Baxter sucks me in to his high gravity world so well, and doesn't let go. Just like the Boney homeworld, made of decaying human remains. Good, hard SF well deserving of the "Masterworks" title. And just the kind I like, too - starting with a what-if and deftly developing a full world and story around it based on the logical consequences. ( )

All the human interaction and events are so implausible and forced. It's a cool science concept with a mediocre story tacked on. ( )

Raft presents a society that is wracked by social stratification and economic disparity resulting in all facets of society being incapable of dealing with their impending environmental collapse. It is strangely prescient.

Absolutely amazing and short too. This was the first Baxter book I read. Here is a physicist who knows the art of spinning a story. ( )

Not really sure where to go with this review. It appears from other reviewers that many people loved this book, but for me it was just awful.

So what is it about? A spacecraft somehow passed from one dimension to another through a hole in the fabric of space, the new dimension has a gravitational pull a billion times stronger that earth (yes, that's right... a billion.... not just 2 or 3 times). Fast forward a few hundred years and the inhabitants of the ship have adapted to survive in this extremely unlikely environment. However they are split into two societies, those that live on the ship are mostly scientists and live a seemingly luxurious life, whilst the 'miners' live on and around a dead star and earn food from the scientists by mining ore in dangerous conditions, ore that is used for repairs on the ship. This creates a class system and resentment between the two groups. One day Rees, a miner, stows away on a flying tree (yes... trees fly and have pilots and this is the way things are transported) and makes his way to the ship where he tries to fit into the new world. He is accepted and begins to make a

Ok, so forgetting the obviously gaping flaws in the science, which I can usually just go along for the ride with, the book just reads like an utter pile of rubbish. The author seems to have been unsure whether he was writing a book for young adults or mainstream audiences. I understand this is SciFi, but I do like a bit of realism as well, some sort of grounding... so when Rees jumps onto a giant floating space whale that allowed him to just eat its flesh for a few weeks I kind of drifted away. And when, he visits a 'planet' made totally from the bones and rotting corpses of its inhabitants' with the ones lucky enough to make a life having to feed on the jellified flesh and drink putrefied liquid that has filtered to the centre through the mass of decomposition.... it seemed almost palatable compared to forcing myself to the end of this drivel. I could understand if it was marketed as fantasy comedy like Terry Pratchett, and then I would never have picked it up - but it has been reissued as SF masterworks.

Anyway, this is the first book I have read by the author, and I can pretty much say it will also be my last. Although I feel it should really be 1 star (zero?) I will give 2, I decided to award an extra star for the pure genius of the author in managing to pass this off as a real book and getting someone to publish it. ( )