Timescape

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For the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, see Timescape.

Timescape is 1980 novel by science fiction writer Gregory Benford (with unbilled co-author Hilary Foister). It won the 1980 Nebula Award for Best Novel and was widely hailed by both critics of science fiction and mainstream literature for its fusion of detailed character development and interpersonal drama with more standard science fiction fare such as time travel and ecological issues.

The novel is written from two viewpoints 36 years apart. The first thread is set in a 1998 ravaged by ecological disasters such as algal blooms and diebacks on the brink of large scale extinctions. This thread follows a group of scientists in the United Kingdom connected with the University of Cambridge led by John Renfrew (including an American "Gregory Markham", most likely modelled on Benford himself) attempting to communicate with the past to warn of the impending disaster via the use of tachyons. The second thread is set in the University of California, La Jolla in La Jolla, California in 1962 where young scientist, Gordon Bernstein discovers unusual signals in one of his physics experiments. Much of this was based on the author's experiences at UCLJ, which later became the University of California, San Diego. The novel was written in 1980, midway between these two story threads.

[edit] See also

• Source of Benford's law of controversy