« Book: Blood Music | Main | Parineeta and why it is a good toothpaste ad... »
September 06, 2003
Book: Manifold - Time
Manifold: Time is Stephen Baxter's first book in the Manifold series. Reid Malenfant, an enterprising astronaut, becomes the unlikely participant in a universe spanning adventure to unravel the mystery of humanity's existence in this universe.
Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
Author: Stephen Baxter
Manifold: Time is a wonderful book. It is filled with ideas and twists that will keep even the non scifi fan glued to the book to find out how the story culminates. Stephen Baxter weaves a wonderful story and describes some amazing ideas which should be a must read for anyone who wants to tantalize their minds.
Time reads like a two part novel. The first part sets up the story and introduces the main characters and gives the impression to the reader that the story is coming to an end. Time has quite a few twists that are well executed to keep the reader interested. And just when I thought the book had come to the end (50% through the book), I was blown away by the fact that it wasn't over it!
The story is told through multiple perspectives by the different characters in the book. There are only three main characters that dominate the narrative however - Reid Malenfant, Emma Stoney and Cornelious. Malenfant is a bold visionary who proposes that human colonization of space can occur if humanity can tap into the vast resources of the universe. He builds a simple spaceship capable of harvesting resources present in asteroids and pushing them on a trajectory to Earth for collection. Meanwhile, a scientist Cornelious expresses his interest in Malenfant's project. Cornelious brings in a big twist in the plot by telling Malenfant that the Earth will be destroyed within the next 200 years and something has to be done to avoid it.
Soon Malenfant discovers a time travel portal on a desolate asteroid during his asteroid mission. Here Baxter brings out a fantastic vision of the effect of time on the universe which will make your jaw drop! And this is where I thought the book would end.... but apparently it was just getting warmed up!
I can whole heartedly recommend Manifold: Time to any avid sci fi reader who misses the brilliance of The Space Odyssey series. Baxter's only shortcoming is the lack of strength in his character building, but considering the fact that he packs in so much brilliant stuff, I can forgive him!
Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
Posted by amitc at September 6, 2003 04:13 PM