Space (Paperback)

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.

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.

The chief challenge in any novel spanning centuries and millennia is to maintain a continuity of story. How do you sustaina point of view or the audience's connection with character? We could probably have a long debate on the different techniques used in science fiction: longevity, family trees, hibernation, even reincarnation (thanks to Kim Stanley Robinson), etc.

In Space, Baxter relies partly on longevity and a form of hibernation (characters go off-line while traveling between the stars) but he never really solves the problem. The story is episodic, like a collection of connected short stories.

Nonetheless, Baxter is endlessly inventive - an idea a page and many are highly original: a nuclear reactor manned by neanderthals, vacuum flowers, tunnels to the centre of the moon, trees in orbit, seas on triton, a galactic ecology ...

Space is also a thorough working through of the Fermi paradox. If life is abundant (which we would expect) where are they? The answer is a depressing and endless cycle of expansion, exploitation, collapse and sterilization. Sometimes this point is hammered home too hard and too frequently. But equally, and subtly, Baxter draws parallels between the earth-bound and intersteller histories. You're never lost in a stark, sterile 'future history' (a la Stapledon) but very much mired in the muck and blood of human life.

Space is eerie, evocative, thought provoking and, ultimately, depressing. Like so much of Baxter's work, it is a challenge to our sense of place in the universe. As such it can be a painful read, but it sticks with you.