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A Time Odyssey #3
Firstborn
The Firstborn -- the mysterious race of aliens who first became known to science fiction fans as the builders of the iconic black monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey -- have inhabited legendary science fiction master Sir Arthur C. Clarke's writing for decades. With Time's Eye and Sunstorm , the first two books in the acclaimed 'Time Odyssey' series, Clarke and his brilliant coauthor, Stephen Baxter, imagined a near future in which the Firstborn seek to stop the advance of human civilization by employing a technology indistinguishable from magic.
Their first act was the Discontinuity, in which Earth was carved into sections from different eras of history, re-stitched into a patchwork world, and renamed Mir. Mir's inhabitants included such notables as Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, and United Nations peacekeeper Bisesa Dutt. For reasons unknown to her, Bisesa entered into communication with an alien artifact of inscrutable purpose and godlike power--a power that eventually returned her to Earth. There, she played an instrumental role in humanity's race against time to stop a doomsday a massive solar storm triggered by the alien Firstborn, designed to eradicate all life from the planet. That fate was averted at an inconceivable price. Now, twenty-seven years later, the Firstborn are back.
This time, they are pulling no punches. They have sent a ''quantum bomb.'' Speeding toward Earth, it is a device that human scientists can barely comprehend, that cannot be stopped or destroyed--and one that will obliterate Earth.
Bisesa's desperate quest for answers sends her first to Mars and then to Mir, which is itself threatened with extinction. The end seems inevitable. But as shocking new insights emerge about the nature of the Firstborn and their chilling plans for mankind, an unexpected ally appears from light-years away.
Their first act was the Discontinuity, in which Earth was carved into sections from different eras of history, re-stitched into a patchwork world, and renamed Mir. Mir's inhabitants included such notables as Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, and United Nations peacekeeper Bisesa Dutt. For reasons unknown to her, Bisesa entered into communication with an alien artifact of inscrutable purpose and godlike power--a power that eventually returned her to Earth. There, she played an instrumental role in humanity's race against time to stop a doomsday a massive solar storm triggered by the alien Firstborn, designed to eradicate all life from the planet. That fate was averted at an inconceivable price. Now, twenty-seven years later, the Firstborn are back.
This time, they are pulling no punches. They have sent a ''quantum bomb.'' Speeding toward Earth, it is a device that human scientists can barely comprehend, that cannot be stopped or destroyed--and one that will obliterate Earth.
Bisesa's desperate quest for answers sends her first to Mars and then to Mir, which is itself threatened with extinction. The end seems inevitable. But as shocking new insights emerge about the nature of the Firstborn and their chilling plans for mankind, an unexpected ally appears from light-years away.
11 pages, Audio Cassette
First published January 1, 2007
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About the author
Arthur C. Clarke
1,647 books11.6k followersStories, works of noted British writer, scientist, and underwater explorer Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, include
2001: A Space Odyssey
(1968).
This most important and influential figure in 20th century fiction spent the first half of his life in England and served in World War II as a radar operator before migrating to Ceylon in 1956. He co-created his best known novel and movie with the assistance of Stanley Kubrick.
Clarke, a graduate of King's College, London, obtained first class honours in physics and mathematics. He served as past chairman of the interplanetary society and as a member of the academy of astronautics, the royal astronomical society, and many other organizations.
He authored more than fifty books and won his numerous awards: the Kalinga prize of 1961, the American association for the advancement Westinghouse prize, the Bradford Washburn award, and the John W. Campbell award for his novel Rendezvous with Rama. Clarke also won the nebula award of the fiction of America in 1972, 1974 and 1979, the Hugo award of the world fiction convention in 1974 and 1980. In 1986, he stood as grand master of the fiction of America. The queen knighted him as the commander of the British Empire in 1989.
This most important and influential figure in 20th century fiction spent the first half of his life in England and served in World War II as a radar operator before migrating to Ceylon in 1956. He co-created his best known novel and movie with the assistance of Stanley Kubrick.
Clarke, a graduate of King's College, London, obtained first class honours in physics and mathematics. He served as past chairman of the interplanetary society and as a member of the academy of astronautics, the royal astronomical society, and many other organizations.
He authored more than fifty books and won his numerous awards: the Kalinga prize of 1961, the American association for the advancement Westinghouse prize, the Bradford Washburn award, and the John W. Campbell award for his novel Rendezvous with Rama. Clarke also won the nebula award of the fiction of America in 1972, 1974 and 1979, the Hugo award of the world fiction convention in 1974 and 1980. In 1986, he stood as grand master of the fiction of America. The queen knighted him as the commander of the British Empire in 1989.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 226 reviews
June 29, 2018
Concluding (sadly) the Time Odyssey trilogy, this book firmly solidifies the wildly disconnected first and second novels into one cohesive storyline.
There are bigger stakes, believe it or not. Badder weapons, new strangeness, and a direct call-back between Clarke's Firstborn race that became noncorporeal, were the architects of intelligent life, and who were directly referenced in all the psychedelic images from 2001 A Space Odyssey. If that doesn't get your blood pumping with all those obelisks, I don't know what will.
Add that to some of Baxter's most awesome aliens in the silver spheres, a massive world-building experience with the Xeelee with universal implications and an almost completely one-sided fight, and this novel becomes a truly fascinating collage and melding of two absolutely enormous adventures full of great (and apparently accurate) science, lovely characters (especially the AIs), and a great cross-section of everyone. Spacers, Martians, Earthers, Alt-Earthers, Non-human intelligences, including the Watcher and our Missing Linkers, and of course the Firstborn.
Let's destroy some planets, damn the fates of some futures, and ask a few new questions.
It's good. Not great, but very good. It's better in the idea realm where we can explore the worlds of Clarke and Baxter in a truly cool mesh between their imaginations. I really believe it was an equal collaboration. This is, despite the fact that Clarke died soon after.
And that's where my biggest concern lies.
The end. Is not the end. It's not even close to an end. Everyone SAYS it's the end, that it wraps up the trilogy, and it does, at least by combining the previous two in a really big and cool way, answering tons of questions while asking even more...
But the VERY END is ... unsatisfying. Who the HELL is the Lastborn, and why are they losing the fight????? WTF!?!
Okay. Great cliffhanger. Whatever. But where is the NEXT trilogy?
Oh, wait. Clarke died. That was back in '07.
*screams and pulls out his hair*
I'm emotional because I see great things in this series. I see how the Three-Body Problem built and stood on the shoulders of JUST THIS KIND OF SF. OF course, this was a much easier read and didn't jam-pack nearly as much astounding ideas in its pages as Cixin Liu's work, but it comes awfully close.
And years before Cixin Liu wrote his something similar. :)
Just postulating here. And wondering. And wistful. I wish I had a lot more of these books.
There are bigger stakes, believe it or not. Badder weapons, new strangeness, and a direct call-back between Clarke's Firstborn race that became noncorporeal, were the architects of intelligent life, and who were directly referenced in all the psychedelic images from 2001 A Space Odyssey. If that doesn't get your blood pumping with all those obelisks, I don't know what will.
Add that to some of Baxter's most awesome aliens in the silver spheres, a massive world-building experience with the Xeelee with universal implications and an almost completely one-sided fight, and this novel becomes a truly fascinating collage and melding of two absolutely enormous adventures full of great (and apparently accurate) science, lovely characters (especially the AIs), and a great cross-section of everyone. Spacers, Martians, Earthers, Alt-Earthers, Non-human intelligences, including the Watcher and our Missing Linkers, and of course the Firstborn.
Let's destroy some planets, damn the fates of some futures, and ask a few new questions.
It's good. Not great, but very good. It's better in the idea realm where we can explore the worlds of Clarke and Baxter in a truly cool mesh between their imaginations. I really believe it was an equal collaboration. This is, despite the fact that Clarke died soon after.
And that's where my biggest concern lies.
The end. Is not the end. It's not even close to an end. Everyone SAYS it's the end, that it wraps up the trilogy, and it does, at least by combining the previous two in a really big and cool way, answering tons of questions while asking even more...
But the VERY END is ... unsatisfying. Who the HELL is the Lastborn, and why are they losing the fight????? WTF!?!
Okay. Great cliffhanger. Whatever. But where is the NEXT trilogy?
Oh, wait. Clarke died. That was back in '07.
*screams and pulls out his hair*
I'm emotional because I see great things in this series. I see how the Three-Body Problem built and stood on the shoulders of JUST THIS KIND OF SF. OF course, this was a much easier read and didn't jam-pack nearly as much astounding ideas in its pages as Cixin Liu's work, but it comes awfully close.
And years before Cixin Liu wrote his something similar. :)
Just postulating here. And wondering. And wistful. I wish I had a lot more of these books.
May 12, 2015
Well... I am suitably impressed with the way this series just got better and better. This book was the best of the trilogy, and that's a feat because I was quite satisfied with book #2 (after being a bit underwhelmed with book #1).
The first book (Time's Eye) seemed like a science fantasy to me. (Of course, it's still Clarke & Baxter, so the science included will be accurate.) In the vein of Barsoom, in which an alternate Earth (called Mir) is explored, and alternate time-streams result in a massive showdown between Genghis Khan and Alexander the Great. Oh.. and bad guys are responsible - Mir exists because they are trying to get us.
The second book (Sunstorm) seemed like a different genre. Action from the first book is referred to, but nothing takes place on Mir. It's all on Earth, and it's a nicely technical story about the struggles to build the infrastructure needed to stave off the attack of the aliens known as "Firstborn". (They're the bad guys who are responsible for the action-adventure that took place in the first book.)
So.. two different books, sitting comfortably within two completely different sub-genres of SF. Of course I'm going to like book #2 better, and I believe I even suggested (in my review of Sunstorm) that it would be possible to bypass the first book and go straight into the 2nd book.
But now... the final book (Firstborn) ties up the narrative from *both* previous books. It splits its action to occur both on Mir and on Earth. And there are numerously many references (and names) from events/places/people from both books that you might find it confusing if you don't go start book #3 immediately after reading the first two volumes.
In fact, I had to go back and skim my way through both previous works to remind myself about the details, because they do show up in this novel. I have to retract my previous suggestion then about skipping the first book. If you want to fully enjoy this series, you'll need to read them in the proper order, and pretty well successively so that you don't forget names and places.
Beyond that, the story in the final volume is a nice followup to that which happened in Sunstorm. The aliens are still out to get us, and they lob another weapon at Earth. This time, however, we may not have time (or proper technology) to build any structure that will shelter us.
While I considered this a slight step up from Sunstorm, it suffers in other areas, and thus I couldn't give this 5 full stars. There was far too much secrecy and distrust among "spacers" and those on Earth. It almost seems like somebody was reading some Larry Niven and decided that they also needed some political intrigue between the spacers and the flatlanders.
A good read, and recommended, but now I know that really should have read the whole series pretty well one-after-the-other. Worth your time.
The first book (Time's Eye) seemed like a science fantasy to me. (Of course, it's still Clarke & Baxter, so the science included will be accurate.) In the vein of Barsoom, in which an alternate Earth (called Mir) is explored, and alternate time-streams result in a massive showdown between Genghis Khan and Alexander the Great. Oh.. and bad guys are responsible - Mir exists because they are trying to get us.
The second book (Sunstorm) seemed like a different genre. Action from the first book is referred to, but nothing takes place on Mir. It's all on Earth, and it's a nicely technical story about the struggles to build the infrastructure needed to stave off the attack of the aliens known as "Firstborn". (They're the bad guys who are responsible for the action-adventure that took place in the first book.)
So.. two different books, sitting comfortably within two completely different sub-genres of SF. Of course I'm going to like book #2 better, and I believe I even suggested (in my review of Sunstorm) that it would be possible to bypass the first book and go straight into the 2nd book.
But now... the final book (Firstborn) ties up the narrative from *both* previous books. It splits its action to occur both on Mir and on Earth. And there are numerously many references (and names) from events/places/people from both books that you might find it confusing if you don't go start book #3 immediately after reading the first two volumes.
In fact, I had to go back and skim my way through both previous works to remind myself about the details, because they do show up in this novel. I have to retract my previous suggestion then about skipping the first book. If you want to fully enjoy this series, you'll need to read them in the proper order, and pretty well successively so that you don't forget names and places.
Beyond that, the story in the final volume is a nice followup to that which happened in Sunstorm. The aliens are still out to get us, and they lob another weapon at Earth. This time, however, we may not have time (or proper technology) to build any structure that will shelter us.
While I considered this a slight step up from Sunstorm, it suffers in other areas, and thus I couldn't give this 5 full stars. There was far too much secrecy and distrust among "spacers" and those on Earth. It almost seems like somebody was reading some Larry Niven and decided that they also needed some political intrigue between the spacers and the flatlanders.
A good read, and recommended, but now I know that really should have read the whole series pretty well one-after-the-other. Worth your time.
August 19, 2018
This is a novel that, by objective standards, is pretty bad. A slow and clumsy start, stock characters, plot points that make no sense.... And yet, and yet -- there's a lot of actual science in the story (documented in an afterword), and the story finally got moving and sucked me in. The time-sliced mosaic-world Mir, with a glacial North America filled with the Pleistocene megafauna, is pretty great (even if the human characters aren't). The space-battle with the incoming Q-missile is thrilling, even if the strategy to divert the deadly missile and save the Earth is almost laughably naive But the image of a universe full of refugees from the implacable Firstborn enemy is haunting.
Well, we hard-SF fans can't be too picky. 2.5 stars with a courtesy round up. But if you don't like hard SF, or demand a bit of polish in the prose, skip this one.
There's a hook for a sequel at the end, but Sir Arthur died the year after this book was published, so the series remains unfinished, and the mysteries of the Firstborn (and the refugees) remain unresolved.
Well, we hard-SF fans can't be too picky. 2.5 stars with a courtesy round up. But if you don't like hard SF, or demand a bit of polish in the prose, skip this one.
There's a hook for a sequel at the end, but Sir Arthur died the year after this book was published, so the series remains unfinished, and the mysteries of the Firstborn (and the refugees) remain unresolved.
August 18, 2025
"برداشت من این است که کاوشگر ما به طریقی با استفاده و به واسطهی نوعی کاربرد محلی و خیلی خاص انرژی تاریک یا همان اثیر از بین رفته دقیقا با همان نیرویی از هم دریده شده که باعث انبساط عالم شده و به طریقی روی این سفینهی کوچک متمرکز شده بوده شاید بشود گفت که این سلاح، سلاحی کیهانی است." با لبخند ادامه داد: "لیلا اسمش را گذاشته کیوبمب."
در جلد سوم و اما پایانی مجموعه ادیسه زمان، نخستزادگان، بازم بشر خودش رو در تنگنای یک تهاجم دیگه از نخستزادگان میبینه. اینکه چه میشود و چرا میشود تو این کتاب لازمهی یک اسپویل سنگین داره که تمامی تلاش این هست که از این مهم جلوگیری بشه.
شمایل کلی داستان
داستان تقریبا از سال 2060 میلادی شروع میشه، جاییکه بیسِسا دات پس از اتفاقات کتاب دوم در خواب مصنوعی به سر میبره و قرار هم نبود بیدار بشه. بیدار شدن بیسسا تنها یک دلیل داره! باز هم سرو کلهی نخستزادگان پیدا شده.
نخستزادگان، که بهطور ژرف گویا در مجموعه دیگه از آرتور سی کلارک فقید یعنی ادیسه فضایی دربارهشون صحبت میشه، همچنان یک راز و رمز بزرگ و عظیم برای زمینیها باقی میمونن. گرچه درباره هدف اینکارشون در کتاب دوم صحبت شد. کیوبمب سلاح جدیدی هست که بر علیه حیات زمین به کار گرفته شده. یک حباب کوانتومی که تمامی قوانین فیزیک بشریت جلوش ناکارآمد هستن. هدف همچنان ثابت هست، نابودی نسل بشر...
هر آنچه از کتاب اول و دوم مونده رو مجدد میبینیم، میر، اثرات طوفان خورشیدی، افرادی که زنده بودن و الان پیر یا مردهان... همگی تاثیرات خودشون رو چه خوب و چه بد در داستان میگذارن. بیسسا دات مجدد در کانون این افراد هست، زنی که از اتفاقات میر جان سالم به در برده و همچنان به دلایل نامعلومی نخستزادگان باهاش سر سازش دارن. سفر در جهان موازی بیسسا مجدد منجر به فاصله گرفتن با دخترش، میرا، میشه. بازگشت بیسسا به میر که اونجا هم چند قرن دیگه نابود خواهد شد. سفر در میر چهل تکه با تمامی عجایب گوناگونش، از حکمرانی اسکندر در اوراسیا و حکومت امریکاییها بر بخشی از قاره یخ زده حال و هوای کتاب اول رو مجدد برای خواننده تداعی میکنه.
تو این جلد بیشتر داستان حول محور بخشهای فضایی ماجرا پیش میره و بیشتر از همه مریخ نقش پررنگی داره. کلونیای در مریخ مستقر هست که نقشی مهم و حیاتی به گردن داره. مریخ در حال تغییر هست، گرچه با سرعت کند ولی برنامهای برای استقرار بشر در این سیاره هست، همه اینا قبل اینکه کیوبمب سر برسه.
خب همه میدونیم که این کتاب رو کلارک ننوشته و صرفا بخش ایدهی داستان رو مطرح کرده. استیون بکستر طبق مشاهدات و گشت و گذار بنده سعی کرده عمق فلسفی به داستان بدن و اینکه پایانبندی ایشون یکم با سبک آقای کلارک متفاوت و باز هست.
پایانبندی مجموعه شامل اسپویل هست!!!
فرقی نمیکنه بشر چقدر پیشرفت بکنه، چه تکنولوژی داشته باشه و چه سلاحهایی در دسترس داشته باشه... نخستزادگان همیشه یک تهدید بودن و همیشه یک تهدید هستن و همیشه یک تهدید خواهند بود.
هر گونه حیات که احتمال پیشرفت و نابودی انرژی کیهانی در آینده چه دور و نزدیک رو داشته باشه باید نابود بشه چرا که طمعِ انسان ــ یا هر شکل دیگری از انسان در هستی ــ در مصرف انرژی همواره بیپایان و بیدرمان است و همیشه ضایعههای هولناکی از خود بهجا میگذارد.
کاسی به آرامی: "گفت مطمئن نیستم چه میگوید اما اگر هنوز گزینه دیگری
داریم... باورم نمیشود دارم چنین چیزی میگویم اما بعید میدانم این داستان شبیه طوفان خورشیدی باشد که لازم بود همه ازش خبر داشته باشیم تا بتوانیم سپر محافظ بسازیم. این بار هیچ کاری از دستمان بر نمیآید. شاید بشود تا زمانی که هنوز راهحلی وجود دارد مردم را از آشوبی که دانستن حقیقت پدید میآورد حفظ کنیم؛ بعدش وقتی دیگر امیدی باقی نمانده بود..."
"پس به کل بشر دروغ بگوییم."
"بهشان بگو آزمایش تسلیحاتی بود که شکست خورد. تقریبا هم راست است."
در جلد سوم و اما پایانی مجموعه ادیسه زمان، نخستزادگان، بازم بشر خودش رو در تنگنای یک تهاجم دیگه از نخستزادگان میبینه. اینکه چه میشود و چرا میشود تو این کتاب لازمهی یک اسپویل سنگین داره که تمامی تلاش این هست که از این مهم جلوگیری بشه.
شمایل کلی داستان
داستان تقریبا از سال 2060 میلادی شروع میشه، جاییکه بیسِسا دات پس از اتفاقات کتاب دوم در خواب مصنوعی به سر میبره و قرار هم نبود بیدار بشه. بیدار شدن بیسسا تنها یک دلیل داره! باز هم سرو کلهی نخستزادگان پیدا شده.
نخستزادگان، که بهطور ژرف گویا در مجموعه دیگه از آرتور سی کلارک فقید یعنی ادیسه فضایی دربارهشون صحبت میشه، همچنان یک راز و رمز بزرگ و عظیم برای زمینیها باقی میمونن. گرچه درباره هدف اینکارشون در کتاب دوم صحبت شد. کیوبمب سلاح جدیدی هست که بر علیه حیات زمین به کار گرفته شده. یک حباب کوانتومی که تمامی قوانین فیزیک بشریت جلوش ناکارآمد هستن. هدف همچنان ثابت هست، نابودی نسل بشر...
هر آنچه از کتاب اول و دوم مونده رو مجدد میبینیم، میر، اثرات طوفان خورشیدی، افرادی که زنده بودن و الان پیر یا مردهان... همگی تاثیرات خودشون رو چه خوب و چه بد در داستان میگذارن. بیسسا دات مجدد در کانون این افراد هست، زنی که از اتفاقات میر جان سالم به در برده و همچنان به دلایل نامعلومی نخستزادگان باهاش سر سازش دارن. سفر در جهان موازی بیسسا مجدد منجر به فاصله گرفتن با دخترش، میرا، میشه. بازگشت بیسسا به میر که اونجا هم چند قرن دیگه نابود خواهد شد. سفر در میر چهل تکه با تمامی عجایب گوناگونش، از حکمرانی اسکندر در اوراسیا و حکومت امریکاییها بر بخشی از قاره یخ زده حال و هوای کتاب اول رو مجدد برای خواننده تداعی میکنه.
تو این جلد بیشتر داستان حول محور بخشهای فضایی ماجرا پیش میره و بیشتر از همه مریخ نقش پررنگی داره. کلونیای در مریخ مستقر هست که نقشی مهم و حیاتی به گردن داره. مریخ در حال تغییر هست، گرچه با سرعت کند ولی برنامهای برای استقرار بشر در این سیاره هست، همه اینا قبل اینکه کیوبمب سر برسه.
خب همه میدونیم که این کتاب رو کلارک ننوشته و صرفا بخش ایدهی داستان رو مطرح کرده. استیون بکستر طبق مشاهدات و گشت و گذار بنده سعی کرده عمق فلسفی به داستان بدن و اینکه پایانبندی ایشون یکم با سبک آقای کلارک متفاوت و باز هست.
پایانبندی مجموعه شامل اسپویل هست!!!
فرقی نمیکنه بشر چقدر پیشرفت بکنه، چه تکنولوژی داشته باشه و چه سلاحهایی در دسترس داشته باشه... نخستزادگان همیشه یک تهدید بودن و همیشه یک تهدید هستن و همیشه یک تهدید خواهند بود.
هر گونه حیات که احتمال پیشرفت و نابودی انرژی کیهانی در آینده چه دور و نزدیک رو داشته باشه باید نابود بشه چرا که طمعِ انسان ــ یا هر شکل دیگری از انسان در هستی ــ در مصرف انرژی همواره بیپایان و بیدرمان است و همیشه ضایعههای هولناکی از خود بهجا میگذارد.
کاسی به آرامی: "گفت مطمئن نیستم چه میگوید اما اگر هنوز گزینه دیگری
داریم... باورم نمیشود دارم چنین چیزی میگویم اما بعید میدانم این داستان شبیه طوفان خورشیدی باشد که لازم بود همه ازش خبر داشته باشیم تا بتوانیم سپر محافظ بسازیم. این بار هیچ کاری از دستمان بر نمیآید. شاید بشود تا زمانی که هنوز راهحلی وجود دارد مردم را از آشوبی که دانستن حقیقت پدید میآورد حفظ کنیم؛ بعدش وقتی دیگر امیدی باقی نمانده بود..."
"پس به کل بشر دروغ بگوییم."
"بهشان بگو آزمایش تسلیحاتی بود که شکست خورد. تقریبا هم راست است."
August 23, 2010
Like some other readers, I had a harder time getting into this book than
Time’s Eye
and
Sunstorm
. I'll admit that one reason was my inability to fully grasp the scientific concepts involved. However, I also think that Stephen Baxter uses so much ink developing the technological and theoretical concepts that character development gets neglected.
Nevertheless, I loved the last 70 pages or so. Once Mr. Baxter gets past the predictable fate of the Q-bomb, the story opens up into a fascinating exploration of the farthest reaches of time, space and mind. Only the general pessimism of the final chapters lessened my enjoyment a bit.
I very much liked the ending. No, it's not a firm Shakespearean resolution where everyone winds up married or dead. Yes it's an ending that begs for a fourth installment to be written. So much the better. Clarke's themes are worthy of future treatments. Another 30 years down the road, I hope some strong sci-fi talent with real scientific expertise takes up the odyssey again. In the meantime, the openness of Firstborn's ending encourages my imagination to resume running free--something I've always loved about Sir Arthur C. Clarke's “endings.”
Firstborn isn't a classic in our time, though it may yet be if it proves sufficiently prophetic. Still, if you love Clarke's space odysseys, and you want to seriously explore what it might mean for humanity to grow up and truly become advanced, I recommend the entire Time Odyssey trilogy.
Nevertheless, I loved the last 70 pages or so. Once Mr. Baxter gets past the predictable fate of the Q-bomb, the story opens up into a fascinating exploration of the farthest reaches of time, space and mind. Only the general pessimism of the final chapters lessened my enjoyment a bit.
I very much liked the ending. No, it's not a firm Shakespearean resolution where everyone winds up married or dead. Yes it's an ending that begs for a fourth installment to be written. So much the better. Clarke's themes are worthy of future treatments. Another 30 years down the road, I hope some strong sci-fi talent with real scientific expertise takes up the odyssey again. In the meantime, the openness of Firstborn's ending encourages my imagination to resume running free--something I've always loved about Sir Arthur C. Clarke's “endings.”
Firstborn isn't a classic in our time, though it may yet be if it proves sufficiently prophetic. Still, if you love Clarke's space odysseys, and you want to seriously explore what it might mean for humanity to grow up and truly become advanced, I recommend the entire Time Odyssey trilogy.
May 9, 2021
17 October 2008 – ***. I read this immediately after Time’s Eye and Sunstorm. A Time Odyssey consists of three novels, Time's Eye (2003), Sunstorm (2005), and Firstborn (2007), co-authored by Stephen Baxter and Arthur C. Clarke, shortly before Clarke’s death in 2008. In the same universe as Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, Mir is an alternate Earth with patches of human population pulled out of various time periods. Firstborn continues the story which left off on original Earth. The setting now alternates between Earth of 2069, and Mir in its 31st year. Mir is an artificial construct, whose purpose is to preserve records of human civilization even while the original Earth is destroyed. The earliest advanced civilizations in the universe (the “Firstborn”) are planning to keep subsequent civilizations from developing and advancing the entropic heat-death of the universe. There are hints of a “Lastborn” resistance among allies opposing the Firstborn. The reality of the concepts was less than the mystery of earlier volumes, and I was disappointed that there was no full conclusion to the series.
January 12, 2015
dosta ljudi je komentiralo kako im je znanost ovoga zadnjeg nastavka Vremenske odiseje strana i tegobna za razumijevanja.
meni nije bila kako imam neko obrazovanje iz fizike no moglo bi biti problema tako da "čudne" rečenice jednostavno treba prihvatiti kao takve.
finale bih smjetio negdje između prve dvije knjige po kvaliteti, a cijelom serijalu ide jedna dobra četvorka, recimo 3,8 no moj opći dojam je kako mi je bilo ugodno potrošiti vrijeme uz njega.
netko od dvojca (vjerujem kako je Clarke ovdje više bio nadzor i usmjerivač, a Baxter kvalitetno oruđe) je nažalost izveo Herbertov trik i sam kraj začinio s više pitanja nego odgovora (sumnjam da je bila predviđena četvrta knjiga obzirom kako Clarke nije još dugo poživio) tako da mi to kvari okus.
no dobro, ne moraju sve stvari u životu imati i napisan kraj, ponešto možemo i sami...
ovo nije literatura za usputne nego baš za one koji vole tu i tamo pravi hard-SF s debelom znanstvenom podlogom.
meni nije bila kako imam neko obrazovanje iz fizike no moglo bi biti problema tako da "čudne" rečenice jednostavno treba prihvatiti kao takve.
finale bih smjetio negdje između prve dvije knjige po kvaliteti, a cijelom serijalu ide jedna dobra četvorka, recimo 3,8 no moj opći dojam je kako mi je bilo ugodno potrošiti vrijeme uz njega.
netko od dvojca (vjerujem kako je Clarke ovdje više bio nadzor i usmjerivač, a Baxter kvalitetno oruđe) je nažalost izveo Herbertov trik i sam kraj začinio s više pitanja nego odgovora (sumnjam da je bila predviđena četvrta knjiga obzirom kako Clarke nije još dugo poživio) tako da mi to kvari okus.
no dobro, ne moraju sve stvari u životu imati i napisan kraj, ponešto možemo i sami...
ovo nije literatura za usputne nego baš za one koji vole tu i tamo pravi hard-SF s debelom znanstvenom podlogom.
April 16, 2016
An ancient race that will not share the available energy in the universe with other civilizations, and therefore is devoted to pursue the destruction of other intelligences as they become ‘competitors’; this is the premise of the great fresco by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter dedicated to the fight of humanity against the Firstborn who first became known to science fiction fans as the builders of the iconic black monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey. The Firstborn have inhabited legendary master of science fiction Sir Arthur C. Clarke’s writing for decades.
The novel should conclude the “Time Odyssey” trilogy, picking up the threads left open in previous novels and revealing those mysteries remained unsolved.
The story opens with the awakening of Bisesa Dutt, brave British soldier and heroine of the two previous episodes, from a cryogenic sleep that lasted 19 years. Her daughter Myra awakes her, driven by an emergency situation: an alien probe had been detected in the deep space and is headed toward Earth, and now identified as a quantum bomb able to obliterate an entire planet.
Together with the young astronaut Alexei Carel, the two women fled from Earth through a space elevator, directed to Mars, where an Eye of the Firstborn had been found, preserved by the ancients and now disappeared Martians.
But this is only the first part of the long journey of Bisesa, who finds herself on Mir, the planet built by taking countless splinters time of Earth ages by the Firstborn, and where the young astronomer Abdikadir awaits.
In Babylon, the capital of the empire that Alexander the Great, (yes, THE Alexander the Great) intends to extend over the entire planet, a surprising news awaits Bisesa: in this pocket universe, Mars is blue and inhabited.
This and the discovery of the Eye allow to understand that in the past the mysterious Firstborn have already caused the extinction of an intelligent race in the solar system, the unfortunate Martians have not managed to avoid being swept away. Perhaps, now, the same fate awaits the human breed: it is the time of the end. More than science fiction, the story is full of Fantasy, with technology (and its descriptions) that clashes with science, so much so that I doubt Clarke, who lived through his last days, had the time to really work on this novel.
Spoiler alert: I’ll talk about details of the plot and the ending of the story, so if you are willing to read the novel, you should end now reading this review.
One would expect, from the third volume of a trilogy, some sort of conclusion, pleasant, surprising or predictable and disappointing as it will be, but a conclusion. It is not the case here.
What the novel does is to replicate situations seen in the first two volumes, the Earth is under attack and the situation of fantasy world of Mir, but does not give any answer to the open questions, on the contrary, it adds new ones and prepare the turf for a… quadrilogy?
The end of the novel sees the Q bomb destroy Mars, the Mars of our universe, sacrificed to save the Earth; Myra remains on the planet during the collapse, but somehow she does not die. She meets with Bisesa in an unknown place.
Daughter and mother were transported there by the Lastborn, beings of which we know nothing, just that they are at war with the Firstborn.
It goes without saying that the trilogy is transformed into a de facto quartet … at a minimum, but why limit yourself? Lastborn enter the stage as a Deus Ex Machina and voilà, nothing really ends and at least three other novels can now see the light.
But there is a much bigger problem that the prolongation, the stretching of the series: the gradual loss of interest for the story. The first novel was by a great idea, the second had been a passable catastrophic novel, while the latter — or rather penultimate chapter? — a total disappointment.
Paradoxically, it has been more credible the building of a miniuniverso containing a planet assembled with thousands of “splinters time” from Earth, the planet Mir seen in the first novel, than the actual solar system where the action takes place in Firstborn. Only a few decades have passed after a disaster that swept away a billion people and caused enormous destructions; one would expect to find humanity intent to lick their wounds, prepare a comeback, and not committed to blindly colonize the space, build huge telescopes in Antarctica, and spending time and resources to recreate extinct species.
Another questionable detail, because of the deployment of forces and the sentinels placed up to the orbit of Saturn, why the Firstborn are so kind to send their herald of death, the Q bomb, along the ecliptic rather than let it arrive unexpected following a different route? Burglars don’t announce themselves at the gate, walk straight to the main door of the mansion, and ring the bell.
The real critical point of the novel is not, however, its illogic fabric, rather the weary drag of the story, which has never tense moments and is lost in long descriptions of technological marvels and parts that taste like magic and stick to the walls with spit, just to fill a few pages, (example, see chapter 25.) With a full universe with alien species, the action is virtually absent, the protagonists spend most of their time traveling from place to place for inscrutable reasons. The Q bomb is a lingering plot gimmick, disturbing, and the murder attempt of Alexander the Great gives no emotion.
Some points of interest: the novel tries to please those interested in future technologies, and they will find many examples, from space elevators to solar sailing ships, all based on the latest available studies, but — again — they seem to be there just to add pages to a thin story.
It reads like badly written novel by a copycat writer of Arthur C. Clarke who only got the message “I need to write long technology descriptions, crazy, disruptive, wild, and I’m done.” I can only think that Clarke’s declining health has prevented him from giving his contribution (a few months after the publication the great writer left us), and that its decline coincided with that of this series.
To emphasize that the novel is a work of only Baxter I proceeded to clear the name of Clarke from the spine of the book. With a black marker.
The novel should conclude the “Time Odyssey” trilogy, picking up the threads left open in previous novels and revealing those mysteries remained unsolved.
The story opens with the awakening of Bisesa Dutt, brave British soldier and heroine of the two previous episodes, from a cryogenic sleep that lasted 19 years. Her daughter Myra awakes her, driven by an emergency situation: an alien probe had been detected in the deep space and is headed toward Earth, and now identified as a quantum bomb able to obliterate an entire planet.
Together with the young astronaut Alexei Carel, the two women fled from Earth through a space elevator, directed to Mars, where an Eye of the Firstborn had been found, preserved by the ancients and now disappeared Martians.
But this is only the first part of the long journey of Bisesa, who finds herself on Mir, the planet built by taking countless splinters time of Earth ages by the Firstborn, and where the young astronomer Abdikadir awaits.
In Babylon, the capital of the empire that Alexander the Great, (yes, THE Alexander the Great) intends to extend over the entire planet, a surprising news awaits Bisesa: in this pocket universe, Mars is blue and inhabited.
This and the discovery of the Eye allow to understand that in the past the mysterious Firstborn have already caused the extinction of an intelligent race in the solar system, the unfortunate Martians have not managed to avoid being swept away. Perhaps, now, the same fate awaits the human breed: it is the time of the end. More than science fiction, the story is full of Fantasy, with technology (and its descriptions) that clashes with science, so much so that I doubt Clarke, who lived through his last days, had the time to really work on this novel.
Spoiler alert: I’ll talk about details of the plot and the ending of the story, so if you are willing to read the novel, you should end now reading this review.
One would expect, from the third volume of a trilogy, some sort of conclusion, pleasant, surprising or predictable and disappointing as it will be, but a conclusion. It is not the case here.
What the novel does is to replicate situations seen in the first two volumes, the Earth is under attack and the situation of fantasy world of Mir, but does not give any answer to the open questions, on the contrary, it adds new ones and prepare the turf for a… quadrilogy?
The end of the novel sees the Q bomb destroy Mars, the Mars of our universe, sacrificed to save the Earth; Myra remains on the planet during the collapse, but somehow she does not die. She meets with Bisesa in an unknown place.
Daughter and mother were transported there by the Lastborn, beings of which we know nothing, just that they are at war with the Firstborn.
It goes without saying that the trilogy is transformed into a de facto quartet … at a minimum, but why limit yourself? Lastborn enter the stage as a Deus Ex Machina and voilà, nothing really ends and at least three other novels can now see the light.
But there is a much bigger problem that the prolongation, the stretching of the series: the gradual loss of interest for the story. The first novel was by a great idea, the second had been a passable catastrophic novel, while the latter — or rather penultimate chapter? — a total disappointment.
Paradoxically, it has been more credible the building of a miniuniverso containing a planet assembled with thousands of “splinters time” from Earth, the planet Mir seen in the first novel, than the actual solar system where the action takes place in Firstborn. Only a few decades have passed after a disaster that swept away a billion people and caused enormous destructions; one would expect to find humanity intent to lick their wounds, prepare a comeback, and not committed to blindly colonize the space, build huge telescopes in Antarctica, and spending time and resources to recreate extinct species.
Another questionable detail, because of the deployment of forces and the sentinels placed up to the orbit of Saturn, why the Firstborn are so kind to send their herald of death, the Q bomb, along the ecliptic rather than let it arrive unexpected following a different route? Burglars don’t announce themselves at the gate, walk straight to the main door of the mansion, and ring the bell.
The real critical point of the novel is not, however, its illogic fabric, rather the weary drag of the story, which has never tense moments and is lost in long descriptions of technological marvels and parts that taste like magic and stick to the walls with spit, just to fill a few pages, (example, see chapter 25.) With a full universe with alien species, the action is virtually absent, the protagonists spend most of their time traveling from place to place for inscrutable reasons. The Q bomb is a lingering plot gimmick, disturbing, and the murder attempt of Alexander the Great gives no emotion.
Some points of interest: the novel tries to please those interested in future technologies, and they will find many examples, from space elevators to solar sailing ships, all based on the latest available studies, but — again — they seem to be there just to add pages to a thin story.
It reads like badly written novel by a copycat writer of Arthur C. Clarke who only got the message “I need to write long technology descriptions, crazy, disruptive, wild, and I’m done.” I can only think that Clarke’s declining health has prevented him from giving his contribution (a few months after the publication the great writer left us), and that its decline coincided with that of this series.
To emphasize that the novel is a work of only Baxter I proceeded to clear the name of Clarke from the spine of the book. With a black marker.
July 7, 2022
"Star charts,” he said firmly. “The true treasure of our civilization. A few books too—oh, what a horror it was that we were not able to empty the libraries! For once a book is lost to the ice, a little more of our past is gone forever. But as to my personal effects, my pots and pans, I have my own troop of slave bearers to help me with all that. They are called graduate students."
February 26, 2023
rtc !!
January 11, 2022
Na ką, užbaigiau šia trilogiją ir net nežinau ką bepasakyti. Pirma knyga buvo fantastiška, unikali istorija, pakankamai mistikos, kad norėtųsi atsiversti kitas dalis. Tačiau jų laisvai galėjo ir nebūti. Abi prikištos veiksmo, veikėjų ir detalių, niekaip nesisiejančių su pirmąją dalim, o kartu ir su pagrindine siužeto linija. Istorijos atomazga silpna, nuvylė.
Bet buvo įdomių elementų, pvz. buvo gan įdomu skaityti, kaip žmonija galimai bandytų apsisaugoti nuo stiprių saulės audrų. Aj, bet čia iš antros dalies. Iš trečios niekas neįstrigo.
Bet buvo įdomių elementų, pvz. buvo gan įdomu skaityti, kaip žmonija galimai bandytų apsisaugoti nuo stiprių saulės audrų. Aj, bet čia iš antros dalies. Iš trečios niekas neįstrigo.
January 30, 2015
I try to remind myself that my enjoyment of a book, or movie, or TV show, or game, whatever, stems from my expectations going into it. Which of course is why I’m sure I’ll hate the new Avengers movie when it comes out later this year, but I’ll probably love something that should be lame, like The Phantom Menace 3D experience – which I would probably see in 2D.
Anyhow, the last book I reviewed I was a bit harsh on. I expected a fun romp through a future universe full of FTL and mysterious aliens, and instead I got a lesson in economics and bureaucratics… wait, is bureaucratics a word? Whatever, I got a lesson in how a bureaucracy can hamper pretty much anything important. I was disappointed and I vented. I still feel bad about it. I just hate being angry like that, anyone with kids might understand. After your kid does something stupid and you lose your cool and yell and scream and threaten and later realize that you might have overreacted… that’s the kind of guilt I feel over that last review.
Well, keep that in mind as I go forward. I had picked up Firstborn recently, a book by Arthur C Clarke and Stephen Baxter. If what I’ve heard is true, it’s really a book by Stephen Baxter with Clarke’s name attached. As this was shortly before Clarke passed away, and I’ve heard rumors that he hasn’t really contributed much to his collaborative efforts in a very long time anyway.
Regardless, Stephen Baxter is an author that I caught onto back in the early nineties and was someone I now look at like – if you can forgive me for dipping into baseball terms – a batter that in his second or third year in the major leagues, seemingly out of nowhere, manages bat .350 for a season. You think you have the next Ted Williams on your hands, but then he spends the rest of his career hitting around .290. You keep asking yourself why he’s not hitting the ball like he used to, but really, he was just an okay hitter that had an unbelievable hot streak one year.
In the case of Baxter, he had about 7 or 8 books that came out from around 94 til 2000 or so that blew me away with their sci fi awesomeness. Timelike Infinity, Ring, Mainfold: Time, Manifold: Space, Titan, Vacuum Diagrams (a short story collection). I couldn’t get enough of his stuff. He was my favorite author. This is the guy that made me a science fiction fan. In a lot of ways, he helped mold me into the person I am today.
But since that time, his novels have gotten a bit more… I don’t know, abstract. Things bottomed out for me when I read his Weaver books, I just didn’t like them, so much so that I quit the series without reading the final book.
Since that time, I’ve just been leery of Baxter, I see flashes of that great streak he had, but it’s only flashes. The man has this going for him though, he has BIG ideas.
Now, Firstborn is the third book in a trilogy, I read the first two, but is seemed like it was a very long time coming before the third one came out, so long in fact, that I didn’t bother to pick it up when it was new. I recall the first one I enjoyed, and the second one I thought was a bit odd. Wait, maybe I have that backwards. Damn. I just can't remember.
Regardless, when I was in the discount store the other day, they had stacks and stacks of this novel laying out for $3 I thought I would give it a chance. Maybe it was because I was coming off such a negative experience with my previous book, or because I was so ambivalent about starting this one – but whatever it was, I loved it.
Funny, as I look at other reviewers, I can see that not everyone felt this way about it. For me though, it was a grand tour of a post-apocalyptic earth, in a universe where some god like entity is determined to wipe out humanity from the cosmos, and humanity thumbs their nose at the gods, and decides to fight back.
Well, not fight back exactly, but avoid confrontation with as much balls as they can. I like Baxter’s take on the subject, it made me think. I struggled for a bit trying to recall characters from previous books, and I still am not sure I understand the aliens’ logic in the actions they took. But whatever, if this book was a letdown for some, it wasn’t for me, I wish he would riff off this theme for the rest of his career as an author. It’s awesome sci fi with a Clarke-like feel to it. Except with better characters. Not great characters mind you, but at least people I don’t think of as robots.
Anyhow, the last book I reviewed I was a bit harsh on. I expected a fun romp through a future universe full of FTL and mysterious aliens, and instead I got a lesson in economics and bureaucratics… wait, is bureaucratics a word? Whatever, I got a lesson in how a bureaucracy can hamper pretty much anything important. I was disappointed and I vented. I still feel bad about it. I just hate being angry like that, anyone with kids might understand. After your kid does something stupid and you lose your cool and yell and scream and threaten and later realize that you might have overreacted… that’s the kind of guilt I feel over that last review.
Well, keep that in mind as I go forward. I had picked up Firstborn recently, a book by Arthur C Clarke and Stephen Baxter. If what I’ve heard is true, it’s really a book by Stephen Baxter with Clarke’s name attached. As this was shortly before Clarke passed away, and I’ve heard rumors that he hasn’t really contributed much to his collaborative efforts in a very long time anyway.
Regardless, Stephen Baxter is an author that I caught onto back in the early nineties and was someone I now look at like – if you can forgive me for dipping into baseball terms – a batter that in his second or third year in the major leagues, seemingly out of nowhere, manages bat .350 for a season. You think you have the next Ted Williams on your hands, but then he spends the rest of his career hitting around .290. You keep asking yourself why he’s not hitting the ball like he used to, but really, he was just an okay hitter that had an unbelievable hot streak one year.
In the case of Baxter, he had about 7 or 8 books that came out from around 94 til 2000 or so that blew me away with their sci fi awesomeness. Timelike Infinity, Ring, Mainfold: Time, Manifold: Space, Titan, Vacuum Diagrams (a short story collection). I couldn’t get enough of his stuff. He was my favorite author. This is the guy that made me a science fiction fan. In a lot of ways, he helped mold me into the person I am today.
But since that time, his novels have gotten a bit more… I don’t know, abstract. Things bottomed out for me when I read his Weaver books, I just didn’t like them, so much so that I quit the series without reading the final book.
Since that time, I’ve just been leery of Baxter, I see flashes of that great streak he had, but it’s only flashes. The man has this going for him though, he has BIG ideas.
Now, Firstborn is the third book in a trilogy, I read the first two, but is seemed like it was a very long time coming before the third one came out, so long in fact, that I didn’t bother to pick it up when it was new. I recall the first one I enjoyed, and the second one I thought was a bit odd. Wait, maybe I have that backwards. Damn. I just can't remember.
Regardless, when I was in the discount store the other day, they had stacks and stacks of this novel laying out for $3 I thought I would give it a chance. Maybe it was because I was coming off such a negative experience with my previous book, or because I was so ambivalent about starting this one – but whatever it was, I loved it.
Funny, as I look at other reviewers, I can see that not everyone felt this way about it. For me though, it was a grand tour of a post-apocalyptic earth, in a universe where some god like entity is determined to wipe out humanity from the cosmos, and humanity thumbs their nose at the gods, and decides to fight back.
Well, not fight back exactly, but avoid confrontation with as much balls as they can. I like Baxter’s take on the subject, it made me think. I struggled for a bit trying to recall characters from previous books, and I still am not sure I understand the aliens’ logic in the actions they took. But whatever, if this book was a letdown for some, it wasn’t for me, I wish he would riff off this theme for the rest of his career as an author. It’s awesome sci fi with a Clarke-like feel to it. Except with better characters. Not great characters mind you, but at least people I don’t think of as robots.
August 2, 2013
The third in the trilogy by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter which sees the Earth of the near-future face the threat of the firstborn, a malevolent alien race who want to destroy humanity. The book once again follows Bisea, who has survived the time-spliced version of Earth in Time's Eye and the huge sunstorm in Sunstorm. This time the threat is a quantum bomb heading straight for Earth.
Oddly we actually spend very little time on Earth as Bisea is taken to Mars to see a discovery which changes everything. The book also follows Myra, Bisea's daughter, as she spends time on Mars, the crew of the first space war ship and we find out how Mir has fared since we last saw it. Essentially it ties the first two books together whilst seeing the universe(s) the pair created face a new threat.
I always find I enjoy Stephen Baxter books a lot more than most reviewers do. I didn't hesitate in giving it five stars because I loved it. It's full of science which I loved, making the entire plot seem possible without being too much like a textbook. At the same time it's full of all sorts of great sci-fi ideas which explore how humanity could move into space in the near future. I really liked the idea of the Firstborn being the cause of our rapid scientific leap forward when us travelling through space is what they are trying to avoid. It is a beautiful paradox.
The only issue with this book? The fact it is the last in the trilogy and whilst it does defeat the threat of the book the general threat of the Firstborn still remains. It begins to tie the threads of the series together yet it feels like there should be another book. Sadly that never happened as Clarke died not long after this was published.
A hugely enjoyable sci-fi story, with an emphasis on the science. Wonderful.
Oddly we actually spend very little time on Earth as Bisea is taken to Mars to see a discovery which changes everything. The book also follows Myra, Bisea's daughter, as she spends time on Mars, the crew of the first space war ship and we find out how Mir has fared since we last saw it. Essentially it ties the first two books together whilst seeing the universe(s) the pair created face a new threat.
I always find I enjoy Stephen Baxter books a lot more than most reviewers do. I didn't hesitate in giving it five stars because I loved it. It's full of science which I loved, making the entire plot seem possible without being too much like a textbook. At the same time it's full of all sorts of great sci-fi ideas which explore how humanity could move into space in the near future. I really liked the idea of the Firstborn being the cause of our rapid scientific leap forward when us travelling through space is what they are trying to avoid. It is a beautiful paradox.
The only issue with this book? The fact it is the last in the trilogy and whilst it does defeat the threat of the book the general threat of the Firstborn still remains. It begins to tie the threads of the series together yet it feels like there should be another book. Sadly that never happened as Clarke died not long after this was published.
A hugely enjoyable sci-fi story, with an emphasis on the science. Wonderful.
March 30, 2022
Firstborn was a satisfying ending to a pretty good series by two of my favorite hard science fiction writers. Despite being published fifteen years ago in 2007, the science didn't feel dated at all, and it was chock full of really cool near future technology. The authors included an Afterword in which they explained the then cutting-edge science they based their novel on. Great stuff. I'm guessing Stephen Baxter did most of the writing but I think the book's amazing but plausible technology came from Arthur C. Clarke's mind and the dark tone of the plot and human nature as a whole sure made it feel like a Baxter novel to me.
This novel takes place not long after the conclusion of Sunstorm and is set on the past Earth of Time's Eye, the future Earth of Sunstorm, and also on a future Mars with some space exploration thrown in for good measure. The plot involves a new threat to Earth and how the brightest minds on Earth, Mars, and on a space faring warship are going to deal with it. Basically, it appears that powerful, unseen aliens somewhere in the universe are targeting advanced civilizations once they reach spacefaring capabilities. The goal seems not to wipe them out, but knock them back a few centuries and keep them from infiltrating the rest of the galaxy and harnessing too much energy.
The book ends in a satisfying manner, and to my surprise a minor character we lost track of re- appeared at the end of the book with a message for the main protagonist which would appear to open the door for a possible sequel. Unfortunately, ACC died in early 2008 and Stephen Baxter never continued the series so we're left with a trilogy. I still enjoyed the open-ended final scene, I thought it was very though provoking.
What a fun series. I'm glad that the trilogy was completed before we lost the great ACC.
This novel takes place not long after the conclusion of Sunstorm and is set on the past Earth of Time's Eye, the future Earth of Sunstorm, and also on a future Mars with some space exploration thrown in for good measure. The plot involves a new threat to Earth and how the brightest minds on Earth, Mars, and on a space faring warship are going to deal with it. Basically, it appears that powerful, unseen aliens somewhere in the universe are targeting advanced civilizations once they reach spacefaring capabilities. The goal seems not to wipe them out, but knock them back a few centuries and keep them from infiltrating the rest of the galaxy and harnessing too much energy.
The book ends in a satisfying manner, and to my surprise a minor character we lost track of re- appeared at the end of the book with a message for the main protagonist which would appear to open the door for a possible sequel. Unfortunately, ACC died in early 2008 and Stephen Baxter never continued the series so we're left with a trilogy. I still enjoyed the open-ended final scene, I thought it was very though provoking.
What a fun series. I'm glad that the trilogy was completed before we lost the great ACC.
April 23, 2019
If you have been reading my previous book reviews, you know I have been gulping down A Time Odyssey series. I don't know why but this trilogy spoke to me. Maybe it is the what-if writing I respond to or to the concept that the entire world will end, but whatever is the reason I loved the series. It inspired me. The third book, Firstborn, added on to the problems which started in the first book. It tied the story together. When I read the second book, I had an inkling about how this series would end and my prediction was correct. However, the obvious ending didn't destroy the wonder and discovery. The story itself was engaging.
Firstborn was a solid addition into the series. There were issues I didn't care for like the writers paying tribute to scientists and sci-fi writers they adore. Those moments broke the illusion of the story. But that was a minor infringement and easily forgivable. But the leaps in the storyline weakened the credibility of the book and the series, however, the engaging scientific pondering and commentary on human nature were too enchanting to get me frustrated.
The best aspect of Firstborn and the whole series was how humans react in the face of annihilation. How selfish we can be, how short-sighted, ignorant, hopeful, fearful, amazing, innovative, and horrible as in any other day. Keeping that aspect on the surface throughout the series crowned the whole story arch. All together amazing series for anyone who likes old-school what-if sci-fi with an apocalypse.
Firstborn was a solid addition into the series. There were issues I didn't care for like the writers paying tribute to scientists and sci-fi writers they adore. Those moments broke the illusion of the story. But that was a minor infringement and easily forgivable. But the leaps in the storyline weakened the credibility of the book and the series, however, the engaging scientific pondering and commentary on human nature were too enchanting to get me frustrated.
The best aspect of Firstborn and the whole series was how humans react in the face of annihilation. How selfish we can be, how short-sighted, ignorant, hopeful, fearful, amazing, innovative, and horrible as in any other day. Keeping that aspect on the surface throughout the series crowned the whole story arch. All together amazing series for anyone who likes old-school what-if sci-fi with an apocalypse.
September 30, 2020
In the tradition of Arthur C. Clarke's science fiction, the trilogy was worth the read and then some. Such a brilliant and spellbinding story that keeps the reader wanting more. I should have known that the ending was in the style of Clarke -- raising more questions than answering them. He certainly keeps the reader wondering. As a dear friend once said, "... stretching the corners of their minds..."
August 22, 2015
This series was all over the place for me. Time's Eye was interesting and fun but not necessarily amazing, but then I'd consider Sunstorm one of my favorite Clarke books. Sunstorm is classic Clarke and extremely well done. An alien threat that seems insurmountable, many failed attempts to stop it to the point that you're just as nervous as the characters to find out what they're going to do, and ingenious science that makes it all come together.
This, the third and final book in the series, has all of the elements of its predecessor, and ties in the events of the first book, Time's Eye, as well. So it should be a homerun. Unfortunately all of those pieces come together sooooooo slowly, working their way through a thick sludge of "politics" and character development for 8 billion characters at once, many of whom have no bearing on the plot whatsoever. Grasper and Alexander the Great have no real role in the events of this book, yet we hear about their doings on several different occasions. It was kind of cool to read about Grasper's evolution but ultimately it just made the book seem that much longer.
I suppose if anyone asks my opinion I'd say to just read Sunstorm and skip the other two. Maybe you'll find it more interesting than I did though.
This, the third and final book in the series, has all of the elements of its predecessor, and ties in the events of the first book, Time's Eye, as well. So it should be a homerun. Unfortunately all of those pieces come together sooooooo slowly, working their way through a thick sludge of "politics" and character development for 8 billion characters at once, many of whom have no bearing on the plot whatsoever. Grasper and Alexander the Great have no real role in the events of this book, yet we hear about their doings on several different occasions. It was kind of cool to read about Grasper's evolution but ultimately it just made the book seem that much longer.
I suppose if anyone asks my opinion I'd say to just read Sunstorm and skip the other two. Maybe you'll find it more interesting than I did though.
April 12, 2017
Somewhere in this meandering travelogue is an outline for a decent book, but Baxter (I'm fairly certain Clarke wasn't actually involved in writing this) doesn't seem interested in it. In a rare moment of plot, when our main character finally matters, there's a couple pages of people talking about things, and then the event takes place off screen. None of the characters matter; they just move from place to place to place, and most are just caricatures anyway (What's that? Military guy is irritated by a non-violent perspective again? What a surprise!).
February 16, 2022
I’m a little taken aback by the way things developed here, it’s not was I was expecting after that fantastic character development we had in book two. This trilogy is quite hard, book one seems a little disjointed (the fact that the Earth is fragmented is part of it), but it’s a slow start, and then book two is a ton of information with very serious implications for humans, so we actually see them acting together and that was brilliant, the kind of stuff I’m used to reading in Clarke’s books. But this… it seems we forgot about the characters altogether even after all they achieved in book two. It’s just description after description of all the technology we suddenly have.
I can’t say for sure, but I’m convinced this is more Baxter than Clarke. I know Clarke’s writing, I love his books and I know he takes care of his characters a lot, it’s part of his style which is the reason I enjoy his sci-fi. However, I don’t know Baxter’s writing, but for what I seen in other collaborations he seems to be more technical in his narrative. Of course this can be wonderful for some people, but for me, it’s very hard to read all this hard science and have so little with my characters, I need more.
The ending though, that was quite impressive, I didn’t see that at all, and it opens up infinite possibilities for the human race in what has now become definitely a war between them and the Firstborn. It was the kind of ending where you end up with a ‘what the hell just happened?’ face in a good sense.
I can’t say for sure, but I’m convinced this is more Baxter than Clarke. I know Clarke’s writing, I love his books and I know he takes care of his characters a lot, it’s part of his style which is the reason I enjoy his sci-fi. However, I don’t know Baxter’s writing, but for what I seen in other collaborations he seems to be more technical in his narrative. Of course this can be wonderful for some people, but for me, it’s very hard to read all this hard science and have so little with my characters, I need more.
The ending though, that was quite impressive, I didn’t see that at all, and it opens up infinite possibilities for the human race in what has now become definitely a war between them and the Firstborn. It was the kind of ending where you end up with a ‘what the hell just happened?’ face in a good sense.
April 17, 2022
[3.4 stars, I liked it, might read again]
Firstborn was almost a four-star novel, but I found some of reasons why things happen seemed to be unclear towards the end. In Firstborn, the event of the Time's Eye and Sunstorm are tied together, much as predicted yet I found the use of AI as a deus-ex-machina to solve a human-centric problem to be too pat. But perhaps technology really will develop that way? Either way, I prefer novels where humans solve human problems.
In the end, I feel the series is unfinished as well - on Mir cultures are, if not flourishing, at least surviving and expanding in new and interesting ways. But it is kind of a sideshow that I would have preferred to be the main plot.
Firstborn was almost a four-star novel, but I found some of reasons why things happen seemed to be unclear towards the end. In Firstborn, the event of the Time's Eye and Sunstorm are tied together, much as predicted yet I found the use of AI as a deus-ex-machina to solve a human-centric problem to be too pat. But perhaps technology really will develop that way? Either way, I prefer novels where humans solve human problems.
In the end, I feel the series is unfinished as well - on Mir cultures are, if not flourishing, at least surviving and expanding in new and interesting ways. But it is kind of a sideshow that I would have preferred to be the main plot.
December 29, 2024
Again, could've easily been a short story. Most of the characters and a lot of the story is relatively inconsequential.
I'd give the overall trilogy 2 stars. The initial idea from the first book seems to have been completely sidestepped in favor of "great threat to humanity by all-powerful aliens" trope of the other two books with what feels like minimal character development throughout the series.
I'd give the overall trilogy 2 stars. The initial idea from the first book seems to have been completely sidestepped in favor of "great threat to humanity by all-powerful aliens" trope of the other two books with what feels like minimal character development throughout the series.
March 28, 2012
Oof. I'll say this series was... interesting. I hadn't been a big fan of Time's Eye, but Sunstorm had been absolutely epic. And now this book... ends up somewhere between the other two, which is kinda fitting since it also tries to balance the uber-epic threat level of Sunstorm with the fantastic setting of Mir from Time's Eye.
I won't go into too spoiler-y plot details here, so I'll just say that my main issues with this book were the pacing and the last few chapters, which left me mildly confused and slightly disappointed.
If you read the other two books, then yeah, you should probably read this one, too. This book definitely isn't bad, but it's also not as awesome and epic as I had hoped (measured by the high standard that Sunstorm set for me). I truly hope that Stephen Baxter will give this series the real ending it deserves. And if/when that happens, I will gladly adjust my rating and review.
I won't go into too spoiler-y plot details here, so I'll just say that my main issues with this book were the pacing and the last few chapters, which left me mildly confused and slightly disappointed.
If you read the other two books, then yeah, you should probably read this one, too. This book definitely isn't bad, but it's also not as awesome and epic as I had hoped (measured by the high standard that Sunstorm set for me). I truly hope that Stephen Baxter will give this series the real ending it deserves. And if/when that happens, I will gladly adjust my rating and review.
July 30, 2011
A conclusion that ties up the other two books, but I was disappointed. I rank this between the other two. the first in the series was my favorite and promised more than the subsequent two delivered. This one was better than the second in the series, which had little to do with the first. I wish I had stopped after reading Time's Eye to be honest. Taken on its own, Firstborn had some good moments, but they were scattered. I was glad to see Bisesa return to Mir and to see what had happened there, but this only reminded me of how much better the first book was. Given that the Space Odyssey was also driven by the Firstborn, it would have been quite rewarding to merge the two in this final book, instead they continued to maintain them as distinct and conflicting stories. In reading some of the other reviews, I see that their is a broad range of opinions about this book and the second in the series. I am glad that there were those who found more here than I did.
December 25, 2020
A great book in parts, but I find Baxter's obsession with history, and especially pre-history, rather off putting. When I read SciFi, I want to read about the wonders of the universe and where our culture will be in the future. When I read Baxter, I invariably end up reading about Mammoths, Neanderthals, tribal cultures etc. and quite often these tales are very depressing, with a wholly negative view of how these cultures and creatures lived or were treated. This has lead me to the conclusion that Baxter is not an author that I want to continue reading. Having said that, history and pre-history is only a small section of this book, with the remainder being a genuinely good proper SciFi read.
I couldn't figure out whether I wanted to give this 3 or 4 stars, but I'm going with 3 as ultimately, I'm fed up of reading about Mammoths and Neanderthals.
I couldn't figure out whether I wanted to give this 3 or 4 stars, but I'm going with 3 as ultimately, I'm fed up of reading about Mammoths and Neanderthals.
September 27, 2014
Unsatisfying. For those of us hoping to see the aliens (which Clarke never does) or find some emotional conclusion, the book is a disappointment. Neat technology, fun science, but not much in terms of any real conclusion; at the end of this series the Firstborn are still an imminent threat, they still have technology beyond our imaginings, and they still want us dead. Mir is still in flux, Mars is gone but what that entails for the solar system is not explored. Frustrating is a good word for this book, extremely frustrating. I know much more about what Clarke imagined us doing in the future, but nothing more of the characters or species involved. That is, after all, why you read Sci Fi novels.
March 12, 2009
Somewhat more rambling and less satisfying than the previous two Time Odyssey books. Unsatisfying ending.
January 26, 2023
My original 2010 Amazon review...
I recently gave a positive review for the second book in this trilogy, Sunstorm, despite the number of negative reviews shown. In fact, upon completing the book a week ago, I eagerly jumped into this third book. My eagerness quickly turned to forced reading. I felt very taken aback by the direction the authors took this book. Where the first two books could almost be standalone novels, this one thankfully ties things back together and gives further forward movement to the overall story. However, it is how they chose to go about it that made this painful.
When I read Sunstorm, I felt as though the authors had to cull complete segments from the book to make it fit nicely within their allotted 400 pages (the great mystery of the Chinese mission cleared itself in under a paragraph). In this particular case, I felt as though they had to pad to come up to 400 pages. Case in point - the quest to get Bisesa Dutt to Mars took a complete one-third of the novel to reveal, which included probably 100 pages on a space elevator. And the space elevator sequence dragged on forever. I don't know how the characters didn't go out of their mind. Weeks in an elevator and not discussing the reasons for being on the mission. Just a consistent "you'll see." That would have been an ideal time for character development between Bisesa and Myra but nope. Weeks of silence.
I was glad to see Mir again, but this fascinating planet was not given the showcase it deserved. I felt no connection to the characters, as only Bisesa was a real carry-over from the previous installments. Other characters were shown previously, but they were all aged beyond recognition into someone different. The previously happy child and later flirtatious-teenager in Myra was replaced by a bitter-single-mom. Some movements seemed choppy - Myra to the space station near the moon and back to Mars; Bisesa's movements from Chicago back to the Eye of Marduk and her own personality descent as she moved in with the Eye; even the opening from Bisesa's hibernation to Canaveral seemed disjointed. And even the authorities chasing of the Dutt women seemed irrational.
And by the time I got to the end, it became obvious that this was labelled "the conclusion" only because Arthur C Clarke passed on around the publication date. The first two novels ended with minor, but healthy, teasers towards the next book. This one was a complete cliffhanger with no possibility of resolution.
While the story is obviously not resolved, I am glad this series is now over and out of its misery. Hindsight is great, but the series would have worked out better by playing on the drama, culling out the lengthy travel info, reduce the superfluous characters, lay on some human emotion, a better range of featured characters, and most of all - provide answers to the questions posed.
I recently gave a positive review for the second book in this trilogy, Sunstorm, despite the number of negative reviews shown. In fact, upon completing the book a week ago, I eagerly jumped into this third book. My eagerness quickly turned to forced reading. I felt very taken aback by the direction the authors took this book. Where the first two books could almost be standalone novels, this one thankfully ties things back together and gives further forward movement to the overall story. However, it is how they chose to go about it that made this painful.
When I read Sunstorm, I felt as though the authors had to cull complete segments from the book to make it fit nicely within their allotted 400 pages (the great mystery of the Chinese mission cleared itself in under a paragraph). In this particular case, I felt as though they had to pad to come up to 400 pages. Case in point - the quest to get Bisesa Dutt to Mars took a complete one-third of the novel to reveal, which included probably 100 pages on a space elevator. And the space elevator sequence dragged on forever. I don't know how the characters didn't go out of their mind. Weeks in an elevator and not discussing the reasons for being on the mission. Just a consistent "you'll see." That would have been an ideal time for character development between Bisesa and Myra but nope. Weeks of silence.
I was glad to see Mir again, but this fascinating planet was not given the showcase it deserved. I felt no connection to the characters, as only Bisesa was a real carry-over from the previous installments. Other characters were shown previously, but they were all aged beyond recognition into someone different. The previously happy child and later flirtatious-teenager in Myra was replaced by a bitter-single-mom. Some movements seemed choppy - Myra to the space station near the moon and back to Mars; Bisesa's movements from Chicago back to the Eye of Marduk and her own personality descent as she moved in with the Eye; even the opening from Bisesa's hibernation to Canaveral seemed disjointed. And even the authorities chasing of the Dutt women seemed irrational.
And by the time I got to the end, it became obvious that this was labelled "the conclusion" only because Arthur C Clarke passed on around the publication date. The first two novels ended with minor, but healthy, teasers towards the next book. This one was a complete cliffhanger with no possibility of resolution.
While the story is obviously not resolved, I am glad this series is now over and out of its misery. Hindsight is great, but the series would have worked out better by playing on the drama, culling out the lengthy travel info, reduce the superfluous characters, lay on some human emotion, a better range of featured characters, and most of all - provide answers to the questions posed.
dnf
July 11, 2020100720: dnf @ 24%. i really wanted to like this but unfortunately the literal next sentence after i resolved to give it another hour had the word “but” in it twice. folks, it was a very short sentence. my resolve has broken.
originally i was just gonna post my dumb livelistening notes because this book is too bad for a review that actually took effort, so here are the notes for the 24% i managed to get through:
* thinking the uk would still be part of the eu... the optimism...
* also i love that this more or less exclusively stars middle aged women
* this has the same level of softcore imperialism as time’s eye unfortunately
* i LOVE the american accents british audiobook narrators do they all sound like the drill sergeant in forrest gump
* SUNSTORM BOOMER JGDKGDHFFJAFK
* appreciate that all of these books have gays in them.. gay rights
* the thinly veiled criticism of the war on terror is good actually
* honestly... how dare they imply that the solar system is cis
* this worldbuilding is not interesting i keep zoning out 😩😩 if you’re gonna infodump your worldbuilding it has to be INTERESTING worldbuilding. malka older y’all are not
* i really did not miss anything by skipping sunstorm hfsjgdh
* love an unpleasant gay
* god the hard science in this is really so boring. if there’s no dinosaurs i don’t give a shit
* i thought bisesa was going back to mir???? is she ever going back to mir????????
* it’s really easier for me to suspend my disbelief about alexander the great and gengis khan duking it out on an alternate earth than for me to buy that world governments would ever collaborate for long enough to stop a killer solar flare. the us would say the sun isn’t real, blame muslims for it, and then pay billions of dollars to private contractors to make a shield out of saran wrap and everyone would fucking die
read this book if you want... but also consider just reading time’s eye as a standalone! :|
originally i was just gonna post my dumb livelistening notes because this book is too bad for a review that actually took effort, so here are the notes for the 24% i managed to get through:
* thinking the uk would still be part of the eu... the optimism...
* also i love that this more or less exclusively stars middle aged women
* this has the same level of softcore imperialism as time’s eye unfortunately
* i LOVE the american accents british audiobook narrators do they all sound like the drill sergeant in forrest gump
* SUNSTORM BOOMER JGDKGDHFFJAFK
* appreciate that all of these books have gays in them.. gay rights
* the thinly veiled criticism of the war on terror is good actually
* honestly... how dare they imply that the solar system is cis
* this worldbuilding is not interesting i keep zoning out 😩😩 if you’re gonna infodump your worldbuilding it has to be INTERESTING worldbuilding. malka older y’all are not
* i really did not miss anything by skipping sunstorm hfsjgdh
* love an unpleasant gay
* god the hard science in this is really so boring. if there’s no dinosaurs i don’t give a shit
* i thought bisesa was going back to mir???? is she ever going back to mir????????
* it’s really easier for me to suspend my disbelief about alexander the great and gengis khan duking it out on an alternate earth than for me to buy that world governments would ever collaborate for long enough to stop a killer solar flare. the us would say the sun isn’t real, blame muslims for it, and then pay billions of dollars to private contractors to make a shield out of saran wrap and everyone would fucking die
read this book if you want... but also consider just reading time’s eye as a standalone! :|
December 20, 2024
Time Odyssey #3. I made two mistakes in reading this novel. Firstly, I had not read the earlier two in the series, meaning I had no knowledge of the recurring characters or previous events. The second mistake was to put the book down several times instead of finishing it without delay. This was due to confusion about the characters and the plot, and was fatal to my enjoyment of the book.
These aside, this isn't a very good or satisfying work. The characters seem one dimensional, and with the constant swapping of POVs and locations, it was hard to remember who was who.
The most one dimensional of all are the Firstborn, and alien race we learn little about. Who said they were high-mindedly trying to conserve energy in the universe by eliminating other races? I say poo-bah to the ideas that murderers are high-minded.
The term "hard SF" has never meant much to me, but finally I understand what it means. There is a heavy emphasis on technology, much of which is speculative, but backed by scientific explanations. Clarke's works are full of scientific explanations. I think that's a partial reason why his works are not exciting. Space battles, threats from an alien invader, the world may soon explode, someone dropped the teapot and spilled tea on the floor - all these generate the same level of excitement.
Sadly I found the whole thing confusing and unsatisfying. There are "heroes" who just sort of drift from place to place, or time to time, doing not much of anything.
At the end of this "trilogy", nothing has been resolved, and I felt a bit cheated.
Of course, this work was a collaboration with Stephen Baxter, so there must be an apportionment of blame, but it's futile to think that way. I'll say no more, and just give this a rating of 2.4.
These aside, this isn't a very good or satisfying work. The characters seem one dimensional, and with the constant swapping of POVs and locations, it was hard to remember who was who.
The most one dimensional of all are the Firstborn, and alien race we learn little about. Who said they were high-mindedly trying to conserve energy in the universe by eliminating other races? I say poo-bah to the ideas that murderers are high-minded.
The term "hard SF" has never meant much to me, but finally I understand what it means. There is a heavy emphasis on technology, much of which is speculative, but backed by scientific explanations. Clarke's works are full of scientific explanations. I think that's a partial reason why his works are not exciting. Space battles, threats from an alien invader, the world may soon explode, someone dropped the teapot and spilled tea on the floor - all these generate the same level of excitement.
Sadly I found the whole thing confusing and unsatisfying. There are "heroes" who just sort of drift from place to place, or time to time, doing not much of anything.
At the end of this "trilogy", nothing has been resolved, and I felt a bit cheated.
Of course, this work was a collaboration with Stephen Baxter, so there must be an apportionment of blame, but it's futile to think that way. I'll say no more, and just give this a rating of 2.4.
June 24, 2019
Oh my. I'm not a fan of Stephen Baxter's writing, and this series has convinced me to never again read a collaboration between a legendary and a lesser author, unless I already like the work of the lesser author on its own. I'm ashamed to admit I speed read parts of the book, that was how bad it was. Take my review with a grain of salt because it might not be impartial.
If you're reading the review of the third book, I'm confident to speak about things that might be spoilers. If you haven't read the previous two books, please don't read further unless you don't mind mild spoilers.
So, where do I start? Space Odyssey was a great trilogy, and I naively expected Time Odyssey to be another trilogy. What a fool I was, this is written to make a long series and thus no concrete answers were gained.
First, the science part of scifi feels off. The previous book made more sense, in this .
Second, the plot moves glacially, dragging its feet with unnecessary frequent descriptions of clothing, environment, climate, buildings, people, etc., only to forget about it almost immediately. Authors get paid by the word, I get it, but I don't enjoy when words are there without purpose.
Third, plot holes made evident by the books themselves. For example, .
Fourth, the twin narration of Mir and Earth's timelines is done by alternating a chapter on Mir and a chapter on Earth. This come and go can become jarring because the final chapters are short and surprisingly bereft of content.
In conclusion: this series is not Arthur C. Clarke's Space Odyssey trilogy, it should be thought as an independent work by Stephen Baxter, related only by accident.
If you're reading the review of the third book, I'm confident to speak about things that might be spoilers. If you haven't read the previous two books, please don't read further unless you don't mind mild spoilers.
So, where do I start? Space Odyssey was a great trilogy, and I naively expected Time Odyssey to be another trilogy. What a fool I was, this is written to make a long series and thus no concrete answers were gained.
First, the science part of scifi feels off. The previous book made more sense, in this .
Second, the plot moves glacially, dragging its feet with unnecessary frequent descriptions of clothing, environment, climate, buildings, people, etc., only to forget about it almost immediately. Authors get paid by the word, I get it, but I don't enjoy when words are there without purpose.
Third, plot holes made evident by the books themselves. For example, .
Fourth, the twin narration of Mir and Earth's timelines is done by alternating a chapter on Mir and a chapter on Earth. This come and go can become jarring because the final chapters are short and surprisingly bereft of content.
In conclusion: this series is not Arthur C. Clarke's Space Odyssey trilogy, it should be thought as an independent work by Stephen Baxter, related only by accident.
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