World Engines: Destroyer
A post climate change high concept science fiction odyssey

Stephen Baxter seems to be on a roll of late, adding new novels that take his celebrated ‘Xeelee’ sequence in new directions, and here resurrecting one of the more divisive characters he has ever created, Reid Malenfant from ‘Manifold’. Not only that, but the curmudgeonly Malenfant is allowed free r......more

Stephen Baxter is an old school, hard SF author. World Engines: Destroyer is a page-turner, with the fiction is built around as much solid science as possible. Baxter includes five pages of afterword, describing the scientific discoveries and theories he incorporates. The central conceit - of multip......more

In a lot of ways, this is classic Clarkian SF complete with the classic big issue future history bent that is more concerned with the big issues along a planetary scale (from ecological fiction to future conservatory technology (including the disposition of AIs and future humans who learned to merel......more

I reached a bit past half way through and couldn't stomach any more contrived Anthropocene Crisis propaganda, envirosplaining, and universal welfare / benevolent anarchy socioeconomic theory. The protagonist flops back and forth between an irrepressible self-made man inwardly railing against the Elo......more

So: just after my recent reread of Moonseed, Stephen’s latest arrives. World Engines: Destroyer is the first in a new trilogy but involves a lead character that regular Baxter readers have met before. The character from the past is Colonel Reid Malenfant, from the Manifold series (Time, Space, Origi......more