STEPHEN BAXTER

I have placed "sizzler ratings" next to books read, even if the review hasn't been added at this time.

Xeelee Sequence:			Titan
	Raft		Traces
	Timelike Infinity		Moonseed
	Flux	Manifold:
	Ring		Time
	Vacuum Diagrams		Space
			Human
Others:		With Arthur C. Clark:
	Anti-ice		The Light of Other Days
	The Time Ships
	Voyage

Sub-category: Near Future
The plot: Hiram Patterson, self-made multi-millionaire and the Bill Gates of the 21st Century, is launching the a way of communication that is so revolutionary, it changes the world. Privacy becomes a luxury noone will ever know again as mankind's past and present is open to scrutiny. By manipulating wormholes in space, anyone can connect with anyone else, anywhere in the known universe and time...
Comment: Ah, two of my favourite authors come together to colaborate and unlike other Arthur C. Clark collaborations, the line is a bit blurred as to who contributed what. This is a wonderful new step for Stephen Baxter, into a realm of physics he has only hinted at in his previous books. Although this is a light read and more of a flimsy plot wrapped around a great idea than the other way around, this is still a pleasant read - albeit a bit spooky. Never again will you go to the bathroom and blithely assume you are completely alone as you sing Frank Sinatra into the back-scrubber...
Return to top

Sub-category: Near Future/adventure
The plot: Read Malenfant is an entrepreneur who is determined to break the rules and get the human race into space. He is further spurred on by Cornelius Taine, a burnt out mathematician who has determined that the human race will be extinct in 200 years time if something isn't done about it. To that end, he believes Malenfant can help. So between the two, they set out to rewrite the course of human history and evolution.
Comment: Please bear in mind I am an avid Baxter fan and love his books, but this one was very, very, very disappointing! The first half of this book was vintage Baxter with lots of character development and page turning plot twists. With incredible ease, Baxter introduces statistical arguments for the end of the human race and paints a fascinating scenario for change. His introduction of the squid as more suitable travelers for space than us was both unusual and interesting, as is their tale once out in space.

And then begins the third part and my heart fell through the floor as the story just disintegrated and became a pale combination of Ring and Moonseed. The later half of the book focuses more on Malenfant and what he finds once he has got himself -and the squid - into space. Unfortunately, as he tries to escape the paranoid clutches of earth and chase some of the more adventurous squid, he ends up in a nice little physics loop not unlike that described in Ring. Great plot in Ring, not wanted in another book so soon! The squid also vanish out of the story line. Possibly more disappointing of all is that right at the end, I swear Baxter starts contradicting himself and I was shocked to see the Malenfant one minute being able to do something that literally a paragraph later, they couldn't execute to save their lives in a similar scenario. Very sloppy!

Overall, I would say this book maybe of interest to someone who is reading Baxter for the first time, but for the long-term follower of Baxter, this book will in all likelihood prove to be a big disappointment.
Return to top

Sub-category: Near Future/adventure
The plot: Baxter blends his knowledge of NASA with Earth's near future to bring the human race to the brink of destruction. While our solar system was being formed, an object slammed into the Earth creating the Moon. 4.6 billion years later, Man ventures into space. Some 30-odd years later, Venus explodes, showering Earth with radiation and bizarre particles that send the Physicists into paroxysms of delight. Almost simultaneously, something strange begins to happen to the rocks around Edinburgh in the UK
Comment: Baxter writes pure SF which is sure to have him ultimately ranked up there with Clarke and Asimov. In Moonseed, Baxter has written a novel intensive in geology which even a hard rock geologist will find few flaws with. Yet, all the science is incorporated into a well-written plot which leaves you guessing until the end as to how the human race will deal with an 'extinction event' unthought of. And just in case it puzzles you while you read this book, Houston is underlain by 'non-reactive' sediment, not olivine-rich basalt...
Return to top

VOYAGE (1996)

Sub-category: Near Future (alternate)
The plot: An alternate future where President Kennedy doesn't get killed and the NASA space program continues on schedule to have a man on Mars by the 1980's. The story follows several characters as they go through the ups and downs leading to the first step my a human on Mars.
Comment: For anyone who wants to go into space, this book is a depressing reminder of how far the space program has regressed in the last two decades (I mean, how can we walk on the moon and then not go back for over 25 years?!). However, Stephen Baxter has done an impressive amount of research to produce another brilliantly written novel.
Return to top