Evolution (Gollancz S.F.): Amazon.co.uk: Stephen Baxter: Books

Amazon.co.uk Review

In Evolution, Stephen Baxter explores deep time to dramatise the story of Earth's evolving primates--from tiny shrew-like creatures dodging reptilian predators in the Cretaceous era, to humans of the 21st century and beyond.

The long drama starts with a bang: the Chicxlub meteor impact 65 million years ago--the dinosaur killer--bringing a holocaust of extinctions. Baxter describes that apocalyptic strike and aftermath in lurid, compelling detail.

By now the crater was a glowing bowl of shining, boiling impact melt, wide enough to have engulfed the Los Angeles area from Santa Barbara to Long Beach. And its depth was four times the height of Everest, its lip further above its floor than the tracks of supersonic planes above Earth's surface.

This book's hero is evolution itself, shaping surviving pre-humans into tree dwellers, remoulding a group that drifts from Africa to a (then closer) New World on a raft of debris, confronting others with a terrible dead end as ice clamps down on Antarctica. Elsewhere the river of DNA runs on, and ape-like creatures in North Africa are forced out of dwindling forests to stumble across grasslands where their distant descendants will joyously run.

Although the episodes resonate with one another, each is a separate triumph or tragedy whose early protagonists are uncomprehending animals ("He knew on a deep cellular level that..."). Darwin's imperatives force their successors to grapple with self-awareness, consciousness, memory, abstract thought. Tools emerge, and art, and language. One troubled genius of 60,000 years ago is seen inventing a theory of magic in hope of understanding and controlling the environment--and her contemporaries. Her reward is to become "the first person in all human history to have a name."

The story continues, and the apparent framing narrative--about a last-ditch global conference hoping to solve the ecological nightmares of 2031--is not the end. Baxter's final snapshot is 500 million years in our future....

Enormously ambitious in scope, Evolution shows the whole sweep and precariousness of pre-human and human development. We are so lucky to be here--although, as Baxter makes it clear, the luck may be running out. --David Langford --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Here's what The Times had to say about Evolution: 'One of the greatest mythsof all must be the origin of the human species itself. Stephen Baxter chronicles the epic survival of the mammalian family that ultimately ends up with us, in Evolution. The sheer timescale makes a great story that is panoramic inextent. I felt I was watching Walking with Beasts rolled into The Human Journey. Baxter's ability to turn science into exciting readable fiction - something my physics teacher should have tried - makes him one of the most accessible SF writers around.' 'A powerful fusion of science and imagination. Baxter makes an impressive job of putting flesh on the bones of scientific theory and in its imaginative vision Evolution deserves comparison with such SF epics as Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men. BAxter leaves you with a memorable yet unsettling sense of our insignificance in the scheme of things. In the story of evolution, as in all good thriller, an extinction event is always lurking just around the corner.'THE GUARDIAN 'Strong imagination, a capacity for awe, and the ability to think rigorously about nasty and vinal things abound inthe work of Stephen BAxter. HIs new novel is about time but its vision of our future is shockingly different and very convincing. Evolution mixes inventiveness with a truly Wellsian (and Stapledonian) vision - and it leaves the reader with a haunting portrayal of the distant future.'TLS Excellent reviews have also appeared in:The GuardianFocusSFXStarburstThe Alien On LineSF Revu Reviews are due in:SFSiteLocusInterzone Stephen has also been appearing on the odd local radio station:BBC Radio Leicester (x3)BBC Radio Southern CountiesBBC Radio Three CountiesBBC Radio Sheffield Stephen will be doing a joint signing and talk with M. John Harrison at the new Borders store in Leicester. Steph --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

Excellent 3 Sep 2007

By C. A. Gallagher VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

In this book Baxter tells the tale of the rise and fall of human kind as a series of snapshots into the lives of various members of the human evolutionary lineage. From Purga, first of the primates, scurrying between the legs of dinosaurs shortly before the Chicxulub impact through to Ultimate, the last, scratching out an existence on a neo-pangea, 500 million years hence.

I found this a thoroughly entertaining read, if not a terribly uplifiting one (there are no happy endings here), and is one of the best books I have come across in a long while. If I were forced to level criticism I might suggest that it is in places overly anthropomorphic. Also, that some of the themes, from the first half of the book in particular, are slightly repetitive, but I guess one could argue that the fundamentals of life generally boil down to a handful of criteria; eat, don't be eaten, reproduce etc...

Overall though I would thoroughly recommend this. Great storytelling from a great storyteller.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

WOW 2 Feb 2003

By Jona

Evolution is one of those books that causes you - weeks later -to stop and ponder your entire world. Yet again Stephen Baxter manages to educate as well as entertain the reader, as is often the case with his books you come away humbled in your existence.
Sadly many people may give up on this book as it does start a little slow and is a big read but you will be gald of that by the end so stick with it!
The story starts in the time of the dinosaurs and follows the evolution of the life forms of the time - especially the development and decendancy of one, ours. This book is fasinating to follow the many diverse forms our ancestors may have taken and may yet take.
I'm now working my way through all Baxters books, and if you also enjoy enjoy science fiction take a look at his "Manifold" series, more great reads!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

Mother love 20 May 2003

By "darkcloth"

Format:Hardcover

Like one of the previous reviewers, I too have noticed that Baxter's latter books seem to be turning inward, and although a real fan of the hardcore space opera, this has, and continues to be a fascinating exploration.

This books is gritty, harrowing, depressing, but totally un-put-downable.

It certainly gives you a sense of your personal insignificance and I came away from this book feeling awed. Baxter seems to be moving away from the airy Clarkian optmism of mankind uber alles; moving away from the pre-Copernican ideas of making man central to universe, to a probably more realistic view that in the total scheme of things we, as a race will probably not count for much in the long run.

It's is like Baxter has taken to the logical and somewhat bleak conclusion that which Copernicus started and Darwin continued.

Ultimately I feel this book is optimistic. Baxter seems to believe that life will always endure, and I, personally feel reassured by that.

Unlike a previous reviewer, I hope Baxter can go further with this exploration of life. I just cannot see where he can go next.

Utterly recommend this. Brilliant, and those who accuse hard sci-fi of being for adolescents - read this and grow up!

PS Baxter says: respect your mamma!