Wednesday, February 01, 2012

Stephen Baxter: Destiny's Children & the Xeelee Sequence

2012-02-01. 1.

A friend of mine loaned me this book quite awhile ago and I haven’t started it yet because I knew it was a part of a larger series.  I wanted to make sure that it was a good book to start with before I started and, more importantly, just how long of a series I was getting myself into.  Once I start a series, my OCD kicks in and I tend to have to finish it, even if it takes a turn for the awful.

No notes, commentary or analysis yet.  Haven’t read a page.  Just some links on the series for now.

Glancing at some reviews, I read this (Exultant).  It covers some territory I am interested in covering with my own writing, but I am not considering this a comitment to finishing whole Destiny’s Children Series, let alone the entire Xeelee sequence.

Yes, I am all about the sci-fi these days, but I am wanting to spend more time reading through some of the old classics I never got around to and revisiting a few that I haven’t read since I was a kid, so unless this blows me away, I am just taking a pit stop here with Baxter until my next Powell’s run on Saturday!

The Xeelee Sequence - Timeline (www.stephen-baxter.com)

Destiny's Children - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Destiny's Children is a science-fiction series by Stephen Baxter. It takes place within his larger series, the Xeelee Sequence. Like his previous Manifold Trilogy, the books are not direct sequels to one another, but are instead thematically linked by the appearance of concepts, themes, and sometimes characters in multiple books.

Stephen Baxter - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Baxter's "Future History"[1] mode is based on research into hard science. It encompasses the monumental Xeelee Sequence, which as of July 2009 is composed of seven novels (including the Destiny's Children series), plus four novellas and 46 short pieces, all of which fit into a single timeline stretching from the Big Bang singularity of the past to his Timelike Infinity singularity of the future.[2] These stories begin in the present day and end when the Milky Way galaxy collides with Andromeda five billion years in the future.[2] The central narrative is that of Humanity rising and evolving to become the second most powerful race in the universe, next to the god-like Xeelee. Character development tends to take second place to the depiction of advanced theories and ideas, such as the true nature of the Great Attractor, naked singularities and the great battle between Baryonic and Dark Matter lifeforms.

Another category, outside of the main body of Baxter's independent work, is sequels to science-fiction classics. His first novel to achieve wide recognition (winning three literary awards) was The Time Ships, an authorised sequel to H.G. Wells' The Time Machine. The Time Odyssey series, a trilogy co-authored with Arthur C. Clarke, is connected to Clarke's four Space Odyssey novels. Baxter has also published a novel based on a synopsis written by Clarke, The Light of Other Days.

Xeelee Sequence

Raft
1991
ISBN 0-246-13706-1
Arthur C. Clarke Award nominee, 1992[9]

Timelike Infinity
1992
ISBN 0-00-224016-5

Flux
1993
ISBN 0-00-224025-4

Ring
1993
ISBN 0-00-224026-2

Vacuum Diagrams
1997
ISBN 0-00-225425-5
Philip K. Dick Award winner, 1999[8]

Short story collection.

Reality Dust
2000
ISBN 1-902880-10-2

ISBN 1-902880-11-0

Novella (first published by PS Publishing as trade paperback and hardcover; both limited; later collected in Resplendent)

Riding the Rock
2002
ISBN 1-902880-60-9

ISBN 1-902880-59-5

Novella (first published by PS Publishing as trade paperback and hardcover; both limited; later collected in Resplendent)

Mayflower II
2004
ISBN 1-904619-16-9

ISBN 1-904619-17-7

Novella (first published by PS Publishing as trade paperback and hardcover; both limited; later collected in Resplendent)

Starfall
2009
ISBN 978-1-906301-59-0

ISBN 978-1-906301-60-6

Novella (published by PS Publishing as hardcover and jacketed hardcover; both limited)

Destiny's Children

Coalescent
2003
ISBN 0-345-45786-2
Arthur C. Clarke Award nominee, 2004[10]

Exultant
2004
ISBN 0-345-45788-9

Transcendent
2005
ISBN 0-345-45792-7
John W. Campbell Memorial Award nominee, 2006[11]

Resplendent
2006
ISBN 0-575-07896-0
Short story collection.

A Time Odyssey (Co-authored with Arthur C. Clarke)

Time's Eye
2003
ISBN 0-345-45248-8

Sunstorm
2005
ISBN 0-345-45250-X

Firstborn
2007
ISBN 978-0-345-49157-2

 

Related Posts

(more..)

No comments: