The Spacetime Pit Plus Two

by Stephen Baxter, Eric Brown

The Spacetime Pit Plus Two collects three collaborative stories by two of science fiction's finest writers. Never before published in one volume, the triptych showcases the authors' ability to create narratives on a vast scale, and yet never to lose sight of the all-important human element.In the award-winning 'The Spacetime Pit', spacer Katerina Wake crash-lands on a primitive alien world and faces certain death unless she can harness her ingenuity, and technical know-how, to bend the destiny of an entire race to her will...'Green-Eyed Monster' follows Richard as he wakes up after a night on the tiles to find himself inhabiting the body of a toad – and that's just the start of his troubles... In 'Sunfly', Onara and her people live on a world very different from our own – a vast ribbon encircling a sun. But a change is coming to the land, a mysterious narrowing that threatens not only the stability of her world, but the very order of everything she has taken for granted."With every passing year, the oft-made remark that Baxter is Arthur C Clarke's heir seems more and more apt" - SFX"Eric Brown spins a terrific yarn" - SFX "There's real beauty and excitement to Baxter's writing" - Starburst"British writing with a deft, understated wonderful" - New Scientist on Eric Brown

Genres: Science Fiction

122 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 1, 2018

About the author

Stephen Baxter is a trained engineer with degrees from Cambridge (mathematics) and Southampton Universities (doctorate in aeroengineering research). Baxter is the winner of the British Science Fiction Award and the Locus Award, as well as being a nominee for an Arthur C. Clarke Award, most recently for Manifold: Time. His novel Voyage won the Sidewise Award for Best Alternate History Novel of the Year; he also won the John W. Campbell Award and the Philip K. Dick Award for his novel The Time Ships. He is currently working on his next novel, a collaboration with Sir Arthur C. Clarke. Mr. Baxter lives in Prestwood, England.

Reviews

[Louis · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Spacetime Pit Plus Two by Stephen Baxter and Eric Brown is a short volume containing 3 stories they wrote together, The Spacetime Pit, Green-Eyed Monster and Sunfly. I enjoyed this quick read. I’ll try not to give away anything not revealed on the back cover of the book.

The second story was a bit silly but still enjoyable of a man having his consciousness pushed to various animals in his vicinity as he tries to figure out what’s going on. The weakest of the three.

The last story had elements that could have been expanded to a longer work, but I think the authors were smart here to know the impact in this compact form. It’s a story of a society living on a ribbon circling their sun in the sky. I imagined something like Niven’s Ringworld? My only issue here was picturing what was causing the danger to the people that the story was telling. It was told nicely from the protagonist’s viewpoint who was living a life less advanced than ours, so she observed using the words of her period. That wasn’t as clear as I was hoping. At times I felt I was trying to understand a barking Lassie. “What is it girl? I need rope, 30, no! Sixty feet worth?”

Finally, they placed the best story as the lead, “The Spacetime Pit.” This was my favorite and a great little epic. It won the 1996 Interzone (where it was published originally) reader’s poll for the best story of the year. I don’t know its competition but it deserved the honor.

I loved that this story followed logically from the problems our protagonist had to solve. Katerina Wake is an astronaut who has crashed landed on a world populated by aliens that seem to have only discovered simple farming. But she needs help to get back into orbit to her mother ship. What can she do?

This story made the whole book worth it to me because it was willing to admit that the universe is cold and cruel but also to explore our nature of never giving up even as our losses mount.

A fun little diversion of a book.

[Onno Bruins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Drie leuke korte verhalen, fijn kort boek voor tussendoor.

[Mark Catalfano · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked "The Spacetime Pit"

[Jon Pennycook · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only read the title story in full, the other two were boring, but for £1.99 it was fine.

[Les · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a gem of a collection this is! Mind you, I shouldn’t be surprised given that the three stories contained in this book are a collaboration between two of Britain's best sci-fi authors. They are quick reads which flow very well, testament to the skill of their creators. Both Baxter and Brown will need no introduction to readers familiar with contemporary sci-fi literature, and anybody new to or exploring the genre should really have a look at this as a fine sample of their work. Apparently, according to Brown in the Introduction, The Spacetime Pit began when he and Baxter met to work on some ideas back in 1995 after which it won the 1996 Interzone magazine readers’ poll for best story. This success obviously encouraged them to continue working together on stories whenever time would permit and I'm exceedingly glad that they did because it's a really good piece of work. In summary, this is an excellent little collection that is a quick yet superbly enjoyable read. I can think of no better way than to spend a couple of hours on a lazy afternoon.