Raft

Stephen Baxter's first novel, "Xeelee Sequence," is now available in the SF Masterwork series. The novel follows the journey of a spaceship from Earth that accidentally crosses through a hole in space-time to a universe with one billion times the gravity of Earth. The crew survives and divides into two groups: the Miners, who live on the Belt and excavate raw materials for trade, and the Raft, where scientists preserve ancient knowledge. Rees, a Miner, stows away on a flying tree to explore his world and discovers something that will change his world.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 256 pages
Publication date: 12 July 2018
Publisher: Orion Publishing Co

Stephen Baxter's highly acclaimed debut novel, the first installment in his breathtaking Xeelee Sequence, has been inducted into the SF Masterwork series! A remarkable incident occurred when an Earth spaceship unintentionally traversed a hole in space-time and found itself in a universe where the force of gravity was a staggering one billion times stronger than our own. Miraculously, the crew managed to survive, thanks to the fortunate emergence into a cloud of gas encircling a black hole, which provided a breathable atmosphere.

Five hundred years have passed, and the descendants of the original crew continue to face challenges in their struggle for survival. They have been divided into two main groups: the Miners, who reside on the Belt, a ramshackle ring of dwellings orbiting the core of a dead star, where they excavate valuable raw materials that can be exchanged for food from the Raft. A small group of scientists, led by Dr. Rees, resides on the Raft, a structure constructed from the remnants of the ship. Their mission is to preserve the ancient knowledge that enables their survival.

Rees, a curious Miner, embarks on a daring adventure by stowing away on a flying tree, one of the many peculiar local lifeforms that facilitate trade between the Belt and the Raft. What he discovers during his journey will profoundly impact his world and alter the course of human history.

Weight: 226g
Dimension: 198 x 132 x 19 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781473224056