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Sci-Fi Books Media Space Book Reviews

Coalescent 122

Posted by timothy from the scifi-time dept.
Motor writes "Coalescent is the first book in a new trilogy (Destiny's Children) by Stephen Baxter, a hard SF author with an impressive bibliography; Raft, Ring, and the awesome Manifold trilogy (Time, Space, Origin), among others. Baxter is an engaging writer whose ideas are as numerous as they are interesting and original. Coalescent spans history from the Roman era to 20,000 years in the future, and examines the beginnings and evolution of a strange form of human society. It has three main narratives." Read on to find out what they are, and for the rest of Motor's review.
Coalescent: Destiny's Children, Book One
author Stephen Baxter
pages 480
publisher Gollancz
rating 9
reviewer Motor
ISBN 0575074248
summary Sisters matter more than daughters. Ignorance is strength. Listen to your sisters.

One thread follows George Poole, an educated and intelligent man in modern day Britain. After his father's sudden death, George has to put his affairs in order, and in the process discovers a previously unknown twin sister sent away to join "The Puissant Order of Holy Mary Queen of Virgins", a secretive (but apparently respectable) sixteen-hundred-year old religious order in Rome. He decides to find out more, and begins to investigate with the help of an old school friend, a member of a "fringe group of outsiders united by new technology" who communicate via the Internet and moderate each other's contributions to keep things ordered -- what a bizarre idea.

At the same time in Rome, Lucia is a fourteen-year old member of the Order who finds herself, unlike her fellow sisters, undergoing some alarming physical changes... puberty.

The other narrative thread follows Regina, a girl born around 400 A.D in Roman Britain. She is spoiled and pampered until her world is shattered by the death of her father and the ending of Roman rule in Britain.

Of the three threads, Regina's story is by far the most vivid and compelling. It is easy to read the broad sweep of history books documenting the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, but what did it mean for the people living through it? Currency, the rule of law, the specialised labour needed to provide metal, and the army to keep the peace... all gone. As one of the characters (Peter, in the "George" thread) says, "It must have been like a nuclear war." No longer enjoying the protection of the Emperor and his armies, the scattered and disorganised British have to fend for themselves against the invading Saxons intent on looting, pillaging and removing all traces of Roman civilisation. Regina must learn how to survive, and eventually her drive and ruthlessness leads her to Rome to confront her past and make a better future for her daughter. Driven by instinct and a desire to protect her family from the barbarian sackings of Rome, she establishes an unusual way of life which threatens to change the meaning of what it is to be human.

There is a great deal more, but it would be unfair to reveal too much and spoil things for others. The dangling threads (the mysterious Kuiper Belt anomaly) and hints (the war 20,000 years hence) leave plenty for future novels in the trilogy to push the story further into big science, big ideas and deep time that Baxter is well known for. Coalescent is scrupulously researched, intriguing, educational and has a genuine effect on the way you see social interactions and communities. Hard to beat, and highly recommended.

You can purchase Coalescent from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
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Coalescent

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  • FWIW, (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Tirel ( 692085 ) on Friday January 02, 2004 @03:23PM (#7862046)
    I wrote this review for hackwriters.com, I hope it present an complanar view to the above.

    There is a category of science romance out there, running parallel to science fiction. Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash)- a mathematician is one and Stephen Baxter is another. Putting the science back in fiction and taking us along with it into extraordinary scenarios with fantastic sweeps across history.
    I'd previously come across Stephen Baxter when reading Reality Dust - pure but very alternative and thoughtful science fiction. It was accompanied by an another long short story in the Futures compendium by Peter F Hamilton called 'Watching Trees Grow'. An amazing detective story spanning generations, about a Britain that has never left the Roman Empire. The Empire, now nearly thousand years old never vanished or collapsed, but redoubled it's strength and held on, shaping all of history forever. But it's Stephen Baxter who has reached prominence with an extraordinary output of very intelligent science fiction and non-fiction too, with his engrossing book which traces the path not yet taken in Deep Future.

    In Coalescent Baxter takes a different tack to Peter Hamilton. He sticks to reality. Rome collapses, a slow terrible implosion over hundreds of years as the Barbarians crush the life out of her. He now deals in historical fact. It's Britain where Rome chooses to leave first, needing soldiers to defend Rome itself and Gaul. The population, led from Rome, is used to almost five hundred years of rule of law and prosperity. It cannot adjust, basic craftsmen skills seem to vanish, crime soars, most cannot believe the Emperor won't be back. Order will be restored soon they hope. But this not science fiction; Baxter uses history to chart a novel that is quite wonderful in many respects, doing something that has long been needed and probably should become a textbook for all high schools across the land.

    This is a story of a young girl Regina, a Roman British girl living in a villa with a lavish lifestyle and slaves who is suddenly abandoned by her mother Julia after her father accidentally kills himself. Regina is saved from ruin by her Grandfather, an old soldier and they flee to the safety of the wall. Regina's story is central to this book, told over her lifespan and more, alternating with a more contemporary story of one George Poole searching for his long lost twin sister in Rome.

    It is Regina's story and the story of Britain suddenly engulfed by marauding Saxons and tribal chieftans trying to fill the gap that the absence of Roman garrison's left behind.
    The disintegration of Romano Britain is a huge hole in the teaching of history in schools. We know they came, what they did, when they left, but then history glazes over and becomes the 'Dark Ages'. Baxter shines a very bright light indeed on those years and with subtle weaving entangles the adult Regina and her daughter Brica with the forever battling Artorius (Authur) and his mystic Myrddin (Merlin).
    Baxter is no romantic. This shambolic, receding, violent Britain is full of rapists and killers and Regina has to learn to survive with cunning. Everything is crumbling. Eventually she finds a way to get herself and her reluctant daughter to Rome - ostensibly to find her mother, but also to seek revenge for the man who raped her when she was a beautiful seventeen and left her with child.

    The sub-story of George Poole and his search for his sister is consumed by the growing story of 'The Puissant Order of Holy Mary Queen of Virgins'. What is the connection between this secret convent in Rome and Regina's story some sixteen centuries ago? Who is the mysterious Peter, friend of George's father who seems to appear in George's life without warning. What does he want from George?

    Baxter has a vision and everything always comes back to Rome. Our modern history began there and it is still entwined in modern Europe. Indeed as I write this review, the Prime Minister of Italy is wrapping up six months of Presidency of Europe.

    • Jack Whyte (Score:4, Interesting)

      by CptNerd ( 455084 ) <adiseker@lexonia.net> on Friday January 02, 2004 @03:38PM (#7862184) Homepage

      If you're interested in non-fantasy books (at least books with no orcs and dragons) about post-Roman Britain, look up the Camulod Chronicles books by Jack Whyte. Very well written, and well-researched. I just wish he'd finished them.

      • Also try Rosemary Sutcliffe.
        "Sword at Sunset", for eg, is her take on the Arthurian legend positing Arthur as the son of a Roman trying to hold back the tides of barbarian darkness after the Romans have left.

    • Peter F Hamilton (Score:3, Informative)

      by kcm ( 138443 )

      It was accompanied by an another long short story in the Futures compendium by Peter F Hamilton called 'Watching Trees Grow'.

      I've said it (here) before, and I'll say it again. If you're looking for excellent authors in the space-opera subgenre of SF, read all of Peter F Hamilton's stuff first.

      I just finished his Second Chance at Eden, a collection of short-stories loosely related to his other novels and works. Very good stuff. But, the Reality Dysfunction/Neutronium Alchemist/Naked God trilogy (

      • I too have mentioned him, and second the reccomendation. I've read most of his stuff by now, all very good. I even thought the Greg Mandel trilogy was pretty good, don't let the super-cheesy covers scare you away. Nowhere near as good as the Night's Dawn Trilogy, but decent for a fan of Peter Hamilton's writing.

        It's been about a year since I finished the last page of the Naked God, but I'm itching to read it again. An amazing series. A newer book, Fallen Dragon, is also most worthwhile.

        It was one of the
        • Fallen Dragon was indeed excellent.. although, there's an entire new trilogy on the horizon!

          More info here [homeip.net].

          I'm very tempted to pre-order it along with Richard Morgan's new books (Broken Angels and Market Force) from amazon.co.uk, if shipping wasn't so much.

      • While I really liked that series, Reality Dysfunctin can be a bit of a slog to get through, but the rest of the books more than make up for the slow start.
    • It is such a shame for you that "complanar" is not a word. What's it supposed to mean?

  • Bizarre indeed. (Score:4, Funny)

    by pheared ( 446683 ) <kevin@p[ ]red.net ['hea' in gap]> on Friday January 02, 2004 @03:23PM (#7862051) Homepage
    "who communicate via the Internet and moderate each other's contributions to keep things ordered -- what a bizarre idea."

    Does he conclude that it doesn't work?
  • Coalescent is unmistakeably a Stephen Baxter novel, but it's not the sort of novel you expect Stephen Baxter to write. The material is as big and bold as ever - this is a novel concerned with civilisation and society, order and chaos, as viewed through the lens of evolutionary biology - but the focus is more intense than usual. This is a novel about the role of the group and the role of the individual. This is a novel about family. Specifically, the Poole family.

    I often find it more interesting when scienc
  • Insert pathetic Destiny's Child (R&B) Joke here.

  • Destiny's Children (Score:4, Funny)

    by Boing ( 111813 ) on Friday January 02, 2004 @03:29PM (#7862107)
    If Destiny's Children is anything like its namesake, the worst of the three books will become disproportionately more popular than the other two, and will be mistaken as comedic and subsequently featured in an Austin Powers movie.

  • some more reviews (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    There are some more reviews out there [verygeekybooks.com].

  • Trilogy books that don't stand on their own... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ewanrg ( 446949 ) <ewan@grantham.gmail@com> on Friday January 02, 2004 @03:37PM (#7862179) Homepage
    ... shouldn't be written as trilogies. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say they shouldn't be published seperately. I don't mind reading book 1 in a trilogy and waiting to find out more if the book would have been a good read on it's own. But this book comes across as a novel that is more than a little unsatisfying without the following books.

    My .02 worth
    • Coalescent can easily stand on its own in my opinion. There are ties to his other works, but nothing that would prevent you "getting" the whole thing.

    • LOTR (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Ender Ryan ( 79406 )
      nuff said - but I'll take a couple minutes to insult you anyway, if only to bypass the lameness filter.

      Your comment was stupid. Very stupid. One need look no further than the phenomenom known as the LOTR trilogy to see just how stupid your comment was. The LOTR books do not by any means each stand on their own; they may each be enjoying in their own right, but they are incomplete by themselves.

      Ok, I'm done being a dick, heh :P

      • FWIW, the LOTR 'trilogy' was intended by Tolkien to be published as one physical book. The cost of publishing such a large book at the time (post-WWII) was such that the publisher divided it into three volumes.

        The names "The Fellowship of the Ring", "The Two Towers", and "Return of the King" were made up after the fact. Tolkien preferred "War of the Ring" as the name of the third, as he believed "Return of the King" gave away the plot.

        Source: Appendices to TTT 4-DVD set. There is some info at Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]
        • Actually, I already knew that, but I fail to see how that is relevent, as the books were indeed published as three separate books.

          Besides, there are other examples of great trilogies. For example, the original Star Wars trilogy. The first and third do, however, stand on their own, but the second, while considered by many to be the best of the series, is in its entirety a bridge from the first to the third and does indeed leave much to be desired.

          There are plenty of other examples - Asimov's Foundation

          • Yeah. I'm not agreeing with the original post (there's plenty of great trilogies around), I was just tossing in some related info for anyone who might be interested.

  • I like Baxter, but... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Wylfing ( 144940 ) <brian@NOsPAm.wylfing.net> on Friday January 02, 2004 @03:48PM (#7862283) Homepage Journal
    Baxter is a great short story writer. But when he gets into the roominess of a novel you see that he has a very gloomy and pathetic opinion of humanity. I mean, having the entire human race obsessed with waging war on the Xeelee because we can't stand being second best? Come on.

    • Uhhh... and what do you think just about any war in the history of world has been based on?

    • Errr ... and then lose because they were second best.

    • It all goes back to Michael Poole. It's no coincidence that this series revolves around the Poole family -- Baxter is building up to explaining where the "exceptional" genius of Poole comes from.

      As far as I can tell, most of Baxter's books are in the same universe. They may appear to be unrelated, but they aren't. Well, maybe not Time Ships, but while creating all the universes, it surely passes through the main Baxter-verse.

      Check out the ultimate fate of Mike Poole, and consider what little was ment

  • how does this book stand up to such Baxter literature as Vacuum Diagrams (i realize that this is a collection of stories, but comparable to a book) which is another one of his excellent rambles through history? Baxter excels at such writing, which is evident in such works as the Time Ships, an elaboration (and stunning improvement on) Wells' Time Machine. When he grounds himself in too small a time frame, i find his imagination is somewhat constricted, which is why the manifold trilogy was good in my eyes,

  • Baxters writing is painful (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Suidae ( 162977 ) on Friday January 02, 2004 @03:58PM (#7862359)
    Heres a review I did of Ring, the only Baxter book I've read. Keep in mind I'm no writer myself, this is just my opinion, not a professional review.

    As far as the ideas of grand scifi go, Ring ranks near the top. The story spans 5 million years, two universes and includes one character, Lieserl, a once-human AI whose life spans nearly all 5 millon years. Lieserl is one of the two most interesting characters in the book, the other is a 1000 year old man named Uvarov. Unfortunately, both characters exist only to serve a couple of key plot points. All of the characters are flat and uninteresting, with no decernable personality or drive.

    The major elements are interesting, everything between is grating. Particularly the characters propensity to speak the name of the person they are addressing every second time they open their mouths. By the end of the book you will be subconciously filtering out the names, or just skipping the dialog outright. For the most part, you won't miss it.

    Every problem is solved almost magically, the characters never break a sweat. Mostly they stand around addressing each other by name and explaining to each other (purely for the readers benefit) the technology and history of the story. The plot is very obviously there only as a tool for the author to speculate about some of the very cool things that an incredibly advance race might do with the universe.

    If this book were a blanket, it would be a net of irritating wool holding together some very finely cut jewels. Thats why I'm giving it three stars. Its irritating to use, but still worth having around. If you want silk sheets, try Vernor Vinge instead.
    • On the whole, I agree. I read the Time Ships a while ago and couldn't make it past the first 30 pages (my limit before putting down a book due to lack of interest). I found the first two Manifold books to be OK, but couldn't stomach the third.

      I certainly agree that Vinge does a better job with this genre.

  • What should a /. SF book review be like (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ThufirHawat ( 524457 ) on Friday January 02, 2004 @05:43PM (#7863303) Homepage
    So around here we are mostly geeky nerds, right?
    It follows that in order to interest us a review of a fiction book should clearly state at least the following points:
    1. Why, if a trilogy, it is worth reading on beyond the first book (this test fails 87% of all SF, hard, soft, or AI-written);
    2. What is the unique element distinguishing this book from the approximately 50-60 SF new books being published every month (originals, no translations, USA+UK);
    3. Why the reviewer thought worth looking at this particular book rather than documenting the spaghetti code he/she had just written; we want to know a detailed explanation of the urge that assailed him/her, not just the usual fluff;
    4. Before using the expression 'hard SF' which should allegedly make the book more attractive to us (though it's true I hate fantasy quests full of orcs and dwarves), submit the book to the Charles Sheffield test (i.e. every scientific deus ex machina may not be based on chemically pure drivel, but should instead be based on at least one unsupported, perhaps daring, assumption).

    With thanks to all reviewers, though...

    ThufirHawat
  • ... in that I didn't know I would ever throw away a hardcover book. But baxter made me do it. I found myself reading about a diseased, pregnant gorilla on the train. A pregnant gorilla. This is sci-fi? I would have left the book when I reached my station, but they hate it when you leave trash behind, so I threw it in the nearest bin.

    I did like the Xeelee stuff, but after manifold and Triton, baxter will need to send me a personal apology before I spend another cent on his new stuff.
    • Maybe next time you want to throw out a book, you should try this? [bookcrossing.com] I know you didn't enjoy the book, but others might and it strikes me as an unusual social experiment. No, I haven't done it, but I heard about it on the radio and provided you don't get fined for littering it sounds like a good idea!
    • I agree. It's too bad you read Origins at first. Manifold Space was imho by far the best of the trilogy. To me basically the WHOLE book was like the very end of 2001. This guy is suddenly launched into interacting with powerful aliens, however it is a one way trip because in order to do this he must also travel hundreds of years into the future with every step he takes -- leaving his own culture and society behind forever. Although towards the end it has some aspects which are grueling in the same way where

  • "Coalescent spans history from the Roman era to 20,000 years in the future, and examines the beginnings and evolution of a strange form of human society. "
    isn't that basically the twist of almost all science fiction novels...
  • I read the trilogy while on a trip, and frankly I can understand any of the hype. I found the work dull and lifeless, with equally lifeless characters. Moreover the books just didn't make any sense, while it was claimed they were "hard science" the only thing "hard" was trying to understand the gigantic leaps of logic in his apparent attempt to make a linear plotline. Replace any technobabble in the story with any other technobabble and the story remains the same -- that's Star Trek, not hard sci fi.

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