By: Stephen Baxter Publisher: Del Rey Average Rating: Binding: Mass Market Paperback Label: Del Rey Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 544 Publication Date: January 01, 2003 Release Date: January 01, 2003
Product Description: “ONE OF THE BEST SF WRITERS IN THE BUSINESS . . . [Manifold: Origin is] filled with marvelous scientific speculations, strange events, novel concepts, and an awe-inspiring sense of the wonders of the universe.” –Science Fiction Chronicle
In the year 2015, astronaut Reid Malenfant is flying over the African continent, intent on examining a mysterious glowing construct in Earth’s orbit. But when the very fabric of the sky tears open, spilling living creatures to the ground and pulling others inside (including his wife, Emma), Malenfant’s quest to uncover the unknown becomes personal. While desperately searching to discover what happened to the woman he loves, Malenfant embarks upon an adventure to the very fount of human development . . . on earth and beyond.
Amazon.com: Award-winning author Stephen Baxter turns to the origin of species in this final novel of the Manifold trilogy. Reid Malenfant and Emma Stoney are flying over Africa when a new moon appears in the sky--and Emma disappears. She finds herself on the Red Moon with people resembling human evolutionary ancestors, with whom she must learn to live in order to survive. On Earth, Malenfant teams with Japanese scientist Nemoto on a desperate rescue mission that leads to greater questions about the origin of the alien moon, and ultimately of humankind.
Because the Manifold novels take place in alternate universes, Origin works well as a stand-alone read. Baxter effectively explores how modern humans and their ancestors might be thoroughly alien to one another, but the book is more focused on thoughtful scientific speculation than in-depth characterization. However, readers who are swept away by novels of cosmic scope and compelling imagination will find Big Idea science fiction at its best. --Roz Genessee
Typical Stephen Baxter Another good book in the loose trilogy of the manifold series. This one investigates associations between different levels of humanity on the rungs of evolution. As if they could somehow interact between the ages with some interesting manifestations developed to make points. Right up there, almost, with Evolution, which is my favorite for his science, what if style, while of course Titan showcases his ability to create characters to bleed over. I haven't read all of his books, something that I'm remedying presently, but one of my top 10 authors since the release of Titan. heartedly recommended with no real reservations.
Of the origins Manifold is a series of three books. They're not a sequence, actually, as they describe parallel universes. The main character are the same, but the world they live in is different. Origin presents us a world where the good old Moon is replaced by a large red moon. As it happens, the main character, Reid Malenfant, loses his wife Emma on the new moon and has to rescue her.
Emma finds the new moon inhabited by various hominid species. Baxter offers us an interesting view to the life of different hominids, with a point of view of the hominids themselves and humans living with them. It's interesting, but it can also get slightly tedious - this is one long-winded book, with a plot that's a framework for all sorts of neat stuff Baxter wants to present.
But it works, for me at least, because even though I began reading book with some doubts, I soon got sucked into the events. It gets quite interesting and Baxter has some pretty wild ideas there. This book isn't for everybody (that is easy to see from the Amazon reviews, many of which give just one or two stars), but if you enjoyed the other Manifold books, this one is worth reading.
Other Manifolds Better Although I had already read the not-good reviews of this book on Amazon, I bought it anyway. The reviews are largely correct. The story went on too long, the characters are flat, the subplots detracted from the main plot rather than adding to it, and the science was much less interesting than that in last two books.
Still... I am glad I read it. It did have a few interesting ideas. I might suggest a reading plan to get the most out of this book. Read the first 50 pages or so to get an idea of all of the characters (they won't change for the duration of the novel) and the plot. Read all of the sections labeled Manekatopokanehedo. Skip to Part Four -- "The World Engine" and read to end, skipping the sections labeled Shadow.
With that reading plan, you should really enjoy the book. You'll get all of the key ideas and characters without having to slog through pages and pages and pages of the primitive lifestyles of the hominids. Hope this helps!
A Magnificent, Awe-Inspiring Thrill Ride! From front cover to back I felt woven into the multi-layered tapestry of every scene. One of my new favorites of its kind.
Sometimes - When you really enjoy a certain genre, writer or subject, one may lack patience or even become subconciously "snobbish" with the approach, digestion and/or analyzation of any artist's latest release. It is with this in mind that I can only begin to understand the basis of any negative comments about this novel.
Completely opening the mind to any eventuality and hypothesis - and Baxter's gift (and gift to us) of colorfully illustrating his epic, Hard Science, reality-based work allows those of us with less than a degree in physics the joy of intelligently pondering miracles such as the origins of galaxies, universes and life itself.
The "ride" of Manifold:Origin was a favorite aspect for me. I smiled every time I saw a new scene title - could be a few pages away, or even a few paragraphs. Pleased, not only in anticipation of which landscape or scenario I would soon be in, but also because I cared deeply about the characters and places I'd just left behind. Getting back there was a pleasure and a relief...and so on, and again...
Until at last you're there. Standing on the cradle of the universe, your mind racing with possibilities. If you let yourself, you are allowed a window to view a spectacular theory of the creation of space, time and life. With some creative visualization you can end up moved by this story. I was.
This novel should be read and re-read.
Shockingly truthful A breath-taking ride Deeply visual Scientifically digestable Heart-breakingly real
Beautiful
There's a decent book in here somewhere Have you ever been a good portion of the way through a book and been faced with the total certainty that it's not going anywhere. And yet, you've invested so much time in it that you feel silly not bothering to finish it and besides, it's not that bad. It's just not great. This was the situation I found myself in reading this book and true to form I did finish reading it only to find that the book was merely okay. Not good, certainly not great, but just "okay." I guess I should elaborate. This is the third (and presumably) last book in the "Manifold" trilogy, which so far has been a loose consortium of absolutely fascinating hard science ideas held together by fitfully entertaining plots. The stories may not have been nail-biters but the cosmic vision kept you coming back and made the experience memorable, although you won't achieve any kind of transcendence reading these. But they were fun, for what they were. Then we get to this book. By now, we know the drill, as Baxter reboots everything again and gives us the characters we've seen before, but in different circumstances. This time our hero Reid Malfenant is back (with his wife still alive, Emma sat out the last book due to death, so it's nice to have her along) and as usual he's ticking off NASA. But the book sets up its premise early on, as a weird red moon replaces the actual moon in the sky, also scooping up a bunch of people along the way. Emma winds up being one of those people and Reid throws together a mad gambit to go up there and rescue her and bring her back. Looking back, I'm not quite certain where the book went off the rails. The red moon, for whatever reason, contains a wide variety of hominid species all living together and while this should be the central mystery, Baxter goes absolutely nowhere with it for a long, long time. He sets up the whole weird society well enough, and integrates the people who have been picked up in previous trips, but the plot just sort of shambles along. Emma wanders around with other survivors. Reid attempts to get up there. Various other peoples with one word names and simple narrative style jump in just to spice things up without really adding anything to the overall story. Once in a while someone decides to sit up and ask, "Just what the heck is this here moon for?" On some level a lot of it feels like Baxter just killing time and the book is so stretched out that when the Big Ideas start to come, you run the risk of just not caring anymore. Page upon page deal with people just wandering around, or beating each other up, or foraging for food, or engaging in acts that I really can't describe here, to no real purpose, it seems. Subplots feel tacked on and Baxter fumbles his money shot with the ending, which is generally the place where he dazzles us with his knowledge of science and his interpretation of whatever wild theory he's been reading up on. In the first two books, his grand visions made up for any shortcoming in plot. This time out, it falls flat and the grand speculations and revelations just don't seem to have any impact, it's all stated so matter of factly (and sort of repeats something that happened in another book) that it's like reading people discussing a scientific paper, which is the opposite effect the previous books had on me. In his defense, after going with "time" and "space, it's probably hard to figure out something to top that, so I do give him credit for trying. And in the end he gives it the ol' college try, it's never less than readable and although I doubt it'll ever be anywhere remotely near my favorite book it was a pleasant reading experience, if a bit overlong. So you can decide if the author was simply biting off more than he could chew or just executing it poorly. And although your milage may vary, if you've read the other two Manifold books it's worth a shot at least, you might as well finish it and besides, you might like it more than I did. Anything's possible.
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