Dewdney, a computer science professor, has his students work to develop a world that has only two dimensions (akin to our three dimensional world). The students develop an elaborate world complete with its own ecosystem and rudimentary AI. However, something happens, and their virtual world is somehow replaced with a real world, through which the students and professor have computer contact.

The world is still two dimensional, primitive in many ways, and advanced in others. The professor and students wish to learn more about the world without influencing their contact in a way that would violate something like Star Trek's Prime Directive.

The book is like a travelogue, containing details of the world of their 2-D contact, who calls himself YNDRD, and is in turn called by the students Yendred. He takes them on a pilgrimage and they all learn about the strange 2-D world Yendred inhabits.

This book is greatly inspired by Flatland with a little bit of Sufi mixed in. It should appeal to you if you're a fan of the former. I'm not sure if it is as appealing to fans of the latter, as I can only speak for myself, who is nearly obsessed with Flatland. Nevertheless, if you enjoy a good tale of 2-D worlds, then this will most likely fill that void (as long as the void has only a length and a height, with no width). ( )

The Planiverse: Computer Contact with a Two Dimensional World by AK Dewdney

The setting is a graduate program in the early 1980's. Computers are mainframes, time and resources are precious, and programs are primitive at best.

A group of students led by their professor decide to model a two dimensional world--with the deptyh and horizontal axis rather than the horizontal and vertical axes of Flatland. It starts as an exercise in pure physics, mathematics and computer science, until their model somehow connects to a real two-dimensional world, and an inhabitant, YNDRD, who can hear them in his mind.

And with YNDRD as our guide, we begin to learn about himself and the two dimensional Planiverse that makes his home...

Its a classic for good and many reasons. Dewdney's characters, with the exception of a little unnecessary and half-baked melodrama, are easily recognized academic types, jealous of their prize, and eager to learn more and more about the world they have inadvertently contacted. The Planiverse is a marvel of a gedankenexperiment--how could an inhabitable two-dimensional world exist and what would it be like? YNDRD goes on what is ultimately a spiritual quest (the novel can be thought of, really as a sufi story)--so there is a fair dollop of philosophy mixed in with the science.So we get to see a wide swath of his world, his beliefs and his life,and learn about it all as he makes his journey.

Although the technology has changed over time, the novel can comfortably be thought of as taking place in the early 1980's rather than as a contemporary novel. Once upon a time, computers really were this primitive.

There are lots of asides and text boxes exploring some of the concepts touched upon, as well as appendices that give the Planiverse even more depth. It's an amazing book and definitely suited to those who would want to think about the implications and puzzle of a two-dimensional world. The narrative itself is pretty basic and straightforward--but the universe, man, is where this novel shines. Dewdney's conceit in making the novel at first seem like a first hand account of a real event gives it verisimilitude, and the level of detail, as said above, sells it.

Highly Recommended. ( )

The central idea, or speculation, of this book is the nature of the world and civilization if we were confined to two dimensions instead of three. This is a fascinating concept and the author seems to be able to communicate it very well. In the descriptions of the book’s 2D world, the science, technology and sociology are set out in a way that I think strikes a good balance in terms of supplying information and maintaining the narrative. A lot of more complex material is relegated to an appendix, which I think is a good idea.
Unfortunately the author has chosen to cast the book in the form of a memoir that purports to be a true story, so there is a “back story” concerned with his discovery of this other world. The style is often clumsy when he is describing the “real world” characters and their problems making and maintaining contact with the 2D world, and this tends to detract from the real meat of the book, which is of course the minutiae of everyday life in two dimensions.
There aren’t many books around on this subject, and this is probably the most accessible one, so I have to rate it as worth a read. However, if it had been cast in a different form, or if the author had been somewhat better in his handling of “real” people’s characters, I can’t help feeling it would have been so much better. ( )

Revised from a 1984 issuance. Ingeniously detailed whimsy.