Red Tide

by Larry Niven, Brad R. Torgersen, Mathew J. Harrington Narrated by Steven Menasche

Overview

Loosely based on Larry Niven's 1973 novella Flash Crowd, Red Tide continues to examine the social consequences of the impact of having instantaneous teleportation, where humans can instantly travel long distances in milliseconds.

This is a theme that has fascinated the author throughout his career and even appears in his seminal work Ringworld, where the central character celebrates his birthday by instantly teleporting himself to different time zones, extending his “birthday.”

The author also discusses the impact of such instantaneous transportation in his essay, “Exercise in Speculation: The Theory and Practice of Teleportation.”

Larry Niven is joined by two younger writers, Brad R. Torgersen and Mathew J. Harrington, as they take on this challenging idea and further develop the theories and concepts that Niven originally presented in Flash Crowd.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

08/18/2014
This collaborative creation—two chapters by longtime SF author Niven, followed by one each from relative newcomers Torgersen and Harrington—depicts a future where the ease of instant travel leads to significant social problems. The writers trace the evolution of the JumpShift teleportation technology alongside the story of 24-year-old aspiring newstaper Barry Jerome Jansen, aka Jerryberry. He collaborates with brilliant physicist Robin Whyte, the last surviving developer of JumpShift, to solve the problem of “flash riots,” which cost JerryBerry his job. Their relationship provides a narrative peg for the ever-wilder adventures that occur as a teen’s travels go off-kilter due to a bent jumpcard and a misdirected dog thrusts Whyte into the hands of kidnapping hackers. This distant future also offers fractured English, time travel, and hyperintelligent cats. The discordant split between the Jerryberry-Whyte story and the history of teleportation suggests that the writers focused less on the macrocosmic effects of the transformational technology than on the almost offhand ways in which it changed society, destroying some industries and developing others. The lighthearted tone provides diversion, but fails to unify the independently written sections. (Oct.)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940175875592
Publisher:	Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Publication date:	06/27/2023
Edition description:	Unabridged

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