Book log: Gregory Benford -- Timescape

I first read this book about twenty years ago, and remember enjoying it then, even if I found it a slog at times. There was some good exploration of the hard science behind how one might attempt to send a message to the past, along with a look at the problems of irreversible environmental damage. I picked it up earlier this week, and bounced right off it. It's partly that I've got a cold and wasn't terribly receptive anyway, but I think the passage of time has given me disbelief suspension problems. This book was written in 1979, and is set in the then-future 1998 for the section dealing with irretrievable breakdown of both the physical and economic environment. When I read it in the late 80s, that was still an at least plausible, if unlikely, future. Now 1998 is a decade in the past, and while we have problems, they're different problems.

One for the charity box, I think. Twenty years ago I would have given it another try, but here and now I have a To Be Read Mountain of new books, and lots of other books I actively want to re-read, and there are dozens of 1p copies on Amazon if I feel the urge to try it again.

LibraryThing entry
Wikipedia entry