Rating: 
Summary: A Complete Waste of Time
Review: Perhaps the worst written science fiction novel I have ever read. The characters were lifeless and not at all engaging. You simply didn't care what they were going to do next. The plot was a paper thin, meandering mess. Despite the fact that I really enjoy novels about twisting time, I just can't find a redeeming feature in this novel. This was the first book I read by Baxter. It will certainly be my last. Don't waste your valuable time on this dreck!
Rating: 
Summary: MANIFOLD: TIME
Review: The end of the world, or, merely, the end of life as we know it, has been one of man's greatest fears. Author Stephen Baxter's MANIFOLD: TIME does not exploit nor hide behind such dire threats. Rather, Baxter uses this most human concern as a catalyst for his action-based novel, demonstrating that man's survival instinct is so great that it bears the potential to transcend time. Told in the near-distant future and centering around a diverse group of characters (the rogue space hero; the independent, yet dutiful ex-wife; the politician with a conscience; the seemingly mad mathematician; the genius child; and the brain-enhanced squid), MANIFOLD: TIME is a story spanning so many levels, you'll be thinking about it long after you've turned the last page!
Rating:
Summary: Earns the accolades as 'the next Clarke'
Review: While the main character, Reid Malenfant, seems at time to be nothing more than a foil for other characters, the plot and ideas more than make up for this slight detraction. A facinating look that combines various ideas from as far back as twenty years ago. Very reminisicent of "2001" in its sense of wonder. But since it is a substantially larger book, the ideas are bigger and more numerous. Baxter's predictions of the future are disquieting because of how logical he has extrapolated his ideas. A near flawless science fiction novel.
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Summary: A romp through space and time
Review: Manifold:Time is a well paced, well thought out adventure through some of the more esoteric conceptions found in the outskirts of modern physics. The characters, and in particular the main character, who is a entrepeneur in the best sense of the word, for such an idea driven plot, are well developed. The author extrapolates a near term future in which NASA is a strangled bureacracy and the world is beginning to collapse, and without space based material, the world will not be able to continue to expand. Then an artifact is discovered, and perceptions about the world change. In order not to give too much of the plot away, I won't mention each of the different technical devices used, but I particularly like the concept of (I think it was called) Feynman transfer, where messages from the future might be beamed to the present, if only we were able to detect them. I found less persuasive the use of, essentially, Bayesian statistics with relation to extrapolations of population growth and human survival, since such ad hoc assumptions are approximately as accurate as the 7 day outlook on the weather for the seventh day. As a final point, I liked the symetry, similiar to that found in "The weapon shops of Isher", where events set in motion in the present can affect other parts of time and space, perhaps even in creative and wonderful ways.
Rating: 
Summary: MANIFOLD: TIME
Review: Stephen Baxter's intriguing book provides a new view to predicting Earth's end. His style of writing, although a bit slow at times, allows the characters to develop to bring the story to its irreversible end, and what an ending it is.I am impressed by Baxter's creativity. For an author with such an extensive technical background he goes beyond that call to incorporate simplicity to the scientific material and to explore the depth and interaction of his characters leading to earth's outcome without being humdrum! A most enjoyable book, well written and would recommend it to all sci-fi buffs who really want food for thought. Ceridwen "C.J." Johnson Toronto, Canada
Rating: 
Summary: The Final Fate of the Universe - Or is It?
Review: For some reason, the current theories about just how our universe came to be and what its ultimate fate will be seems to have captivated many hard SF practitioners in the last few years. This book is certainly a member of that group (to the extreme!), but it also throws in backward quantum waves, quantum nuggets, Bayesian statistics, and an impending catastrophe that will literally wipe out humanity. So there is certainly enough of the 'hard stuff' to satisfy any science enthusiast. But what of the story? This, perhaps, is just as wild as the science, imagining a single individual, Reid Malenfant, trying to propel the world into true space travel, real exploitation of the resources available there, who is just rich enough, and brilliant enough, to possibly bring it off, in the face of the by now de rigor opposition by environmentalists, NASA, EPA, FBI, Congress, and all the rest of the alphabet soup. But Reid becomes sidetracked when he is led to see what he believes is a message from the far future, causing a change of target to a small asteroid with an unusual orbit locked to Earth's. The initial probe is manned by an enhanced squid, whose development and behaviors from a significant sub-plot. But discovered on the asteroid is an obvious 'artifact', (clearly a crib from Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey), a glowing blue ring that apparently leads to other times and universes. In the meantime, on Earth there has been a sudden appearance of 'Blue Children', fantastically intelligent, semi-autistic, who quickly gain the abhorrence of almost all 'normal' people as different, a threat to humanity as homo sapiens. Gathered together, these children apparently invent a machine to capture a quantum nugget, with perhaps dire consequences for the world. How these separate threads get folded together into a truly gorgeous trip through the history and future of not just our universe, but many others, (a near biological spawning of universe from universe, each growing towards conditions that might spawn intelligent life), becomes complicated, and the vision itself has to carry the story, reminiscent of Olaf Stapledon in his wilder moments. Baxter almost brings this off, as the vision truly is grand, but in presenting this he seems to lose sight of the story of his characters, and the ultimate message of the book is either extremely depressing or seemingly irrelevant to people of today. The science is real, the complications of the story worthy of something by A. E. van Vogt, but plot and science alone cannot carry the full weight of this story. His characters are introduced well, and I could easily believe in someone like Reid or his former wife and even Cornelius, but their growth (or lack of it) through the later parts of the story did not quite ring true. Neither did the portrayed world reaction to the Blue Children, the message of impending calamity, or the message from the future. A good attempt, but not fully successful. --- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
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Summary: Squids in Space!
Review: Interesting story, plenty of science nuggets, the timespan sequence that shows the end of the universe through Heat Death was certainly fascinating but it needs more character depth to make it a higher scoring book. The Blue Children reminded me of Nancy Kress's Beggars in Spain, but they were just sort of thrown away at the end. Well, come to think of it, so was the universe. :) Oh, and Cornelius was just plain annoying.
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Summary: Some of the very best Baxter
Review: The accounts of rocket and space craft development are pretty ridiculous, but the 'deep time' sections are spectacular. Manifold Space is probably the strongest book of the trilogy, and Time is good but has a weak ending.
Rating:
Summary: Badly written
Review: This book is unfortunately depressing from the start and has one of those "non-endings" for an end. In short, the whole universe is destroyed at the end of the book. Don't waste your time reading this. The technical aspects are not explained very well. Of course, if you like child abuse and foul language for the sake of foul language, then you'll like this book.
Did I forget to mention the horrid grammatical errors and "briticisms" being used by americans. Baxter, if he spent any time in the US, didn't pay attention to how we speak.
Rating:
Summary: An Expansive novel
Review: When I first picked up Manifold: Time I was unimpressed and put it down after 15 pages. Weeks later when I started reading it again out of boredom, I couldn't put it down. This book has some of the first new ideas I've come across in a while. Baxter isn't the GREATEST writer of all time, but he is the perfect man for this story. In a way, I see Manifold Time as scientific theology. It gives all life purpose, no matter how insignificant it may seem.
That all said, this book probably isn't for you if you hate science and want more of a space opera.
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