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'Baxter is taking basic sf ideas and rebuilding them based on current science, technology and politics -- a tried and true method sor sf writers but no less effective for that. Baxter apparently has the ambition and the energy to reinvigorate hard sf all by himself' Locus on SPACE 'Like all good sf, SPACE provokes questions. What kind of species are we?! the other reason SPACE works well is that Baxter is a good writer! his format and style are assured and keep you happily suspended and engrossed. Right up to the satisfyingly vertiginous climax! Malenfant is one of sf's more memorable characters' SFX on SPACE 'Pacy, visionary, extravagantly imagined, Time places Baxter firmly in the tradition of Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov. How reassuring to know that while so many authors are lying in the gutter of the information superhighway, someone at least is still looking at the stars' The Times 'Time is a big ambitious book! science fiction at its best' FHM 'Time has one of the best time-jump sequences ever attempted, during which the protagonists witness the entire future of the universe! Highly intelligent, with original ideas in almost every sentence' GUARDIAN
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'If they existed, they would be here' ENRICO FERMI. In the second volume in Stephen Baxter's epic Manifold Series Reid Malenfant inhabits the universe Malenfant kick-started in TIME ('science fiction at its best' FHM) -- and 'they' are here. When Nemoto, a Japanese researcher on the Moon, discovers evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence in the solar system, the Fermi Paradox provokes both Malenfant and Nemoto to question why now? Because, suddenly, there are signs of intelligent life in deep space in all directions. Deeper layers of Fermi's paradox unravel as robot-like aliens, the Gaijin, seem to be e-mailing themselves from star to star, and wherever telescopes point, far away, other alien races are destroying worlds!
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Space and time hopping,
By A Customer
This review is from: Space (Paperback)
It is difficult to review a book that spans almost 9000 years of future history. Baxter has revived Malenfant, the old NASA astronaut, and has placed him next to a strange Japanese woman who cant seem to die. Baxter's ideas are phenomenal though and the book is evenly paced with action to give an excellent read for a space buff but not for a romantic novel reader. His scientific knowledge is great and this book seriously makes you think about the future and what would happen if there were alien contact. He also tries to answer the question of why there has not been contact as yet. Some parts of the book seem to have been added in order to make a story out of a string of pseudo-facts but it is a good attempt and quite readable. You do sometimes wonder after reading a few tens of pages - now what was that for? I could not put the book down and enjoyed it right up to the final page which reveals and excellent twist to the whole tale.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliantly imaginative - a novel of epic proportions,
This review is from: Space (Paperback)
"Space" is the second book in Stephen Baxter's Manifold trilogy, and a sequel of sorts to "Time", although it can also be read independently. Once again the central character is Reid Malenfant, an ex-NASA astronaut and failed entrepreneur. Obsessed with the search for extraterrestrial life, Malenfant seeks a solution to the Fermi paradox: given that the universe is billions of years old, if life exists out in the cosmos, why don't we see the evidence of it all about us? Thus when alien intelligence is detected out in the asteroid belt, Malenfant takes it upon himself to investigate, to make contact and ultimately to follow them back to the stars, through the mysterious blue portals through which they came.The action unfolds over no less than 1,800 years, from the present day up to the thirty-eighth century, with the final, epic conclusion set another 5,000 years after that. In this way Baxter lays out a compelling vision of the possible long-term effects of Earth's contact with aliens. Unlike in "Time", where he employs an interesting mix of faux newspaper articles, blogs and journal entries to tell his story, in "Space" he sticks to a more conventional third-person narrative. The story is related through the perspective of four or five main characters, all of whom use the portals to travel to the stars and see life beyond Earth, and who, over the course of many years, become witnesses to the gradual decline of human civilisation. The story is episodic in nature, and has the impression of a number of short stories loosely linked together. This can be frustrating for the reader, as there are enough intriguing ideas packed in this book to sustain half a dozen different novels. Each successive world is imaginatively drawn - from Earth, Io, Triton and Mercury to Alpha Centauri and far beyond - but Baxter tends to pass over them all very quickly, which does become tiresome. There comes a point about two-thirds of the way in when one wonders what the ultimate point is. Another result of the disjointed nature of the novel is that is difficult to feel fully engaged with the characters or get a sense of their development in these extraordinary circumstances. It is disappointing, too, that Malenfant - in principle a fascinating character - does not feature more, despite his centrality to the story. However, it is clear that this is not meant to be a character-driven novel so much as one based around ideas. Indeed "Space" has at its heart themes of human ambition and determination, consciousness and identity, self and soul, and the will to survive in a hostile universe, all of which are explored in depth. In "Space", the author shows an imagination and consideration of the big questions of existence which is not often seen in most modern SF. It is true that there is less hard science and more scientifically-informed speculation than there was in "Time", but Baxter delivers it with such confidence that it hardly matters. This is truly a novel for the twenty-first century.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Time less,
By A Customer
This review is from: Space (Paperback)
After 'Time' which I thought was superb, Space is a real curate's egg of a book. The good bits are the explorations of 'big ideas' ie humanity needs to get its act together before it's steam rollered out of existence. Unfortunately, in this extremely episodic book, the big ideas are often strung together with some confusing and often irrelevant sub plots (one of which I know has appeared as a standalone short story). Mr Baxter also fails to resist a frequent school masterish tone as he steps in to describe the physics behind planet formation or the geology of the moon. But don't be put off, its a rare book that has such grand aspirations and Space will at least make you think and should entertain you along the way.
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