History Literature / TheLightOfOtherDays

* ExpandedStatesOfAmerica: In the backstory Britain joins the United States in 2019. The royal family currently reside in Australia.
** It was just England that joined the US. Scotland became independent (funnily enough, as a result of the UK leaving the EU in the 2010s), and Northern Ireland was ceded to the Republic of Ireland. The state government of England is having a dispute with the Scottish national government over water resources.

* MisplacedRetribution: May Wilson's agenda against Hiram is so convoluted that describing it is an exercise in spaghetti logic. To wit: years ago, her adopted son was murdered, and her husband was convicted and executed for the crime. When the Wormcam became available, it was discovered that May's daughter had actually committed the murder and framed her own father. This revelation destroys May, and she blames Wormcam for revealing the truth and blames Hiram for inventing it. Blames him so thoroughly, in fact, that she's determined to kill him in revenge.

* ExpandedStatesOfAmerica: In the backstory Britain (minus Northern Ireland) joins the United States in 2019. The royal family currently reside in Australia.
** It was just England that joined the US. Scotland became independent (funnily enough, as a result of the UK leaving the EU in the 2010s). The state government of England is having a dispute with the Scottish national government over water resources.

* HarsherInHindsight: Bobby's mother uses Wormcam to catch US soldiers beating and torturing prisoners of war. The scene described is particularly affecting because the idea of American servicemen committing war crimes seemed shocking and incongruous. A few years later, after the Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay scandals, it feels all too close to reality.

* HarsherInHindsight: Bobby's mother uses WormCam to catch US soldiers beating and torturing prisoners of war. The scene described is particularly affecting because the idea of American servicemen committing war crimes seemed shocking and incongruous. A few years later, after the Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay scandals, it feels all too close to reality.

* ApocalypseHow: Class 6. Kate apparently achieved fame by breaking the story of a massive comet that will impact the earth in 500 years, sterilizing the entire planet. Interestingly, this has essentially no impact on the plot, except that it takes place in a world that people now assume has a limited lifespan. [[spoiler: Turns out this happened three billion years ago, with all life now on Earth being descended from a sample placed by the civilisation that existed at that time. The Wormwood itself is eventually diverted.]]

* [[spoiler: ClonesArePeopleToo: Wormcam proves that Bobby is actually a clone of Hiram, not his son. Bobby created him as a crude bid for immortality. Then, when the technology became available to interface minds, apparently changed his plan to actually transfer his mind into Bobby's body.]]

* ExpandedStatesOfAmerica: In the backstory Britain (minus Northern Ireland) joined the United States in 2019. The royal family currently reside in Australia.
* [[spoiler: GrandTheftMe: It's ultimately revealed that Hiram has been funding The Joined in order to develop the technology to transfer his mind into Bobby's body, and effectively become immortal.]]

* [[spoiler: MassResurrection: The epilogue of the book has technology advanced enough to create an exact copy of someone's body and mental state just before their death, which is used to revive Bobby. The people of that era intend to bring back ''every human that has ever lived'' in this way.]]

* [[spoiler: Precursors: All life on Earth turns out to be descended from a biological sample left by a civilisation that inhabited Earth three billion years ago but was wiped out.]]

* TimeSkip: A few occur over the course of the book, notably one of three years after [[spoiler: Bobby and Kate go off the grid]] and at the end [[spoiler: forty years, then another sixty years]].

* FermatsLastTheorem: When the general public gains access to past-viewing Wormcams, a school student uses one to view Fermat's original notes and thus reconstruct the original proof.

* ApocalypseHow: Class 6. Kate apparently achieved fame by breaking the story of a massive comet that will impact the earth in 500 years, sterilizing the entire planet. Interestingly, this has essentially no impact on the plot, except that it takes place in a world that people now assume has a limited lifespan.

* DatedHistory: One of the vignettes about how Wormcam is used talks about a researcher finally solving the case of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otzi Otzi]], a natural mummy found in the Italian Alps. The novel states that he was a hunter who went too far into the mountains in pursuit of his prey and died of hypothermia. The year after the novel was published, scans of the body proved that he'd been shot with arrows and had his head smashed in. It's now widely accepted that he died a violent death and may have been deliberately buried in the mountains.

* ApocalypseHow: Class 6. Kate apparently achieved fame by breaking the story of a massive comet that will impact the earth in 500 years, sterilizing the entire planet. Interestingly, this has essentially no impact on the plot, except that it takes place in a world that people now assume has a limited life span.
* {{Chronoscope}}: The central technology of the novel, called Wormcam by it's marketers. Significantly, it can view anywhere, at anytime in the past or present (though not the future). The implications of this technology being freely available is fully explored.

* DatedHistory: One of the vignettes about how Wormcam is used talks about a researcher finally solving the case of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otzi Otzi]], a natural mummy found in the Italian alps. The novel states that he was a hunter who went too far into the mountains in pursuit of his prey and died of hypothermia. The year after the novel was published, scans of the body proved that he'd been shot with arrows and had his head smashed in. It's now widely accepted that he died a violent death and may have been deliberately buried in the mountains.

''The Light of Other Days'' is a 2000 novel by Stephen Baxter and Arthur C. Clarke set in the [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture near future]]. The main story arc follows a reporter named Kate Manzoni who gets involved with the son of a powerful industrialist named Hiram Patterson. The driving force of the plot is when Hiram announces the development of a technology capable of finding and stabilizing micro-wormholes between any two points. Initially, this is intended for cheaper and faster communications, but it's soon expanded to create wormholes big enough to see through, which gives the ability to view any point on earth. Then, it's realized that wormholes can reach through time as well, allowing a window into the past. Much of the novel is devoted to exploring the profound social and practical implications of a world in which privacy and secrecy are impossible, and all of history is on display.

* {{Chronoscope}}: The central technology of the novel, called wormcam by it's marketers. Significantly, it can view anywhere, at anytime in the past or present (though not the future). The implications of this technology being freely available is fully explored.

* LackOfEmpathy: Hiram is not a malicious man, but totally unswayed by anything that doesn't relate to building his company and his legacy. In a notable early scene, he walks in which footage from a mass poisoning of civilians in Egypt and is clearly enraged... that a rival news network got the footage before he did.

* MisplacedRetribution: May Wilson's agenda against Hiram is so convoluted that describing it is an exercise in spaghetti logic. To wit: years ago, her adopted son was murdered, and her husband was convicted and executed for the crime. When the WormCam became available, it was discovered that May's daughter had actually committed the murder and framed her own father. This revelation destroys May, and she blames WormCam for revealing the truth and blames Hiram for inventing it. Blames him so thoroughly, in fact, that she's determined to kill him in revenge.

* {{Chronoscope}}: The central technology of the novel, called w0ormcam by it's marketers. Significantly, it can view anywhere, at anytime in the past or present (though not the future). The implications of this technology being freely available is fully explored.

* DatedHistory: One of the vignettes about how Wormcam is used talks about a researcher finally solving the case of [[w:Otzi]], a natural mummy found in the Italian alps. The novel states that he was a hunter who went too far into the mountains in pursuit of his prey and died of hypothermia. The year after the novel was published, scans of the body proved that he'd been shot with arrows and had his head smashed in. It's now widely accepted that he died a violent death and may have been deliberately buried in the mountains.

* ApocalyseHow: Class 5. Kate apparently achieved fame by breaking the story of a massive comet that will impact the earth in 500 years, sterilizing the entire planet. Interestingly, this has essentially no impact on the plot, except that it takes place in a world that people now assume has a limited life span.
* {{Chronoscope}}: The central technology of the novel, called WormCam by it's marketers. Significantly, it can view anywhere, at anytime in the past or present (though not the future). The implications of this technology being freely available is fully explored.
* [[spoiler: ClonesArePeopleToo: WormCam proves that Bobby is actually a clone of Hiram, not his son. Bobby created him as a crude bid for immortality. Then, when the technology became available to interface minds, apparently changed his plan to actually transfer his mind into Bobby's body.]]

* DatedHistory: One of the vignettes about how WormCam is used talks about a researcher finally solving the case of [[w:Otzi]], a natural mummy found in the Italian alps. The novel states that he was a hunter who went too far into the mountains in pursuit of his prey and died of hypothermia. The year after the novel was published, scans of the body proved that he'd been shot with arrows and had his head smashed in. It's now widely accepted that he died a violent death and may have been deliberately buried in the mountains.

* IntrepidReporter: Kate Manzoni. She first uncovers the development of WormCam, and then is hired by Hiram to use it to break news stories even faster.

* ReligionIsWrong: One of the first effects of WormCam is that the origins of all religions can be easily investigated. The assumption of the novel is that would destroy most religions, particularly those based on historical literalism. It's explicitly stated that Moses turns out to be a mythical figure, and an entire chapter is dedicated to the "real" biography of Jesus, who turns out to be an impressive figure, but who never had or claimed any special spiritual significance. It's implied that humanity quickly pivots to the view that we've OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions.
* SurveillanceAsThePlotDemands: Justified in this case. The invention of WormCam makes surveillance possible on anything, anywhere, including retroactively. If you want to observe something, you can.

''The Light of Other Days'' is a 2000 novel by Stephen Baxter and Arthur C. Clarke. It takes place in the [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture near future]], when a powerful industrialist named Hiram Patterson announces the development of a technology capable of finding and stabilizing micro-wormholes between any two points. Initially, this is intended for cheaper and faster communications, but it's soon expanded to create wormholes big enough to see through, which gives the ability to view any point on earth. Then, it's realized that wormholes can reach through time as well, allowing a window into the past. Much of the novel is devoted to exploring the profound social and practical implications of a world in which privacy and secrecy are impossible, and all of history is on display.

* {{Chronoscope}}: The main driving force of the plot. Significantly, it can view anywhere, at anytime in the past or present (though not the future). The implications of this technology being freely available is fully explored.