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Beyond Infinity
Takes a scientist's imagination to the uttermost ends of time. Set more than a billion years from now, the novel begins with a young woman who yearns to escape the rigid, timeless Earth she knows. So she flees, in the company of an intelligent beast wise beyond recognition. But there are mysterious forces afoot among the planets that she never foresaw. Alien agencies have learned to span parallel universes, ones that lie only a millimeter away but are invisible to any device known to man. Soon these beings confront the travelers and a struggle beyond imagining begins.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2004
32 people are currently reading
344 people want to read
About the author
Gregory Benford
565 books615 followersGregory Benford is an American science fiction author and astrophysicist who is on the faculty of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Irvine.
As a science fiction author, Benford is best known for the Galactic Center Saga novels, beginning with In the Ocean of Night (1977). This series postulates a galaxy in which sentient organic life is in constant warfare with sentient mechanical life.
As a science fiction author, Benford is best known for the Galactic Center Saga novels, beginning with In the Ocean of Night (1977). This series postulates a galaxy in which sentient organic life is in constant warfare with sentient mechanical life.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
November 24, 2021
Transcendental adventure, indeed. Best taken with your drug of choice. Unless you're capable of accepting the fact that you're probably not going to understand some, or many, or none of the things in this book, but let it do its thing on you anyway. Then it becomes a drug itself, and takes you away to extremely strange places. It's a real kaleidoscope of environments, and you never know how you got there, and why. And you wonder is it just a second that just looks like eons, or is it going to last till infinity and beyond.
May 7, 2012
My physics background helped me appreciate the theories and crazy concepts the author (a physicist himself) would indulge in. If there is anything that I wish he did work on is his narrative style, hence the three stars. But a warning to sci-fi readers...this is not a book for light reading. And it's not your run if the mill sci-fi story. Hard sci fi would be a better description.
August 15, 2011
Beyond Infinity is a curious mix of old and new.
In several specific chapters it struck me as not only reminiscent of several Arthur C Clarke works -- and it's actually an expansion and reworking of a sequel to a Clarke book, which I didn't learn until I read Benford's afterword -- but also evocative of older and less cerebral earthlings-struggling-to-comprehend-and-survive-a-strange-environment tales (Farmer’s “World of Tiers” Burroughs homages, in particular). But it’s also firmly in the post-Singularity sub-genre of science fiction, and informed by recent thoughts about space-time geometries, among other things.
On one level it’s the story of Cley, a young woman in the far distant future who may be the last “original” human (or at least the closest to homo sapiens) and her struggles to escape a powerful (but helpfully imprecise) entity bent on her destruction. But it’s also a rumination on how intelligence might differ, on the breadth and voracity of life, and on the value of the human spirit — and humanity itself — in a vast and indifferent-seeming cosmos.
It worked least well for me when Cley is among the “Supra” humans. The Supras intelligence supposedly outstrips ours, their lifespans are measured in centuries, and their physiologies are substantially different — they’ve dispensed, for instance, with external genitalia. But Benford’s portrayal of their society seems almost parochial, with unquestioned assumptions of heterosexual orientation, serial monogamy, and sexual jealousy as a motivating factor. When one of them courts Cley, the dynamic is all-too familiar from Woody Allen movies. (To be fair, Supra society is not Benford’s primary focus: our viewpoint character, Cley, looks in on them as an outsider; maybe some of the assumptions about the rules of that society are Cley’s as much as Benford’s. And I’m glad Benford doesn’t dwell on them too much; they suffer from the frequent problem of portraying supposedly hyperintelligent beings: they seem capricious and supercilious at best, emotionally retarded at worst.)
I liked the book better after Cley and her companion, Seeker After Patterns, a hyper-evolved and not-at-all-played-for-laughs distant descendant of raccoons, take their leave of the Supras. But the novel also becomes curiously hermetic at that point; Cley and Seeker talk to each other, but not much to others. Still, I enjoyed some of Benford’s descriptions of space-borne life. And Seeker is an interesting character, among the more convincingly rendered non-human intelligences I can recall. (And success in this portrayal is critical to Benford’s overarching thematic goal of exploring the diversity of intelligence.)
I found the novels’s resolution less than satisfying. There’s an element of deux ex machina, which, although the groundwork for it is well laid, still seemed a bit pat. But there’s a lot to admire about Beyond Infinity; it was certainly thought-provoking and I suspect it will be memorable as well.
In several specific chapters it struck me as not only reminiscent of several Arthur C Clarke works -- and it's actually an expansion and reworking of a sequel to a Clarke book, which I didn't learn until I read Benford's afterword -- but also evocative of older and less cerebral earthlings-struggling-to-comprehend-and-survive-a-strange-environment tales (Farmer’s “World of Tiers” Burroughs homages, in particular). But it’s also firmly in the post-Singularity sub-genre of science fiction, and informed by recent thoughts about space-time geometries, among other things.
On one level it’s the story of Cley, a young woman in the far distant future who may be the last “original” human (or at least the closest to homo sapiens) and her struggles to escape a powerful (but helpfully imprecise) entity bent on her destruction. But it’s also a rumination on how intelligence might differ, on the breadth and voracity of life, and on the value of the human spirit — and humanity itself — in a vast and indifferent-seeming cosmos.
It worked least well for me when Cley is among the “Supra” humans. The Supras intelligence supposedly outstrips ours, their lifespans are measured in centuries, and their physiologies are substantially different — they’ve dispensed, for instance, with external genitalia. But Benford’s portrayal of their society seems almost parochial, with unquestioned assumptions of heterosexual orientation, serial monogamy, and sexual jealousy as a motivating factor. When one of them courts Cley, the dynamic is all-too familiar from Woody Allen movies. (To be fair, Supra society is not Benford’s primary focus: our viewpoint character, Cley, looks in on them as an outsider; maybe some of the assumptions about the rules of that society are Cley’s as much as Benford’s. And I’m glad Benford doesn’t dwell on them too much; they suffer from the frequent problem of portraying supposedly hyperintelligent beings: they seem capricious and supercilious at best, emotionally retarded at worst.)
I liked the book better after Cley and her companion, Seeker After Patterns, a hyper-evolved and not-at-all-played-for-laughs distant descendant of raccoons, take their leave of the Supras. But the novel also becomes curiously hermetic at that point; Cley and Seeker talk to each other, but not much to others. Still, I enjoyed some of Benford’s descriptions of space-borne life. And Seeker is an interesting character, among the more convincingly rendered non-human intelligences I can recall. (And success in this portrayal is critical to Benford’s overarching thematic goal of exploring the diversity of intelligence.)
I found the novels’s resolution less than satisfying. There’s an element of deux ex machina, which, although the groundwork for it is well laid, still seemed a bit pat. But there’s a lot to admire about Beyond Infinity; it was certainly thought-provoking and I suspect it will be memorable as well.
June 26, 2020
This was the third Benford novel I've read in the past few weeks. The Adventures of Viktor & Julia 1 & 2 started out slow but were better at the end and inventive. The characters were also pretty good. This one starts slow but picks up the pace about the middle. You get to know Cley and Seeker pretty well but no one/thing (other intelligent races) have any significant depth. The end was a total letdown. A book that has many interesting ideas and concepts but very hard science. Thinking about the Earth after a billion years have passed was intriguing but I just can't go above 2 Stars I wish this one was a good as many of the entries in the Galactic Center saga.
May 23, 2011
I tried reading this book a few years ago and never got through it - decided to give it another go lately whilst waiting for some new books to arrive (and as part of an effort to get through that 'to-read' list). Got through it this time although I must admit it was a bit of an effort.
On the whole I found the story reasonably enjoyable - the idea of a far future earth where humanity has transformed into many different forms and where much of human history has been lost to the depths of time is certainly intriguing.
I guess my major gripe with this novel is that I had trouble following some of the imagery and concepts as they were described by the author. Now maybe this just proves that this type of 'hard' Sci-Fi is not for me, but I am convinced that at least part of the issue was the overly wordy language used and and a slightly distant tone in some parts of the book. At a number of occasions in the novel I found myself ploughing ahead through sections of the text without really comprehending what was going on (something I never normally do) in the hope that some future context would enlighten me.
And whilst I found the interaction between the major characters (Cley and Seeker) to be quite enjoyable, and I could sympathise with Cley's plight, even after just reading this novel I could scarcely tell you of the other characters and their roles in this story. Too often the other characters seem two dimensional and uninspiring, and whilst this may have been a function of viewing them via Cley's perspective, I am not certain that the author intended it that way - to me this left the story a little hollow.
If you enjoy high concept Sci-Fi that really makes you stop and think (and challenges you to visualize some truly unfamiliar concepts) then this may be for you, but I would hesitate to recommend it to someone who enjoys more story-driven fiction as I do.
On the whole I found the story reasonably enjoyable - the idea of a far future earth where humanity has transformed into many different forms and where much of human history has been lost to the depths of time is certainly intriguing.
I guess my major gripe with this novel is that I had trouble following some of the imagery and concepts as they were described by the author. Now maybe this just proves that this type of 'hard' Sci-Fi is not for me, but I am convinced that at least part of the issue was the overly wordy language used and and a slightly distant tone in some parts of the book. At a number of occasions in the novel I found myself ploughing ahead through sections of the text without really comprehending what was going on (something I never normally do) in the hope that some future context would enlighten me.
And whilst I found the interaction between the major characters (Cley and Seeker) to be quite enjoyable, and I could sympathise with Cley's plight, even after just reading this novel I could scarcely tell you of the other characters and their roles in this story. Too often the other characters seem two dimensional and uninspiring, and whilst this may have been a function of viewing them via Cley's perspective, I am not certain that the author intended it that way - to me this left the story a little hollow.
If you enjoy high concept Sci-Fi that really makes you stop and think (and challenges you to visualize some truly unfamiliar concepts) then this may be for you, but I would hesitate to recommend it to someone who enjoys more story-driven fiction as I do.
November 29, 2017
A worthwhile reimagining of an earlier collaboration
Benford took the last part of a book he cowrote with my beloved Arthur C. Clarke, Beyond the Fall of Night, and adapted/expanded upon it. Some of the characters' names changed: Rin was clearly who had been Alvin in the first book, and Kata was who had been Seranis. What was the Mad Mind is now called the Malign. But Cley and Seeker After Patterns were the same. This book also renamed the cities of Lys and Diaspar to Illusivia and Sonomulia, respectively. It even mentions the Keeper of the Records (from Diaspar/Sonomulia), so in a way, Clarke's original threads persist in Benford's reimagining. (Benford's version, though, omits Vanamonde and does not focus on the capers that Alvin/Rin experienced earlier in life; only vague mentions of the differences between the inhabitants of the two cities exist in this retelling.)
The vision of humanity in the distant future drew me to Clarke's original book, and Benford offered a chance to explore this dynamic further. At times, Benford's book delves into some hard-core science themes, including multiple universes, multidimensional physics/"branes," and transcorporeal existence (which reminded me of the ascended beings in the Stargate universe). The highly evolved, six-legged raccoon-like creature known as Seeker After Patterns throws in an element of mystery, with hints of divinity.
A great deal happens to Cley and Seeker as they face conflict both with the advanced humans of the time and with the noncorporeal Malign intent on destroying Cley's kind. The adventures are pretty out there, but if you stay with the book you do find a touching ending. Benford's training as a scientist is clear in this book, and I'm glad I took a few days to read it.
Benford took the last part of a book he cowrote with my beloved Arthur C. Clarke, Beyond the Fall of Night, and adapted/expanded upon it. Some of the characters' names changed: Rin was clearly who had been Alvin in the first book, and Kata was who had been Seranis. What was the Mad Mind is now called the Malign. But Cley and Seeker After Patterns were the same. This book also renamed the cities of Lys and Diaspar to Illusivia and Sonomulia, respectively. It even mentions the Keeper of the Records (from Diaspar/Sonomulia), so in a way, Clarke's original threads persist in Benford's reimagining. (Benford's version, though, omits Vanamonde and does not focus on the capers that Alvin/Rin experienced earlier in life; only vague mentions of the differences between the inhabitants of the two cities exist in this retelling.)
The vision of humanity in the distant future drew me to Clarke's original book, and Benford offered a chance to explore this dynamic further. At times, Benford's book delves into some hard-core science themes, including multiple universes, multidimensional physics/"branes," and transcorporeal existence (which reminded me of the ascended beings in the Stargate universe). The highly evolved, six-legged raccoon-like creature known as Seeker After Patterns throws in an element of mystery, with hints of divinity.
A great deal happens to Cley and Seeker as they face conflict both with the advanced humans of the time and with the noncorporeal Malign intent on destroying Cley's kind. The adventures are pretty out there, but if you stay with the book you do find a touching ending. Benford's training as a scientist is clear in this book, and I'm glad I took a few days to read it.
February 14, 2015
I like this book, evident by the fact that I'll now be looking for another book of his to read. The story started off a bit weird, I was wondering if it was some type of strange sexual piece(the guy had multiple wives), however was relieved when I kept going past the first chapter and the story really/actually got started. Quickly it began to gain complexity and depth. The story line was interesting and unique, the characters perfect for their place in the story. Most often the detail was enough - or more than enough when scientific terms overwhelmed the storyline, however in one spot I wished the author had included more detail - perhaps another chapter or two on the Meta and what happened to them. Overall I think it was a job well done :)
March 29, 2014
The timescale and ideas in this book have an extensive span. From theoretical physics to philosophy to evolutionary biology... it touches on all of them. The problem is, the scope is so grand, the times so vast, the setting so strange, it is difficult for the reader to identify with the characters, making it interesting but ultimately unsatisfying. I enjoy science fiction, and a bit of satirical fantasy is fun too, but I prefer my fiction anchored to reality, or at least the bits of it with which I'm familiar. Beyond Infinity felt more adrift, with a setting in a distant, unfamiliar future and characters biologically diverse and yet seemingly childish at times.
January 27, 2013
It is seldom that an author truly upsets me with their writing. Benford has become one of those with this book. The story had its good moments, however those moments can be summed up in fifty pages or less. I do appreciate a good descriptive author, but in this book there were too many that didn't truly related to the story and dragged on for 'beyond infinity.' If I am to compare this book to a movie, I would compare it to a pornographic film without sex.
May 15, 2019
This is one of the most ambitious books I've ever read. In the Afterword, the author admits that he may have bitten off more than he could chew. I agree.
One could view science fiction through 2 lenses, the ideas and the actual story. The ideas here are amazing - so amazing, in fact, that much of the time I was lost. The descriptions of multi-dimensional realities, while valiantly evocative, were mostly beyond my layperson's understanding. I appreciate the knowledge the author has in advanced space/time concepts, but a good chunk of this book was simply over my head.
The actual story was OK. I feel it could have been better minus the copious science that underpins the book. I could see, for example, a marvelous TV series adaptation that necessarily simplified things greatly and focused on the characters. The dialogue is extremely weak, and in general the characters seem to exist to serve the scientific concepts in question.
For those familiar with Clarke's "Against the Fall of Night", it's fun to see Benford play with and expand upon the ideas in that seminal work. I would argue that the expansion is unnecessarily sumptuous here, but I'd guess that there are hard sci fi enthusiasts delighted by the science firepower on display here.
One could view science fiction through 2 lenses, the ideas and the actual story. The ideas here are amazing - so amazing, in fact, that much of the time I was lost. The descriptions of multi-dimensional realities, while valiantly evocative, were mostly beyond my layperson's understanding. I appreciate the knowledge the author has in advanced space/time concepts, but a good chunk of this book was simply over my head.
The actual story was OK. I feel it could have been better minus the copious science that underpins the book. I could see, for example, a marvelous TV series adaptation that necessarily simplified things greatly and focused on the characters. The dialogue is extremely weak, and in general the characters seem to exist to serve the scientific concepts in question.
For those familiar with Clarke's "Against the Fall of Night", it's fun to see Benford play with and expand upon the ideas in that seminal work. I would argue that the expansion is unnecessarily sumptuous here, but I'd guess that there are hard sci fi enthusiasts delighted by the science firepower on display here.
May 12, 2017
Questo romanzo è a dir poco vago. Circa metà del libro è composto da descrizioni pseudo-scientifiche di realtà multidimensionali e "fusioni mentali", "passaggi dimesionali", ecc... Descrizioni vacue e confuse che lasciano il tempo che trovano.
Ma la cosa che mi ha disturbato maggiormente è che al respiro "cosmico" del libro si affianca un protagonista fuori contesto (un'umana adolescente), chiaramente messa la per consentire una specie di immedesimazione da parte del lettore. Protagonista che non fa altro che subire passivamente ogni sviluppo della storia, rendendo il romanzo un brutto mix tra la speculazione filosofica/scientifica e il romanzo di formazione.
Nella presentazione inoltre si tenta disperatamente di associare il libro ad "Infinito" di Olaf Stapledon (Last and First Men), ma l'accostamento è assolutamente fuori luogo, se cercate qualcosa di simile cambiate strada.
Ma la cosa che mi ha disturbato maggiormente è che al respiro "cosmico" del libro si affianca un protagonista fuori contesto (un'umana adolescente), chiaramente messa la per consentire una specie di immedesimazione da parte del lettore. Protagonista che non fa altro che subire passivamente ogni sviluppo della storia, rendendo il romanzo un brutto mix tra la speculazione filosofica/scientifica e il romanzo di formazione.
Nella presentazione inoltre si tenta disperatamente di associare il libro ad "Infinito" di Olaf Stapledon (Last and First Men), ma l'accostamento è assolutamente fuori luogo, se cercate qualcosa di simile cambiate strada.
October 27, 2024
This a a follow-up to against the fall of night, by Arthur C Clarke and Gregory Benford. In the far future, Earth does not resemble Earth of Today. Humans have evolved into different species, and the planet has been moved. A threat from the past comes back to haunt life throughout the solar system.
This a great novel, dense with lots of details, different ideas. The plot is pretty easy to follow. The ending is a little tough to follow, but pretty good.
This a great novel, dense with lots of details, different ideas. The plot is pretty easy to follow. The ending is a little tough to follow, but pretty good.
December 30, 2024
This book is kind of dull. Not much happens. The characters travel to various places where they get exposition dumped on about intergalactic wars, civilizations existing in other dimensions, homicidal intelligences made of electromagnetism. Wow, I said, that sounds cool. I want to read that book instead of this one about a character sitting around and getting told all the cool stuff second hand.
August 6, 2022
Really stretches your mind
October 15, 2022
Really enjoyed this strange adventure. Especially the description of the tube and dealing with extra dimensions.
May 29, 2023
Wonderful! Young girl protagonist, growing up in a post-modern world where many "humans" have gene-edited and augmented into super-human forms. When war comes from beyond the solar system, she survives and partners with a lab-descendent of the ancient raccoon (sort of) and embarks on a journey that pits her against the mightiest powers the universe has ever seen. For a math geek like me, the discussions of various infinities and higher-dimensional existence are delightful -- the technology takes a back seat to what biological forms can do, and they do amazing things. Good characters, good pacing -- highly recommended!
January 18, 2015
Best parts are reminiscent of the deep time Baxter novels, and Last and First Men. The rest is okay - I think I read part of a similar novel by Benford a while ago- was it Against Infinity or in the Fall of Night Clarke collaboration?
The magnetic beings have been seen in the Galactic Center series (also the Martian Race sequel, I think), and the bent but human friendly spacetime is like the artifact in Sailing Bright Eternity and Bear's novels about the giant tube thing that appears in Earth orbit.
The magnetic beings have been seen in the Galactic Center series (also the Martian Race sequel, I think), and the bent but human friendly spacetime is like the artifact in Sailing Bright Eternity and Bear's novels about the giant tube thing that appears in Earth orbit.
Read
April 8, 2009http://nhw.livejournal.com/155939.html[return][return]I liked it. Based on his shorter "Beyond the Fall of Night" and very much in the tradition of Arthur C Clarke with nods to Stapledon and Aldiss.
June 26, 2009
I just couldn't get into it. Maybe it was the voice or the narration style, but I couldn't develop any sympathy or connection with the characters in this genetic caste future. As a result I did more skimming than reading and finally just gave up.
May 18, 2012
The writing was pretty good (i.e. no awkward dialog or hard to follow descriptions), but the plot was extremely boring and long winded. Finally, when the characters get dragged into a higher dimension, you would think that it's going to pick up. Sadly, no..
June 22, 2012
Not my bag of sci-fi - really heavy on the genetics and futuristic evolutionary processes that left me so glazed that I actually got lost. Boredom might have been a factor. Not quite in the same class as the excellent Timescape and Cosm, both of which are in my top five fav sci-fi books.
June 2, 2015
PG-16 or so, for some off color and sort of crude comments.
Cool technology, which is the only reason I gave it the rating I did. The heroine is irritating, enough so that I put it down for weeks at a time.
Cool technology, which is the only reason I gave it the rating I did. The heroine is irritating, enough so that I put it down for weeks at a time.
August 15, 2015
I happened to pick this up at the same time as another Gregory Benford book with Infinity in the title but they are totally unrelated. An interesting take on humanity and life in the far future. Not easy to feel fully immersed in the story, but I suspect that it is the aim
owned-unread
May 1, 2010Fictionwise has this download working once again, so I can now read the book I purchased!
April 11, 2012
It was ok. I liked the characters and the concept but it was a little heavy on the science for me.
August 18, 2017
I gave up. I couldn't get into the story, such as it was. Too much philosophical physics for me.
Read
July 16, 2009Not my favorite.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews