Manifold: Origin (Hardcover)

In 'Time' and 'Space', Malenfant's adventures were more linear and core to a saga of the universe. In the final chapter of the trilogy, 'Origin', Baxter discusses a set of possible evolutionary paths, a group of differently evolved humans, coexisting on a moon that jumps from one alternate possibility to another, with each group of humans acting out their primal instincts on one another. Malenfant acts more as an observer to a greater drama.

Thus, this chapter is gory, because nature is gory. It is disjointed, in that transgressing alternate worlds is disjoining. It is exactly what it should be, a discussion of big ideas in a context where they can be understood and the relevance can be taken away and pondered.

I give this novel five stars, not entirely of its own merit, but in collection with the previous two chapters. It fulfils my expectation of a story that allows me to stretch my imagination and at the same time challenge my humanity.

A book shouldn't be this hard to read. I kept turning page after page *looking* for the plot, hoping it would just pop out at any minute, but I was very frustrated and sad when I'd read 3/4 of the book and still nothing made any sense.

this is a terrible example of Baxter's work and should have never been written. He should have taken the time to properly explain this story. Instead, Baxter is hung up trying to prove that evolution works despite the uncontrollable amount of contradictory evidence that continues to disprove Darwin. What's with these sci-fi writers grasping at wild fantasies to try to explain the flawed theory of evolution in recent years? I'm thinking of Greg Bear and Baxter chopping down the same tree. the result is, several thousand trees sacrificed to publish their books in an attempt to describe the destruction of earth's environment and how homo sapiens deserves to go extinct or some such nonsense.

I fear Baxter is going the way of L.Ron, having run out of steam, falling onto religious-philosophical theories. Does success as a sci-fi writer give one a feeling of responsibility for humanity, or does it become a medium for political/environmental propaganda along the author's worldview?

I worry about future Baxter books, so I will read reviews before buying another one. I hope he gets back on track and gets off the wacky evolution train he's stuck on.

Some books may have unpleasant components in the reading, that serve a purpose to support the plot, as in The Sparrow and Children of God, where ideas served a purpose. I could not find a purpose here.

Ok, so life on the red moon may be ugly... however I would have preferred to have had a foundation or reason for reading that ugliness.

With over 1000 books in my collection this is not one I would recommend.

John