Ultima
(End Time #2)
by Stephen Baxter
science fiction
copyright 2014
read (partly) in September 2015
rated 4/10: bad but could be read
I read Proxima. It was boring. Pointless. A plotless science primer. What little story there was, failed to finish at the end of the book. "Oh look ! Another door !"
What's it all about ? I wondered.
According to the Ultima blurb, "Together... a devastatingly powerful SF epic." Okay, so I'll read Ultima and find out what it's all about.
I managed to read just over 100 pages, before boredom forced me to give up. This time, it's worse than a science textbook. It's a history textbook. What if the Romans ruled Earth ? What if the Romans and British and Chinese each had empires in a space traveling society ? How boring could it possibly be ?
Well... It's more boring than you can possibly imagine.
So I skipped ahead and read the last twenty or so pages.
One character explains that the universe is being run by intelligent microbes. This explanation is such drivel that the author has to intersperse it with more interesting actions. Such as watering the plants. And sitting.
Then everyone dies. Except for three people who say, "Oh look ! Another door !" And enter a universe in which Germans rule Earth and space. Oh look ! Another history textbook !
I kid you not.
The book ends. The story -- what little there is -- has no end.
"I ink therefore I am." The Existential Squid
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