Stephen Baxter's Raft is one of those novels that I get intimidated by - not by the size, but by the concept behind the book. Picture a universe where the force of gravity is one billion times stronger than that of our own, where humans have detectable gravity fields. In Baxter's book, humans accidentally came into this universe, couldn't return whence they came, and settled as best they could here. Not a mean feat, but Baxter pulls off the concept with ease. Humans have split into different groups over the five hundred years before the story takes place. The Miners excavate the iron core of a dead star (stars don't last all that long in this universe, as you can well imagine); the Scientists live on the Raft, the ramshackle wreckage of the ship that brought humanity into this universe; and then there are the Boneys who...ah, that would be telling.
Suffice it to say that Baxter's first novel is well worth the read, and is a story that returns that feeling of sensawonda to the reader. The characters of Raft are believable, and the novel brings the story home about how humans must once more band together in this very hostile universe in order to survive the biggest change that they have faced. It's a story of a young man's loss of innocence, of a society's desire to survive against the odds, and of how problems can be overcome against all odds. Baxter's prose are well written and gripping, and I was unwilling to put the book down. Good story, and a good debut from a talented writer. I'm looking forward to another Baxter novel in the near future.