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World Engines #1
World Engines: Destroyer
In the year 2570, a sleeper will wake . . .
In the mid-21st century, the Kernel, a strange object on a five-hundred-year-orbit, is detected coming from high above the plane of the solar system. Could it be an alien artefact? In the middle of climate-change crises, there is no mood for space-exploration stunts - but Reid Malenfant , elderly, once a shuttle pilot and frustrated would-be asteroid miner, decides to go take a look anyway. Nothing more is heard of him. But his ex-wife, Emma Stoney , sets up a trust fund to search for him the next time the Kernel returns . . .
By 2570 Earth is transformed. A mere billion people are supported by advanced technology on a world that is almost indistinguishable from the natural, with recovered forests, oceans, ice caps. It is not an age for expansion; there are only small science bases beyond the Earth. But this is a world you would want to live a Star Trek without the stars.
After 500 years the Kernel returns, and a descendant of Stoney, who Malenfant will call Emma II , mounts a mission to see what became of Malenfant. She finds him still alive, cryo-preserved . . . His culture-shock encounter with a conservative future is entertaining . . . But the Kernel itself turns out to be attached to a kind of wormhole, through which Malenfant and Emma II, exploring further, plummet back in time, across five billion years . . .
In the mid-21st century, the Kernel, a strange object on a five-hundred-year-orbit, is detected coming from high above the plane of the solar system. Could it be an alien artefact? In the middle of climate-change crises, there is no mood for space-exploration stunts - but Reid Malenfant , elderly, once a shuttle pilot and frustrated would-be asteroid miner, decides to go take a look anyway. Nothing more is heard of him. But his ex-wife, Emma Stoney , sets up a trust fund to search for him the next time the Kernel returns . . .
By 2570 Earth is transformed. A mere billion people are supported by advanced technology on a world that is almost indistinguishable from the natural, with recovered forests, oceans, ice caps. It is not an age for expansion; there are only small science bases beyond the Earth. But this is a world you would want to live a Star Trek without the stars.
After 500 years the Kernel returns, and a descendant of Stoney, who Malenfant will call Emma II , mounts a mission to see what became of Malenfant. She finds him still alive, cryo-preserved . . . His culture-shock encounter with a conservative future is entertaining . . . But the Kernel itself turns out to be attached to a kind of wormhole, through which Malenfant and Emma II, exploring further, plummet back in time, across five billion years . . .
576 pages, Paperback
First published September 19, 2019
396 people are currently reading
1233 people want to read
About the author
Stephen Baxter
403 books2,592 followersStephen 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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 123 reviews
October 26, 2021
Stephen Baxter seems to be on a roll of late, adding new novels that take his celebrated ‘Xeelee’ sequence in new directions, and here resurrecting one of the more divisive characters he has ever created, Reid Malenfant from ‘Manifold’. Not only that, but the curmudgeonly Malenfant is allowed free reign to be disparaging and highly dismissive of the post-climate change world he is awakened to 400 years after his original space shuttle crash for about a third of this 500+ page book.
That is not to say nothing happens for a third; Baxter has always been highly adept at world-building, and here he carefully portrays a world that has slowly and painfully recovered from climate ravages and embraced a kind of benevolent democratic socialism. Most upsetting to Malenfant is that this world has largely abandoned technology and retreated from space exploration in the form of the ‘Homeward Bound’ movement. Needless to say, Malenfant is scathingly dismissive of this hiccup in human affairs, having originally championed his Bootstrap Inc. company precisely to get humanity to the stars as quickly as possible.
Another hiccup is that some kind of celestial object called the Destroyer is headed on an inner-system collision course likely to destroy what remnant of life remains on earth. But the good citizens are too busy ‘living in the moment’ to be overly concerned. Oh, and the reason that Malenfant has been resurrected from his centuries-long coldsleep is that a rather strange message specifically requesting his assistance has been received from Phobos. From none other than Emma Stoney. (If you have not read the ‘Manifold’ books, Baxter fills in enough of the backstory for you to follow the plot.)
The AIs lurking in the background that eschew any involvement in the consensual messiness of humanity nevertheless see Malenfant as a valuable loose cannon that can shake up the general apathy regarding the Destroyer (and also reward their own inscrutable curiosity in this regard; you never know with AIs.)
So, they point Malenfant off in the right direction and light the fuse … After the languid first third, the book quickly gains momentum and stacks up a series of impressive setpieces that include not only the Clarkean enigma of Phobos, but the mysterious far reaches of the outer solar system as well.
A major criticism of this kind of Big Idea SF is that the ideas are inevitably secondary to the characters, who are only used for exposition or spouting the author’s comments. Yes, this is always a fine balance, and some SF authors are more successful at it than others. But it is also fair to point out that you are not going to get a Sally Rooney (or Jane Austen) level of social minutiae in this kind of sub-genre. That is not the main intention at all, as the ideas and world-building are the raison d’etre.
Having said that though, one of the most enjoyable aspects of this book for me were precisely the characters. Malenfant is not an easily accessible viewpoint character due to his general distrust and dislike of humanity in general, and any authority figures in particular. Here the fact that he is a ‘fish out of water’ in a watered-down utopia that is pretty much the worst kind of stagnant, anti-technology nightmare he could have imagined, results in a lot of friction and contrariness.
The main foil for Malenfant’s grumpiness is the android Bartholomew, who quickly works out how best to push Malenfant’s buttons (and for an artificial lifeform seems to take a considerable amount of satisfaction in doing so.) Another wonderful character, whose pivotal appearance I do not want to spoil for the reader, is the irrepressible Lightfoot, ‘the very model of a modern major general’.
A review of this book in New Scientist argues that Malenfant is “a jerk ripped straight from the pages of 1960s sci-fi at its most toxically masculine”, and then goes on to clarify this: “It is clear that Baxter has written Malenfant to reflect our current condition as a species: selfish, greedy and full of toxic individualism.”
Well, yes and no. If you think of the alpha capitalists like Jezz Bezos and Elon Musk who are privatising our space race at the moment, largely for reasons of personal vanity and probably just to give them a kick in the pants to get out of their 400-thread cotton sheets in the morning, one feels, then Baxter’s depiction of Malenfant and Bootstrap Inc. has been very prescient.
The female characters here fair surprisingly well despite the large quantity of machismo flying around, from the young and irrepressibly optimistic Deirdra to various iterations of Emma Stoney (this is a Baxter novel, so it is complicated.) I do think a lost opportunity was for Baxter to have portrayed Bartholomew as a tad more gender-neutral, especially when contrasted against the Old Empire character of Lightfoot, but this is a minor quibble.
One forgets how balls-to-the-wall Baxter is when firing on all cylinders, and the book quickly becomes epic in a massive, yet thoroughly believable way, precisely because the story is grounded in all of these well-realised characters. The ending is suitably open-ended to leave the reader guessing without truncating the story unnecessarily, which is also always a problem with Big Idea SF – the books themselves tend to be bricks. So, I for one am really looking forward to jumping down the rabbit hole with our intrepid crew to find out where (and when) they end up next in World Engines: Creator.
That is not to say nothing happens for a third; Baxter has always been highly adept at world-building, and here he carefully portrays a world that has slowly and painfully recovered from climate ravages and embraced a kind of benevolent democratic socialism. Most upsetting to Malenfant is that this world has largely abandoned technology and retreated from space exploration in the form of the ‘Homeward Bound’ movement. Needless to say, Malenfant is scathingly dismissive of this hiccup in human affairs, having originally championed his Bootstrap Inc. company precisely to get humanity to the stars as quickly as possible.
Another hiccup is that some kind of celestial object called the Destroyer is headed on an inner-system collision course likely to destroy what remnant of life remains on earth. But the good citizens are too busy ‘living in the moment’ to be overly concerned. Oh, and the reason that Malenfant has been resurrected from his centuries-long coldsleep is that a rather strange message specifically requesting his assistance has been received from Phobos. From none other than Emma Stoney. (If you have not read the ‘Manifold’ books, Baxter fills in enough of the backstory for you to follow the plot.)
The AIs lurking in the background that eschew any involvement in the consensual messiness of humanity nevertheless see Malenfant as a valuable loose cannon that can shake up the general apathy regarding the Destroyer (and also reward their own inscrutable curiosity in this regard; you never know with AIs.)
So, they point Malenfant off in the right direction and light the fuse … After the languid first third, the book quickly gains momentum and stacks up a series of impressive setpieces that include not only the Clarkean enigma of Phobos, but the mysterious far reaches of the outer solar system as well.
A major criticism of this kind of Big Idea SF is that the ideas are inevitably secondary to the characters, who are only used for exposition or spouting the author’s comments. Yes, this is always a fine balance, and some SF authors are more successful at it than others. But it is also fair to point out that you are not going to get a Sally Rooney (or Jane Austen) level of social minutiae in this kind of sub-genre. That is not the main intention at all, as the ideas and world-building are the raison d’etre.
Having said that though, one of the most enjoyable aspects of this book for me were precisely the characters. Malenfant is not an easily accessible viewpoint character due to his general distrust and dislike of humanity in general, and any authority figures in particular. Here the fact that he is a ‘fish out of water’ in a watered-down utopia that is pretty much the worst kind of stagnant, anti-technology nightmare he could have imagined, results in a lot of friction and contrariness.
The main foil for Malenfant’s grumpiness is the android Bartholomew, who quickly works out how best to push Malenfant’s buttons (and for an artificial lifeform seems to take a considerable amount of satisfaction in doing so.) Another wonderful character, whose pivotal appearance I do not want to spoil for the reader, is the irrepressible Lightfoot, ‘the very model of a modern major general’.
A review of this book in New Scientist argues that Malenfant is “a jerk ripped straight from the pages of 1960s sci-fi at its most toxically masculine”, and then goes on to clarify this: “It is clear that Baxter has written Malenfant to reflect our current condition as a species: selfish, greedy and full of toxic individualism.”
Well, yes and no. If you think of the alpha capitalists like Jezz Bezos and Elon Musk who are privatising our space race at the moment, largely for reasons of personal vanity and probably just to give them a kick in the pants to get out of their 400-thread cotton sheets in the morning, one feels, then Baxter’s depiction of Malenfant and Bootstrap Inc. has been very prescient.
The female characters here fair surprisingly well despite the large quantity of machismo flying around, from the young and irrepressibly optimistic Deirdra to various iterations of Emma Stoney (this is a Baxter novel, so it is complicated.) I do think a lost opportunity was for Baxter to have portrayed Bartholomew as a tad more gender-neutral, especially when contrasted against the Old Empire character of Lightfoot, but this is a minor quibble.
One forgets how balls-to-the-wall Baxter is when firing on all cylinders, and the book quickly becomes epic in a massive, yet thoroughly believable way, precisely because the story is grounded in all of these well-realised characters. The ending is suitably open-ended to leave the reader guessing without truncating the story unnecessarily, which is also always a problem with Big Idea SF – the books themselves tend to be bricks. So, I for one am really looking forward to jumping down the rabbit hole with our intrepid crew to find out where (and when) they end up next in World Engines: Creator.
October 15, 2019
Stephen Baxter is an old school, hard SF author. World Engines: Destroyer is a page-turner, with the fiction is built around as much solid science as possible. Baxter includes five pages of afterword, describing the scientific discoveries and theories he incorporates. The central conceit - of multiple versions of reality that can be traversed - may be a fair distance from science, but following firmly in the tradition of Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke, once he builds in his fantastical item, Baxter is able to take his science and construct something around it on an impressive scale.
The main character, Reid Malenfant (a clumsy name, which the book gives an obscure explanation for, but surely must really be 'Badchild' (as opposed to, say, Fairchild)) dies in 2019 in a space accident, 14 years after his wife Emma Stoney is lost on a mission to Phobos, one of the Martian moons. He is restored from deep freeze to discover that it is 2469 - and he has been brought back because Earth is receiving messages claiming to be from Emma Stoney and asking Malenfant to come for her.
Baxter does a brilliant job of describing a civilisation 450 years in the future, which has just the right balance of difference and familiarity. The England he describes is radically transformed, in part due to drastic sea level rise from climate change. But this is only the start of an adventure that takes Malenfant and other characters far out into the solar system to encounter some brilliantly engineered surprises, starting with a shock on the subject of Neil Armstrong. There is no doubt that Baxter is a worthy successor to Asimov and Clarke - the underlying concepts are chunky and impressive, with a huge potential for going further than is possible in a single novel. There's an awful lot brought into this book - but the reader is never left behind, and Baxter is prepared to give us some impressive detail of the science.
The only reason the book doesn't get five stars is that Baxter follows those classic authors Asimov and Clarke in one other trait - his characters are dependably two-dimensional. To take two examples from the future England, we have Deirdra, a 17-year-old who is in a constant state of amazement and delight, and Prefect Morrel, whose only emotional state seems to be outrage. Malenfant himself, a decidedly ageing action hero at around age 60, does come up with some entertaining pop culture references, but again has very little depth. In fact, echoing Asimov's R. Daneel Olivaw, the character that is most rounded here is a robot/android.
However, just as it's possible to forgive Asimov, so it is Baxter - this is an excellent book with brilliant ideas, despite the lack of character depth and distinction. I don't know if Baxter intends to take the story with these versions of the characters further (Malenfant and Stoney also appear in his Manifold series from about 20 years ago, but not the same versions of them) - but I really hope he does so, as I'd love to know what happens next.
The main character, Reid Malenfant (a clumsy name, which the book gives an obscure explanation for, but surely must really be 'Badchild' (as opposed to, say, Fairchild)) dies in 2019 in a space accident, 14 years after his wife Emma Stoney is lost on a mission to Phobos, one of the Martian moons. He is restored from deep freeze to discover that it is 2469 - and he has been brought back because Earth is receiving messages claiming to be from Emma Stoney and asking Malenfant to come for her.
Baxter does a brilliant job of describing a civilisation 450 years in the future, which has just the right balance of difference and familiarity. The England he describes is radically transformed, in part due to drastic sea level rise from climate change. But this is only the start of an adventure that takes Malenfant and other characters far out into the solar system to encounter some brilliantly engineered surprises, starting with a shock on the subject of Neil Armstrong. There is no doubt that Baxter is a worthy successor to Asimov and Clarke - the underlying concepts are chunky and impressive, with a huge potential for going further than is possible in a single novel. There's an awful lot brought into this book - but the reader is never left behind, and Baxter is prepared to give us some impressive detail of the science.
The only reason the book doesn't get five stars is that Baxter follows those classic authors Asimov and Clarke in one other trait - his characters are dependably two-dimensional. To take two examples from the future England, we have Deirdra, a 17-year-old who is in a constant state of amazement and delight, and Prefect Morrel, whose only emotional state seems to be outrage. Malenfant himself, a decidedly ageing action hero at around age 60, does come up with some entertaining pop culture references, but again has very little depth. In fact, echoing Asimov's R. Daneel Olivaw, the character that is most rounded here is a robot/android.
However, just as it's possible to forgive Asimov, so it is Baxter - this is an excellent book with brilliant ideas, despite the lack of character depth and distinction. I don't know if Baxter intends to take the story with these versions of the characters further (Malenfant and Stoney also appear in his Manifold series from about 20 years ago, but not the same versions of them) - but I really hope he does so, as I'd love to know what happens next.
October 5, 2020
In a lot of ways, this is classic Clarkian SF complete with the classic big issue future history bent that is more concerned with the big issues along a planetary scale (from ecological fiction to future conservatory technology (including the disposition of AIs and future humans who learned to merely tolerate eath other to the disposition of the Solar System's survival)).
There's absolutely nothing wrong with this, but I will be the first to admit that I've seen a lot of it throughout the years. A lot of the same kinds of story tropes, too, including Baxter's somewhat infamous re-usable characters. (Yes, yes, they're all ALTERNATE UNIVERSE reincarnations, but still.)
Man out of time, sans the laughable OLD reasons for future heroism. That's fine, but also tricky.
I suppose what I really enjoyed about this Baxter was not the individual tropes individually, but the whole nostalgia factor. When we combine the subtle differences in the old whole Planet X theories, the multiple time-line crossovers, the examination of seeded life, the planetary engineering, and what it means to just CONTINUE, it becomes a much better book.
So what am I complaining about, then? Well, perhaps I didn't and have not really cared for THIS particular re-incarnation of the main character. Everything surrounding him and the subject matter was pretty okay, tho. This will never be my favorite Baxter, but the ideas are pretty sound and classically interesting without ever getting into the old problematic issues of much older SF. In this regard, it's pretty cool.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with this, but I will be the first to admit that I've seen a lot of it throughout the years. A lot of the same kinds of story tropes, too, including Baxter's somewhat infamous re-usable characters. (Yes, yes, they're all ALTERNATE UNIVERSE reincarnations, but still.)
Man out of time, sans the laughable OLD reasons for future heroism. That's fine, but also tricky.
I suppose what I really enjoyed about this Baxter was not the individual tropes individually, but the whole nostalgia factor. When we combine the subtle differences in the old whole Planet X theories, the multiple time-line crossovers, the examination of seeded life, the planetary engineering, and what it means to just CONTINUE, it becomes a much better book.
So what am I complaining about, then? Well, perhaps I didn't and have not really cared for THIS particular re-incarnation of the main character. Everything surrounding him and the subject matter was pretty okay, tho. This will never be my favorite Baxter, but the ideas are pretty sound and classically interesting without ever getting into the old problematic issues of much older SF. In this regard, it's pretty cool.
October 18, 2019
I reached a bit past half way through and couldn't stomach any more contrived Anthropocene Crisis propaganda, envirosplaining, and universal welfare / benevolent anarchy socioeconomic theory.
The protagonist flops back and forth between an irrepressible self-made man inwardly railing against the Eloi-ish society humanity has become and demurely saying "that's a fair point" to every counterculture thought(from his point of view) thrown at him.
Even as an alternate history Earth the rapid development from deep spacefaring to apocalyptic environmental-political collapse, failed reconstruction, and complete reinventing of society, technology, as well as planetary terraforming isn't plausible in merely 500 years. The transformations to society feel nievely utopian, against basic human nature, and contrary to the historical results of similar attempted societal changes. The proposed impossibility of human expansion away from Earth again feels falsely contrived, thin, and laden with 'impact-shaming'.
The protagonist flops back and forth between an irrepressible self-made man inwardly railing against the Eloi-ish society humanity has become and demurely saying "that's a fair point" to every counterculture thought(from his point of view) thrown at him.
Even as an alternate history Earth the rapid development from deep spacefaring to apocalyptic environmental-political collapse, failed reconstruction, and complete reinventing of society, technology, as well as planetary terraforming isn't plausible in merely 500 years. The transformations to society feel nievely utopian, against basic human nature, and contrary to the historical results of similar attempted societal changes. The proposed impossibility of human expansion away from Earth again feels falsely contrived, thin, and laden with 'impact-shaming'.
November 30, 2019
So: just after my recent reread of Moonseed , Stephen’s latest arrives. World Engines: Destroyer is the first in a new trilogy but involves a lead character that regular Baxter readers have met before.
The character from the past is Colonel Reid Malenfant, from the Manifold series (Time, Space, Origin and Phase Space). Some readers will stop there, as Malenfant was a character that seemed to draw polarising opinions when first published. I can see why, as he’s not the most likeable person – he’s grumpy and aggressive to the point of being rude, cantankerous and annoyingly unpleasant – which did put some readers off him twenty years ago. He’s not really changed much here, either, as a fish out of water, a modern Buck Rogers in an alternate 25th century.
So why has Baxter resurrected him here? Personally, I thought of Malenfant as a character based on Baxter’s own experiences – he spent time visiting NASA in the late 1990’s and 2000’s – but then expanded and magnified. He is the dark side of the American ideal – pushy, always right (even when not), the ultimate capitalist with goals and expectations that exemplified and expanded on the lifestyle of the rich and entitled at the end of the 20th century.
Basically, he’s the logical extrapolation of the SF ideal so common in the 1950’s & 60’s, a military-trained, politically right-wing Republican, out to make a profit.
However, in this case his resurrection is ideal. What would such a character make of a world significantly changed four hundred years after his last memory?
World Engines is a story of the future as seen by an observer with little connection to the world he lives in. As such this allows him to observe and try to make sense of the environment round him, a SF-nal tradition that goes back to H G Wells (The Time Machine, The Sleeper Wakes) and Buck Rogers’ creator Philip Nowlan, if not before.
So: what does Stephen offer us here? The 25th century of this alternate Earth (clues: President Nixon assassinated in office, first man on the Moon Neil Armstrong died there) has had major changes. Physically the landscape has changed. The London Malenfant is brought back to life in (why London and not the USA? There is a reason given, but it’s not too strong an argument) has had major coastal flooding and thanks to climate change now feels almost tropical. Much of the land between London and Birmingham is once again forest, to offset the carbon emissions as much as anything.
Socially things have also changed. The world is now at peace, with ‘nations’ now become regions. The Earth’s population is down to about one million, with everyone entitled to universal credit, as created by good old Tricky Dicky Nixon. There are food replicators and AI. No-one has to work, but there is a feeling that people should volunteer assistance for the greater good when required. Where work is needed to be done, the volunteers help out. (Star Trek’s Federation would love this.)
It all sounds wonderfully bucolic, a time of peace after significant upheaval. However, hanging over everyone’s heads is the knowledge that in the year 3397 Earth will be destroyed by a collision with ‘The Destroyer’.
Malenfant has therefore been reawakened for two reasons. One is personal – a message from his long-presumed-missing wife who, lost on a mission to study an anomaly near Phobos, has asked for him. The second is for a higher purpose, namely that the Planetary AIs that have kept watch over the Earth (but note – not governed) are interested. They realise that, as a voice from the past, Malenfant is asking questions that modern day 25th century humans are not. And these questions – and their answers – may be important.
After spending the first half of the book doing very little – there’s an ongoing soap-opera dilemma between Greggson Dierdra (In the future surnames are given first) , the young human who has volunteered to look after Malenfant, and her mother Greggson Mica and her partner Prefect Morrel Jonas, but most of the first part of the book is Malenfant looking at (and trying to make sense of) some sort of Logan’s Run-type future.
The book only started to get interesting for me once the decision had been made to take Malenfant, Diedra and an android named Bartholomew who is Malenfant’s medical support into Space. We are wheeled through a series of Grand-Tour phases – Earth to Space Station near the Moon, Moon to Phobos – before finally getting to examine the mystery.
They meet Emma pretty quickly, and although Emma knows Malenfant, it is quickly determined that this is not the Emma Stoney Malenfant married, but one from an alternate Earth in 2005. Further investigations lead to the big revelation that Phobos appears to be a point where different universes at different times meet. Malenfant, Dierdra, Emma II and Bartholomew meet Vladimir Viktorenko, a Russian from a universe where in the 21st century there is war between Russia and the USA and Wing Commander Geoff Lighthill and his crew from a 2005 where Britain rules the race into space.
The big question is why this happens at Phobos, and whether such actions happen by chance or whether Phobos has been deliberately assembled by something. To discover what Malenfant has to hitch a ride to Persephone, the ninth major planet from the Sun, discovered in the late twenty-first century
After this point it all goes Cixin Liu (the clue’s in the book title) before finishing things off very quickly in order to leave a number of key plot points hanging for the next book.
This one should work. It has lots of big ideas and lots of extrapolations into alternative futures that I normally love. It’s also written in that Clarkean style of Baxter’s that I really like, that slightly detached, look-at-the-bigger-picture observational style about big events and epic timelines.
And yet… I struggled with the first half, most of which seemed unnecessary (although I guess that this may be proved wrong over the arc of the trilogy). What was the point? If it was to show that in the future Earth is rather dull (I’m sure my thought that their existence was rather like H G Wells’s Eloi is deliberate), then it served its purpose. It may be, as hinted later in the book, that it is to show how dull, safe and complacent Dierdra’s life is before Malenfant.
And then it may be the characters. Is it because Malenfant as a character is so unlikeable? It’s been an issue for me before, admittedly. It may be. However, it is noticeable that Malenfant is different in this book. Far from being the gung-ho hero of old (although he has his moments!) this time Malenfant is more of an enabler, someone who observes and at the same time is a catalyst for others to reach their goals, and it is true that the book sees Dierdra blossom from a contented youngster to an adult with a purpose.
But, ultimately I think the issue is that the first part takes such a long while to get going – about 250 pages of a 500 page-or-so book are centred here – and that it is so small scale, so focused on Malenfant, that instead of seeing this new wider world, we stay in the English Midlands where not a lot is going on, frankly. I would have liked to see more of the Earth, though there are little glimpses of the bigger picture both geographically and historically – the Sahara is now a forest, so too much of the English East Midlands, whilst London and Cape Canaveral are flooded, for example.
It is only when we get to the middle part of the book that I began to enjoy the plot. Baxter is very good at demonstrating that sense of wonder in relatively few words to create the Epic. Though it is all tell, not show, there are some brilliantly tantalising snapshots of other “what-if’s” that could be worth exploring further. I appreciated the point that the different means of getting into space are all based on some of the different ways suggested from our own timeline – in other words, not the ISS and the Space Shuttle.
The characterisation is rather amusingly portrayed with the British contingent of the Royal Air Space Force showing a supreme example of the stiff upper lip. Bartholomew as the android doctor, though, is rather annoying in his continuous grumpiness. As is Baxter’s style, there’s not too much depth going on here, although the Russian perspective broadens the palette a little.
When the bigger picture is revealed, there are interesting points raised, which regained my interest. With this in mind, I was rather surprised to find that the last part was disappointing, though. Instead of inspiring, in some sort of Space:1999 gesture, there’s a needless tension created with pulp fiction science* and a cliff-hanger that after 500+ pages of build-up is an abrupt let-down. There are still major unknowns here.
To sum up, then, there’s a lot of World Engines I liked, but I can also see why others might not. Whilst parts were good, it is a very unevenly paced read. Is it the best place to start reading his books? Probably not, although there is a lot to like. As much as I wanted to like it, and was looking forward to reading it, ultimately this felt like it was not one of Baxter’s best, and in the end it was a disappointment overall. Whilst I will read the next book in the series, this sadly isn’t one to wholeheartedly recommend to others.
*To be fair, Stephen in his Afterword does point out current scientific research on such possibilities, which you can follow up on, if you wish.
The character from the past is Colonel Reid Malenfant, from the Manifold series (Time, Space, Origin and Phase Space). Some readers will stop there, as Malenfant was a character that seemed to draw polarising opinions when first published. I can see why, as he’s not the most likeable person – he’s grumpy and aggressive to the point of being rude, cantankerous and annoyingly unpleasant – which did put some readers off him twenty years ago. He’s not really changed much here, either, as a fish out of water, a modern Buck Rogers in an alternate 25th century.
So why has Baxter resurrected him here? Personally, I thought of Malenfant as a character based on Baxter’s own experiences – he spent time visiting NASA in the late 1990’s and 2000’s – but then expanded and magnified. He is the dark side of the American ideal – pushy, always right (even when not), the ultimate capitalist with goals and expectations that exemplified and expanded on the lifestyle of the rich and entitled at the end of the 20th century.
Basically, he’s the logical extrapolation of the SF ideal so common in the 1950’s & 60’s, a military-trained, politically right-wing Republican, out to make a profit.
However, in this case his resurrection is ideal. What would such a character make of a world significantly changed four hundred years after his last memory?
World Engines is a story of the future as seen by an observer with little connection to the world he lives in. As such this allows him to observe and try to make sense of the environment round him, a SF-nal tradition that goes back to H G Wells (The Time Machine, The Sleeper Wakes) and Buck Rogers’ creator Philip Nowlan, if not before.
So: what does Stephen offer us here? The 25th century of this alternate Earth (clues: President Nixon assassinated in office, first man on the Moon Neil Armstrong died there) has had major changes. Physically the landscape has changed. The London Malenfant is brought back to life in (why London and not the USA? There is a reason given, but it’s not too strong an argument) has had major coastal flooding and thanks to climate change now feels almost tropical. Much of the land between London and Birmingham is once again forest, to offset the carbon emissions as much as anything.
Socially things have also changed. The world is now at peace, with ‘nations’ now become regions. The Earth’s population is down to about one million, with everyone entitled to universal credit, as created by good old Tricky Dicky Nixon. There are food replicators and AI. No-one has to work, but there is a feeling that people should volunteer assistance for the greater good when required. Where work is needed to be done, the volunteers help out. (Star Trek’s Federation would love this.)
It all sounds wonderfully bucolic, a time of peace after significant upheaval. However, hanging over everyone’s heads is the knowledge that in the year 3397 Earth will be destroyed by a collision with ‘The Destroyer’.
Malenfant has therefore been reawakened for two reasons. One is personal – a message from his long-presumed-missing wife who, lost on a mission to study an anomaly near Phobos, has asked for him. The second is for a higher purpose, namely that the Planetary AIs that have kept watch over the Earth (but note – not governed) are interested. They realise that, as a voice from the past, Malenfant is asking questions that modern day 25th century humans are not. And these questions – and their answers – may be important.
After spending the first half of the book doing very little – there’s an ongoing soap-opera dilemma between Greggson Dierdra (In the future surnames are given first) , the young human who has volunteered to look after Malenfant, and her mother Greggson Mica and her partner Prefect Morrel Jonas, but most of the first part of the book is Malenfant looking at (and trying to make sense of) some sort of Logan’s Run-type future.
The book only started to get interesting for me once the decision had been made to take Malenfant, Diedra and an android named Bartholomew who is Malenfant’s medical support into Space. We are wheeled through a series of Grand-Tour phases – Earth to Space Station near the Moon, Moon to Phobos – before finally getting to examine the mystery.
They meet Emma pretty quickly, and although Emma knows Malenfant, it is quickly determined that this is not the Emma Stoney Malenfant married, but one from an alternate Earth in 2005. Further investigations lead to the big revelation that Phobos appears to be a point where different universes at different times meet. Malenfant, Dierdra, Emma II and Bartholomew meet Vladimir Viktorenko, a Russian from a universe where in the 21st century there is war between Russia and the USA and Wing Commander Geoff Lighthill and his crew from a 2005 where Britain rules the race into space.
The big question is why this happens at Phobos, and whether such actions happen by chance or whether Phobos has been deliberately assembled by something. To discover what Malenfant has to hitch a ride to Persephone, the ninth major planet from the Sun, discovered in the late twenty-first century
After this point it all goes Cixin Liu (the clue’s in the book title) before finishing things off very quickly in order to leave a number of key plot points hanging for the next book.
This one should work. It has lots of big ideas and lots of extrapolations into alternative futures that I normally love. It’s also written in that Clarkean style of Baxter’s that I really like, that slightly detached, look-at-the-bigger-picture observational style about big events and epic timelines.
And yet… I struggled with the first half, most of which seemed unnecessary (although I guess that this may be proved wrong over the arc of the trilogy). What was the point? If it was to show that in the future Earth is rather dull (I’m sure my thought that their existence was rather like H G Wells’s Eloi is deliberate), then it served its purpose. It may be, as hinted later in the book, that it is to show how dull, safe and complacent Dierdra’s life is before Malenfant.
And then it may be the characters. Is it because Malenfant as a character is so unlikeable? It’s been an issue for me before, admittedly. It may be. However, it is noticeable that Malenfant is different in this book. Far from being the gung-ho hero of old (although he has his moments!) this time Malenfant is more of an enabler, someone who observes and at the same time is a catalyst for others to reach their goals, and it is true that the book sees Dierdra blossom from a contented youngster to an adult with a purpose.
But, ultimately I think the issue is that the first part takes such a long while to get going – about 250 pages of a 500 page-or-so book are centred here – and that it is so small scale, so focused on Malenfant, that instead of seeing this new wider world, we stay in the English Midlands where not a lot is going on, frankly. I would have liked to see more of the Earth, though there are little glimpses of the bigger picture both geographically and historically – the Sahara is now a forest, so too much of the English East Midlands, whilst London and Cape Canaveral are flooded, for example.
It is only when we get to the middle part of the book that I began to enjoy the plot. Baxter is very good at demonstrating that sense of wonder in relatively few words to create the Epic. Though it is all tell, not show, there are some brilliantly tantalising snapshots of other “what-if’s” that could be worth exploring further. I appreciated the point that the different means of getting into space are all based on some of the different ways suggested from our own timeline – in other words, not the ISS and the Space Shuttle.
The characterisation is rather amusingly portrayed with the British contingent of the Royal Air Space Force showing a supreme example of the stiff upper lip. Bartholomew as the android doctor, though, is rather annoying in his continuous grumpiness. As is Baxter’s style, there’s not too much depth going on here, although the Russian perspective broadens the palette a little.
When the bigger picture is revealed, there are interesting points raised, which regained my interest. With this in mind, I was rather surprised to find that the last part was disappointing, though. Instead of inspiring, in some sort of Space:1999 gesture, there’s a needless tension created with pulp fiction science* and a cliff-hanger that after 500+ pages of build-up is an abrupt let-down. There are still major unknowns here.
To sum up, then, there’s a lot of World Engines I liked, but I can also see why others might not. Whilst parts were good, it is a very unevenly paced read. Is it the best place to start reading his books? Probably not, although there is a lot to like. As much as I wanted to like it, and was looking forward to reading it, ultimately this felt like it was not one of Baxter’s best, and in the end it was a disappointment overall. Whilst I will read the next book in the series, this sadly isn’t one to wholeheartedly recommend to others.
*To be fair, Stephen in his Afterword does point out current scientific research on such possibilities, which you can follow up on, if you wish.
January 1, 2020
Baxter surprised me! I really did not think he can write something like this. Happy he did!
You know I read a review before deciding to get this book that noted everything I loved about the book as a negative and as a result gave it a negative review. For me it was a perfect review to help and decide to get the book, just shows how important honest reviews are, you might just inadvertently be helping a person without even knowing it!
It is a really good Cli-Fi but not only ecological off-course. It touches on very many different topics that are very much in our future and it is good to see more and more good Sci-Fi Authors whiting on pressing issues in a way that is accessible to more and more people.
You know I read a review before deciding to get this book that noted everything I loved about the book as a negative and as a result gave it a negative review. For me it was a perfect review to help and decide to get the book, just shows how important honest reviews are, you might just inadvertently be helping a person without even knowing it!
It is a really good Cli-Fi but not only ecological off-course. It touches on very many different topics that are very much in our future and it is good to see more and more good Sci-Fi Authors whiting on pressing issues in a way that is accessible to more and more people.
December 8, 2021
4.5 Sterne für eine durchweg tolle Geschichte. Ich freue mich schon auf den 2. Teil.
August 2, 2020
Vor 20 Jahren schrieb Stephen Baxter die Manifold-Trilogie (dt. Multiversums-Trilogie)
, bei der er die Theorien eines Multiversums (oder wie es im Roman immer wieder genannt wird: Die Manigfaltigkeit) durchspielt. Nun ist mit "Artefakt - Sternenpforte" ein 4. Teil hinzugekommen, der m.E. eine bessere Zugänglichkeit zu dieser komplexen Thematik anbietet.
Im Mittelpunkt der Handlung dieses Romans steht ein Astronautenehepaar, das vom Unglück verfolgt wird. Emma Stoney leitet eine Expedition zum Marsmond Phobos und verschwindet während der Erforschung des Mondes spurlos. 15 Jahre später bringt ihr Ehemann Reid Malefant mit einem Transporter hukepack ein Spaceshuttle in den Orbit (Offenbar ein Shuttle-System das nach dem britischen Sänger-Prinzip funktioniert), er stürzt infolge eines technischen Versagens ab und erleidet so schwere Verletzungen, dass er in einen Kälteschlaf versetzt werden muss, erst im 25. Jahrhundert wird er daraus auf dem Mond wieder geweckt. Der Grund dafür ist, dass ihn eine Botschaft, ein Hilferuf von Phobos erreichte, von Emma, die eigentlich schon seit Jahrhunderten tot sein sollte.
Wir erfahren jetzt, dass es sich hier um eine alternative Realität handelt, denn Emmas Flug zum Phobos fand im Jahre 2004 statt, Neil Armstrong verstarb infolge eines Herzinfarktes, während der Landung von Apollo 11 auf dem Mond, und Präsident Nixon war ein Wohltäter, der das bedingungslose Grundeinkommen eingeführt und das Raumfahrtprogramm weitergeführt hat, das zu den Marsflügen in den späten 90er Jahren führte. Im ersten Drittel des Romans wird das Leben auf der Erde des Jahres 2469 in einem klassischen "The Sleeper wakes"-Zukunfts-Szenario geschildert, das auch an Romane von H. G. Wells und Olaf Stapledon erinnert. Es könnte eine Utopie sein, wenn nicht das drohende Ende in 928 Jahren wäre, ein Countdown der mit jedem Datum vermerkt wird. Denn dann sollen die Zerstörer kommen... Um was es sich hier handelt, wird zum Ende des Romans deutlich. Diese Welt nach dem Carbon Peak ist eine friedliche Welt, in der die Menschheit zu einer, für die Natur erträglichen Größe geschrumpft ist, man geht fürsorglich miteinander um, sowohl mit sich als auch mit den Resourcen der Natur, ohne sich vollständig von der Technik zu verabschieden. Jedoch wurden sämtliche Raumfahrtaktivitäten eingestellt, die planetaren KI's haben sich auf anderen Himmelskörpern, wie dem Mond, niedergelassen, sind den Menschen jedoch wohlgesinnt. Interessant ist noch die Erinnerungskultur, die "Der Kodex" genannt wird. Ziel ist es, jeden Menschen, der jemals auf der Erde gelebt hat, als virtuellen, hologrammatischen Datensatz zu manifestieren. Nach diesen beschaulichen Rundgang durch die schöne, neue Welt kommt mit dem Wechsel in den Weltraum mehr Spannung auf. Malenfant und seine beiden Begleiter, die junge Greggson Deirdra (mit der Baxter einen spannenden und sehr interessanten Charakter erschaffen hat) und den Androiden Bartholomew, dessen Funktion besteht vor allem darin, sich mit Malenfant über den gesamten Roman hinweg Wortgefechte zu liefern das manchnal auch humorvolle Unterhaltung bietet, machen sich mit Hilfe alter Technologie auf den Weg zum Mars. Am Phobos angekommen, nehmen sie ein unmögliches Artefakt wahr; der hohle Mond Phobos ist innen größer als außen, außerdem ist er offenbar eine Pforte zu vielen Parallelwelten. Dort treffen sie, neben einer Emma Stoney aus einer anderen Parallelwelt, eine englische Expedition aus einer anderen Realität an in der es nie einen Weltkrieg gab und somit das englische Weltreich weiterbesteht. Gemeinsam starten sie zu einem Planeten in der Oort'schen Wolke, mehr als 1000 AE von der Erde entfernt, der offenbar außerirdische Artefakte trägt, nun wird auch der Hintergrund der "Zerstörer"-Bedrohung aufgeklärt.
Insgesamt ist "Artefakt" sicherlich nicht Baxters rasantester Roman, das allerdings auch am Genre-Mix liegen könnte, dem dieses Buch unterworfen ist. Eine Utopie ist normalerweise ein statisches Genre und Baxter befolgt dieses Muster im Stil seiner Vorbilder (H.G.Wells etc.) genau. Das 2. Genre, die Alternativweltgeschichte, die Baxter immer auch auf einer Hard-Science-Ebene erzählt, bietet mehr Rasanz und Spannung, was Baxter sehr gut ausnutzt.
Was mir besonders gefallen hat ist die Beschreibung der Hauptfigur Malenfant: Er ist neugierig und kritisch, aber auch ungeduldig und manchmal brüsk. Er ist ein Macher und Katalysator von Ereignissen, der andere mit seinem Charisma unwillkürlich mitreißt, zugleich ist er aber sofort beleidigt, wenn ihm mal jemand die Show stiehlt; was ihn in meinen Augen freilich nur menschlicher macht. "Sie fügen sich nicht ein. Sie bestehen nur aus Ecken und Kanten", wird Malenfant an einer Stelle attestiert. Baxter beschreibt mit ihm die Szenerie vom lebendigen Jetztmenschen, der die edlen, aber ein bisschen unbedarften Zukunftsmenschen ein Stück weit aufmischt. Das Ende von "Artefakt" wäre total unbefriedigend, wenn ich nicht wüsste, dass schon bald ein Folgeband erscheinen wird. Dieser Band sollte das weitere Schicksal der Haupfiguren erzählen, aber er ist uns noch etwas anderes schuldig. Meines Wissens drehten sich die bisherigen "Multiversums-Romane" ("Zeit" | "Raum" | "Ursprung") darum, Erklärungen für das Fermi-Paradoxon zu liefern. Ganz am Anfang von "Artefakt" spekuliert Malenfant in der Rückschau auf die kommenden Ereignisse: "Mir wurde klar, dass uns das Fermi-Paradoxon etwas Grundlegendes über das Universum und unseren Platz darin sagt. Oder sagte. Jetzt ist natürlich alles ganz anders. Wie sich zeigt, waren sie schon lange da..."
Diese Erklärung des Fermi-Paradoxon sollte uns im Folgeband (oder den Folgebänden) offenbart werden...
Ein sehr guter Roman, der wieder zeigt, welch großartiger Schriftsteller Stephen Baxter doch ist....
, bei der er die Theorien eines Multiversums (oder wie es im Roman immer wieder genannt wird: Die Manigfaltigkeit) durchspielt. Nun ist mit "Artefakt - Sternenpforte" ein 4. Teil hinzugekommen, der m.E. eine bessere Zugänglichkeit zu dieser komplexen Thematik anbietet.Im Mittelpunkt der Handlung dieses Romans steht ein Astronautenehepaar, das vom Unglück verfolgt wird. Emma Stoney leitet eine Expedition zum Marsmond Phobos und verschwindet während der Erforschung des Mondes spurlos. 15 Jahre später bringt ihr Ehemann Reid Malefant mit einem Transporter hukepack ein Spaceshuttle in den Orbit (Offenbar ein Shuttle-System das nach dem britischen Sänger-Prinzip funktioniert), er stürzt infolge eines technischen Versagens ab und erleidet so schwere Verletzungen, dass er in einen Kälteschlaf versetzt werden muss, erst im 25. Jahrhundert wird er daraus auf dem Mond wieder geweckt. Der Grund dafür ist, dass ihn eine Botschaft, ein Hilferuf von Phobos erreichte, von Emma, die eigentlich schon seit Jahrhunderten tot sein sollte.
Wir erfahren jetzt, dass es sich hier um eine alternative Realität handelt, denn Emmas Flug zum Phobos fand im Jahre 2004 statt, Neil Armstrong verstarb infolge eines Herzinfarktes, während der Landung von Apollo 11 auf dem Mond, und Präsident Nixon war ein Wohltäter, der das bedingungslose Grundeinkommen eingeführt und das Raumfahrtprogramm weitergeführt hat, das zu den Marsflügen in den späten 90er Jahren führte. Im ersten Drittel des Romans wird das Leben auf der Erde des Jahres 2469 in einem klassischen "The Sleeper wakes"-Zukunfts-Szenario geschildert, das auch an Romane von H. G. Wells und Olaf Stapledon erinnert. Es könnte eine Utopie sein, wenn nicht das drohende Ende in 928 Jahren wäre, ein Countdown der mit jedem Datum vermerkt wird. Denn dann sollen die Zerstörer kommen... Um was es sich hier handelt, wird zum Ende des Romans deutlich. Diese Welt nach dem Carbon Peak ist eine friedliche Welt, in der die Menschheit zu einer, für die Natur erträglichen Größe geschrumpft ist, man geht fürsorglich miteinander um, sowohl mit sich als auch mit den Resourcen der Natur, ohne sich vollständig von der Technik zu verabschieden. Jedoch wurden sämtliche Raumfahrtaktivitäten eingestellt, die planetaren KI's haben sich auf anderen Himmelskörpern, wie dem Mond, niedergelassen, sind den Menschen jedoch wohlgesinnt. Interessant ist noch die Erinnerungskultur, die "Der Kodex" genannt wird. Ziel ist es, jeden Menschen, der jemals auf der Erde gelebt hat, als virtuellen, hologrammatischen Datensatz zu manifestieren. Nach diesen beschaulichen Rundgang durch die schöne, neue Welt kommt mit dem Wechsel in den Weltraum mehr Spannung auf. Malenfant und seine beiden Begleiter, die junge Greggson Deirdra (mit der Baxter einen spannenden und sehr interessanten Charakter erschaffen hat) und den Androiden Bartholomew, dessen Funktion besteht vor allem darin, sich mit Malenfant über den gesamten Roman hinweg Wortgefechte zu liefern das manchnal auch humorvolle Unterhaltung bietet, machen sich mit Hilfe alter Technologie auf den Weg zum Mars. Am Phobos angekommen, nehmen sie ein unmögliches Artefakt wahr; der hohle Mond Phobos ist innen größer als außen, außerdem ist er offenbar eine Pforte zu vielen Parallelwelten. Dort treffen sie, neben einer Emma Stoney aus einer anderen Parallelwelt, eine englische Expedition aus einer anderen Realität an in der es nie einen Weltkrieg gab und somit das englische Weltreich weiterbesteht. Gemeinsam starten sie zu einem Planeten in der Oort'schen Wolke, mehr als 1000 AE von der Erde entfernt, der offenbar außerirdische Artefakte trägt, nun wird auch der Hintergrund der "Zerstörer"-Bedrohung aufgeklärt.
Insgesamt ist "Artefakt" sicherlich nicht Baxters rasantester Roman, das allerdings auch am Genre-Mix liegen könnte, dem dieses Buch unterworfen ist. Eine Utopie ist normalerweise ein statisches Genre und Baxter befolgt dieses Muster im Stil seiner Vorbilder (H.G.Wells etc.) genau. Das 2. Genre, die Alternativweltgeschichte, die Baxter immer auch auf einer Hard-Science-Ebene erzählt, bietet mehr Rasanz und Spannung, was Baxter sehr gut ausnutzt.
Was mir besonders gefallen hat ist die Beschreibung der Hauptfigur Malenfant: Er ist neugierig und kritisch, aber auch ungeduldig und manchmal brüsk. Er ist ein Macher und Katalysator von Ereignissen, der andere mit seinem Charisma unwillkürlich mitreißt, zugleich ist er aber sofort beleidigt, wenn ihm mal jemand die Show stiehlt; was ihn in meinen Augen freilich nur menschlicher macht. "Sie fügen sich nicht ein. Sie bestehen nur aus Ecken und Kanten", wird Malenfant an einer Stelle attestiert. Baxter beschreibt mit ihm die Szenerie vom lebendigen Jetztmenschen, der die edlen, aber ein bisschen unbedarften Zukunftsmenschen ein Stück weit aufmischt. Das Ende von "Artefakt" wäre total unbefriedigend, wenn ich nicht wüsste, dass schon bald ein Folgeband erscheinen wird. Dieser Band sollte das weitere Schicksal der Haupfiguren erzählen, aber er ist uns noch etwas anderes schuldig. Meines Wissens drehten sich die bisherigen "Multiversums-Romane" ("Zeit" | "Raum" | "Ursprung") darum, Erklärungen für das Fermi-Paradoxon zu liefern. Ganz am Anfang von "Artefakt" spekuliert Malenfant in der Rückschau auf die kommenden Ereignisse: "Mir wurde klar, dass uns das Fermi-Paradoxon etwas Grundlegendes über das Universum und unseren Platz darin sagt. Oder sagte. Jetzt ist natürlich alles ganz anders. Wie sich zeigt, waren sie schon lange da..."
Diese Erklärung des Fermi-Paradoxon sollte uns im Folgeband (oder den Folgebänden) offenbart werden...
Ein sehr guter Roman, der wieder zeigt, welch großartiger Schriftsteller Stephen Baxter doch ist....
January 30, 2020
Really stupid book, that's all I have to say...
time travel, multiple universes, aliens that can build machines do travel on both and move planets around for no good reason and just leave them around for stupid people to find. I won't even bother saying how stupid the resurrected human-AI are, they are by the magic of DNA and old newspaper clippings able to know every thought and feeling a dead person would have and behave 99.9% like they would if still alive.
The hero is arrogant self-centered and stupid and everyone must do what he wants or he throws tantrums that no one can defy.
The future is full of stupid people who criticize humans of the present for global warming while making sure to do nothing while the world will literally be destroyed by something they could stop.
Ai's are dumber than humans and way more selfish who don't care humans and their world will be destroyed...
Save yourself and don't read this.
time travel, multiple universes, aliens that can build machines do travel on both and move planets around for no good reason and just leave them around for stupid people to find. I won't even bother saying how stupid the resurrected human-AI are, they are by the magic of DNA and old newspaper clippings able to know every thought and feeling a dead person would have and behave 99.9% like they would if still alive.
The hero is arrogant self-centered and stupid and everyone must do what he wants or he throws tantrums that no one can defy.
The future is full of stupid people who criticize humans of the present for global warming while making sure to do nothing while the world will literally be destroyed by something they could stop.
Ai's are dumber than humans and way more selfish who don't care humans and their world will be destroyed...
Save yourself and don't read this.
September 21, 2019
I read the Long Earth series written with Terry Pratchett and I was curious to read something written only by Stephen Baxter.
The blurb sound promising and I can say I wasn't disappointed.
It's a great sci-fi novel, well written and gripping. I loved the amazing world building, the fleshed out cast of characters and the plot.
I look forward to reading other works by this author.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.
The blurb sound promising and I can say I wasn't disappointed.
It's a great sci-fi novel, well written and gripping. I loved the amazing world building, the fleshed out cast of characters and the plot.
I look forward to reading other works by this author.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.
November 3, 2021
World Engines: Destroyer, the first of a pair (so far?) of novels, seems a slow starter. Reid Malenfant, one of Baxter’s reusable characters (versions of him also appear in the Manifold novels), awakens in a mysterious time and/or place. His last memories are of him and his co-pilot crashing the booster he was piloting, during space shuttle launch ST-719 in 2019. Ok, so right away, we know we are not in our own timeline, because our NASA is not launching space shuttles in 2019, never launched 719 of them, and has never used piloted boosters to do so. But we are also not in Malenfant’s world, as evidence of technologies beyond his knowledge accumulate. It turns out his badly damaged corpse was preserved, and has now been repaired and brought back to life, in the 25th century of his own timeline. Why? It seems Emma Stoney, another of Baxter’s reusable characters from the Manifold novels, has sent a radio message from Phobos asking for his help. That would be his wife Emma, who died on a mission to Phobos in 2005, four or five centuries ago. The powers-that-be have decided they need him to follow up on that distress call. Everything I just described is exposed in the first two or three chapters, so it’s not too spoilerish to go that far
A high page count is expended having this 25th century world laboriously explained, even the things that the current inhabitants have long taken for granted. But I encourage you to stick with it, because things get really popping in the second half. I’m always amazed at Stephen Baxter’s ability to stream so many creative speculations into a multiverse story, be they technological futurism, alternative history, astrophysics, or machine and alien intelligence.
17-year-old Greggson Deirdra is one of a small, but growing, band of characters who become involved in Malenfant’s mission, and Baxter hints broadly that she will become important. Sections of the overall book are described as taken from “The Testament of Greggson Deirdra.” The mystery of her eventual role is among those that drive the suspense, and it is eventually disclosed. The end is not a total cliff-hanger, but clearly a preparation for book two – World Engines: Creator (2020). I plan to read that, although not immediately.
A high page count is expended having this 25th century world laboriously explained, even the things that the current inhabitants have long taken for granted. But I encourage you to stick with it, because things get really popping in the second half. I’m always amazed at Stephen Baxter’s ability to stream so many creative speculations into a multiverse story, be they technological futurism, alternative history, astrophysics, or machine and alien intelligence.
17-year-old Greggson Deirdra is one of a small, but growing, band of characters who become involved in Malenfant’s mission, and Baxter hints broadly that she will become important. Sections of the overall book are described as taken from “The Testament of Greggson Deirdra.” The mystery of her eventual role is among those that drive the suspense, and it is eventually disclosed. The end is not a total cliff-hanger, but clearly a preparation for book two – World Engines: Creator (2020). I plan to read that, although not immediately.
January 23, 2020
For the first time in nearly twenty years, Baxter has resurrected Reid Malenfant, the protagonist of his Manifold series, and it is hard to imagine a more Stephen Baxter-ish Stephen Baxter novel than this one. It has all the virtues and vices that I've come to associate with his writing.
The characters are so cursorily drawn that, bar perhaps Malenfant himself, they struggle to occupy two whole dimensions, let alone the usual three. The book undoubtedly would have benefited from an editor who could have excised the nearly 40 pages of detailed technical description of Malenfant's near-fatal space accident that takes up much of the first part of the story. And if you find large tracts of dialogue as thinly disguised world-building and exposition irritating, then you might be well-advised to give this a miss. I can understand the one-star reviews.
But I for one rather enjoyed it for precisely that. Maybe it could equally easily have dispensed with the idea of being a novel at all and instead have been a four hundred page travel guide to a time and place that does not exist, interspersed with some speculations on possible alternative histories imagining how the space-race of the latter part of the 20th Century might have played out differently. Certainly, the plot of the story did feel rather secondary, but I was happy enough to read it in novelistic form.
I found its conjuring of a 2469 in which both anthropogenic climate change and vastly powerful (if not truly sentient) artificial intelligences have dramatically altered not only the earth, but what it means to be human, to be rather fascinating. In particular, the idea that humanity decides that space is *not* the place to be leaves Malenfant a fish out of water in this world, and it is inevitable from the start that he will be arguing to get back out there. I couldn't quite decide whether the author's own sympathies lay more with Malenfant or with the denizens of this high-tech utopia and maybe that ambivalence is a good thing.
The second half of the book, where Malenfant and his merry band explore an anomaly that has been identified on Phobos, where Malenfant's wife went missing long previously is perhaps not as strong as the first half. Those who have read the Manifold Trilogy will be familiar with Baxter's exploration of the Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum theory and while I enjoyed his speculation on different possible outcomes of the 1969 moon-shot, or indeed the consequences of a decision by the UK to stay neutral in the Second World War, I'm not sure he really has anything to say here that he hasn't explored more fully in other books. His central message, that history is contingent and small changes can have a massive impact is hardly new.
In this book, Britain's neutrality in World War 2 has relatively little impact on the end result, save that he imagines a nuclear strike by a Russo-American alliance finishing the war in 1946 and the British Empire remaining substantially intact. Which seems plausible in a way that the idea of the failure of the moon landing in 1969 setting the world on a path leading to nuclear annihilation in the late 2020s did not.
If you're looking for well written literary science fiction, then this is not the place to come, but if it's a fun whiz through some interesting visions of the possible futures and alternative histories of human civilisation, there's plenty to get your teeth into here.
The characters are so cursorily drawn that, bar perhaps Malenfant himself, they struggle to occupy two whole dimensions, let alone the usual three. The book undoubtedly would have benefited from an editor who could have excised the nearly 40 pages of detailed technical description of Malenfant's near-fatal space accident that takes up much of the first part of the story. And if you find large tracts of dialogue as thinly disguised world-building and exposition irritating, then you might be well-advised to give this a miss. I can understand the one-star reviews.
But I for one rather enjoyed it for precisely that. Maybe it could equally easily have dispensed with the idea of being a novel at all and instead have been a four hundred page travel guide to a time and place that does not exist, interspersed with some speculations on possible alternative histories imagining how the space-race of the latter part of the 20th Century might have played out differently. Certainly, the plot of the story did feel rather secondary, but I was happy enough to read it in novelistic form.
I found its conjuring of a 2469 in which both anthropogenic climate change and vastly powerful (if not truly sentient) artificial intelligences have dramatically altered not only the earth, but what it means to be human, to be rather fascinating. In particular, the idea that humanity decides that space is *not* the place to be leaves Malenfant a fish out of water in this world, and it is inevitable from the start that he will be arguing to get back out there. I couldn't quite decide whether the author's own sympathies lay more with Malenfant or with the denizens of this high-tech utopia and maybe that ambivalence is a good thing.
The second half of the book, where Malenfant and his merry band explore an anomaly that has been identified on Phobos, where Malenfant's wife went missing long previously is perhaps not as strong as the first half. Those who have read the Manifold Trilogy will be familiar with Baxter's exploration of the Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum theory and while I enjoyed his speculation on different possible outcomes of the 1969 moon-shot, or indeed the consequences of a decision by the UK to stay neutral in the Second World War, I'm not sure he really has anything to say here that he hasn't explored more fully in other books. His central message, that history is contingent and small changes can have a massive impact is hardly new.
In this book, Britain's neutrality in World War 2 has relatively little impact on the end result, save that he imagines a nuclear strike by a Russo-American alliance finishing the war in 1946 and the British Empire remaining substantially intact. Which seems plausible in a way that the idea of the failure of the moon landing in 1969 setting the world on a path leading to nuclear annihilation in the late 2020s did not.
If you're looking for well written literary science fiction, then this is not the place to come, but if it's a fun whiz through some interesting visions of the possible futures and alternative histories of human civilisation, there's plenty to get your teeth into here.
September 17, 2019
This review is based upon a proof copy provided to me free of charge by Netgalley and the publishers, and does not influence my opinion in anyway..
This is the sort of stuff I want Stephen Baxter to write more of! High concept science fiction covering things on a cosmic scale. To be honest, the minute I knew that this featured versions of characters from the Manifold Trilogy I was hooked on reading this, and it does not disappoint. Some of the science behind the fiction was, a little too far above my physics GCE knowledge but that does not stop it from being enjoyable so go with the flow and enjoy the ride. Wonderful book, and if this is the first of a new series which the ending implies it will be, then great, and I will look forward to reading it in future...
This is the sort of stuff I want Stephen Baxter to write more of! High concept science fiction covering things on a cosmic scale. To be honest, the minute I knew that this featured versions of characters from the Manifold Trilogy I was hooked on reading this, and it does not disappoint. Some of the science behind the fiction was, a little too far above my physics GCE knowledge but that does not stop it from being enjoyable so go with the flow and enjoy the ride. Wonderful book, and if this is the first of a new series which the ending implies it will be, then great, and I will look forward to reading it in future...
October 6, 2019
A boring, inconsistent, cliché filled ripping yarn filled with annoying improbable characters. The tech deployed in the tale includes the likes of the, create it from nothing, sort of stuff we see in CSI.
It is reading this type of SF, maybe the F here stands for fantasy, that reminds me why I stopped reading this sort of tale years ago. To my cost, i.e. waste of time, I plodded through to the end.
It is reading this type of SF, maybe the F here stands for fantasy, that reminds me why I stopped reading this sort of tale years ago. To my cost, i.e. waste of time, I plodded through to the end.
October 6, 2019
The best thing I can say about this book is that it was no where near as bad as some of the other books I've read by Stephen Baxter. I was attracted to the premise but it never matched up to the blurb. Full review on the blog, but warning spoilers: https://resolutereader.blogspot.com/2...
November 24, 2019
Just got worse and worse and then he didn't want to write an ending so he just tacked a coda on. There's several large section of boring infodumps that lead nowhere and none of the characters get any kind of resolution. Highly disappointing.
December 8, 2019
Really bad science fiction. Not even science really. The characters are just there to say the ideas of the author, they don't do anything else. The book is completely unrealistic in the wrong way, not the unrealisticness of the future.
One of the worst books I've read.
One of the worst books I've read.
January 30, 2022
Stephen Baxter has done it again, can't wait for the next one!
January 29, 2024
Die Sternenpforte von Stephen Baxter
Ein Astronaut wird aus dem Kälteschlaf geholt. Nichts besonderes im SciFi Genre.
Auch das er 400 Jahre verschlafen hat ist erst mal nicht so bemerkenswert.
Wenn man aber die Gründe für sein Erwachen erfährt, wird es seltsam.
Seine Verschollene Frau hat ihm eine Nachricht geschickt. Wie kann das sein, den diese ist weit vor ihm gestorben. Und was ist das für eine Welt. Alles voller Wasser. Die Wüst ist voll mit Bäumen und die Bevölkerung sucht sich ihre Antworten von den Antworterinnen. Große Türme die alles Wissen der Erde speichern.
Es geht um Raumfahrt, Multiversen, andere Zeitlinien, Entscheidungen in den Zeitlinien die zu unterschiedlichen Zeitebenen geführt haben. Und Schluss endlich um eine Reise ans Ende des bekannten Universums.
Baxter verbindet alles mit einem feinen Zwirn. Sämtliche Handlungsstränge sind aufeinander abgestimmt. Die Charaktere sind schön ausgestaltet. Glaubhaft und man fühlt sich in der Geschichte zuhause.
Alles in allem ein sehr schöner SciFi Roman.
Der Schluss ist meines Erachtens nicht ganz passend. Aber irgendwie stimmig.
Ein Astronaut wird aus dem Kälteschlaf geholt. Nichts besonderes im SciFi Genre.
Auch das er 400 Jahre verschlafen hat ist erst mal nicht so bemerkenswert.
Wenn man aber die Gründe für sein Erwachen erfährt, wird es seltsam.
Seine Verschollene Frau hat ihm eine Nachricht geschickt. Wie kann das sein, den diese ist weit vor ihm gestorben. Und was ist das für eine Welt. Alles voller Wasser. Die Wüst ist voll mit Bäumen und die Bevölkerung sucht sich ihre Antworten von den Antworterinnen. Große Türme die alles Wissen der Erde speichern.
Es geht um Raumfahrt, Multiversen, andere Zeitlinien, Entscheidungen in den Zeitlinien die zu unterschiedlichen Zeitebenen geführt haben. Und Schluss endlich um eine Reise ans Ende des bekannten Universums.
Baxter verbindet alles mit einem feinen Zwirn. Sämtliche Handlungsstränge sind aufeinander abgestimmt. Die Charaktere sind schön ausgestaltet. Glaubhaft und man fühlt sich in der Geschichte zuhause.
Alles in allem ein sehr schöner SciFi Roman.
Der Schluss ist meines Erachtens nicht ganz passend. Aber irgendwie stimmig.
December 31, 2020
My main man Stephen Baxter wrote a book. I’ve written extensively in the past of how much I credit him for shaping my love for reading in general, and SF in particular. His Xelee books in the early 90’s and his Manifold books around the turn of the millennium were HUGE for me.
I was, of course, coming out of religious fundamentalism at the time, and basic properties of physics, like relativity & quantum mechanics were completely foreign to me (I don’t mean I found them confusing, I mean that I didn’t have an inkling of what they were). It sent me spiraling on a hunt to learn more about everything, which is why I quickly started a library of pop-science books and when I re-enrolled in school, I was taking mostly math and hard science courses for a time.
I have a soft spot for him. My tastes have changed somewhat, as I’m not reading books solely for the purpose of exploring science fictional ideas anymore, although I still love it. But as I’ve (hopefully) grown as a person, I still try to read as much of Baxter as I can.
And in recent decades, I’ve found I’ve found less pleasure in reading Baxter as a rule, I’m not certain if it’s him who’s changed or me, or both of us, but it has been tougher for me to enjoy his stuff. It makes me sad, but I do occasionally skip his books. This one, however, I decided to pick up after being very underwhelmed with his Xelee book I read last year (or maybe in 2018, I forget).
Although still filled mostly with something inexplicable happening, followed by a long conversation between characters where they philosophize over what occurred, being repeated over and over throughout the novel, I still liked it.
It feels like it works in a fragile way, if that makes any sense, like if I tried to figure out why I enjoyed this and not some of his other stuff of late, then I might come away realizing I didn’t like this so much after all, that maybe I’d like it because I wasn’t paying attention, and if I did pay attention, I’d start seeing all the parts that weren’t so good more clearly.
So, I won’t reflect on it too much. I do think I’ll pick up the sequel novel that just came out soon and see how that one goes.
I was, of course, coming out of religious fundamentalism at the time, and basic properties of physics, like relativity & quantum mechanics were completely foreign to me (I don’t mean I found them confusing, I mean that I didn’t have an inkling of what they were). It sent me spiraling on a hunt to learn more about everything, which is why I quickly started a library of pop-science books and when I re-enrolled in school, I was taking mostly math and hard science courses for a time.
I have a soft spot for him. My tastes have changed somewhat, as I’m not reading books solely for the purpose of exploring science fictional ideas anymore, although I still love it. But as I’ve (hopefully) grown as a person, I still try to read as much of Baxter as I can.
And in recent decades, I’ve found I’ve found less pleasure in reading Baxter as a rule, I’m not certain if it’s him who’s changed or me, or both of us, but it has been tougher for me to enjoy his stuff. It makes me sad, but I do occasionally skip his books. This one, however, I decided to pick up after being very underwhelmed with his Xelee book I read last year (or maybe in 2018, I forget).
Although still filled mostly with something inexplicable happening, followed by a long conversation between characters where they philosophize over what occurred, being repeated over and over throughout the novel, I still liked it.
It feels like it works in a fragile way, if that makes any sense, like if I tried to figure out why I enjoyed this and not some of his other stuff of late, then I might come away realizing I didn’t like this so much after all, that maybe I’d like it because I wasn’t paying attention, and if I did pay attention, I’d start seeing all the parts that weren’t so good more clearly.
So, I won’t reflect on it too much. I do think I’ll pick up the sequel novel that just came out soon and see how that one goes.
December 30, 2019
3.4 rounded down to 3.0.
The blurb/synopsis of the book is not 100% accurate, actually I would say not even 70% accurate, or did I read another version of the same book?, another manifold maybe?. So just a heads up and don't be mislead by the blurb.
Update: They finally updated the whole blurb.
This guy Malenfant wakes up from coldsleep to find a more advanced world where all the basic needs are covered (health, food, education, etc.), a sort of utopia (for many) and also a creepy world to live in. There is not purpose for the future to come , instead the people just focus in the present as that is what really matters for them.
From here until around 150p is worldbuilding, and exploration of this 25th century world, then things start going weird and the book changes completely from what the synopsis actually says.
I could see here Baxter forcing himself from giving loads of info dumps until he couldn’t anymore, so this book is not as hard SF as some of his other books and will probably appeal to those who wants something a bit different in that sense, but there are still a lot of Hard SF on it, in the last third specially, just not as much as many are used to when reading Baxter.
This is the first installment of a duology , the second book World Engines: Creator to be published next year, so to describe this first book as a whole I would say it was enjoyable and did not feel I wasted my time.
The blurb/synopsis of the book is not 100% accurate, actually I would say not even 70% accurate, or did I read another version of the same book?, another manifold maybe?. So just a heads up and don't be mislead by the blurb.
Update: They finally updated the whole blurb.
This guy Malenfant wakes up from coldsleep to find a more advanced world where all the basic needs are covered (health, food, education, etc.), a sort of utopia (for many) and also a creepy world to live in. There is not purpose for the future to come , instead the people just focus in the present as that is what really matters for them.
From here until around 150p is worldbuilding, and exploration of this 25th century world, then things start going weird and the book changes completely from what the synopsis actually says.
I could see here Baxter forcing himself from giving loads of info dumps until he couldn’t anymore, so this book is not as hard SF as some of his other books and will probably appeal to those who wants something a bit different in that sense, but there are still a lot of Hard SF on it, in the last third specially, just not as much as many are used to when reading Baxter.
This is the first installment of a duology , the second book World Engines: Creator to be published next year, so to describe this first book as a whole I would say it was enjoyable and did not feel I wasted my time.
October 7, 2019
Reid Malenfant, a shuttle pilot, wakes up in the year 2,570 to a world radically changed after over 500 years of coldsleep. He also finds out than an interstellar object is on a collision course with our solar system.
The positive was the world building, with plenty of thoughtful technological and geographical changes in the 500 years.
Unfortunately there were more negatives - lots of info-dumping, numerous character back-stories that became dull, and the main character of Malenfent is an unlikable, grumpy old man.
Overall a bit disappointing, especially as he's written other novels that I have really enjoyed.
The positive was the world building, with plenty of thoughtful technological and geographical changes in the 500 years.
Unfortunately there were more negatives - lots of info-dumping, numerous character back-stories that became dull, and the main character of Malenfent is an unlikable, grumpy old man.
Overall a bit disappointing, especially as he's written other novels that I have really enjoyed.
October 11, 2020
I’ve read a number of Baxter’s books that I quite enjoyed. In this case, however, Iwas quite unimpressed with the characters presented. None of them were particularly interesting, and this version of Malenfant was just a jerk. It reads as old school - an old man’s fantasy of everyone else subservient to him, even on topics where he is the least skilled. He instantly gets and understands everything.
I only read the book for the sci fi, and skipped over most of the pointless dialogue. I think I’m over reading any more from Stephen Baxter.
I only read the book for the sci fi, and skipped over most of the pointless dialogue. I think I’m over reading any more from Stephen Baxter.
November 4, 2019
After having been disappointed with Obelisk I wasn't 100% looking forward to this, especially given some of the one and two star ratings, but it is a return to form for Stephen Baxter. Whilst reading it I was getting a slight feeling of deja vu, the penny only dropping in reading the afterword. No wonder I recognised the use of Manifold (only having read the first two in that series some time ago). Without giving too much away, loved the alternate timelines.
Ray Smillie
Ray Smillie
April 23, 2022
„Artefakt - Sternenpforte“ von Stephen Baxter behandelt die Geschichte von Reid Malenfant, der nach über 400 Jahren aus dem Kälteschlaf geweckt wird, weil seine Ehefrau einen Notruf vom Phobos abgesetzt hat. Auf deutsch ist der Roman im Juni 2020 bei Heyne erschienen.
2004 bricht Emma Stoney zur ersten bemannten Mission zum Marsmond Phobos auf. Eine Anomalie soll untersucht werden, doch der Kontakt zur Erde bricht ab. Einige Jahre später stürzt ihr Mann Reid Malenfant mit einem Spaceshuttle ab, wird schwer verletzt geborgen und in einen Kälteschlaf versetzt.
Mehr als 400 Jahre später wird er aus diesem geweckt und das aus einem bestimmten Grund: Seine Frau Emma hat einen Notruf gesendet - vom Phobos - und um Malenfants Hilfe gebeten. Wie kann das sein und was erwartet ihn dort? Und wie kommt er mit der stark veränderten Welt zurecht, in der es kein Raumfahrtprogramm mehr gibt?
Bei diesem Buch habe ich zuerst den Klappentext des zweiten Bandes gelesen, der mich sehr neugierig gemacht hat und so musste natürlich auch der erste Band bei mir einziehen. Als ich das Buch begann zu lesen, hatte ich Lust auf etwas was ganz weit weg von Krieg ist und das habe ich im Großen und Ganzen bekommen, dennoch war es auf einigen wenigen Seiten erschreckenderweise sehr nah an der aktuellen Realität dran.
Der Schreibstil des Buches hat mir gut gefallen. Ich konnte mir größtenteils alles gut vorstellen, was ich gerade bei Science-Fiction durchaus wichtig finde. So technisch und wissenschaftlich es manchmal auch wird, ich muss ein Gefühl für die Idee bekommen, damit sie mich begeistern kann.
Die Perspektiven in diesem Buch wechseln sich ab. Mal erzählt Reid Malenfant aus der Ich-Perspektive, mal gibt es Kapitel, die eine Art Gespräch darstellen und über weite Strecken haben wir einen Erzähler, bei dem Malenfant oftmals etwas mehr im Fokus steht als andere.
Der Spannungsbogen entwickelt sich sehr langsam und teilweise hat auch mir das fast zu lange gedauert. Ich hatte schnell eine Idee, worum es thematisch gehen könnte, es dauert allerdings fast bis zum Ende des Buches bis zu einer umfassenden Erklärung. Zunächst einmal wurde ich mit Malenfant ins 25. Jahrhundert katapultiert und habe viel über die Veränderungen erfahren, die bei den Werten und Gepflogenheiten anfangen und sich über die Politik bis hin zum Klima ziehen. Es ist wirklich sehr viel anders und es war ein interessanter Blick auf unsere Zukunft, wenn auch für meinen Geschmack etwas zu ausführlich. Das ist alles wichtig, um die Idee der Geschichte zu verstehen, aber ich glaube, das hätte auch etwas kürzer funktioniert.
Über die Ideen und Themen in diesem Buch möchte ich gar nicht so viel verraten, denn ich glaube, es macht am meisten Spaß diese selber zu entdecken. Von meinem Gefühl her ist dieses Buch so, wie viele sich Science-Fiction typischerweise vorstellen, obwohl das Genre an sich sehr vielfältig ist und ich glaube, dass sich da für jeden etwas findet. Wenn man sich darauf einlassen kann, dann gibt einen dieses Buch ein super spannendes Gedankenexperiment, mit dem man sich stundenlang beschäftigen kann. Dieses Buch steigt da im weiteren Verlauf recht tief ein und mir begann so manches Mal ein bisschen der Kopf bei zu schwirren, dennoch mochte ich es auch total gern, weil es so viele Möglichkeiten eröffnet hat.
Malenfant war anfangs ein recht schwieriger Charakter für mich. So sehr ich seine Schwierigkeiten mit den neuen Gegebenheiten verstehen konnte, seine Handlungen blieben mir da doch eher etwas fremd. Nach und nach hat er sich allerdings doch in mein Herz geschlichen, was sicher auch Deirdra Greggson zu verdanken ist, die unerschütterlich an seiner Seite steht und ich mochte seine Referenzen zu anderen Science-Fiction Werken, wie z.B. Asimov.
Deirdra Greggson oder nach den Gepflogenheiten im 25. Jahrhundert eher Greggson Deirdra mochte ich von Beginn an. Sie wirkt die meiste Zeit im Hintergrund und dennoch weiß man, dass sie wichtig ist. Ich mochte ihre verständnisvolle Art und ihre Neugier, die sie selbstbewusst ihren Weg gehen lässt. Und auch Bartholomew, der Leibarzt Malenfants, konnte mich für sich einnehmen, über ihn möchte ich allerdings nicht zu viel verraten.
Viel Zusatzmaterial gibt es in diesem Buch nicht. Die Ideen des Buches werden bereits gut in der Geschichte umrissen. In einem kurzen Nachwort gibt der Autor einen kurzen Einblick, über die Werke, die er zur Recherche für dieses Buch genutzt hat und woher einige Zitate im Buch stammen.
Fazit: Ein Buch, das seine Zeit braucht, um sich richtig zu entfalten, dass allerdings mit einem spannenden Gedankenexperiment aufwarten kann, mit dem ich mich gerne beschäftigt habe. Das Buch kann als abgeschlossenes Werk gelesen werden, ich bin allerdings sehr neugierig auf den zweiten Teil, in dem ich hoffentlich noch tiefer in die Thematik eintauchen kann. Empfehlenswert für Menschen, die gerne Science-Fiction lesen und Lust auf ein cooles Gedankenexperiment haben.
2004 bricht Emma Stoney zur ersten bemannten Mission zum Marsmond Phobos auf. Eine Anomalie soll untersucht werden, doch der Kontakt zur Erde bricht ab. Einige Jahre später stürzt ihr Mann Reid Malenfant mit einem Spaceshuttle ab, wird schwer verletzt geborgen und in einen Kälteschlaf versetzt.
Mehr als 400 Jahre später wird er aus diesem geweckt und das aus einem bestimmten Grund: Seine Frau Emma hat einen Notruf gesendet - vom Phobos - und um Malenfants Hilfe gebeten. Wie kann das sein und was erwartet ihn dort? Und wie kommt er mit der stark veränderten Welt zurecht, in der es kein Raumfahrtprogramm mehr gibt?
Bei diesem Buch habe ich zuerst den Klappentext des zweiten Bandes gelesen, der mich sehr neugierig gemacht hat und so musste natürlich auch der erste Band bei mir einziehen. Als ich das Buch begann zu lesen, hatte ich Lust auf etwas was ganz weit weg von Krieg ist und das habe ich im Großen und Ganzen bekommen, dennoch war es auf einigen wenigen Seiten erschreckenderweise sehr nah an der aktuellen Realität dran.
Der Schreibstil des Buches hat mir gut gefallen. Ich konnte mir größtenteils alles gut vorstellen, was ich gerade bei Science-Fiction durchaus wichtig finde. So technisch und wissenschaftlich es manchmal auch wird, ich muss ein Gefühl für die Idee bekommen, damit sie mich begeistern kann.
Die Perspektiven in diesem Buch wechseln sich ab. Mal erzählt Reid Malenfant aus der Ich-Perspektive, mal gibt es Kapitel, die eine Art Gespräch darstellen und über weite Strecken haben wir einen Erzähler, bei dem Malenfant oftmals etwas mehr im Fokus steht als andere.
Der Spannungsbogen entwickelt sich sehr langsam und teilweise hat auch mir das fast zu lange gedauert. Ich hatte schnell eine Idee, worum es thematisch gehen könnte, es dauert allerdings fast bis zum Ende des Buches bis zu einer umfassenden Erklärung. Zunächst einmal wurde ich mit Malenfant ins 25. Jahrhundert katapultiert und habe viel über die Veränderungen erfahren, die bei den Werten und Gepflogenheiten anfangen und sich über die Politik bis hin zum Klima ziehen. Es ist wirklich sehr viel anders und es war ein interessanter Blick auf unsere Zukunft, wenn auch für meinen Geschmack etwas zu ausführlich. Das ist alles wichtig, um die Idee der Geschichte zu verstehen, aber ich glaube, das hätte auch etwas kürzer funktioniert.
Über die Ideen und Themen in diesem Buch möchte ich gar nicht so viel verraten, denn ich glaube, es macht am meisten Spaß diese selber zu entdecken. Von meinem Gefühl her ist dieses Buch so, wie viele sich Science-Fiction typischerweise vorstellen, obwohl das Genre an sich sehr vielfältig ist und ich glaube, dass sich da für jeden etwas findet. Wenn man sich darauf einlassen kann, dann gibt einen dieses Buch ein super spannendes Gedankenexperiment, mit dem man sich stundenlang beschäftigen kann. Dieses Buch steigt da im weiteren Verlauf recht tief ein und mir begann so manches Mal ein bisschen der Kopf bei zu schwirren, dennoch mochte ich es auch total gern, weil es so viele Möglichkeiten eröffnet hat.
Malenfant war anfangs ein recht schwieriger Charakter für mich. So sehr ich seine Schwierigkeiten mit den neuen Gegebenheiten verstehen konnte, seine Handlungen blieben mir da doch eher etwas fremd. Nach und nach hat er sich allerdings doch in mein Herz geschlichen, was sicher auch Deirdra Greggson zu verdanken ist, die unerschütterlich an seiner Seite steht und ich mochte seine Referenzen zu anderen Science-Fiction Werken, wie z.B. Asimov.
Deirdra Greggson oder nach den Gepflogenheiten im 25. Jahrhundert eher Greggson Deirdra mochte ich von Beginn an. Sie wirkt die meiste Zeit im Hintergrund und dennoch weiß man, dass sie wichtig ist. Ich mochte ihre verständnisvolle Art und ihre Neugier, die sie selbstbewusst ihren Weg gehen lässt. Und auch Bartholomew, der Leibarzt Malenfants, konnte mich für sich einnehmen, über ihn möchte ich allerdings nicht zu viel verraten.
Viel Zusatzmaterial gibt es in diesem Buch nicht. Die Ideen des Buches werden bereits gut in der Geschichte umrissen. In einem kurzen Nachwort gibt der Autor einen kurzen Einblick, über die Werke, die er zur Recherche für dieses Buch genutzt hat und woher einige Zitate im Buch stammen.
Fazit: Ein Buch, das seine Zeit braucht, um sich richtig zu entfalten, dass allerdings mit einem spannenden Gedankenexperiment aufwarten kann, mit dem ich mich gerne beschäftigt habe. Das Buch kann als abgeschlossenes Werk gelesen werden, ich bin allerdings sehr neugierig auf den zweiten Teil, in dem ich hoffentlich noch tiefer in die Thematik eintauchen kann. Empfehlenswert für Menschen, die gerne Science-Fiction lesen und Lust auf ein cooles Gedankenexperiment haben.
January 14, 2021
Reid Malenfant, Pilot bei der NASA, stürzt 2019 mit seinem Shuttle ab – und wird 450 Jahre später in einer fernen, fremden Zukunft aus dem Kälteschlaf geholt. Die Erde hat eine Botschaft für ihn empfangen. Sie kommt von seiner Ehefrau Emma, die 2005 bei einer Marsmission verschwand… Was wie ein Aufmacher für eine grandiose Sci-Fi-Geschichte über Zeitreisen, Paralleluniversen und alternative Zukünfte klingt, ufert leider in über 700 Seiten voller Monologe über alternative Vergangenheiten aus. Und es ist der Auftakt zu einer Trilogie…
Die Welt, in der Malenfant mit der Hilfe einer Teenagerin und eines Pflege-/Arztroboters zurechtkommen muss, ist als Folge der Klimaerwärmung tropisch warm und größtenteils überflutet. Selbst in der Sahara wachsen Bäume. Die Menschheit ist auf knapp eine Million dezimiert, sehr zufrieden mit der Situation und sieht dem durch den „Zerstörer“ drohenden Ende der Welt in tausend Jahren absolut gelassen entgegen. Wie es dazu kam – sowohl zu den Überschwemmungen als auch zu der Gesellschaft, wie sie jetzt ist – wird ausführlich und immer wieder bis ins kleinste Detail erklärt.
Überhaupt gibt es unglaublich viel Infodump. Ein Großteil der Handlung besteht aus verschiedenen Charakteren, die sich alle gleich anhören, gleich benehmen und auf die gleiche Art lange Vorträge über die Ereignisse der Vergangenheit oder die der Zukunft halten. Abwechslung schaffen eigentlich nur Vorträge über wissenschaftliche Methoden, zum Mars zu fliegen. Wer darauf steht, bitteschön – für mich war das alles unglaublich anstrengend und langweilig zu lesen.
Die Charaktere sind, wie schon gesagt, alle sehr gleichförmig. Alle erzählen und erklären ganz schön viel, und keiner hat irgendwie eine eigene Stimme. Malenfant als Protagonist ist ziemlich widerlich. Er ist unhöflich, egoistisch, arrogant und respektlos, geht davon aus, dass die ganze Gesellschaft der Zukunft nur existiert, um seine Ziele zu verfolgen und ihn dabei zu unterstützen. Die ersten paar Kapitel über war das noch interessant, dann war es lediglich anstrengend. Deirdra, die von Malenfant selbst als zentrale Figur der Geschichte bezeichnet wird, führt sich trotz ihrer 17, später 20 Jahre auf wie ein Kind, macht nur, was sie will, und ist mit einem Mal so intelligent wie eine NASA-Astronautin. Ganz davon abgesehen, dass sie mal eben so für sechs Jahre ins Weltall verschwindet, ohne ihre Mutter zu informieren, wo ihr doch vorher guter Kontakt zur Mutter so wichtig war. Auch Deirdra bleibt blass und uninteressant. Dann gibt es noch Emma Stoney, einen Russen und eine Handvoll Briten, die alle gleich klingen, dieselben Interessen haben und gleich viel mit ihren Forschungsergebnissen prahlen. Wie langweilig.
Der Plot könnte großartig sein. Immerhin geht es um die Zukunft, um viele verschiedene Varianten der Vergangenheit, um die Auswirkung kleiner Ereignisse auf die Menschheitsgeschichte und um Reisen zum Mars und noch weiter! Leider hat man beim Lesen eher das Gefühl, so vor sich hinzutreiben, ohne roten Faden und nur mit dem Sinn, die Zukunftsvisionen des Autors gaaaanz deutlich zu erklären.
Zusätzlich gibt es für meinen Geschmack zu viele Loblieder auf die US-Amerikaner, die stets als kluge, weise Menschen mit Weitblick und technischem Geschick dargestellt werden – oder wenigstens als absolut überlegene Gegner, vor denen die Welt im Allgemeinen und Russland im Speziellen besser den Kopf einzieht. Und das aus einem 2019 erschienenen Buch…!
Alles in Allem bin ich froh, dass ich es hinter mir habe, und werde den nächsten Teil ganz sicher nicht anrühren.
Die Welt, in der Malenfant mit der Hilfe einer Teenagerin und eines Pflege-/Arztroboters zurechtkommen muss, ist als Folge der Klimaerwärmung tropisch warm und größtenteils überflutet. Selbst in der Sahara wachsen Bäume. Die Menschheit ist auf knapp eine Million dezimiert, sehr zufrieden mit der Situation und sieht dem durch den „Zerstörer“ drohenden Ende der Welt in tausend Jahren absolut gelassen entgegen. Wie es dazu kam – sowohl zu den Überschwemmungen als auch zu der Gesellschaft, wie sie jetzt ist – wird ausführlich und immer wieder bis ins kleinste Detail erklärt.
Überhaupt gibt es unglaublich viel Infodump. Ein Großteil der Handlung besteht aus verschiedenen Charakteren, die sich alle gleich anhören, gleich benehmen und auf die gleiche Art lange Vorträge über die Ereignisse der Vergangenheit oder die der Zukunft halten. Abwechslung schaffen eigentlich nur Vorträge über wissenschaftliche Methoden, zum Mars zu fliegen. Wer darauf steht, bitteschön – für mich war das alles unglaublich anstrengend und langweilig zu lesen.
Die Charaktere sind, wie schon gesagt, alle sehr gleichförmig. Alle erzählen und erklären ganz schön viel, und keiner hat irgendwie eine eigene Stimme. Malenfant als Protagonist ist ziemlich widerlich. Er ist unhöflich, egoistisch, arrogant und respektlos, geht davon aus, dass die ganze Gesellschaft der Zukunft nur existiert, um seine Ziele zu verfolgen und ihn dabei zu unterstützen. Die ersten paar Kapitel über war das noch interessant, dann war es lediglich anstrengend. Deirdra, die von Malenfant selbst als zentrale Figur der Geschichte bezeichnet wird, führt sich trotz ihrer 17, später 20 Jahre auf wie ein Kind, macht nur, was sie will, und ist mit einem Mal so intelligent wie eine NASA-Astronautin. Ganz davon abgesehen, dass sie mal eben so für sechs Jahre ins Weltall verschwindet, ohne ihre Mutter zu informieren, wo ihr doch vorher guter Kontakt zur Mutter so wichtig war. Auch Deirdra bleibt blass und uninteressant. Dann gibt es noch Emma Stoney, einen Russen und eine Handvoll Briten, die alle gleich klingen, dieselben Interessen haben und gleich viel mit ihren Forschungsergebnissen prahlen. Wie langweilig.
Der Plot könnte großartig sein. Immerhin geht es um die Zukunft, um viele verschiedene Varianten der Vergangenheit, um die Auswirkung kleiner Ereignisse auf die Menschheitsgeschichte und um Reisen zum Mars und noch weiter! Leider hat man beim Lesen eher das Gefühl, so vor sich hinzutreiben, ohne roten Faden und nur mit dem Sinn, die Zukunftsvisionen des Autors gaaaanz deutlich zu erklären.
Zusätzlich gibt es für meinen Geschmack zu viele Loblieder auf die US-Amerikaner, die stets als kluge, weise Menschen mit Weitblick und technischem Geschick dargestellt werden – oder wenigstens als absolut überlegene Gegner, vor denen die Welt im Allgemeinen und Russland im Speziellen besser den Kopf einzieht. Und das aus einem 2019 erschienenen Buch…!
Alles in Allem bin ich froh, dass ich es hinter mir habe, und werde den nächsten Teil ganz sicher nicht anrühren.
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October 20, 2021Jeg har ikke læst Stephen Baxter før og jeg kender hovedsageligt hans navn fra hans samarbejde med Terry Pratchett (de bøger har jeg nu heller ikke læst).
World Engines er et tobindsværk, hvor første bog hedder Destroyer.
Rumpiloten Malenfant vågner op efter ca. 450 år, hvor han har været i slags dybfrossen dvale på grund af en slem ulykke tilbage i 2019.
Han finder hurtigt ud af, at den verden han er vågnet i, ikke stemmer overens med det han husker fra den verden han kommer fra.
Mærkeligere bliver det, da han hører en båndet optagelse af hans hustru, der i Malenfants tid, forsvandt under en rejse til Mars’ måne.
Nu bønfalder hun ham om at blive reddet.
Det er en historie om tidsparadokser og
bogen er ret detaljeret i en hard science fact-stil, hvilket jeg egentlig ikke var specielt underholdt af. Men selve worldbuilding’en holdt mig fuldstændig fastlåst - det er altså en ret crazy verden, som Malenfant vågner op i😃👏
Historien er til tider også ret humoristisk, hvilket overraskede mig en del. Jeg tror det er første gang jeg er stødt på humor i en sci fi bog.
Der går nok 150-200 sider før historien går rigtig igang, men det gjorde bestemt ikke noget, for det var ret så underholdende og sær - på den gode måde😃
Hovedpersonen Malenfant er faktisk en karakter fra en anden serie af Stephen Baxter, nemlig Manifold serien. Jeg anede dog ikke, at hovedpersonen havde været brugt før og jeg følte ikke jeg manglede viden, mens jeg læste Destroyer.
Alt ialt har jeg været ret godt underholdt af historien om en ret anderledes verden end den jeg kender. Jeg manglede dog lidt action og den blev en smule ensformig hen mod slutningen.
Men jeg er stadig interesseret i hvordan det hele ender, så jeg skal helt sikkert også læse Creator, som den sidste bog hedder😃👍
⭐️⭐️⭐️/6
World Engines er et tobindsværk, hvor første bog hedder Destroyer.
Rumpiloten Malenfant vågner op efter ca. 450 år, hvor han har været i slags dybfrossen dvale på grund af en slem ulykke tilbage i 2019.
Han finder hurtigt ud af, at den verden han er vågnet i, ikke stemmer overens med det han husker fra den verden han kommer fra.
Mærkeligere bliver det, da han hører en båndet optagelse af hans hustru, der i Malenfants tid, forsvandt under en rejse til Mars’ måne.
Nu bønfalder hun ham om at blive reddet.
Det er en historie om tidsparadokser og
bogen er ret detaljeret i en hard science fact-stil, hvilket jeg egentlig ikke var specielt underholdt af. Men selve worldbuilding’en holdt mig fuldstændig fastlåst - det er altså en ret crazy verden, som Malenfant vågner op i😃👏
Historien er til tider også ret humoristisk, hvilket overraskede mig en del. Jeg tror det er første gang jeg er stødt på humor i en sci fi bog.
Der går nok 150-200 sider før historien går rigtig igang, men det gjorde bestemt ikke noget, for det var ret så underholdende og sær - på den gode måde😃
Hovedpersonen Malenfant er faktisk en karakter fra en anden serie af Stephen Baxter, nemlig Manifold serien. Jeg anede dog ikke, at hovedpersonen havde været brugt før og jeg følte ikke jeg manglede viden, mens jeg læste Destroyer.
Alt ialt har jeg været ret godt underholdt af historien om en ret anderledes verden end den jeg kender. Jeg manglede dog lidt action og den blev en smule ensformig hen mod slutningen.
Men jeg er stadig interesseret i hvordan det hele ender, så jeg skal helt sikkert også læse Creator, som den sidste bog hedder😃👍
⭐️⭐️⭐️/6
January 5, 2021
Wow, dieses Buch hat sich mal ganz anders entwickelt als erwartet. Im positiven Sinne, da ich mit einer wesentlich komplexeren Story überrascht wurde. Das Erzähltempo ist im Vergleich zu anderen Sci-Fi Titeln die ich gelesen habe langsamer, ich empfand es jedoch als angenehm da es technisch gesehen manchmal schon etwas ins Detail geht und auch storymäßig einiges passiert das einen als Leser ansonsten überfordern könnte.
SPOILER:
Die Idee mit den verschiedenen Zeitlinien und auch die Umsetzung fand ich ziemlich cool, besonders das Spiel mit den Möglichkeiten in der Geschichte und wie es in jeder Vergangenheit eine andere Nation war die den Weltraum eroberte. In diesem Zusammenhang möchte ich auch die Charaktereinführungen hervorheben. Generell empfand ich in diesem Buch das etwas langsamere Erzähltempo als sehr angenehm, besonders fiel dies jedoch auf wenn ein neuer Astronaut eingeführt wurde. Bei jedem wurde sich einige Zeit genommen, den Charakter in Dialogform kurz vorzustellen und in diesem Zusammenhang auch zu erläutern was seinen Zeitstrang von dem der anderen unterscheidet. Wobei es doch ein sehr erleuchtender Moment war, als überhaupt die verschiedenen Zeitstränge aufgedeckt wurden. Schon auf den ersten Seiten sorgte Malenfants Zeit bei mir nämlich für Verwirrung. Es waren nur Kleinigkeiten -z.B. das Armstrong in seiner Version bei der Mondlandung stirbt - die am Anfang total irritieren, in Kontext später jedoch Sinn ergeben. Auch die Art, wie Deirdra gegen Ende hin immer mehr in den Vordergrund rückte und Malenfant verdrängte fand ich sehr gut, vor allem wenn man die letzten Seiten liest. Am Ende bleiben jedoch noch viele Fragen offen, vor allem was letztendlich aus den Charakteren geworden ist bei ihrem letzten Sprung durch Raum und Zeit...
SPOILER:
Die Idee mit den verschiedenen Zeitlinien und auch die Umsetzung fand ich ziemlich cool, besonders das Spiel mit den Möglichkeiten in der Geschichte und wie es in jeder Vergangenheit eine andere Nation war die den Weltraum eroberte. In diesem Zusammenhang möchte ich auch die Charaktereinführungen hervorheben. Generell empfand ich in diesem Buch das etwas langsamere Erzähltempo als sehr angenehm, besonders fiel dies jedoch auf wenn ein neuer Astronaut eingeführt wurde. Bei jedem wurde sich einige Zeit genommen, den Charakter in Dialogform kurz vorzustellen und in diesem Zusammenhang auch zu erläutern was seinen Zeitstrang von dem der anderen unterscheidet. Wobei es doch ein sehr erleuchtender Moment war, als überhaupt die verschiedenen Zeitstränge aufgedeckt wurden. Schon auf den ersten Seiten sorgte Malenfants Zeit bei mir nämlich für Verwirrung. Es waren nur Kleinigkeiten -z.B. das Armstrong in seiner Version bei der Mondlandung stirbt - die am Anfang total irritieren, in Kontext später jedoch Sinn ergeben. Auch die Art, wie Deirdra gegen Ende hin immer mehr in den Vordergrund rückte und Malenfant verdrängte fand ich sehr gut, vor allem wenn man die letzten Seiten liest. Am Ende bleiben jedoch noch viele Fragen offen, vor allem was letztendlich aus den Charakteren geworden ist bei ihrem letzten Sprung durch Raum und Zeit...
Want to read
March 14, 2020Here's a confusing review in Locus by Russel Letson:
https://locusmag.com/2020/03/russell-...
Excerpt:
"Reid Malenfant is indeed an annoying, impatient, often abrasive character, and for Baxter’s audience a familiar one. Versions of him and Emma Stone have featured in Baxter’s three Manifold novels (1999-2001), so it is not much of a spoiler to reveal that this Malenfant is not the Malenfant of those books, nor is this any of those worlds. Nor is it ours, since it split off from our history in 1969, with a different outcome for the first moon landing and a strange evolution in the sentiments and behavior of Richard Nixon, resulting in an ambitious space program that eventually enables extensive exploration, habitats, and settlements on the moon and Mars, as well as the evolution of highly developed artificial intelligences able to respond to the crises of climate change."
Huh. Mixed reviews here, and first of a trilogy. I might try it, if the library gets a copy?
https://locusmag.com/2020/03/russell-...
Excerpt:
"Reid Malenfant is indeed an annoying, impatient, often abrasive character, and for Baxter’s audience a familiar one. Versions of him and Emma Stone have featured in Baxter’s three Manifold novels (1999-2001), so it is not much of a spoiler to reveal that this Malenfant is not the Malenfant of those books, nor is this any of those worlds. Nor is it ours, since it split off from our history in 1969, with a different outcome for the first moon landing and a strange evolution in the sentiments and behavior of Richard Nixon, resulting in an ambitious space program that eventually enables extensive exploration, habitats, and settlements on the moon and Mars, as well as the evolution of highly developed artificial intelligences able to respond to the crises of climate change."
Huh. Mixed reviews here, and first of a trilogy. I might try it, if the library gets a copy?
November 28, 2021
I like these books somehow. They are interesting thought experiments and some commentary is adapt in my opinion. Though I wonder if Elon Musk imagines himself as one of this author's engineer heroes?
This novel has many of Baxter's quirks and turns but is entertaining throughout. I would have loved him to go a bit more into the system and society side of things but you get what you see on this cover.
This novel has many of Baxter's quirks and turns but is entertaining throughout. I would have loved him to go a bit more into the system and society side of things but you get what you see on this cover.
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