Coalescent

Rating:
Summary: Historical Racism
Review: As a descendant of those "barbarous" tribesmen who crushed the vile, despotic Roman Empire, I find Baxter's treatment of Tribal Peoples in his novel as shabby stick characters rather shocking. Why the Roman Empire was the rightful target of "barbarian" attacks is ignored, and the Saxon invasions are taken totally out of context. You are as likely to feel or understand them as you are to feel for the faceless, grunting-"how"-type Indians getting slaughtered in all those John Wayne movies.

The crimes of Rome are too numerous to even list and are widely known, even the Romans themselves could not deny it: "They make desolation and call it peace..." is a quote from Roman Historian Tacitus. The so-called prosperity of Rome was not shared with the aboriginal Gaelic and germanic peoples of Britain, Gaul, etc. The story is of a traitorous wench who's motivation is to regain the comforts (slavery, theft, etc) the accidents of history has deprived her of. To long for Roman soldiers and Roman Law is the luxury of those not having to live under their heel.

While reading I kept wondering why Stephen Baxter is so obsessed with the Roman period of British history and takes side with such a terrible regime. It makes for interesting history but to write sympathetically of Rome is like giving a positive shout-out to Hitler. Strikes me as an pedantic love of authority, of knowing someone is In-Charge, being tucked into a safe little bed at night, irregardless of whether the authorities are corrupt murderous fiends or not.

Rating:
Summary: Engrossing combination of historical and science fiction
Review: As someone who likes hard science fiction and has always been
intrigued by the Roman empire, I found this book to be
a treat. The hard science in this case is evolution.
Readers of his Evolution will see some similar ideas,
and if you accept some of the ideas of Evolution then
what's in Coalescent barely rates the sometimes negative
genre tag of "Science Fiction". Indeed, were it not for
the brief space opera-like coda at the end, this book
could easily appear in the normal fiction section of the
bookstore.

Rating:
Summary: An exciting science fiction tale
Review: As the Kuiper Belt anomaly grips the planet, George Poole leaves London for Manchester to sell the house of his recently deceased father and split the profit with his Florida based decade older sister. Upon entering his dad's house (his mom died ten years ago), the memories of his youth flash by the now forty-five year old George until his world crumbles. George finds a photograph of two three year old children that look like fraternal twins standing in front of his family home. The male is George, but who is this female version of him?

In post Roman Britannia, Regina misses her carefree youth that ended about the time the strange lights arose in the heavens. She travels to Rome where she establishes the Order that lives and prospers under the streets of the city even to George's time Almost two millennium later George learns that he not only has a living twin, but she was given to the Order over two score ago. He treks to Rome to find a perfect hive of evolved humans that plan to expand their web beyond the Roman underground.

COALESCENT, the first book in Stephen Baxter's Destiny's Children trilogy, is an exciting science fiction tale that uses social order to propel human evolution. The story line alternates between George in the present and Regina in the past. The clever modern day tale provokes thought on evolution and social conditioning. However, Regina's world fails to materialize as it feels more like an account than a visit. Still readers will appreciate this deep tale and look forward to further debate over the pros and cons of human COALESCENT.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Some interesting ideas, perhaps
Review: Baxter draws upon the work in recent decades on self emergent order, that arises from simple rules between cellular automata. See for example seminal work by Wolfram in the early 80s. The gist of these is that very rudimentary rules for short range interactions between these automata can give rise to ordered phenomena over larger distances and times. This book posits such an ordering over some 1600 years, from the fall of the Roman Empire to the present time.

Baxter also seems to implicitly use work by Richard Dawkins, in "The Selfish Gene", where Dawkins argues that organisms are just the vessels by which their genes propagate in time. For the most part, this refers to nonsentient creatures. But the most provocative implication of Dawkins' work is that we too are bound by such imperatives. The plot in this book also seems to follow this thread.

Somewhat enjoyable. Though the subplot of possible aliens in outer space seems to be quite jarring, and not well fitting, as compared to the way Baxter interleaves two narrative flows, from the present and the past.

Rating:
Summary: A different Baxter
Review: From the boundless imagination of Stephen Baxter comes another novel from his enviable arsenal of story telling. A different Baxter I thought compared to his previous works, more gritty, more wordy but none the less compelling. I fancied the book was still cold from the cargo hold of a 747 when I got my hands on the book having travelled from the UK to Australia! Stephen has done some marvellous research of Roman Britain of 400 C.E., warts and all, with some nice touches of historical (or fictional?) figures. The alternating chapters of the past and current day works especially well and hold your attention to the very end. Once again, as in his ground breaking Manifold series, he tackles another aspect of the Fermi Paradox with a satisfying conclusion.

The most important science fiction writer of this generation once again affirms his place. How long I wonder, before the next part of the Trilogy? Not too long I trust.

Rating:
Summary: Science Fiction and Ancient History - Strange Bedfellows!
Review: How can anyone write a science fiction novel about ancient Roman and English civilisations. Baxter can!
Breathtaking scope and (one can assume) historical accuracy of a decaying Roman culture. This book has value on many levels and in my case opened an addicted science fiction (and fantasy) reader to the possibilities of ancient history.
While the hive culture emerged as a central theme for exploration in subsequent novels, it was the dismay of the central character as her society declined around her that held my interest.
On many levels this story appeals and creates interest. I hope he can maintain this historical fictional content in future novels, as I for one found it quite engrossing.
The hive development was fascinating and well developed, though ever so slightly overdone. He could have left a bit more for the reader to discover, ponder and have the lights come on, particularly as he proposes future novels.
I can never play with my ant farm again and not picture the streaming of mindless, white smocked women from a hole in the ground moving off to create another hive.
Very nearly a 'must read'. Well done Mr Baxter, let's get the next one out soon!

Rating:
Summary: Good, but not one of his best
Review: I am only rating this a four because I am reluctant to give something by Stephen Baxter a three. At his best, he is one of the best authors and everything he writes is a five star book. However, he is not at his best here.

In Coalescent, Baxter is trying to do character development and description, two things which he doesn't use that often. While I appreciate the effort, he frequently misses the mark. Stephen Baxter is strongest when he is writing stories about space, but in this book, he is stranded on Earth.

As for the story itself, it is pretty enjoyable. The book is similar to Evolution in that it shows how one event can shape the destiny of a species. In the case of this book, the species in question is a small group of humans who develope a hive mentality. Complicated, I know, but Baxter almost pulls it off.

To sum up, Coalescent is an okay read. It moves fast and reading it certainly won't hurt you. However, it will not change you either.

Rating:
Summary: Not recommended
Review: I bought this novel at the airport bookstore, which never has a great selection. Having heard of Baxter, and faced with a choice between this, some Dan Brown dreck, and some generic fiction, I chose "Coalescent." I wish I had simply stared at the back of the seat in front of me, like Puddy from Seinfeld, for the entire flight instead.

Early in the novel, we meet the main characters: George, a nebbishy middle-aged white man, and Peter, a nerdy middle-aged white man whose character is defined in part by his Internet proficiency. One might say that Baxter knows his audience. More cynically, one might place this book solidly in the "wish-fullfilment" subgenre of SF (what Gerrold would call "Mary Sue" stories), where the protagonist is the outsider innocent (like the reader) who is gradually introduced to some greater truth and some adventure at the same time.

The first two-thirds of this book are serviceable, if tedious and somewhat boring. They are unfocused, and in the best tradition of lazy historical fiction, get by with name dropping. King Arthur and Mussolini? Please. At least he gets points for creativity in name dropping. In the last hundred pages, though, "Coalescent" picked up the pace, and started to capture some of my waning interest. The "human hive" idea set forth on the back cover finally starts to come into play toward the end. But then the novel encounters a serious problem: Peter.

The character of Peter is problematic in many regards, particularly with regard to the Internet. The novel fosters the idea that some nuts in a chatroom can actually solve the mysteries of the universe, when the reality of chat is that it's merely a place for adolescent boys to argue with each other and for retirees to talk about contrails. Peter, with little actual expertise, a laptop, and participation in some conspiracy chatroom, figures out the nature of some vague threat to humanity. OK, although implausible, this is simply wish-fulfillment stuff for a subset of his readership that actually might believe that science, or societal change, or anything else useful might result simply from chatting with your fellow conspiracy buffs. Yet, Peter proceeds to take quite serious action based on silly chatroom speculation, action with dire consequences - and the novel approves! Peter's actions are much more insane than heroic, and yet the book treats him as if he was justified in his actions. Great. This drops my rating down to 1 star from 2 stars, as it comes awfully close to encouraging a subset of his readership to do things in real life they and others might regret.

I have not read any of Baxter's other books. After this, I don't think I want to.

Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly good
Review: I have to be honest. This book sat on my bookcase for nearly 6 months before I finally decided to read it. The subject matter did not seem that interesting to me. Fortunately, the book ended up being a pleasant surprise. It alternates between two plotlines, one set during the fall of the Roman Empire and the other during present day. I found myself more interested in the older storyline than the present day plot. Interestingly enough, this book is tied into Baxter's Xeelee universe too, especially the ending.

Rating:
Summary: Exploring a new theme
Review: I liked this book more than some of the other reviewers. The theme clearly extends from his earlier works, most notably, Evolution. In this case the pace is slower, as our 2 protagonists, one in the ancient Roman empire, and the other contempory, spin the texture of the novel. The central concept, the evolution of a human hive species, while not original, is reasonably, if a little implausible biologically, characterized. More importantly, we are given a rationale for its existence and structure. We are are also given tantalizing clues as to where Baxter may want to go with this idea. In one case, the hive engineers the destruction of a another, nearby. In the second, we see a vignette of a familiar Baxterium universe where hive societies have spread out to the stars.

The book is weakest with its side plot of the discovery of an alien artifact in the Kuiper belt, and the possible suggestion of detection of a photino bird. I sense that Baxter wants to ensure the threads of his Xeelee sequence are incorporated into the plot, but in this book, the first of a promised series, this thread seems gratuitious. Perhaps the following novels will expand on this backdrop.

As other reviewers have argued, the hive is a living cellular automata. Because the rules for this particular hive were created by a founder, there is the possibility of exploring other structures based on different rules, defined by different constraints. Given the space of viable possibilties, one can easily see this idea expand like another "Manifold".

In summary, this book is a solid read, which entertained this reader with an interesting theme, painted against a detailed historical backdrop. I look forward to more in the series.