Spaceland

by Rudy Rucker

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!

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Cyberpunk, Mathematics, Novels, Ebooks, Science Fiction Fantasy

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Rudolf von Bitter Rucker is an American mathematician, computer scientist, science fiction author, and one of the founders of the cyberpunk genre. He is best known for his Ware Tetralogy, the first two of which won Philip K. Dick awards. Presently, Rudy Rucker edits the science fiction webzine Flurb.

Reviews

[Kelvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 Stars

As much as this book sounds like a three dimensional version of flatland, it felt much more like fantasy; and to be honest, that probably made the book better. Our main character, Joe Cube, is visited by a fourth dimensional creature, Momo, who recruits him to spread knowledge of the fourth dimension to the people of Earth with a business concept of phones that do not require a carrier to transmit message because the signals are transmitted in the fourth dimension. Joe calls up some his friends and they are all set to release the mophones, as he brands them, to the world when it turns out that Momo wasn't being entirely truthful to start. Joe then must scramble to correct everything before its too late.

All of the moments I liked in this book occurred when Joe ventured into the fourth dimension and met the strange characters that inhabit it. Like the plot line that concerns fourth dimensional battling was much more engaging than the useless drama that went on in the third dimension. The relationships between Joe and his business partners were so annoying for me and IMO nonessential to the plot: they only served to mess up Joe's otherwise perfect plans. The first 2/3 or so of the book takes place mostly on Earth and follows the whole lot as they put together a business to distribute mophones which is why it took me so long to finish the book: I could only read a bit at a time. However, the last couple of chapters when Momo's master plan is revealed and Joe swings into action were well done and I finished it in one sitting. All these things that seemed insignificant at first turned out to be important and it was pretty awesome. And if there's one thing I can say about the plot (well not the relationship bullshit), it's that nothing was predictable and I was genuinely surprised and excited about events as they unfolded.

And if you want to read this book for the math, it's sprinkled around the book and it's fairly accurate from what I could tell. The depiction of fourth dimensional beings in a three dimensional world is consistent with what I've previously read and the phenomena that can occur as a result of movement through the fourth dimension also seems correct. Still, if you want to read this book for the math, you're probably better of with something else but if you're willing to read a sci-fi novel where things don't really pick up till the end, stick with Spaceland to the end and it won't disappoint.

[Scot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spaceland is Rudy Rucker's dive into a mathematical sci-fi wonderland, complete with a cast of smarmy dotcom characters, fun imaginings of higher dimensions, and some great drawings to help you try and grok what he is communicating.

I enjoyed Spaceland for its homage to the classic Flatland, its attempts to help me understand multi-dimensional math, and for the hilarious characters from the 4th dimension.

Fun read that was just dense enough for those that love math and just fantastical enough for those that don't.

Recommended for fans of humorous Sci-Fi, math, and for those that want something different as a beach read.

[Name · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not particularly enjoy this book. I think Spaceland did a good job interpreting the mathematical aspect of this book and the fourth dimension, but the plot seemed dry and boring. Also, the book could have done a better job explaining the fourth dimension, although it was understandable. Spaceland seemed more like a fantasy book rather than a science fiction book. In addition, the plot felt repetitive and unrealistic. Overall, I do not think this book is a worthy sequel to Flatland.

[Will · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It did a great job of interpreting the fourth dimension. The role of Spaceland within the All was also rather good.

[Ahmed Khalifa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ludicrously bad, so bad that it was unputdownable. Rudy Rucker is obviously a [insert real profession] first and a writer fourteenth. The characters are one-dimensional and archetypal, the plot is meandering, the pacing is loose, the twists are telegraphed and the prose is juvenile.

All that said, Rucker takes the time and research to make his depiction of what a fourth dimensional experience would be like as accurate and compelling as possible. This is sci-fi at its best, theoretically speaking. Rucker should have consulted for a better writer, not written it himself.

Pick it up if you liked Flatland, it's obviously a 21st century riff on that.

[David Kinzer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a quirky little gem of a book. If you like sci fi and have a mathematical bent, you will like this book. The protagonist is named Joe Cube, and things get weird when he receives a visitor from "The All": a world of four dimensions surrounding our own 3D world (referred to as Spaceland and thus the title of the book). The names the author uses for the places and creatures in The All are comical in and of themselves, but they lend charm to this story about a young entrepreneur, his wife Jenna, friend Spazz, and Spazz's girlfriend Tulip.

This book has similarities to my favorite sci fi book: The Door into Summer.

[Rain · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book only manages not to get one star by virtue of its fantastic descriptions of the fourth dimension, and its clever, brain-breaking application of mathematical concepts. This was the first book I've read about four-dimensional beings that went into such detail about how a four-dimensional space would interact with our own, and I really enjoyed the number of ways the story helped me imagine a pretty unimaginable idea.

That's it, though. Joe Cube (hah. hah.), the protagonist, is so thoroughly unlikeable as a person and so poorly written as a character, that it was a monumental task to care about anything that happened to him. The other characters (if they can be given that description), are little more than objects in Joe's world who occasionally interrupt his vile internal monologue with words or actions which do very little to actually progress the story. The ones he wants to have sex with, anyway. The rest can hardly be talked about, since they really only exist to push Joe along to the next part of the plot. And he goes, arrogantly whining and puking his ignorance on us all the way, with only superficial acknowledgements of his character flaws, cushioned by the implicit apologies of his author.

The "story", if you will, is surprisingly dull for its subject matter. It seems quite casually unaware of any of the implications it presents, and uninterested in discussing them whenever they can't really be avoided. It reads like naive capitalist fantasy meats 50s tabloid sci-fi, except 50s tabloid sci-fi can make me laugh. I swear, there's literally a moment where this guy pats himself on the back for using racial stereotypes to market his future product, and another where he tries to win the affections of someone's ex-girlfriend to show that someone that he's "just as much of a man as he was". And don't even get me started on his poor wife. Its inept writing, pacing, and justifications make it embarrassing to read it as an explicit homage to Flatland and Planiverse.

Overall, I stayed for the weird shapes, but had to quit on the story. And I'm bitter about that. This was the first Rudy Rucker book I've ever read, and it was not an encouraging experience.

[Sean Flinchpaugh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not great. Love it for taking 4th dimension concepts and applying them into possible narrative conventions, but characters and dialogue are not Rudy's strong suit...In fact, there were multiple times during the story that a character jumped in temperment without any story beat to earn it. It's as if he wrote an outline and had characters jump from point to point because the outline claims they need to be "here" in their arc according to the outline. Or characters would make choices "just cuz", (ex. Jena cheating on Joe and then calling to rekindle friendship in what felt like 3 pages later). Read for inspiration on how 4th dimensional ideas can be applyed narratively, but not for much else....

[Daeva Sky · Rating 3 out of 5]

This reminded me a lot of one of my favorite childhood books, the boy who reversed himself. Loved the concepts and the family story of Joe, but thought the romances were a little clunky after the beginning. I also thought the characters were a little to quick to take a mysterious technology without thinking about potential consequences.

[J. Jobe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hyper-speed-read

I couldn’t set it down, cover to cover. Ian Stewart took the educational math route; Rudy Rucker went plot and story. Flawed characters, crazy creatures, ample conflict and subterfuge. A fun, engaging story that zooms, with plenty of tribute to the original. Well done.

[Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was like if you wanted to write a novel but also wanted to talk about higher dimensional physics, and somehow pulled both of those things off with little compromise. Usually abstract or esoteric universes make for plots that are hard for me to follow, but I followed this one perfectly and it was, in a word, charming.

4.5

[John Zorko · Rating 2 out of 5]

... though I liked the mathematical concepts in the book, I can't say the same for any of the characters (which were as flat in our world as the protagonist's in the 4D world of the All). Though not terrible, the story wasn't much better.

[Marcel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The prose is good but the multiple dimensions gets weird. I can live with the idea of further dimensions, but not like this, they seem very 3d to me, or even 2d when people flash through spaceland like a 2d image. Spaceland looks flat to 4d people? Somehow it shouldn't.

[Laurel Olson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stupid. I just like to read, so I was compelled to finish it, thinking it would get better. Horrific drawings. Stupid, boring ending.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

"What is the fourth dimension, anyway?"
"I have no idea," I admitted.

[Sandrine]

25% into the pages I feel like my vision is vouted as there are so many typos and wrong punctuations that I feel like Momo had her pudgy hands all over … and no, the plot wasn’t engaging at all… moving on or through or whatever…

[Kenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

SPACELAND is a continuation of the ruminations on dimensionality first begun over one hundred years ago in Abbot's "Flatland," continued in the 60s with "Sphereland," culminating (or maybe not) with Rucker's "Spaceland."

Rudy Rucker has one of the most fertile and flexible minds currently working on SF subject matter. In this case, his foray into trying to explain fourth-dimensionality uses the methodology of his predecessors (going to the next lower dimension to show how easily we perceive it and then asking us to try to see our own world from the same perspective). Rucker's attempt is less successful than his forebears because, of course, we simply cannot imagine the fourth dimension because we are 3-D creatures. And the only method for seeing the 4-D world Rucker seems able to put forth is the one used before: 4-D people can see inside us as 3-D creatures. Okay, but is that REALLY the fourth dimension? Is it merely another direction (such as the "vinn" and "vout" directions Rucker invents) or is it the dimension of time, as most writers espouse?

The idea of multiple dimensions (touched lightly in Rucker's rather depressing novel of selfish and self-involved Silicon Valley tech-geeks) is, of course, a staple of String Theory, but if I understand ST, these are parallel dimensions to our own, existing in some other "ether" or space, not as multiples of our own dimensions.

But the idea that 4-D creatures can see us and move in and out of our 3-D space, appearing as constantly morphing, colorful blobs, doesn't really make Rucker's 4-D case, either. In the lower two dimensions, a 3-D person entering looks just like the inhabitants of that dimension, though shifting size and color as he or she moves through that dimension.

Rucker's best idea of the 4-D world is inventive, but not ultimately satisfying, though I give him three stars for effort.

[Bruce · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Rudy Rucker, don't get me wrong, but this is not one of his best books.

It contains the usual-- mathematically sound extradimensional romps with wacky names and gonzo characters. But as other reviewers have commented the juice isn't flowing so much on this one.

Rucker writes according to his doctrine of the "transreal," heavily incorporating elements from his regular life. In his earlier books you will see lots of gratuitous drug use of substances real and otherwise. Here you see his transition to sobriety, and this is strongly reflected in the plot. Unfortunately at the time of this writing, as I deduce from this book, the well which was filled with substances has not yet refilled with natural enlivening chemicals, and it's a bit of a dud.

For earlier Rucker I recommend Software, Wetware, and the Master of Space and Time. For later Rucker I recommend Frek and the Elixir.

It's possible this book might have added resonance for people who are fans of the original Flatland.

[Amanda]

this just became available to me from my wishlist on pbs and i can't decide if i should buy a credit and get it. I've only read one Rudy Rucker book-The Hollow Earth: The Narrative of Mason Algiers Reynolds of Virginia but it was excellent. I already have 2 other of his books that i haven't read, but who knows when this one will become available again as it's not a popular book. OH decisions, decisions! As a founding father of cyberpunk and a twice PKD award winner, as well as a brilliant scientist i can't believe Rucker isn't better know. He really is gifted and more importantly a great original voice

P.S. i decided to get it. couldn't help myself

[Jasper Elsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read Flatland and Flatterland, but i've never read a novel as well-written as this one.
This book, written from Joe, the main character's point of view, is about a four dimensional creature who augments Joe to make him able to see either Dronia or the Klupper city. It also gives Joe the ability to see through walls, using the point of view on his vinn side.
The four dimensional creature, Momo, teaches Joe that the fourth spatial dimensions are vinn and vout and that the vinn side of space land is Klupper city, while the vout side of spaceland is Dronia.
This book, written by Rudy Rucker, an American mathematician, computer scientist, science fiction author, and philosopher, is a great book if you've read Flatland and Flatterland, otherwise, if you like the idea of four dimensional creatures I would really recommend this book to you.

[Erik · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this right before Frek and the Elixer. As reviewers have said it's pretty one dimensional. But it has it's good points and I did finish it. I'm not sure I can remember what those good points are, though. I think Rucker is mimicking the style of Flatland, another dull, one-dimesional read. But since it's about dimensions there's an inside joke playing here. Kind of a slog to get through. I think I'm going to try White Light before i give up on Rucker, just to figure out if he's a style chameleon. I'm basically reading him to stay in tune with a friend and picked these books because that's what's available at the local library. But so far I'm not impressed.

[A.R. Yngve · Rating 4 out of 5]

This amusing oddity is inspired by Edwin Abbott's classic FLATLAND.

While FLATLAND depicted a two-dimensional world visited by a three-dimensional being, SPACELAND deals with a four-dimensional intrusion into our universe. It's written like an educational fairytale for adults, with helpful illustrations to make the weirdness easier to follow.

The story simplifies a very complicated subject - and there's nothing wrong with that! Think of it as a humorous mathematical fable rather than "hard" science fiction.

I enjoyed SPACELAND! If you want teenagers to get interested in higher dimensions, give them this book to read.

[D.L. Morrese · Rating 2 out of 5]

I made it about halfway through before giving up on this book. I very seldom do that, but if the characters fail to appeal to me after 150 pages, chances are they won't ever. I could not force myself to care about what happened to them. They're quite unlikeable, in fact, and the plot and setting were not interesting enough to overcome that for me. Don't let this prevent you from trying it. I'm sure there are people this book will appeal to. TOR liked it enough to publish it, after all. It just was not to my taste.

[Kyrie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Spaceland is definitely less science/math oriented than the others I've read in this grouping. It's also geared more to an adult audience.
It lacks the charm of Flatland, to which the author pays homage.
It also reads like a what I tend to call a "guy book". Not that I think all guys are clueless idiots when it comes to women, but there's a lot of that in this book. To be fair, women come off as clueless idiots as well.
The ending was pretty good, but overall, no, I just didn't really like the book, and I feel badly about that.

[lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okeh, so I got half-way through, and the real obstacle to finishing isn't the difficulty in wrapping my head around analogies about the 4th Dimension, it's the terrible prose and the uninteresting shallow characters. If I had more time to devote to something so poorly written, than maybe I would allow myself a chapter a week of this "junk food" book, but as it stands right now, it's just not worth it.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was much less focused on the science and more on a story that relied on the science compared to the other Flatland spawns I've read. The story reminded me of early Christopher Moore and so it was fun in that way. It did, at times, make the idea of the fourth dimension come alive better than any of the others because it dealt strictly with how humans would experience this do,ensign. I also appreciated the nod to Planiverse by including Drabk.

[Jake Parks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dude, the 4th physical dimension blows my mind. Rudy Rucker is a smart guy who I am pretty sure is a string theorist and is using fictional books to open people's minds to the idea of extra physical dimensions. He uses a comparison of 3D people looking at 2D people to describe what 4D people see when looking at 3D people. Get it?

[Mark Sequeira]

So I believe from what I've read that Rudy Rucker is quite knowledgeable and readable regarding extra dimensions...but as a fiction writer I was let down. I wanted to like this book but it was nowhere near being good fiction. Some of the explanations make you think but would have been better served being in a non-fiction book about space/time/science.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ridiculous book... It kind of like what would flatland or sphereland be like if it happened to humans in the modern era. The parts that I remember most are that the poor girlfriend of the main character was constantly described in terms of her oily/pimply skin. And that we could imagine exactly how streets and cafes in "Los Perros" mapped onto Los Gatos.

[Mclane · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting idea, but poorly executed. Is the flatness of the characters intentional? Because that would be clever in a way, though still almost unreadable.
It seemed as though the author were taking a 2D example from lecture and folding, duct-taping, and wishing it into the shape of a novel. I'd be interested to read some of his non-fic, but I was happy to finally put this down.