Excellent Science Fiction book involving instant communication and it's effect on society. ( )

Great book. ( )

Una empresa comercializa una tecnología con la que cualquier persona puede ver lo que hace otra desde cualquier sitio en cualquier situación, lo que supone la súbita abolición de la intimidad… Para siempre. Mientras se aborda el trauma, se descubre que también se puede mirar en el pasado. El descubrimiento de lo que hay de verdad o mentira a lo largo de miles de años de historia.

just didn't enjoy... not entirely sure why ( )

Clarke's second last book. In the Afterword the authors mention that there's a long history of time-viewer stories. They mention a couple, including Bob Shaw's, from which they took their title. Oddly they do not mention Asimov's The Dead Past which is the most closely related thematically to the events and concerns of over half of this novel.

As would be expected from these authors, this is hard-core what-if SF. What are all the applications and ramifications of a technology that allows seeing (but not hearing) anything that is or has happened, no matter where or how far back. The book slows down frequently for pages of description about this, told outside the story arcs of the main characters. The pace of development of the technology, from a proof of concept requiring a roomful of a equipment to portable in-the-skull devices makes the evolution of computers appear positively glacial.

The book is a reasonable cap to themes Clarke explored in Childhood's End, and an interesting precursor to the Stapledonian themes Baxter would (over-)expand in the Manifold trilogy and the Long Earth pentalogy. ("Stapledonians" are introduced as a concept late in the book.)

Recommended if you like either author, a bit more so if you like both. ( )