The Universal Mulligan

As per usual recently I’m behind on this. So I finished Manifold Time by Stephen Baxter. It’s the first in the Manifold Series by Baxter. I’ve read a couple of Baxter’s later collaborations with A. C. Clarke. This is the first of the 3 book series, but it was written way back in 2000.

Frankly you can see why Clarke wanted to work with Baxter. Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a kind of passing of the torch. I’ve only read 3 of his books so far, but Baxter seems to have the makings of the next great SF author, on the level of Clarke himself. This book is an excellent example of that. If the next two in the series hold up to the example this one set it is a series on par with the scale of The Space Odyssey series.

Baxter takes a big bite in this grand scale book that covers human existence from now until the heat death of the universe. And he does remarkably well living up to the goal he set himself. It starts at a time close to the publication of the book, 2000. That means that the 8 years that have passed make the story behind in some ways, but really it can be seen as an alternate universe anyway. Baxter weaves a tale that could lose many readers if not for his good use of characters that need exposition.

If you like stories with grand consequences that question humanity’s place in the universe, then this is a good one. It has made me really curious about the next books in the series.