Stories set in a variety of futures from the award-winning heir of Arthur C. Clarke: Traces gives a kaleidoscopic vision of the possibilities for humankind.
There are vision of histories which differ from our own, either through small changes – what if Germany had won WWI (`Mittelwelt’) – or through a fundamental difference in physical laws – what if Archimedes had been right in his clockwork-like cosmological vision (`No Longer Touch the Earth’).
There are visions of futures in which people struggle to survive in a variety of bizarre environments (`Downstream’, `The Blood of Angels’), or, weakened and powerless, inhabit the end of worlds (`Inherit the Earth’, `George and the Comet’).
There are explorations of astonishing events of our own lifetimes, in particular the grand expansion into space (`Zemlya’, `Moon Six’, `Pilgrim 7’).
These visions give an impression of the contingency of our everyday here-and-now, surrounded as it is by an infinite array of possible pasts, presents, and futures.
- ISBN13 9780006498148
- Publish Date 4 January 1999 (first published 20 April 1998)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 16 March 2010
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Voyager
- Format Paperback
- Pages 368
- Language English
- URL http://harpercollins.co.uk