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For the Stone was from space--but perhaps not our space; it came from the future-but perhaps not our future; and within the hollowed asteroid was Thistledown. One is that they can create virtual replicas of themselves (known as "partials" or "ghosts") that contain functional parts of their full personality and are able to operate independently, on their behalf, and then reintegrate their experiences with their original later. As time is not an issue, let's not brief her fully ASAP so she can get to work, but let her experience this strange hollow asteroid herself, browse its libraries, appreciate its interior design computer programs. It seemed that the end of this story was fixed about 100 pages before the end of novel, except for the minor twist that I found hard to care about - the main character dumped into a totally new and unresolved story arc.

In particular, the last hundred pages or so was devoid of narrative tension as the story trundled to what seemed it's innevitable conclusion. This "Hard Science" Fiction, or "New Space Opera" speculates along the lines where mathematics and physics intersect with time and alternate realities.Without wishing to go into details of the thrilling sci-fi wonders on offer I will just vaguely mention that nuclear holocaust, time travelling, parallel universes, posthumans and aliens all come into play. Explorers of its interior discover that the end of the Stone's seventh chamber opens into “the Way”, a corridor that extends beyond the size of the asteroid. Since the Stone appears prior to the recorded date of the Death, and there is no record of the Stone’s appearance in its libraries, the scientists reason that the Stone may come from an alternate future, but it turns out the Death is indeed imminent even with the Stone.

I came up a bit short there, as there really isn't much of a plot, at least, not in the first 400 pages. If the Soviets believed the Americans were learning secrets that would give them an edge, tensions might escalate out of hand. It's easy to point a finger at Clarke's Rama or high-level topography math/physics or any number of alternate universe novels or time-travel tomes, but it's something else entirely to pull all of these rabbits out of a single hat. The 21st century was on the brink of nuclear confrontation when the 300 kilometer-long stone flashed out of nothingness and into Earth's orbit.But I'll still say that this is probably one of those books whose basic idea is so good that, nearly no matter how boring you will find one of the subplots, you just have to love it. The flounder: I mostly liked this story minus the Gorbachev factor, but at some point after the Way, it floundered. They tried to picture it further but had nothing to go on, so instead they had bad, non-sequiturial sex, followed by an evening of his condescension of her. But it isn't giving the Americans a technological edge, only offers confounding mysteries and a devestating vision of their future that they seem powerless to avoid.

They discover that the interior has been hollowed out, and is full of equipment and even has people living in it. The seventh chamber is the start of a tube much larger than the asteroid it appears to be inside of -- in fact, as far as anyone can tell, it is infinite. In the early 2000s, a mysterious rock appeared in our solar system, slowed down and then stopped in a stable orbit around Earth. It is later determined that the asteroid may have traveled from another time and may be a sort of homemade generation ship for a fleeing civilization. In the last chamber, they find the opening to a tunnel that extends way beyond the size of the asteroid.The fate of Earth and humanity also become involved as the USA claim prior right to manage the exploration and studies of The Stone on account of being the first nation to discover its appearance. stains on pages and the side **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service.