2001;
496 pages. Book Two of the “Manifold” trilogy. New Author? : No. Genre : “Hard” Science Fiction; Epic Science
Fiction. Overall Rating : 7½*/10.
Interstellar ET’s have arrived! Somehow, while we weren’t watching, they took
up residence on an asteroid out in the asteroid belt orbiting between Mars and
Jupiter. And now they’re – umm – well, no
one is sure exactly what they’re doing out there. Someone ought to go investigate.
Who better to send than Reid Malenfant, hero of Book One in the
series (Manifold Time, reviewed here), and the guy who first discovered
that we are
not alone. Heck, he actually
wants to go out and establish contact.
This plan makes everybody happy.
Until Malenfant disappears in a puff of – umm – well, not smoke. More like a flash of blue light.
What’s To Like...
Manifold Space is the second book in the trilogy, but isn’t
really a sequel. Instead, it is more
like Stephen Baxter’s second proposed answer to the Fermi Paradox (“If ET’s are
out there, why haven’t they contacted us?”). Malenfant returns, but he’s cast in a
different role with a different character, and frankly gets a lot less ink.
As
with any Baxter novel, the writing is masterful, with emphasis on the technical
aspects of the story. Here, the setting
is the entire Milky Way Galaxy, and the time period is from 2020 AD to some point in time way beyond 8800
AD. This is “Hard” Science Fiction, and
Baxter comes up with some remarkably plausible ways (Quantum Physics is our friend)
to have 4 or 5 main characters stay alive 6+ centuries and travel all over the
cosmos.
The book is a science geek’s delight.
Some familiar themes are here, such as teleportation and time-travel. But there were also some new concepts (at least to me) such as Dyson
structures and the Polynesian Syndrome; both of which have Wikipedia
articles. Baxter also invents some new
technologies, such as the fascinating concept of Phytomines. We are introduced to three major ET species (Gaijin, Chaera,
and Crackers), a bunch of extinct terran creatures (including
Neanderthals), and Malefant gets taken to see a whole bunch of other
inhabited worlds.
The
overall tone of the book is bleak.
Humans burn through the resources of several planets and moons, and
aliens with superior technology are on their way to our Solar System. But the book closes with a rather surprisingly hopeful (albeit
“good-news/bad-news”) ending.
Kewlest New Word. . .
Spavined (adj.)
: Old and decrepit.
Others : Picaresque; Cicerone; Fripperies
Excerpts...
The Gaijin had a somewhat
mathematical philosophy. Malenfant
thought it sounded suspiciously like a religion.
The Gaijin believed that the universe was
fundamentally comprehensible by creatures like themselves – like humans, like
Malenfant. That is, they believed it
possible that an entity could exist that could comprehend the entire universe,
arbitrarily well.
And they had a further principle that
mandated that if such a being could exist, it must exist.
The catch was that they believed there was
a manifold of possible universes, of which this was only one. So She may not exist in this universe. (pg. 215)
“I want everybody involved,
and everybody paying. Now we’re in the
mantle we can market the TV rights –“
“Frank, they don’t have TV any more.”
“Whatever.
I want the kids involved, all those little dark-eyed kids I see flapping
around the palm trees the whole time with nothing to do. I want games.
Educational stuff. Clubs to join,
where you pay a couple of yen for a badge and get some kind of share
certificate. I want little toy derricks
in cereal packets.”
“They don’t have cereal packets any more.”
He eyed her. “Work with me here, Xenia.” (pg.
244)
“There are trees here,” he said.
“Grass. Flowers. Animals.”
You see biochemistry. I see a
flower, he thought.. (pg.
135)
The
weakest part of Manifold Space is the
storyline itself. It exists, but gets
buried beneath all the Hard Sci-Fi wizardry and the personal interactions, and
I ended up quite often asking myself “Is this all heading anywhere?”
For the record, and this is not a spoiler, the main plotline is
simply “Why have
the Gaijin come to our Solar System?” Baxter teases us with a couple twists as to the
possible answer, then closes with a totally unanticipated, yet logical, resolution.
Still, Manifold
Space is neither story-driven, nor character-driven. If the bizarre principles of Quantum Mechanics
don’t float your boat, and you don’t muse about where mankind will
realistically be in 6000 years, you will probably find this book somewhat of a slog.
7½ Stars. It’s not my favorite Stephen Baxter book
(that would be Evolution, reviewed here), but the scientist in me still enjoyed the mental work-out.
No comments:
Post a Comment