Origin

Manifold #3

by Stephen Baxter

2015

Astronaut Reid Malenfant is flying over the African continent, intent on examining a mysterious glowing construct in Earth's orbit.

But when the very fabric of the sky tears open, spilling living creatures to the ground and pulling others inside, including Reid's wife, Emma, his quest to uncover the unknown becomes personal.

While desperately searching to discover what happened to the the woman he loves, Reid embarks upon an adventure to the very fount of human development ... on earth and beyond.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Hard Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Ebooks, Evolution

455 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Stephen Baxter is a trained engineer with degrees from Cambridge (mathematics) and Southampton Universities (doctorate in aeroengineering research). Baxter is the winner of the British Science Fiction Award and the Locus Award, as well as being a nominee for an Arthur C. Clarke Award, most recently for Manifold: Time. His novel Voyage won the Sidewise Award for Best Alternate History Novel of the Year; he also won the John W. Campbell Award and the Philip K. Dick Award for his novel The Time Ships. He is currently working on his next novel, a collaboration with Sir Arthur C. Clarke. Mr. Baxter lives in Prestwood, England.

Reviews

[Metodi Markov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Тази, третата подред част от цикъла "Многообразие" ми допадна най-много.

Идеите за човешката еволюция и предполагаемите намеси в нея са разработени превъзходно от Бенфорд, а същността и битието на различните хоминиди ми се струва достатъчно достоверно предадени от автора.

Трактовката му на този вариант на парадоксът на Ферми също ми беше интересна, макар и да ми се иска да не е прав - предпочитам да не сме сами във Вселената. Паралелните светове са създадени с интересна концепция и цел, която се вписва чудесно в романа.

Трилогията е много добра и определено има какво да предложи на взискателния читател!

[David Friedman · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unpleasant. Spuriously violent and gory. Bleak. Uninteresting Grand Concept. Quite a letdown after the first two novels in the trilogy, which were very good.

[Bryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a decent book in here somewhere: Have you ever been a good portion of the way through a book and been faced with the total certainty that it's not going anywhere. And yet, you've invested so much time in it that you feel silly not bothering to finish it and besides, it's not that bad. It's just not great. This was the situation I found myself in reading this book and true to form I did finish reading it only to find that the book was merely okay. Not good, certainly not great, but just "okay." I guess I should elaborate. This is the third (and presumably) last book in the "Manifold" trilogy, which so far has been a loose consortium of absolutely fascinating hard science ideas held together by fitfully entertaining plots. The stories may not have been nail-biters but the cosmic vision kept you coming back and made the experience memorable, although you won't achieve any kind of transcendence reading these. But they were fun, for what they were. Then we get to this book. By now, we know the drill, as Baxter reboots everything again and gives us the characters we've seen before, but in different circumstances. This time our hero Reid Malfenant is back (with his wife still alive, Emma sat out the last book due to death, so it's nice to have her along) and as usual he's ticking off NASA. But the book sets up its premise early on, as a weird red moon replaces the actual moon in the sky, also scooping up a bunch of people along the way. Emma winds up being one of those people and Reid throws together a mad gambit to go up there and rescue her and bring her back. Looking back, I'm not quite certain where the book went off the rails. The red moon, for whatever reason, contains a wide variety of hominid species all living together and while this should be the central mystery, Baxter goes absolutely nowhere with it for a long, long time. He sets up the whole weird society well enough, and integrates the people who have been picked up in previous trips, but the plot just sort of shambles along. Emma wanders around with other survivors. Reid attempts to get up there. Various other peoples with one word names and simple narrative style jump in just to spice things up without really adding anything to the overall story. Once in a while someone decides to sit up and ask, "Just what the heck is this here moon for?" On some level a lot of it feels like Baxter just killing time and the book is so stretched out that when the Big Ideas start to come, you run the risk of just not caring anymore. Page upon page deal with people just wandering around, or beating each other up, or foraging for food, or engaging in acts that I really can't describe here, to no real purpose, it seems. Subplots feel tacked on and Baxter fumbles his money shot with the ending, which is generally the place where he dazzles us with his knowledge of science and his interpretation of whatever wild theory he's been reading up on. In the first two books, his grand visions made up for any shortcoming in plot. This time out, it falls flat and the grand speculations and revelations just don't seem to have any impact, it's all stated so matter of factly (and sort of repeats something that happened in another book) that it's like reading people discussing a scientific paper, which is the opposite effect the previous books had on me. In his defense, after going with "time" and "space, it's probably hard to figure out something to top that, so I do give him credit for trying. And in the end he gives it the ol' college try, it's never less than readable and although I doubt it'll ever be anywhere remotely near my favorite book it was a pleasant reading experience, if a bit overlong. So you can decide if the author was simply biting off more than he could chew or just executing it poorly. And although your milage may vary, if you've read the other two Manifold books it's worth a shot at least, you might as well finish it and besides, you might like it more than I did. Anything's possible.

[Raed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trilogie thème :
Cela a commencé dans les dernières lueurs du Big Bang, cette brève époque durant laquelle les étoiles brillaient encore. Les êtres humains sont apparus sur la Terre. Les êtres humains se sont répandus sur leur monde. Des vagues d’êtres humains ont envahi l’univers ; ils se sont dispersés, battus, reproduits, ils sont morts et ils ont évolué. Il y a eu les étoiles, l’amour, la vie et la mort.

Les esprits se sont fondus en d’immenses rivières de conscience, ou éparpillés en gouttelettes étincelantes. Leur immortalité était en jeu, un genre particulier d’immortalité, une continuité de l’identité à travers la réplication et la confluence sur des milliards et des milliards d’années. Partout, les êtres humains ont trouvé la vie : de grossiers réplicateurs de carbone, de silicium ou de métal s’agitant dans la nuit sans que cela ait le moindre sens.

Nulle part ils n’ont trouvé d’intelligence – sinon celle qu’ils avaient emmenée avec eux, ou créée. Mais pas d’étrangers avec qui confronter les progrès humains.

Ils ont fini par comprendre qu’ils seraient toujours seuls. Avec le temps, les étoiles se sont éteintes telles des bougies. Mais les humains se sont nourris de la gravité elle-même, obtenant une puissance dont ils n’auraient même pas osé rêver à des époques antérieures. Il est impossible de comprendre ce qu’étaient les esprits de cette ère, des esprits d’une époque située très loin en aval sur le fleuve du temps. Ils ne cherchaient pas à posséder, à se reproduire, ni même à apprendre. Ils
n’avaient besoin de rien. Ils n’avaient rien en commun avec leurs ancêtres de l’ère des dernières lueurs. Rien d’autre que la volonté de survivre. Et, même de cela, le temps devait les priver.

L’univers a vieilli : indifférent, rude, hostile et en fin de compte mortel. Il y a eu le désespoir et la solitude. Il y a eu une période de guerre, l’oblitération de souvenirs vieux de billions d’années, un bûcher d’identités. Il y a eu une ère de suicides durant laquelle même les meilleurs représentants de l’humanité préféraient s’autodétruire plutôt que de subir des éons de temps et de luttes inutiles.

Les grands fleuves de l’esprit se sont réduits à des ruisseaux, puis asséchés. Mais certains ont perduré : un petit affluent composé des plus obstinés, qui ne voulaient pas céder face aux ténèbres, ni accepter les limites de plus en plus étroites d’un univers en train de vieillir inexorablement.
Ils finirent par réaliser que ça n’allait pas. Les choses n’étaient pas censées se dérouler ainsi.
Brûlant les dernières ressources de l’univers, les ultimes habitants de l’aval du temps – solitaires, entêtés, mais tout sauf insensés – ont tenté d’atteindre le passé le plus lointain...

C’est ainsi que sont les choses, c’est ainsi qu’elles furent.
Voilà comment tout est arrivé.

Joshua 5💖 / 5💖
Michael le Prêcheur 5💖 / 5💖
Emma Stoney 5💖 / 5💖
Reid Malenfant 50000000💖 / 5💖

[J · Rating 1 out of 5]

not great at all... pretty stupid actually

[Jesse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reid Malenfant and his wife Emma Stoney are in Africa when a mysterious blue ring/portal appears in the sky. They get too close to the show--Malenfant's fault, not surprisingly, if you are familiar with his character from the last two books in the trilogy--and the consequences are steep. Their lives are forever, irrevocably changed. But this time it is Emma who goes forward, Emma who goes through the portal, Emma who has the adventure. And Malenfant is left, at the outset, at home...unable to follow because the ring has disappeared, and for the first time in his life--maybe--missing his wife.

This book is amazing. I was awestruck by it. And before I get into that, I do need to mention that all of the plot synopses I'd read prior to actually reading the book gave me the impression that Emma had somehow gotten stranded/thrown backward in time to a prehistoric age when Neandertals walked the earth. And because of that, I wasn't as interested, coming off the deep space exploration of the last book in the series. But happily, it wasn't anything like that.

The idea of parallel universes isn't new, yet it gives a story, and its characters, freedom in a way that makes it feel new, even if the idea has been done over and over again. In the third book in the Manifold trilogy, we are following another Malenfant, another Emma--similar in some core ways to their counterparts in the earlier two books, yet different, too. In the first book, Emma usually seemed one step behind Malenfant, yet helplessly caught in his wake; in the second book, she was only a memory, but one that stayed with Malenfant until the end of his very long days; in the third book, Emma shines. This is her moment in the sun, and it is awesome to behold.

Once again I respect Stephen Baxter greatly for the way he, in turn, treats his female characters with such dignity and respect. I would argue that all of the pivotal characters in this story are female. And Malenfant, if he were real, would surely take that as a slap in the face, but it's even more relevant when you think about the story. This story is not about Reid Malenfant...which he continuously is unable to grasp.

This story is extremely, extremely graphic in every possible way I can think of. Think of all of the situations or scenarios that come to mind when I say the word 'graphic', and I can guarantee you that every single one of them is in this story somewhere. It is raw and brutal, as survival always is, even if we homo sapiens don't acknowledge that. Life is raw and brutal, and this story is about life. Someone with delicate sensibilities would probably be very put off by the amount of graphic descriptions there are in this book...however...even though I wouldn't purposely seek out such a graphic story, I wasn't deterred by it, because it strikes a primal chord in all of us, and makes us question our own humanity.

There is something of Lord of the Flies in this story, as well as the first two seasons of the TV show LOST--people stranded abruptly and unexpectedly in a new, unfamiliar, mysterious, primal world, struggling to survive...slowly learning they're not the only ones there...exploring very surprising locales they find in the weird jungle...yeah. The adventurer in me loved it.

And it was such a nice thing to have one of the principal characters--Emma--be a woman in her mid-to-late-forties, who has to fight, and explore, and become tougher than she has ever been in her life to survive...and she does it, and does it well. It is such a welcome antidote to the countless stories where the adventurers in the story are all in their twenties. I cheered for Emma...I liked her from the beginning of the trilogy, but in this one, she steals the stage.

And there are subtle connections to the first two books...Nemoto is back, and she, too, is such a big presence, even if she appears in less of the action than Emma did. There's just something about Nemoto--she's creepy, and withdrawn, and you never quite know what to think of her, but I'll tell you this much, I'd want her on my team, instead of on the opposing team. When she and Malenfant speculated on the bond they felt and mused on maybe how they knew each other "in another life", it gave me chills. And big goosebumps.

All in all this was an excellent book which I will read again and again, and a very fitting ending to the trilogy...though I am a bit sad that it's the end. But of course, it really isn't the end, if you think about it, not by a long shot :)

My only complaint is that the last few pages of the book could have spanned an entire book on their own! Emma's trek to the other side of the Red Moon--wow, that would be a story all by itself. Mane's mission to try to find the God of the universe--that could be a whole series of ten or twenty books. The last few glimpses of Emma we get make me long to know more about the rest of her story, even though we don't get it. But when I think about that, it fits with the message of this story, too. Just like Malenfant, none of us gets to see the whole story. We see our part in it, and that's it. So it fits. But I still want more, anyway :)

[Tomislav · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the third in the Manifold series -
1) Manifold: Time
2) Manifold: Space
3) Manifold: Origin
4) Phase Space (collection)

This third Manifold novel starts in time about half-way between the first two, in 2015. But that doesn't really matter because they are all three set in universes parallel to each other, and could each stand alone. In this version, Malenfant and his wife Emma are separated when she is thrown onto the Red Moon, which suddenly replaces our own familiar Luna one day. She survives, interacting with the local hominid peoples, while Malenfant mounts a NASA expedition to rescue her with the help of Nemoto. Parallel versions of each of these characters play roles in the first two books. In fact, this book is primarily about Emma, who is nothing more than a tattered photograph in Manifold:Space.

I found this story, unlike the first two, to be quite gory, with abundant descriptions of rape, torture, and cannibalism. I'm not sure if all that was necessary - except to show the pervasiveness of that across all the hominid species, and how it is a factor in evolution. The portrayal of Michael Praisegod, whose culture if not biology is close to our own, shows the use of more modern cultural institutions such as religion are not proof against the brutality.

Thematically, I think the hominid species can be categorized into two camps - with most in a static stagnant relationship with the universe, while a few are growth and expansion oriented. Baxter's position seems to be that both are flawed. With an infinity of time and space to play out to their logical outcomes, it's hard to find much ultimate hope - other than local and temporary happiness along the way.

Overall, I have to say that Baxter's Evolution is a more satisfying and enjoyable exploration of the concept of past and future evolution than this, although this one needs to be seen in the context of the series it is a part of. 2.5 stars

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The third in the series, this ones sees Reid Malenfant and Emma Stoney come across a blue circle floating above Africa. But this time it's Emma who ends up falling through it and having most of the adventure, although Malenfant is determined to find her. Emma arrives on a the surface of a new moon, one that has suddenly appeared above the Earth. And living on the Earth are all sorts of hominids that humans have evolved from or could have evolved into.

The book takes some of the best ideas from several other Baxter books. We have a similarly time-spliced world like in Time's Eye but all the inhabitants come from parallel version of the Earth, quite a lot like The Long Earth. The book is essentially about the idea of why we are like we are and explores many different possibilities to what humans could be like if they lived on an alternate world. Generally I liked the ideas for this and liked that even apparently superior species of human have flaws.

There is a big problem with this book though which really lets it down and definitely lost it a star from my review. Baxter really tries hard to demonstrate the primitive nature of the "early humans" and does so by using lots of graphic sex and violence. Whilst I felt it did have some place in the story too often there were unnecessary graphic scenes which did not affect our characters and there didn't seem much good reason for them. Never have I read a book with so many erections in as this one. There really is an awful lot of erections.

The ideas here were at least as good as the previous two in the series and the characterisation was better than ever. If only Baxter had decided not to fill the pages with cavemen erections because nobody really wants to read that.

[Христо Блажев · Rating 4 out of 5]

Произходът на човека може и да е в бъдещето: https://knigolandia.info/book-review/...

И това шеметно приключение приключи. “Произход” е последната част от трилогията “Многообразие”, предхождана от “Време” и “Пространство”. След като първите две разгледаха двете крайни възможности на теоремата на Ферми – за Вселена с единствен живот на Земята и Вселена, претъпкана с живот, последната посяга към още една вероятност: паралелните Вселени. Стивън Бакстър отново въвежда своите любими герои на нова, не по-малко драматична от предишните сцени.

ИнфоДАР
https://knigolandia.info/book-review/...

[Marman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story moves really slow but surprisingly you don't feel it because of the amount of material that is thrown your way. The pay off however is well worth the wait. My only complain in this book is that Stephen Baxter was so incredibly cruel to a lot of the characters.

[Doug · Rating 1 out of 5]

First two of the series were awesome. This was junk.

[Kevin Phyland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Astronaut Reid Malenfant and his wife Emma are flying in a T-38 when they are directed to investigate a huge blue gate that has appeared in the sky. Getting too close, Malenfant ejects Emma and then himself, but Emma gets dragged into the hole while Malenfant’s parachute lands away on the ground. Then the hole is gone, and so is Emma. Suddenly the Moon vanishes and is replaced by a red Moon, four times larger and with atmosphere and what looks like greenery. The suddenly increased gravitational tides wreak havoc on Earth and Malenfant convinces the government to fund a crash program to visit the Red Moon, ostensibly to rescue Emma. With a scientist, Nemoto, he lands on the Red Moon and discovers a startling array of human types - from Home erectus, australopithecus, neanderthalis and sapiens. Gradually Nemoto and Malenfant find that each is from a different Earth and have somehow been scooped up by the Red Moon for unknown reasons. Just as they work this out the Earth vanishes and is replaced by a different Earth. The Red Moon has moved on in its travels across alternate time and space. One of the breeds of ape human, known as Daemons, are vastly superior to homo sapiens but are now just as trapped as Malenfant. Meanwhile Emma has been traversing the Moon to find Malenfant and living with various violent and primitive ape-human groups. In a dazzling display of super-science Stephen Baxter takes us into the heart of the Red Moon and winkles out the enigma that is the World Machine, and what the whole project is all about… A riveting read.

[Noémie J. Crowley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quand une étrange Lune rouge et un cercle bleu se matérialise dans le ciel Terrien, et qu’Emma s’y fait aspirer par sa faut, Malenfant n’a qu’une idée en tête : s’y rendre pour la retrouver, et explorer cette mystérieuse Lune qui a remplacé la nôtre.

La. Dé. Ce. Ption.
Après tout ce que j’ai pu dire sur Space, et après tout ce que j’attendais de sa « suite » (en tout cas, la prochaine alternative des propositions du Manifold), on nous pond CA ? Alors, OK, c’est pas le livre le plus abyssal que j’ai pu lire ce mois-ci, mais oh comme la chute est haute par rapport à son prédécesseur. Origin est inutilement violent, voire même gore (oui, pour montrer que l’espèce homo est cruelle peu importe le monde, mais ai-je besoin de plusieurs viols graphiques et de scènes de cannibalisme pour le comprendre ? J’en doute). Emma est le seul personnage a avoir un semblant de développement, Malenfant étant plus irritant encore que dans Time. Pas franchement le meilleur livre que j’ai pu lire … Et pas d tout ce que j’attendais. La fin est très chouette, j’ai trouvé très intéressante la proposition sur l’origine de la vie … Mais il y a trop de problèmes avant : les cinquante dernières pages ne peuvent pas sauver le livre du léger flop.

Si dommage.

[Robin Bynon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good but worse than the others. Baxter loves to get really into early hominids and it kind of gets to a point where he's really doing it for himself rather than creating a captivating story. but who cares he's awesome and theres always gems in there.

[Art · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a suprising read. It got to the plodding stage about half way through and I struggled to maintain interest. Typical problem when you only pick the book up to read every once in a while. Then towards the end it really became interesting and all the seemingly obscure threads came together and finished with suprise and a bang. Great read.

- picked up due to great success with Baxter reads in the past.

[Florin Constantinescu · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review covers the entire 4-book Manifold series:

Your garden variety 4-book trilogies usually start the plot off in the first book, then leave you with 2 or 3 cliff-hangers before maybe resolving everything in the 4th book.
Even SB had previously subscribed to this concept.

Today, let's try something new: why don't we make books 2 and 3 be not sequels or prequels to book 1, but rather sidels, if you wish. A sort of rewrites featuring the same characters, only the premises completely different (alternate or side worlds). For example instead of a universe teeming with life, why don't we make life scarce in the universe in the next book?

So the idea is very original here. How about the plots?
There are 3 different plots obviously, among the 3 books, and while not on stellar levels, they don't disappoint in any fashion.

How about the characters? Well, the interesting device with the setting being re-written applies to the characters as well. Some are identical between books, some are slightly different, some completely different. At the end you can even choose your favorite type of each.

The weakest chain in the link here is the 4th book, the collection Phase Space. Not that the stories were necessarily weak in themselves, but some are not related to the Manifold universe. The ones who do follow the same recipe from the first three books.

[Ninke Hermsen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't like this book as much as the previous two. Baxter explored an interesting thesis, but for me, it read a bit too much like a biology-book. As usual you have no idea how the plotlines wil develop, in this case however, the story ending didn't satisfy. Still, some of ir was quite entertaining.

[N. Griffin-lloyd · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldn't finish it. I can't say that about any of his other books. I don't know what happened with this one.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the other two better. This one was interesting, but it lost me 3/4 of the way through.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of the Manifold trilogy, I find Origin to be the most entertaining but the least thought-provoking.

With its "earth engine" multiple universe scenario, this book offers a probable reality where all three Manifold stories could co-exist. Of course, each one is stand alone and could exist as a one-off.

Indeed, it is an interesting series choice that Baxter just kills off Reid Malenfant early in this story and gives Emma a run for main character. Here again, Baxter chooses female characters to carry the story, and to his credit, they are distinct characters and strong character, which is all the more impressive because they comprise different species with different mental constructs. Baxter never slacks in extrapolating how small details lead to bigger effects. It is interesting to see how the lack of long-term memory or the concept of possessions changes social structure among hominid species.

My critique of this book is that it is excessively violent. I see how Baxter was delving into the harsh reality of nature and how leaps of philosophy are necessary to bring people outside of that natural brutality, even while the instinct ever remains. However, I find the depictions of violence gratuitously specific and disturbing.

I will always love and celebrate this trilogy, but being twenty years more mature, I am less impressed by the execution while still in awe of the thoughts. (3.5 stars rounded up)

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having read this despite lower rating from reviewers I normally find well aligned with my tastes, I can't say I wasn't forearmed in expectations on a deeply flawed book.

I hesitated between 2 and 3 stars, finally at three as there were enough sections I liked, but at same time while not overall put off on the hominid violence notably the Runner and Elf story arks, as there's a real substance on antoli romanticisation at some point in final third one really gets tired of that as not advancing the Origin story. (I have to say I was however happy to have Malefant die, as both not insightful and unlikeable - I skipped skimmed the tedious chapters of him on earth as neither particularly insights nor feeling credible as insitutional process nor interesting in own right) . Emma although obnoxious and uneven was more interesting and moved stories along better. The Japanese astronaut was also more interesting yet sadly neglected for annoying asshole Malefant...

the relevation-speculation on Old Ones was... okay. I did appreciate the Not Happy ending for Emma and Madame N as eternal exiles.

Hominid gore rape cannibalism themselves not per se "problem" but by last third of book the point was made and the extra chapters felt... just gratuitous and vaguely tedious.

[Sandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

A "Red Moon" appears in Earth's sky (not a spoiler: that's the first page). Our hero Reid Malenfant must, of course, explore. This is one of the disjointed volumes in the "Manifold" series [sic - not really a series], exploring alternative histories and the Fermi Paradox, with some of the same characters in each.

I enjoyed the other two books, Time and Space. This one, I thought, was very uneven. A lot of the book is devoted to demonstrating that humans, and their hominid predecessors, lived lives that were nasty, brutish and short. So ... OK. But after the umpteenth rape, murder, enslavement, episode of cannibalism, I really felt the point had been made, and the author was indulging a personal fetish of some sort. Not enjoyable to read: like getting hit in the face repeatedly.

I stuck with it, because there was enough of Baxter's trademark hard science and sweeping Galactic concepts to hold my interest. But not up to his standard, at all.

[Zpcp · Rating 3 out of 5]

The 3rd book of the "Manifold" series is the best one so far. The previous two were a giant slog, even though there were full of wonderful and interesting ideas and concepts. But the ultra-long descriptions, the drawn-out philosophical musings and the lack of direction made me struggle A LOT with them. The books are long, and felt even longer not in the good way.

"Origin" however is better, even though not brilliant. I struggled less and I felt a drive to continue reading. There is more "action", more adventure, the scenes are tied together better and you don't forget what you were reading some 20 pages ago, as it was happening with the first two books. The ending was underwhelming, though. I found it ... a little bit Deus Ex-y and totally unsatisfying. Maybe I am missing the point here, but the whole "go back to Nature" and "civilization is cruel" messages get really old around one third of the book.

All in all - not great, not terrible.

[Judy Gray · Rating 3 out of 5]

The third in the Manifold series (Time, Space), this turns out to be another archi- type of evolutionary possibility. The first two books were intellectually gripping; of course I was compelled to dive right in to this.
Disappointing. Overly long. Baxter needed a stern editor for the middle 360 pages. Speculating on alternate worlds where hominid creatures evolved differently at times made you rethink our-Earth linear tree of life with homo sapiens at the peak, and indeed how brutal the competition between strains must have been. But he tortured us with overkill long after he made his point. The last hundred pages beginning with Book Four, The World Engine, finally picked up speed. Therein, some meaty passages and thoughts for good discussions.
#thefermiparadox #sentientlife #continuousgrowth #gettingitright #sustainability #slavery #originofthespecies

[D.L. Morrese · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somehow, the Moon is swapped for a new moon, a much larger one...and it may support life. Unfortunately, sending a mission to check it out takes a back seat to dealing with the devastation caused by quakes and tides because of it. An aging astronaut eventually builds enough popular support to send a mission there in order to search for his wife (who believes got sucked up to the new moon through a weird portal). That search forms a fairly weak plot, but the strength of the story, the thing that makes it different and interesting, is the presentation of how various types of hominids may have lived and how they may have viewed themselves and the world around them.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Baxter, Stephen. Manifold: Origin. Del Rey, 2002. Manifold 3.
Stephen Baxter’s Manifold series presents a series of thought experiments on Fermi’s paradox. Manifold: Origin, the third volume of the series, puts our old friend Reid Malenfant and his wife Emma Stoney on the Moon, which has suddenly turned red and has acquired an atmosphere and a population of hominids from several alternate timelines. This time, the aliens we meet may all be us. Take that, Fermi. Baxter always delivers a consistently readable story. If you have liked anything else by him, you will also like Origin.

[Matt Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has the least interesting overall concept of the three. I get why people would be disappointed on this front. What I don't understand are people who say this is the most boring of the three.

Without question, this has the most engaging plot of the trilogy. Instead of just floating about aimlessly in dialogue like in the previous one, there are life and death stakes creating constant tension and forward motion to the plot throughout the whole novel.

I'd say none of these novels make my top 20 sci-fi list, but overall the trilogy is worth a visit.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Baxter's third book in the Manifold series again addresses the Fermi Paradox, at least parenthetically. In Manifold: Origin we are presented with a set of universes from infinite sheaf of realities, all connected via the development of hominid life and evolution and a moon moving between them picking up and dropping off life. This is a pretty interesting idea. However, in order (I think) to fit this into the Manifold series, Baxter works in the story of the "old ones" who reach back in time to make this all happen. A good story, but the second one in the series was my favorite.

[elidemelnibone · Rating 2 out of 5]

Comme à chaque fois avec cet auteur, des idées, des hypothèses sur notre place dans l'univers, et j'aime bien. Les dernières 100 pages m'ont passionnée. J'aime aussi retrouver ce caractère très personnel qu'est Malenfant, l'astronaute, toujours en quête, sa femme Emma Stoney, la plus humaine, empathique, entraînée malgré elle dans cette aventure, Nemoto, la scientifique qui veut des réponses ... et les différents hominidés. MAIS il y a trop trop de violence (et viols, et jusqu'à des scènes de cannibalisme), j'ai sauté des passages.

[Rodeweeks · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite in the Manifold trilogy - in two there is nothing but humans (in one form of hominid or another) and in one there is an infinite amount of sentient beings. This one had much less science in, making the story part much more easy to understand, and it focus' more on evolution itself. Loved the Daemons (homo superior) - it is difficult to think of a being (or another type of hominid) more clever than homo sapiens sapiens. In the end that is exactly the conclusion that one of the characters reached - that we are arrogant, too clever.