by Rudy Rucker
First published 1987
These twenty-three stories transport readers into worlds where mathematics becomes tangible reality. Characters navigate spaces that bend according to mathematical principles, encounter Earth reshaped into a perfect cube, and explore universes flattened into two dimensions. The tales examine catastrophe theory through lived experience, present paradoxes that characters must solve to survive, and reveal how topology reshapes familiar landscapes. Mathematical modeling becomes a tool for understanding strange new realities. Each story transforms abstract concepts into concrete adventures, showing how mathematical principles create entirely different ways of existing and thinking about space itself.
Genres: science-fiction, 20th-century, adventure, alternate-universe
Vibes: suspenseful, thought-provoking, whimsical
Tropes: found-family, world-building
Period: 20th Century
300 pages · Hardcover · Arbor House