In 2084, sexually promiscuous college student Marianne O’Hara leaves her off-world colony of New New York (one of many known as the Worlds) to attend university in New York City on Earth, where she meets a Bohemian poet and artist named Benny and an FBI agent named Jeff Hawkings.
Marianne and Benny become entangled with an anti-government group that seem at first innocuous—until one of their members is murdered and Benny finds his apartment bugged. As their suspicions about the organization grow and their safety is jeopardized, Benny decides to inform the FBI about the group then move to a remote farm in South Carolina after assuming a new identity. Meanwhile, Marianne takes several months to tour the world with some of her classmates from New York University including Jeff Hawkings.
Upon returning to New York, Marianne is attacked and nearly raped. As tensions build between the Earth and the Worlds over trade agreements, Marianne and Jeff arrange to leave Earth for New New York—but not before she visits New Orleans. While there, Marianne is persuaded to audition for a jazz band as a clarinet player. She soon becomes famous on the local scene—resulting in her abduction by a wealthy businessman who demands ransom from New New York.
How will Marianne escape from her kidnappers and what will happen as negotiations between Earth and the Worlds disintegrate into threats?
Worlds is considered a classic SF novel and while I enjoyed several chapters at the beginning and end, the story suffered from a sagging middle. Marianne’s globetrotting was told in the form of diary entries and much of it was tedious. There was little character development during these chapters aside from the budding romance between Marianne and Jeff and her fleeting concern for Benny back home.
During the interstellar war with the Taurans, William Mandella climbs the ranks from private to major. While the war itself only lasts a few years from the perspective of the troops—since much of their time is spent traversing wormholes well beyond the speed of light—nearly 1,200 years passes on Earth.