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Vacuum Diagrams: Short Stories in the Xeelee Sequence
 
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Vacuum Diagrams: Short Stories in the Xeelee Sequence (Paperback)

by Stephen Baxter (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 480 pages
  • Publisher: Voyager; New Ed edition (20 April 1998)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0006498124
  • ISBN-13: 978-0006498124
  • Product Dimensions: 17.2 x 11.2 x 3.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 237,138 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #38 in  Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > B > Baxter, Stephen
    #75 in  Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Short Stories

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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.
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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
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3 star:
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Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars The Ultimate Xeelee book, 12 April 2003
By dogbarkssome (England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)      
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.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent piece of hard sf, 16 Oct 2000
By A Customer
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!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The disturbing/triumphant ending to the xeelee sequence, 29 May 2001
By J. M. List "Techno Junkie" (Maidenhea, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Vacuum Diagrams (Mass Market Paperback)
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'. This often disturbing image as the univese is slowly destroyed for all life except dark matter life is depressing in that even the godlike xeelee have run away. There is hope though as the final humans left in the universe escape through the xeelee rip in space into another universe and the last act of the sentient xeelee ship left to guide them is to create the begginings of a new universe for the humans.

A brilliant finish to a masterful series that transcends time and space. Every book in the sequence I have read in one sitting. If you only ever read two series of Sci-Fi this has to be one of them (the other woudl be the Mars trology by Kim Stanley Robbinson). If this book doesn't make you question the natuer of the Universe and existence in other planes then you havn't been reading it.

Buy this and read.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars 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... Read more
Published 18 months ago by Chairman Paulo

5.0 out of 5 stars 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

4.0 out of 5 stars 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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