Rating: 
Summary: I thought it was great!
Review: Moonseed was just the book I was looking for. Combining a little "Alternate Future", some techy Geology, true to life relationships, global terror and real NASA Science jargon, gosh, it was right up my alley. I just finished a mild disapointment, Darwinia, but this 535 page book kept me going. Afterall, landing on the moon in a standing position, next to your X, with nothing holding you on but a Rose Parade body brace and all this on an external platform outside of the LM is fairly cool. I just wish Henry and Geena had developed something romaticly on the moon. I mean a year on the rock with no... Well, you can't blame her. Her Russian boyfriend was circling above, in the Orbiter. Read it. It's good!
Rating: 
Summary: Good Book....
Review: Not a bad little novel from Baxter, but he's done better in thepast. I got a feeling that he was trying for a Crichton typebestseller here. Starts off slow, and builds nicely. Good attention to hard science, so if that's not your cup of tea, you might want to look elsewhere.The novel is set in the very near future. At the time the novel is set, there are literaly two countries with the capability to put people into orbit, Russia and the US. Mr. Baxter writes HARD SF, so giving a full fledged space program to the people of Bolivia would put this book into the realm of fantasy. A majority of the first half of the novel takes place in Scotland and England, so that might explain the abundunce of pink skinned anglo-saxons. In fact, the Irish guy is not a very nice person, and he actually hastens the disasters facing the Earth. This book is not about multi-culturism, it's about a humanity-ending disaster taking place, and the two cultures who have the technology to send people to the moon, Russia & the US, race against time to save all of humanity. I thought that the characterization was excellent for the SF genre, and perhaps the fact that the main character's ex-wife had taken a Russian cosmonaut as her lover might have had something to do with his temporary dislike for the Russian main character? Whether or not these are Mr. Baxters true feelings or not are irrelevant... The plot is NOT standard Arthur C. Clarke wannabe, and in fact, is probably better than anything he's written in the last 20 years. I was glad I purchased this book, and I recommend it to anyone who can read it with an open mind.
Rating:
Summary: Another masterpiece from Baxter
Review: OK, so the gentle 100-page travelogue about Edinburgh provides perhaps a little too much detail to hold everyones' interest, but, for me, it just made the contrast with the ensuing roller-coaster ride to planetary cataclysm all the more dramatic. Baxter's painstaking research has really paid dividends here; I could really feel the sweaty claustrophobia of the lunar trip! The finale is a visionary tour de force that will stay with you for a very long time. A marvellous book that surely puts Baxter up there with the greatest of sc-fi authors.
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Summary: A genuinely unique, but very plausible sci fi horror story
Review: Once in a while an sf book comes along that explores a completely unique - but terrifyingly plausible - concept. In the classic tradition of 'what if' Baxter takes the reader on a slowly building, but inevitably terrifying ride that questions our definition of life, our origins and our future. The backdrop is a very plausible earth, just a few years down the track. And the moon, visited in one short burst during the Apollo years, but abandoned in the face of political realities. The story is not inhabited by larger than life heroes, but real people with real lives - warts and all - and yet we are led to understand how acts of heroism and self sacrifice arise. Baxter has researched his geological facts well. From first hand experiences, I can testify his volcanic events are portrayed realistically. You can feel the heat, live the horror of the very earth upon which we sit betraying us in the most fundamental way, shrugging off mere, fragile mankind as easily as we shrug off dust motes. And as a space nut, I was fascinated by his thorough, gutsy window into the Apollo missions and the less than glamorous astronaut training procedures. This is not a 'one sitting' quick read, but an unfolding drama to immerse oneself in over days.
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Summary: Baxter Has done it again!!!!!
Review: Stephen Baxter has produced a science fiction thriller of a disaster that just might happen. The Earth is infested by an alien living organsim called Moonseed that eats away at the Earth's rock and core. The nations of the world must unite to save Earth from this disaster. It's refreshing to read a "Hard" science ficiton book in which the author gets the science right. I bought this book in hardcover (something I rarely do) and I sure got my money's worth. Should be nominated for a Hugo. I am going to go out and get other Baxter books to read.
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Summary: Stephen Baxter is an Important Writer!
Review: Stephen Baxter is a new discovery for me. I'm pleased to say that it's a good one. I came on board with his earlier books "Voyage" and "Titan". "Moonseed" is another in a tradition of incredibly tense, moving, captivating near future "hypothetical" novels written with stunning scientific clarity and attention to detail. The Story is epic but told on an incredibly humane level. How do you face the end of your world knowing you can help shape a future that will outlast you? The characters are real!, bought to life with warmth and feeling not often "felt" in modern storytelling. feelings of lost opportunity and angst are interspersed with triumph and awe. The premise of "Moonseed" is terifying. It makes us face the ultimate frailty of our species, our environment, and our place in the Grand Scheme of things. Very rarely do I come away from a novel feeling emotionally involved. So far three out of three for Stephen Baxter. (Just a point for the record. Four instead of five stars because i'd just finished "Titan" a couple of days before, and that was a truly outstanding experience worthy of all the fives in the world.)
Rating:
Summary: What a great book!
Review: Stephen Baxter is one of my favourite authors, and Moonseed did not fail! A great story - great characters - wonderful technical details - can't wait to read it again!
Rating: 
Summary: Not bad, but ...
Review: Stephen Baxter's Moonseed is quite a good read. The idea is intresting and the plot will keep you glued to the pages - but one thing really bothered me. The author or to be fair - his characters - think along nationalistic terms. I don't especially like people in real live, who are full of prejudice. In a novel I find it very tiring. Describing a worldwide catastrophe as if the world was only peopled by Britisch and Americans is unconvincing and shallow. Combined with a lot of national stereotypes it makes me angry. This is not the 19th century anymore.
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Summary: Powerfull and tragic, yet uplifting as well
Review: This is an excellent book. You really feel for the characters involved and the fate of earth is really very sad, yet Baxter seems to have strong faith in the ability of people to persevere in the face of overwhelming odds and overcome tragedy. That is the core of this story, set amidst a facinating and frightening backdrop of interstellar viruses and dying worlds.
Rating:
Summary: Promising start, big letdown
Review: This is my fourth foray into Baxterland (previous reads Voyage, Titan, Manifold: Time, in descending order). For the first 120-odd pages, I was extremely hopeful Baxter had conquered his biggest bugaboo-- creating characters we can really CARE about. His main man, geologist Henry Meacher, showed dangerous signs of HUMANITY early on. True to form, however, by mid-book, he had reverted to form as an emotionless scientific wonk viewing the destruction of the world and everything in it with clinical detachment (indeed, with a kind of perverse glee). Other annoying Baxterisms include his tendancy to essentially plaigerize his research materials, lifting long passages of books like "Diary of a Cosmonaut" (yes, I'm one of the eight or so other folks who read the English language version) and "To A Rocky Moon" almost verbatim (as he did in the otherwise excellent "Voyage" with the "Angle of Attack"). Other reviewers have noted his fundamental nihilsim: It becomes evident fairly early on that Baxter hates humanity and thinks it deserves destruction, a theme that also runs strongly through "Titan" and the awful "Manifold: Time." This might be a valid view to hold, but it's certainly not my cup of tea. Another infuriating trademark is his tendency to set up a situation in painstaking detail, then seemingly get bored with the whole idea (or suddenly realize, "cripes--I've wasted 140,000 words on what should be the first third of the book--got to end it NOW!")and launch into "and ten years later... and another ten years..." mode. Finally, for a guy who seems to understand the basic mechanics of spaceflight so well, he takes some incredibly wild leaps into "Abbot And Costello Go To Mars" land. You mean to tell me Henry Meacher has not been briefed on the basic flight profile of the moon mission HE CREATED before he's blasted into space? How can a lunar geologist who's spent his entire career with NASA be so CLUELESS about space flight 101? Why do I keep reading Baxter? I keep thinking he'll surprise me by turning out another space epic like "Voyage," something that mixes nuts-and-bolts-and-turbopump mechanics with real HUMAN characters, something with a basically upbeat vision of mankind's future. So far, no good. I'm giving MOONSEED three stars because there's no "two and a half stars" rating. It's a ... sight better than his more recent "Manifold: Time" (indeed, Baxter's books seem to get worse as time goes on), but maybe a tad behind "Titan" and nowhere near as good as "Voyage."
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