Spaceland: A Novel of the Fourth Dimension (Tom Doherty Associates Books) by Rudy Rucker (PDF)

Description

Joe Cube is a Silicon Valley hotshot–well, a would-be hotshot anyway–hoping that the 3-D TV project he’s managing will lead to the big money IPO he’s always dreamed of. On New Year’s Eve, hoping to impress his wife, he sneaks home the prototype. It brings no new warmth to their cooling relationship, but it does attract someone else’s attention.When Joe sees a set of lips talking to him (floating in midair) and feels the poke of a disembodied finger (inside him), it’s not because of the champagne he’s drunk. He has just met Momo, a woman from the All, a world of four spatial dimensions for whom our narrow world, which she calls Spaceland, is something like a rug, but one filled with motion and life. Momo has a business proposition for Joe, an offer she won’t let him refuse. The upside potential becomes much clearer to him once she helps him grow a new eye (on a stalk) that can see in the fourth-dimensional directions, and he agrees.After that it’s a wild ride through a million-dollar night in Las Vegas, a budding addiction to tasty purple 4-D food, a failing marriage, eye-popping excursions into the All, and encounters with Momo’s foes, rubbery red critters who steal money, offer sage advice and sometimes messily explode. Joe is having the time of his life, until Momo’s scheme turns out to have angles he couldn’t have imagined. Suddenly the fate of all life here in Spaceland is at stake.Rudy Rucker is a past master at turning mathematical concepts into rollicking science fiction adventure, from Spacetime Donuts and White Light to The Hacker and the Ants. In the tradition of Edwin A. Abbott’s classic novel, Flatland, Rucker gives us a tour of higher mathematics and visionary realities. Spaceland is Flatland on hyperdrive!At the Publisher’s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Since Edward Abbott penned his original Flatland at the tail end of the 19th century, many modern mathematicians have found themselves unable to resist the urge to put pen to paper in various forms of imitation most notably includiing Ian Stewarts Flatterland, Dewdney’s Plainiverse and this entry by Rudy Rucker.And contrary to some other reviewers who thought that Rucker’s Fourth Dimensional treatment paled in comparison to his underlying story, I must confess that I thought the reverse.In this story, Rucker chose as his protagonist a dot commer named Joe Cube whose comely wife Jena was at various points in the book leaving him, cheating on him and ultimately, well, that would give away the ending. However the point is that Rucker wrote such a complete and convincing portrait of his Jena that you couldn’t help yourself but eagerly turning the pages past all the Four D stuff to find out whether Joe would be able to save his marriage and in the end I found myself much more concerned about that than…well…even the fate of the 3D universe which we supposedly inhabit.The reason I say we supposedly inhabit the 3D universe is because we actually are fourth dimensional creatures. And while viewed from a full fourth dimensional perspective it’s true that we would probably more resemble a centipede with a baby at the one end and a (if we’re lucky) vibrant geriatric at the other end and while it’s also true that we see only slices of this fourth dimensional perspective, I nonetheless still consider it a misnomer to refer to us a “merely” existing in 3D.Now that being said, Rucker found some exciting and stimulating ways in which to move his story along and to graphically depict the look and feel of 3D. For those alone, he deserves a five star rating (particularly when he retours all the dimensions in a fashion reminiscent of the original Abbott himself).But for those who like story with their plot, read and it and see if you too get caught up for Cube and join me in rooting for him to save something even more precious than mathematical reality…his marriage.

⭐This book has everything a Rudy Rucker novel needs: mathematics, bizarre drugs, some sex, Silicon Valley culture, a funky New Age-type spiritualism where All Is One, and references to Santa Cruz. I love math, so I enjoyed the four-dimensional adventures of Joe Cube (of course Joe Cube works in Silicon Valley) a lot. I’ve read Flatland, also Rudy’s book on the fourth dimension, so I’m primed on all these concepts. I don’t know how well it plays if you don’t have the background. While Rudy Rucker paints a pretty good picture of California/Silicon Valley culture, his characterizations are somewhat shallow. His characters always feel the same. Any one of them could have been in any of his books. And I’d give three stars for that, but I’ve a soft spot for his fiction because it’s always so FUN. You know, FUN. Why I read books in the first place. If I wanted Shakespeare, I’d read Shakespeare. So four stars for Dr. Rucker.

⭐Mathematician Rudy Rucker is a nice, unselfish, sharing kind of guy. In

⭐, for example, he passed on his favorite mnemonic for the first several digits of pi: “How I need a drink, alcoholic of course, after the heavy lectures involving quantum mechanics.” (“How” = 3, “I” = 1, etc.) In “Spaceland,” what Rucker wants to share with you is the ability to wrap your brain around spatial dimensions, from single points (1), to lines and planes (2), our everyday world of solids with height, width, and depth (3), up to a 4-dimensional world in which people, places, and things have our 3 dimensions plus one. Rucker strives to stretch your brain through the medium of a silly and contrived story that involves four foolish and unsympathetic humans who live and work in Silicon Valley, two weird 4-dimensional aliens, and a plot to destroy Spaceland — our 3-dimensional world. More than a geometry lesson but less than a well-developed novel, “Spaceland” is likely to disappoint most readers.

⭐after reading flatland: a romance of many dimensions and flatterland, this book was surprisingly different. It brings the original edwin abbott ideas to a more human level and tells a story rather than educates you. The story is very good once you get into it and rudy rucker really makes you hate/love the characters. The verbage can be a bit childish and abstract… but hey, have you read flatland?

⭐Loved this book since it first came out. I cringe at some of the dialogue of the 20-somethings and wonder if we were indeed that superficial back then. But, I digress. The book is well worth it. Avoid the kindle version at all costs unless you have a high tolerance for spelling errors. It’s nice that the Kindle version has the illustrations, but the bad proofreading makes me wonder if the book author didn’t review things before submission.

⭐Rucker has a strong grip on a the dimensional physics. I found his explanation of the four dimensional and two dimensional space to be fun and exciting. His three dimensional world needs a lot of work though. I think the main problem is that absolutely none of the characters are likable or relatable. This, sadly, includes the protagonist who is both bland and obnoxious.Again, I was hoping for a somewhat modern, exciting spin on Flatland and what I got was a bunch of unlikable people and an extra dimension.

⭐A cartoonish journey from the famous flatlands of yore into the 3rd and 4th dimensions, complete with drawings giving you an idea of the situations in which our Hero unfortunately lands. The story line grows increasingly wild but then we are in newly discovered territory and no maps are available.

⭐Awesome book. Parallel realities, Tech history, Funny, Wierd vocabulary. What’s not to like? The Kindle version had all sorts of typos. They were definitely typos and not made up words

⭐I read spaceland having just read flatland.I was expecting to find a popular physics book with a story acting as a tool for explaining complex ideas. Instead I found mainly a vacuous story steeped in cliche with the odd bit of physics thrown in.I was hoping that this book might help me imagine the 4th dimension, but I found that it didn’t give anything more than Flatland.

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