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Phase Space (Paperback)

by Stephen Baxter (Author)
3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
RRP: £6.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 496 pages
  • Publisher: Voyager; New edition edition (21 Jul 2003)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0006511856
  • ISBN-13: 978-0006511854
  • Product Dimensions: 17.6 x 10.4 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 227,425 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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    #36 in  Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > B > Baxter, Stephen

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

Phase Space is a collection of 25 SF stories by Stephen Baxter, many thematically linked to his "Manifold" trilogy (Time, Space and Origin) and other novels of cosmic scope.

"The phase space of a system is the set of all conceivable states of that system," says the first page. As with "Manifold" these stories explore possible (and significantly linked) states of Earth and the universe, alternate timelines offering different solutions to Baxter's favourite cosmological question--the Fermi Paradox.

It's a simple idea. According to our best scientific theories there's nothing special about Earth or the Solar System. Intelligent life has evolved here--ourselves. It's likely to evolve elsewhere. The skies should be full of other intelligences. Where are they?

Perhaps our theories are wrong and we're in a galactic quarantine. Perhaps what we see through our telescopes is a clever fake--but supposing we overload the capabilities of the fakers? Maybe intelligence always destroys itself before crossing interstellar space, or something kindly takes emerging life away to a safer place. Perhaps there's teeming intelligence out there, but we're not listening on the right wavelength. Perhaps they're hiding...?

Another Baxter theme revisited again in this mind-stretching collection is the high-tech romance of the space programme and walking on the Moon. Alternate histories of space exploration are deftly conjured up, some of them wonderfully paranoid. Yet another theme is deep time--the unthinkable gulf from Big Bang to the final extinction of the universe and possibilities of life at both extremes.

Baxter at his best has a bleakly lyrical view of the remote future, reminiscent of Arthur C Clarke. There are homages to other classics, including Asimov's "Nightfall" and even Dante's Divine Comedy whose final vision of paradise takes on a highly unexpected SF meaning. --David Langford --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.



Review

'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 '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'
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Phase Space
36% buy the item featured on this page:
Phase Space 3.7 out of 5 stars (7)
£5.49
Origin (Manifold)
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Origin (Manifold) 3.2 out of 5 stars (18)
£5.46
Time
19% buy
Time 3.6 out of 5 stars (27)
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Space
17% buy
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Customer Reviews

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3.7 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Review of Stephen Baxter's 'Phase Space', 29 Nov 2003
Complementing his ‘Manifold’ series of novels – 'Time', 'Space' and 'Origin' – Stephen Baxter has put together 'Phase Space'; a collection of loosely-connected stories exploring the themes of human consciousness, our place in the Universe and our perception of reality. Tied together by excerpts from the Manifold-based story 'Touching Centauri', the collection is split into six sections, of which 'Paradox' is arguably the best. Apparently fascinated by the ‘Fermi Paradox’ concerning extra-terrestrial intelligence (summed up by the oft-quoted line “If they existed, they would be here”), Baxter speculates on possible solutions to the problem in this section, and the results are often absorbing.

Weakest of the six sections is, in my view, 'Worlds', in which stories become bogged down in repetitive detail concerning the space programmes of this and other worlds. Tales in 'Worlds' and 'Open Loops' often reach conclusions which are too obscure for readers to reasonably be expected to untangle, and suffer for this. That having been said, one of the most mind-bending stories – 'Dante Dreams' – is also one of the best for its originality and profound ideas.

'Phase Space' is by no means Baxter’s finest work, especially as the similarity of some stories and repetitiveness of ideas can take the edge off the writing, but it still provides entertaining, thought-provoking reading.

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1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars "An interesting read", 23 Aug 2002
This review is from: Phase Space (Manifold series) (Hardcover)
It is very difficult to discover good books of this genre simply by reading the short description available.
"Space" is on of those good books even though on the surface it seems quite mundane.
Without wanting to give too much away, the timescale dealt with in this book is astounding, the way in which Baxter casually begins each section with a note informing the reader of the date is extremely amusing. The book gives a good impression of the potential greatness of mankind yet subtley shows how fickle and insignificant (cliche I know) we really are. I also admire the scientific input. A friend studying Astrophysics claimed that simply for it's theoretical value "Space" was an interesting read.
I did find myself getting annoyed at times as there were emotional moments on par with the Ender Saga but, unlike the stated set of novels, these appeared at inappropriate times. Also, those who like more focused novels might find the consant jumping between the 3 or 4 "main" characters slightly disorientating particularly because each character's past is condensed in to one or two pages.

This novel is an express journey through millenia of imagined human space travel and benefits most from full enthusiasm and visualisation from the reader.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing and wide-ranging - a fine collection of stories, 6 Nov 2008
By J. Aitcheson (Wiltshire, England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
"Phase Space" by Stephen Baxter is a collection of 25 loosely-related short stories linked to - and expanding on themes introduced in - his Manifold novel trilogy of "Time", "Space" and "Origin". At its heart is the question posed by the physicist Enrico Fermi: 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? These stories represent the author's attempts to try to make sense of this paradox.

Pieces such as 'Open Loops', 'Sun-Cloud', 'The We Who Sing' and 'The Gravity Mine' explore the idea that other forms of intelligent life might exist or once have existed out in the cosmos. Baxter takes various scenarios, from the distant past - a mere few hundred thousand years post-Big Bang - to the distant future - trillions of years from now, when the universe is cold and dark - and supposes various alien civilisations, each of them coming to terms with their world and each of them with their own versions of the Fermi Paradox.

One of Baxter's favourite themes is space exploration and it is no accident that many of the stories take astronauts as their main characters: including 'Poyekhali 3201', an imagining of Yuri Gagarin's experience as the first man in space. One of the best stories in the collection is 'War Birds', in which the Cold War has escalated into space and the Shuttle fleet has fallen under the control of USAF, becoming an agent of destruction for a militaristic US government intent on demonstrating its capabilities to the rest of the world.

As interesting as such alternate histories are, however, they are unrelated to the main theme of the collection. Indeed the most intriguing stories are those which explore the idea that humanity exists either in some kind of simulation - as in 'Tracks' - or within a bubble or quarantine zone - 'Barrier' - in both cases set up by a higher intelligence, seemingly to foster or protect our species from true reality, but for what purpose is not clear. The collection's main piece, 'Touching Centauri', is perhaps the most exciting of all, as it examines what might happen when we begin to stretch that simulation to its limits.

Baxter's imagination surpasses that of most other writers of modern science fiction. But while the ideas are wide-ranging, the writing itself can occasionally feel awkward or disjointed. Often one feels that the themes have been compressed to fit the medium of the short story, when in fact there are enough ideas to sustain several longer pieces, perhaps of novella- or even novel-length. A more minor disappointment is that more of the stories do not feature the main characters from the Manifold arc; indeed Reid Malenfant appears in only one of the pieces.

That said, however, "Phase Space" is an exciting collection of work with tremendous vision, and an excellent companion to the Manifold trilogy.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Predictably unusual
Stephen Baxter has tried to make the stories unusual. Unfortunately he tried so hard that they are all unusual in the same way and, once you have read the first few, you have read... Read more
Published on 9 Sep 2006 by pichlo

4.0 out of 5 stars Imaginative and thoughtful
These stories feature a common theme of sentience, suffering and death. In some of the stories sentient entities are created in order to perform certain tasks, and the question... Read more
Published on 8 Sep 2004 by Justin Murphy

5.0 out of 5 stars Out of the Bubble!
According to "The Planetarium Hypothesis" we might live inside a "bubble"!
How could we really prove that the stars and galaxies, we see
on the night sky, aren't... Read more
Published on 19 Sep 2003 by Simon Laub

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining for both casual and dedicated Sci-Fi Fans.
It is very difficult to discover good books of this genre simply by reading the short description available. Read more
Published on 22 Aug 2002

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