- Hardcover: 400 pages
- Publisher: Voyager (24 April 1997)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0002254255
- ISBN-13: 978-0002254250
- Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 14.2 x 4.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,291,282 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
‘The best SF author in Britain’
SFX
‘Baxter recalls the most visionary moments of Wells and Clark… constructs a human-scale drama out of the most far-reaching implications of current cosmological theory… makes E Doc Smith look like a minimalist.’
Locus
‘Baxter sends into free-fall the most awesome ideas in science fiction today… What makes these ideas assimilable is the prism of people through which they are refracted… good SF reveals the mortal host in the machine.’
The Times
Product Description
Baxter’s future history, known as the Xeelee sequence, is an exemplar of the form: it comprises his first four novels, Raft, Timelike Infinity, Flux and Ring, and these marvellous linked stories.
The stories are like pearls on the timeline of the sequence, which stretches from the formation of life in the quagma to the virtual extinction of baryonic life in this universe. Owners of the universe, the Xeelee, first contact photino birds at the beginning, then flee them at the end, having modified their own evolutionary history in a failed attempt to defeat the birds, creatures of dark matter. They flee through the eponymous Ring of exotic matter, and some humans will follow them.
Baxter’s magnificent, mind-boggling ideas infuse the stories with enduring meaning and bring with them a sense of perspective married to wonder to be found nowhere else. There are new and amazing facets of the future here, and the reader can also once more spend time with Michael Poole, the wormhole technology genius from Timelike Infinity; with the wonderful Lieserl, modified human being inhabiting the sun; with the microscopic humans of the world of Flux; with the aliens threatening earth, Sqeeum, Qax, photino birds; above all, with the Xeelee.
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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First Sentence
At the instant of his birth, a hundred impressions cascaded over him. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
At the instant of his birth, a hundred impressions cascaded over him. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Vacuum Diagrams is a collection of short stories set in Baxter’s Xeelee universe (as explored in the novels Raft, Timelike Infinity, Flux and Ring), but far from being a collection of odds and ends this probably stands as the ultimate Xeelee book. The stories are laid out in chronological order, and together with linking material this forms a complete history of Baxter’s universe, from Big Bang to the ultimate destruction of all baryonic life.
The stories themselves are mostly enjoyable, although Baxter’s problems with shoehorning in hard sf exposition with storytelling are often evident. Its also noticeable how Baxter’s earlier tales are much more light-hearted than his later, more confident work. A number of the stories also seem to be either direct or subtle lifts from his novels, (eg; Stowaway is a direct extract from Raft, while Hero takes an incident from Flux and retells it with a different spin), though its difficult to tell if these were short stories that were later developed into novels, or cynical reworking to sell the same idea twice. The quality remains high though, so even when a tale such as The Baryonic Lords is obviously just a dry-run of the novel Ring, its still enjoyable stuff. Possibly the biggest criticism of the collection is the lack of range of the stories, most concentrating in a rather narrow band of classic hard sf ‘new invention/discovery’ format.
All in all though, if you are only going to read one of Baxter’s Xeelee novels, this should be the one.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is an excellent piece of work, and one of the very best hard-sf books I have come across. It is actually a collection of short stories, but you will find that you read it as a novel with the short stories as chapters. The stories describe the history and fate of the human race in the evolution of the universe controlled by the mysterious Xeelee. What's so good about this book is that Baxter actually manages to present the universe on a plate to the reader, not only a snapshot of it, but the complete past, present and future of it all!
Format:Mass Market Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a book of short stories that was recommended to me as as an introduction to Stephen Baxter's Xeelee series of stories.
Ignoring the downbeat themes which seem to be a feature of this view of the far future, there aren't a lot of laughs in this version of mankind's destiny, it suffers from poor characterisation and a tendency to show wonders reflected only through the eyes of his rather badly drawn characters.
There is also a shed load of physics to plough through. If I wanted to read a book about quantum mechanics I'd buy one.
All in all I found it a touch unsatisfying, but I'm going to give some more of the Xeelee stories a chance because the characterisations are supposed to be better.
Ignoring the downbeat themes which seem to be a feature of this view of the far future, there aren't a lot of laughs in this version of mankind's destiny, it suffers from poor characterisation and a tendency to show wonders reflected only through the eyes of his rather badly drawn characters.
There is also a shed load of physics to plough through. If I wanted to read a book about quantum mechanics I'd buy one.
All in all I found it a touch unsatisfying, but I'm going to give some more of the Xeelee stories a chance because the characterisations are supposed to be better.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A conscious attempt to copy a bad book, done well
A year ago I reviewed First and Last Men, by Olaf Stapledon and was not particularly complimentary about it. This book is similar in concept. Read more
Published 12 months ago by D. R. Cantrell
Magnificent!
Great book. Although a little hard reading at some points, a wonderful collection of imaginative and mind bending ideias. Excellent!
Published 18 months ago by RReis
Emotional Vacuum
It's not the cold hard science (that at times can read like a text book and be a little dull) or the lack of character development (this is a collection of short stories after all)... Read more
Published on 8 Aug 2008 by Chairman Paulo
A superb collection
Stephen Baxter is undoubtedly the best science fiction author in Britain. His intricately plotted science-rich books provoke fascination and awe with apparent ease. Read more
Published on 13 Aug 2001
The disturbing/triumphant ending to the xeelee sequence
The final(?) book in the Xeelee Sequence, answers many of the questions posed except the biggest. The final machinations of the ultimate enemy of the universe, the photino 'birds'. Read more
Published on 29 May 2001 by J. M. List
Just the big jobs please!
Not for Stephen Baxter the piffling concerns of most science fiction this is a man who goes for the big picture. Read more
Published on 2 Aug 1999
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