Ring (book)

Ring

First edition
Author	Stephen Baxter
Cover artist	Chris Moore
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Series	Xeelee Sequence
Genre	Science fiction novel
Publisher	HarperCollins (UK)
Publication date	4 July 1994
Media type	Print (Paperback)
Pages	443 pp.
ISBN
OCLC	30814041
Preceded by	Flux
Followed by	Vacuum Diagrams

Ring is a 1994 science fiction novel by British author Stephen Baxter. The novel tells the story of the end of the universe and the saving of mankind from its destruction. Two parallel plots are followed throughout the novel: that of Lieserl, an AI exploring the interior of the sun, and that of the Great Northern, a generation ship on a five-million-year journey.

The AI Lieserl is abandoned for five million years, leaving her to observe the sun's interior. She discovers dark matter-based life, which she names photino birds. These birds gradually drain the energy from the core of a star, ending fusion and causing premature ageing into a stable red giant—the birds' preferred habitat, as it has no risk of going supernova and destroying them.

A generation ship is sent with one end of a wormhole to explore the future and investigate the whereabouts of Michael Poole. It will be a five-million-year journey, though only a thousand years will elapse on board, due to relativistic time dilation effects. The crew is broken into three factions—the primitives, the virtuals, and a survivalist faction, Superet. Their journey is a round trip taking them to the future of our solar system through relativistic time dilation. Among the factions, the primitives are a eugenics project for Garry Uvarov who hopes to lengthen the lives of humanity without the use of Anti-Senescence (anagathic or life-extension) technology. The Superet faction relies heavily on failing technology and maintains a totalitarian government which refuses to acknowledge the existence of other decks on the ship; the virtuals remain aloof.