Proxima / Stephen Baxter

Proxima
(one of ... ? )
by Stephen Baxter

science fiction

copyright 2013
read in April 2015

rated 6/10: read to pass the time

From the front cover blurb, "Baxter proves himself a master of the epic canvas." Pity he hasn't mastered the engrossing story.

In an infinite universe, anything that is possible is probable. Textbooks have been written to discuss what may be possible beyond the limitations of our one well known planet. Baxter has written a textbook, added a few stock characters and plodded manfully through a whole list of possibilities.

Interesting but not engrossing.

This book is also realistic enough to be depressing. Kitchen sink near-drama, set around an alien sink. Politics with a message: we're all doomed by our politicking. Self interest above all.

The science is interesting -- in its plodding, textbook fashion. Characters stop what they are doing in order to explain the science behind whatever they see. And whatever they see, often adds nothing relevant to the story. It's just textbook filler.

Then there's The Hatch... No, nothing to do with any TV series. Just a magic portal to save the cost of a spaceship. (What ? A spoiler ? But I thought it was obvious, as soon as the first hatch was uncovered ! ) There's no explanation of The Hatch, though it may be related to the mysterious End Time Sleeper. Which does nothing more than twitch in its sleep. With no actual explanation.

So, having messed up Earth and messed up the new planet, what happens next ? No exciting plot resolution, that's for sure... A couple of characters simply take a magic portal ride to yet another planet. Where all they can say is, well, we failed to finish that story -- so let's get ready for another...

If you like your science dressed up as fiction -- this book does it quite well. If you would also like a strong story, interesting characters, some form of end-of-story resolution -- forget it.

So much irrelevant science... So many unresolved loose ends... So little conclusion, satisfying or otherwise...

It's not a bad book. But it barely scrapes by the definition of "a novel".

The Long Mars / Pratchett & Baxter

The Long Mars
(Long Earth 3)
by Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter

science fiction

copyright 2014
read in April 2015

rated 5/10: readable, but only if there's nothing else

This series is more and more documentary rather than novel. Not so much a story as a series of possibilities. Less of the "what if" and more of the "why not".

A dirigible flies through more parallel Earth's than anyone ever has before. And why ? To tell the reader that breathing oxygen is not necessary for intelligent life. Where's the plot development ? There is none.

A glider flies through parallel Mars... upsets a local hunter... gives the hunter enough technology to follow and destroy the glider. The Earth people -- I won't call them the "heroes" -- run to a small Martian base... And don't even consider that the hunter could follow them that little bit further and kill everyone at that base.

Prisoners are being held on an island, underground: either of which has earlier been said to prevent escape via "stepping" to a parallel Earth. Yet they are saved by "stepping". The prisoners are under 24 hour surveillance. Yet they are "stepped" free in small groups -- over time -- and no-one has time to stop them !

Does that sounds like a lot of independent threads for one novel ? Well, there's more... Lots of stories, some loosely related, none particularly interesting.

Super-intelligent humans are born. They are seen saving lives in a natural disaster. Yet when it comes to the crunch, they are cold, callous and uncaring because ordinary humans -- including their parents -- are too stupid to care about ! Ordinary humans can love even dumb animals. Yet intelligence apparently equals self-centered egotistical cruelty.

One person says, Let's step. And disappears into a parallel world. His companion is -- magically ? -- able to tell both direction of stepping and how many worlds are stepped. Two dirigibles are stepping at a rate of fifty or more worlds per second. Somehow -- by magic ? -- they keep exactly in step and manage to stop at exactly the same parallel world.

There's a "gap" in the parallel worlds -- no Earth. If you "step" into the gap, you need rockets to remove the effect of the previous step's rotation. Yet the gap contains a large concrete and steel space station -- stepped in from the previous Earth -- and no apparent problems due to residual spin !?

I have no problems with scientific nonsense... I enjoy Doc Smith style space opera. But this series is exploring the "what if" of parallel worlds. When whole chapters are devoted to scientific explanations of why such and such is possible -- I'm expecting accurate scientific conjecture... not inconsistent science and massive gaps in logic.

And then there's the teaser, the inconsequential and ridiculous last chapter...

Okay, I know that Pratchett had mental problems and is now dead. That's no excuse for his coauthor to rush out a disappointingly weak book.