'Raft' is the first book in the astonishing and hugely acclaimed Xeelee Sequence, Stephen Baxter’s history of the universe.

Five hundred years after a spaceship from Earth accidentally crossed through a hole in space-time to another – and very strange – universe, the crew’s descendants still struggle for existence on the Raft, a structure built from the wreckage of the ship. A small group of scientists preserve the ancient knowledge which makes survival possible.

But now they must contemplate a journey even more perilous and fantastic than that of their ancestors, or die.

“'Raft' is fast paced, strong on suspense, efficiently written, and has moral weight, but it is in the creation of a genuinely strange and believable new universe that Baxter excels … rigorous, vigorous SF at its enjoyable best”
TIME OUT

“'Raft' is almost perfect … it is very, very hard SF and it’s great fun”
SFX

“The Xeelee Sequence is cosmic-perspective science fiction of originality, high quality and great interest. Baxter will be one of the major science fiction writers of the turn of the century”
NEW YORK REVIEW OF SCIENCE FICTION

“Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein succeeded in doing it, but very few others. Now Stephen Baxter joins their exclusive ranks”
NEW SCIENTIST