, due to the 1998 team's efforts to avoid a grandfather paradox. Their aim is to give the past researchers enough information to start efforts on solving the pending ecological crisis, but not enough that the crisis will be entirely solved (thus making a signal to the past unnecessary and creating a paradox). Due to the biological nature of the message, Professor Bernstein shares the message with a professor of biology, Michael Ramsey. Since the message also gives astronomical coordinates, he also shares it with Saul Shriffer, a fictional scientist who is said to have worked with Frank Drake on Project Ozma. Initially, these characters fail to understand the true meaning of the message. Ramsey believes it to be an intercepted military dispatch hinting at Soviet bioterrorism, while Shriffer thinks the message is of extraterrestrial origin. Shriffer goes public with this theory, mentioning Bernstein in his findings. However, Bernstein's overseer, Isaac Lakin, is skeptical of the messages and wants Bernstein to keep working on his original project and ignore the signal. As a result of this interruption in their experimentation, Bernstein is denied a promotion and Cooper fails a candidacy examination. The signal also exacerbates difficulties in Bernstein's relationship with his girlfriend, Penny.
In 1998, Peterson recovers a safe deposit box in La Jolla containing a piece of paper indicating that the messages were received. Meanwhile, it is clear that the viral nature of the algal bloom is spreading it faster and through more mediums than originally expected. Strange yellow clouds that have been appearing are said to be a result of the viral material being absorbed through the water cycle, and it soon affects the planet's agriculture as well, resulting in widespread cases of food poisoning. Flying to the United States, Markham is killed in a plane crash when the pilots fly too close to one of the clouds and experience seizures.
In the past narrative, now advanced into 1963, Bernstein refuses to give up on the signals. He is rewarded when the signal noise is also observed in a laboratory at Columbia University (a nod "Tachyons were the sort of audacious idea that comes to young minds used to roving over the horizon of conventional thought. Because of Feinberg I later set part of my tachyon novel at Columbia towards the inventor of the tachyon concept, Gerald Feinberg of Columbia). Using hints in the message, Ramsey replicates the conditions of the bloom in a controlled experiment and realizes the danger it represents. Bernstein finds out that the astronomical coordinates given in the message represent where the Earth will be in 1998 due to the solar apex. He also receives a more coherent, despairing message from the future. Having built a solid case, Bernstein goes public and publishes his results.
The remainder of the story involves the possibility of an alternate reality and some surprising consequences. The combination of science, the impact of the scientists' work on their interpersonal relations, and the impact of the science itself on the future made this an excellent work of science fiction. It is no surprise that it won several awards including the Nebula Award in 1980.
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LibraryThing member farquhj
Timescape is one of my favorite sci-fi novels. I first read it around 1990 and recently finished my third reading. The characters are varied and complex, yet I don't find myself relating to any of them very well. Instead, I enjoy the detailed discussions of the science, how science is performed as
One timeline within the story occurs in 1963. The other timeline is in 1998, which, at the time of it's writing, was a good 18 years in the future. Consequently, when reading it today, one finds that the 1998 "future" misses the mark on several occasions. I found myself able to ignore those issues and think of the future timeline as simply an alternate universe not incompatible with a near future of my own timeline.
Each time I've read through the book, I've understood a little more given it's many cultural references. For example, one character in the 1963 timeline mentions a new Phil Dick book titled: "The Man in the High Castle". While I haven't read this book, I did recognize it as a recent TV series produced by Amazon.
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well as descriptions of the academic environment. The realism can be attributed to Benford's practice as an astrophysicist at UC, Irvine. More importantly, the story is an interesting, unfolding mystery posing questions involving possible communications between time and multiverses.One timeline within the story occurs in 1963. The other timeline is in 1998, which, at the time of it's writing, was a good 18 years in the future. Consequently, when reading it today, one finds that the 1998 "future" misses the mark on several occasions. I found myself able to ignore those issues and think of the future timeline as simply an alternate universe not incompatible with a near future of my own timeline.
Each time I've read through the book, I've understood a little more given it's many cultural references. For example, one character in the 1963 timeline mentions a new Phil Dick book titled: "The Man in the High Castle". While I haven't read this book, I did recognize it as a recent TV series produced by Amazon.
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LibraryThing member yonitdm
I could not stop thinking about this book. The premise is fascinating, the two worlds described are fascinating. The scientists of the past and "future" are character studies and their pursuits are interesting. The climax just kept going. I highly recommend this book!
LibraryThing member ashleytylerjohn
Dull, with a soupçon of “women are not important” (and I’m a man myself), characters who lack character and are hard to tell apart, and so far (I’m a third in) nothing has happened. Long passages of people explaining things to one another that they ought to know already. No charm, no
Time to abandon and find something more fulfilling.
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surprises, and a very uninspired imagining of the near future (at the time). It gets 2 stars for being competently written (I try to save 1 star for "how did this get published???" books), but I am clearly the other end of the target market for this kind of fiction, and I'm stunned that it would win any award, let alone something so major.Time to abandon and find something more fulfilling.
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LibraryThing member electrascaife
There are two timelines in this story: one in sort-of mid-apocalyptic 1998, when algae blooms and mass extinctions have triggered the beginning of the end it seems, and one in 1962, when scientists at UCLA are conducting some sort of physics experiment involving tachyons...? Anyway, the future
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scientists (aka those in 1998 - the book was published in 1980) figure out that they can send a message via tachyons to the 1962 scientists, warning them of the impending doom. But they don't want to make it too clear or else the Grandfather Paradox would kick in and...it...wouldn't...work? But somehow it sort of doesn't work anyway (but also sort of does), because, I'm guessing, butterfly wings and then Kennedy gets shot but not killed? Because physics! Gah. I give up. There's way too much science talk and not nearly enough make-it-make-sense-to-the-reader talk. I got confused. And then I got bored. Which I think would have happened without the confusion - it takes just this side of forever for any actual plot to be bothered to happen. So nope, this one didn't really work for me. Show Less