A few days ago I looked across my office at a stack of hardcover books that sit atop one of my bookshelves and one book in particular caught my eye. I hadn't read a good hard science fiction novel in a long time and the names ARTHUR C. CLARKE and STEPHEN BAXTER just leapt right out at me off the spine.

I picked the book out of the stack, read the back of the jacket and then the inside flaps of the jacket and made up my mind instantly-I knew there had to have been a very good reason to buy the thing a few years back. The description on the inside flaps instantly jogged my memory. The book in my hands was THE LIGHT OF OTHER DAYS and I was so looking forward to sitting down with it that night after work.

Let me tell you, I had no idea what I was in for-THE LIGHT OF OTHER DAYS is a book that takes you to places that you never knew existed, it takes you to the furthest depths of the past, it takes you to the inner-recesses of your soul, it takes you there and back again and all the while you're flipping the pages, unable to put this story down! What a great read!

Ok, on to a bit of a summary-the book follows the lives of the Patterson family in the not too distant future, just a scant few decades from now. A very rich and famous family, they are led by Hiram Patterson, the patriarch and an extremely fierce businessman, whose company has just begun to make great progress in harnessing control of wormholes. Little does anyone know exactly what this technology will soon mean to the billions of the world but, whatever the benefits or detriments to society, none of it matters to Hiram Patterson unless he can make a little bit of money out of it.

It doesn't take long for the wormhole technology to stabilize and soon, Patterson's company (OurWorld), which has replaced MicroSoft as the top I.T. developer in the Industry, has introduced to society a technology that enables anyone to virtually spy on anyone, anywhere, instantaneously through undetectable wormholes. At first, only the government was using the technology but, soon, it is unleashed on the world, destroying any last shred of human privacy that was left in society. Marriages crumble as spouses learn of cheating behavior, business partnerships fall apart as dishonest practices are revealed, no one is safe from the "WormCam" and every single member of the human race is suddenly faced with the knowledge that anyone can be watching them everywhere they go-to the bathroom, in the shower, while changing clothes...the list is endless. And with no way to detect the spying wormhole, you wouldn't be any the wiser. Soon, the technology advances, allowing hook-ups to computers and monitoring or recording equipment. Politicians resign by the thousands, heads of state bow out of their positions, the global suicide rate climbs drastically…no one is safe. Then the addiction to the WormCam arises, millions of people stop showing up for work, entranced by the real-time images flowing across their computer monitors of friends, families, strangers, living their lives unknowing of the voyeurs in their midst.

Then, once again, the technology changes-it is discovered that the wormholes can be easily programmed to head into the past-to see famous historical events as they happen, to see what your neighbor did last night after he left your house, to see the dawn of creation and the very smears of sludge that marked the first beginning of life on this planet all of those millions of years ago. Famous figures are studied in depth, most of the myths and legends of our history are debunked. Many historical figures are proven to have never existed, but were instead a mish-mash mixing up of several people or events. Jesus Christ is the focal point of most of the studies and the details of his life shake the very foundations of the Christian Church. Then, everyone realizes, as they are looking back into the past and looking in on their unsuspecting peers, that people throughout the future might just be looking back on them at that very moment. People start watching what they say at all times in case some future WormCam is recording their words, their actions, their facial expressions. An entirely new sub-culture goes into hiding to escape the WormCam, creating technology to try and fool the millions of spies that surround them in both the present and future-a new language is developed that involves the scraping of fingertips against palms so that no one can see what you might be 'saying.' An underground society of refugees emerges, trying desperately to retain their privacy at any price.

Throughout it all, there is a sense of impending doom as an enormous heavenly object called the Wormwood is on a collision course for Earth, the ill-fated meeting expected some time around 500 years from now. Although five centuries may seem like a lot of time, the world begins to realize that pollution doesn't really matter anymore. Saving the whales, the rainforests, the animals that are in danger of extinction all take a back seat to living life to the fullest, in the moment, to experience what there is to experience while humanity still exists.

If you don't stop me, I'll just keep going-there is so much to tell, so much to absorb. This story involves more than just Hiram Patterson, but not too many other people populate the cast-a few sons, a girlfriend, an adoptive mother and half-sister...that's basically all of it in a nutshell. THE LIGHT OF OTHER DAYS makes you stop and think of the possibilities of the future, makes you value what little privacy there is left in today's society and makes you fear the laws and technology that seem to be working their hardest to take that privacy away from us. This one is a WINNER folks, no doubt about it, if you're a fan of hard-science based science fiction, this is the book for you. If you love Arthur C. Clarke, this is one of his best ventures (and this is coming from someone who has read MOST of his work). If you're a fan of Stephen Baxter, I'm sure you'll love this book. Take my word for it, there aren't many novels out there that can appeal to the masses, but this one has action, adventure, new technology, hard-science, a roiling plot and a story that grabs on to you and won't let go! Go out to your local bookstore and pick this one up today-you won't be sorry that you did.

Read this book! This is a near future story concerning the head of a multinational technology company and the discovery of a new type of technology that allows remote viewing to anywhere on the planet and soon afterwards into the past, and how this new lack of privacy and secrecy affects the human race.

The plot of this story is good, but what turns this into a superb book is the mastery of the art displayed by the authors. This of course should not be that much of a surprise, Clarke being one of the leading SF writers of all time and Baxter being one of the leaders of the more recent breed of SF authors. The details here are what transforms the book. Everything is neatly extrapolated from the current day position, in terms of politics, environment, science and culture.

Another fine thing with this is the lack of padding. This story could easily have been stretched across another 200 pages and would still have been a good read, but the text is concise and nothing is wasteful or worthy of leaving out. Read this book!