- Hardcover: 544 pages
- Publisher: Voyager; 1st ed 1st printg edition (3 Aug 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0002254263
- ISBN-13: 978-0002254267
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 16.2 x 5.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,225,972 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Stephen Baxter established himself as a major British sci-fi author with tales of exotic, far-future technology. More recently, in Voyage, Titan and now Moonseed, he shows his love for the hardware of the real world's space programme. (Comparisons with Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff have been frequent.) Moonseed is a spectacular disaster novel whose threat to Earth comes from a long-forgotten Moon rock sample carrying strange silver dust that seems to be alien nanotechnology--molecule-sized machines. Accidentally spilt in Edinburgh, this "Moonseed" quietly devours stone and processes it into more Moonseed. Geology becomes high drama: when ancient mountains turn to dust, the lid is taken off seething magma below. Volcanoes return to Scotland, and Krakatoa-like eruptions spread Moonseed around the world... A desperate, improvised US/Russian space mission heads for the Moon to probe the secret of how our satellite has survived uneaten. Baxter convincingly shows how travel costs could be cut, with a hair-raising descent on a shoestring lunar lander that makes Apollo's look like a luxury craft. The climax brings literally world-shaking revelations and upheavals. Moonseed is a ripping interplanetary yarn. --David Langford
Review
‘The best SF author in Britain’
SFX
‘Good science by someone who knows what he is talking about’
Sunday Telegraph
‘Baxter recalls the most visionary moments of Wells and Clarke’
Locus
‘Tom Clancy meets Tom Wolfe’
Kirkus Reviews
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
When Planets Die,
This review is from: Moonseed (Paperback)
When I first began reading 'Moonseed' I had very little idea that by the end of the novel so much would have happened. Baxter has crammed into this novel a huge amount of material, creating a disaster of such a scale that it becomes difficult by the end to fully visualise the magnitude of the damage and destruction. 'Moonseed' is a brilliant creation: with apparent ease it creates a plausible scientific framework in which a completely unforseen chain of events leads to planetary-wide disaster, and on top of this it tells of how individuals survive or die in the their individual cirmustances. On one level it is a scientific masterpiece; a complex exploration of not only a huge 'primary' disaster but also of secondary catyclisms, and of tertiary effects. On another level, it is a story of raw human bravery and raw human fear. One of the most touching scenes is a description of how a small boy saves his grandfather's life with a lot of bandages and the plastic envelope of a 'New Scientist' subscription: by allowing us to believe, through excellent writing, extraordinary circumstances, we are also able to believe in extraordinary human feats.And there is more again: the disaster is not all. Another aspect of 'Moonseed' is space. Space: the exploration of it, and the journeying into it. Space is of huge importance to 'Moonseed', because from space comes the disaster, and to space travels a scientist in an attempt to provide a solution. Baxter draws up (via careful real-life research) an audacious, rough-and-ready, and highly dangerous mission to the Moon, twenty or more years after the Moon missions have ended. A combination of Space Shuttle missions, Soyuz missions, and International Space Station stop-offs provide the framework - and a little bit of gaffer tape, and very short-notice planning, does the rest. Reading 'Moonseed' now, after the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia, is an odd experience, because on the one hand it confirms the dangers involved in all space travel, and on the other hand it confirms that there is a good and wise reason to be trying, no matter what the problems and potential perils. But like Baxter's novel 'Voyage', 'Moonseed' evokes a hair-prickling sense-of-wonder through its descriptions of space travel, and that will appeal to many sf readers. Then, when you think one novel can contain no more, Baxter ends 'Moonseed' with a mind-bogglingly described scenario in which the cause of the disasters on Earth offers, in a truly unexpected way, a solution to the damage and destruction caused. The destroyer becomes the rescuer. But even that doesn't fully communicate the amount of action and drama and narrative contained within 'Moonseed': it is a huge novel, overflowing with ideas. Baxter clearly has a passion for what he writes about. Let us be thankful that he carried on writing, when he was unable to become an astronaut.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing science,
By Rusty (England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Moonseed (Paperback)
I love this book. It's brilliantly written with the best use of science of in any Sci-fi book I have ever read. The characters are excellent and described to perfection.The idea of the book, Earth being destroyed by the introduction of an exterestrial bacteria, is truly scary. The way Baxter handles the destruction and fear in the population is beautiful. So, your wondering why only the four stars. The answer is simple. The end is a let down which leaves a sour taste in your mouth just when you should feel great. It's not that what happens is bad, just that it's not given its full justice. It's rushed, nothing more. More description and explanation would have been welcome. But don't let this put you off too much. this is still a great book using great science and is well worth reading.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Science Fiction,
By
This review is from: Moonseed (Hardcover)
I really liked this book. Not only because I am from Edinburgh and so know many of the places described in the book, but also because it is a science fiction book on the scale of Greg Bear with a runaway plot much like Tom Clancy.The gradual disintegration of the Earth by the Moonseed makes a great plotline that Baxter follows through to the exciting finale. A great yarn. The sort of big book you take on holiday expecting to get halfway through in two weeks but then find yourself finished after two days of through the night reading. Few other books have done this for me - Clancy's Red Storm Rising and Sum of All Fears, Greg Bear's Eon, Asimov's Foundation series are among the few others. A word of warning though. Baxter doesn't seem to have a wholly consistent style across his books. I have just finished his novel Time and was frankly disappointed. He seemed to have a good idea that ran out of steam halfway through and resorted to hard sci-fi as a means to get through to the end with that one. But Moonseed is excellent and a thoroughly recommended read.
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