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Amazon.co.uk Review
Stephen Baxter, Britain's foremost author of "hard" SF rooted in real physics, is renowned for thinking big. Time begins with a US entrepreneur's deceptively low-key plans to reclaim space and exploit the asteroids, bypassing NASA's bureaucracy and safety regulations. One bizarre cost-cutting measure: the "Big Dumb Booster" pilot is a genetically enhanced, intelligent squid. Then the mission is redirected following a weird mathematical prediction that humanity hasn't long to live, and a "Feynman radio" transmission from the future that highlights a particular asteroid. Here a space-time gateway opens on unimaginably distant futures, stepping far beyond the dying sun of Wells's The Time Machine to visions of a galaxy reshaped by humanity to hoard its energy ... beyond stars, beyond black holes, beyond even mass. And the emerging message, seen most clearly by a new generation of persecuted, ultra-gifted children, is that this seeming triumph--this total exploitation of our universe's possibilities--isn't good enough. A better path awaits, via a cataclysm that dwarfs mere supernova explosions... Baxter pays homage to the transformations of Clarke's Childhood's End (there's also a nod to 2001), but without the mysticism: it's all respectable, if speculative, physics. His final, devastating payoff makes sequels seem impossible. Two are planned. Rousing stuff, on a cosmic scale. --David Langford
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
‘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
‘In Time Baxter manages to take the most esoteric cosmological ideas and mesh them into a fast-paced novel… Probably the most thought-provoking writing you’ll read this year, it’s time for Baxter to take his place alongside Asimov and Heinlein’
Edge
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Having seen that the reviews are very mixed on here I thought I would add my opinion to the mix. The negative reviews seem to be the same in that they basically say "not as good as his other stuff", which actually says more about the strength of this guy's writing than its weakness!
This was the first Stephen Baxter book I read, picked up in an airport, never heard of him so I had no expectations. IT.BLEW.ME.AWAY! One of the best books I have ever read, Sci-Fi or otherwise. The scale of the ideas and the sheer sense of wonder and awe are something else. I would actually recommend this as the best one to read to start with. I have since read the rest of the Manifold trilogy, the 2nd (Space) I think is even better but I was expecting it to be good so it didn't blow me away as much as this.
I have since bought several copies of this book to give to like minded friends to read.
This was the first Stephen Baxter book I read, picked up in an airport, never heard of him so I had no expectations. IT.BLEW.ME.AWAY! One of the best books I have ever read, Sci-Fi or otherwise. The scale of the ideas and the sheer sense of wonder and awe are something else. I would actually recommend this as the best one to read to start with. I have since read the rest of the Manifold trilogy, the 2nd (Space) I think is even better but I was expecting it to be good so it didn't blow me away as much as this.
I have since bought several copies of this book to give to like minded friends to read.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I'm a proper nerd when it comes to sci-fi - I'll take obscure and esoteric theories over plodding character development every time. Time, therefore, was very appealing.
A strange artifact is discovered on an asteroid near Earth, and is found by a remote probe to be a portal that allows jumps of billions of years into the future. Soon after, a kind of super-intelligence begins to manifest itself in a handful of children, who proceed to make astonishing scientific breakthroughs in the field of energy production. The two apparently unrelated stories close in on each other at the climax (far too mild a word for it).
It does take a while to get going, with a lot of the first half being something of a cookie-cutter will they/won't they space launch saga, but there are sprinklings of some truly visionary science (particularly the breathtaking sequence where the probe is repeatedly pushed into the distant future - worth getting from the library on its own). The rapidly switching point of view character took me some getting used to, but it does offer a more rounded insight into the goings on. And the ENDING... ye gods, Baxter went all-out!
So good was this book that it induced me to read Flood; if I'd read Flood first, though...
A strange artifact is discovered on an asteroid near Earth, and is found by a remote probe to be a portal that allows jumps of billions of years into the future. Soon after, a kind of super-intelligence begins to manifest itself in a handful of children, who proceed to make astonishing scientific breakthroughs in the field of energy production. The two apparently unrelated stories close in on each other at the climax (far too mild a word for it).
It does take a while to get going, with a lot of the first half being something of a cookie-cutter will they/won't they space launch saga, but there are sprinklings of some truly visionary science (particularly the breathtaking sequence where the probe is repeatedly pushed into the distant future - worth getting from the library on its own). The rapidly switching point of view character took me some getting used to, but it does offer a more rounded insight into the goings on. And the ENDING... ye gods, Baxter went all-out!
So good was this book that it induced me to read Flood; if I'd read Flood first, though...
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I found the book got off to a slow start part, but by half-way I was hooked. As others have said, the time jump sequence to the end of the universe inspired a sense of awe. But I found it harder to suspend disbelief about the politics: like another reviewer, I thought it a little unlikely that a doom prediction would cause widespread panic - surely more likely it would simply be dismissed. And I found it hard to relate to the hostility towards the children.
There were a couple of obvious errors (unless I missed something?) that I found a little distracting. Without wishing to give too much away: towards the end of the book two characters are watching an effect which is spreading at light speed - so how are they able to see it?! One of them even comments that the effect won't reach the sun for another 8 minutes - but they are out beyond Jupiter, so how has light from it reached them?
And how is a blind person able to grapple with an assailant in space - there's no sound to tell him where his attacker is?
Overall though, the plausible physics made for a good read.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Amazing
Mindblowing ideas.
Baxter really is one of the preeminent authors of this genre and at this time.
Highly reccomended - as are all the Manifold series.
Baxter really is one of the preeminent authors of this genre and at this time.
Highly reccomended - as are all the Manifold series.
Published 10 months ago by Mr. M. D. Higginbotham
Disappointing
Wasn't very keen on this one. The initial premise, of future human beings sending a message back to the present day to warn them of catastrophe, is interesting, if hardly original. Read more
Published 12 months ago by John Hopper
Beano or New scientist
fed up of reviews written by people who clearly do not understand the science and would find any well written novel of any genre difficult to read.. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Kalidas
Buy something else, Very frustrating..
I've been appreciating sci fi books since the early offerings of Asimov and Clark to the excellent works of Hamilton but this rubbish from Baxter is truly awful. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Geek
A potentially good story but too much space/time theoretical...
As an ardent sci-fi fan since my early reading days, I have a collection dating back from the birth of the genre in the 30's up to it's heyday in the 70's and early 80's. Read more
Published on 13 Feb 2010 by Willy Eckerslike
A waste of...?
I discovered Baxter via the Gollancz 'Future Classics' series which included his uber-epic, 'Evolution'. Read more
Published on 3 Mar 2008 by BloodyOllie
Visionary and compelling - a novel of tremendous scope
"Time", the first book in Stephen Baxter's Manifold trilogy, follows the story of Reid Malenfant, washout NASA astronaut and entrepreneur with ambitions of propelling humanity... Read more
Published on 5 Sep 2007 by The Wanderer
Good story
A good story and enjoyable read but I felt it fell foul of a few issues.
I too noticed the problem with them witnessing the event at the end of the book - to witness it... Read more
I too noticed the problem with them witnessing the event at the end of the book - to witness it... Read more
Published on 14 Jun 2007 by Andrew
science
Baxter is a fantastic author! I read this book after Space the follow-up but still managed to appreciate the tack of the manifold series. Read more
Published on 4 Mar 2005 by "ranger_conway"
You won't be able to put this book down
Stephen Baxter combines his ability to grip the reader with an extremely engaging plot and to challenge your mind with his ideas. Read more
Published on 20 Dec 2002 by "jedelmania"
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