Slashdot Mirror
Coalescent
One thread follows George Poole, an educated and intelligent man in modern day Britain. After his father's sudden death, George has to put his affairs in order, and in the process discovers a previously unknown twin sister sent away to join "The Puissant Order of Holy Mary Queen of Virgins", a secretive (but apparently respectable) sixteen-hundred-year old religious order in Rome. He decides to find out more, and begins to investigate with the help of an old school friend, a member of a "fringe group of outsiders united by new technology" who communicate via the Internet and moderate each other's contributions to keep things ordered -- what a bizarre idea.
At the same time in Rome, Lucia is a fourteen-year old member of the Order who finds herself, unlike her fellow sisters, undergoing some alarming physical changes... puberty.
The other narrative thread follows Regina, a girl born around 400 A.D in Roman Britain. She is spoiled and pampered until her world is shattered by the death of her father and the ending of Roman rule in Britain.
Of the three threads, Regina's story is by far the most vivid and compelling. It is easy to read the broad sweep of history books documenting the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, but what did it mean for the people living through it? Currency, the rule of law, the specialised labour needed to provide metal, and the army to keep the peace... all gone. As one of the characters (Peter, in the "George" thread) says, "It must have been like a nuclear war." No longer enjoying the protection of the Emperor and his armies, the scattered and disorganised British have to fend for themselves against the invading Saxons intent on looting, pillaging and removing all traces of Roman civilisation. Regina must learn how to survive, and eventually her drive and ruthlessness leads her to Rome to confront her past and make a better future for her daughter. Driven by instinct and a desire to protect her family from the barbarian sackings of Rome, she establishes an unusual way of life which threatens to change the meaning of what it is to be human.
There is a great deal more, but it would be unfair to reveal too much and spoil things for others. The dangling threads (the mysterious Kuiper Belt anomaly) and hints (the war 20,000 years hence) leave plenty for future novels in the trilogy to push the story further into big science, big ideas and deep time that Baxter is well known for. Coalescent is scrupulously researched, intriguing, educational and has a genuine effect on the way you see social interactions and communities. Hard to beat, and highly recommended.
You can purchase Coalescent from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
and i rule
fp
a frosty piss. If not, imma kill the president
Slashdot trolling
The book is pretty fascinating; 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.
The whole thing was OK, but the subplot of possible aliens in outer space seems to be quite jarring, and not well fitting, as compared to the way Baxter mixes the two narrative, from the present and the past.
Slashdot: when news breaks, we give you the pieces.
I'm currently on page 400 of my proof copy and thought I might try writing a Slashdot review. Fortunately, somebody beat me to it! Instead I'll present the following points:
1) If you did not (like|understand|pretend to get|claim to have read) Cryptonomicon, this is not the book for you. I can't imagine Mr. Stephenson was looking to expand his fan base with this book. This book is easily an intellectual achievement and as such, is written to satisfy an audience of 1: Neal Stephenson.
2) Generally, Stephenson's books are best after multiple readings. If you don't like reading books over again, you should steer clear of this author altogether. Quicksilver is no exception. There is a lot going on and, if the other books serve as guides, you will get more out of them a second time around.
3) After reading parts of this book you are going to want to track down articles on (wikipedia|everything2) to refresh your memory about late 17th century European history. Even so, this book is not "late 17th century European history." This is a book about 17th century hackers and, if you believe the premise, how much and how little things have changed. Either way, this book merits a Companion guide.
4) The sixth paragraph above is a pretty big spoiler. Don't read it.
5) I don't think Christina Schulman, the reviewer, (and despite the Epiphyte reference) made it through the book. The Quicksilver metaphor is important in the first book. The second and third books in the Quicksilver volume go on to other metaphors.
6) don't expect it to resemble Stephenson's prior books in anything but ambition and length. Ummm, I disagree. The parallel story line method is Stephenson's trademark, whether you are reading The Big U, the Diamond Age, or most noticeably Cryptonomicon. This book is more of what Stephenson does best, but in a very different setting.
7) Despite having a proof copy, I'm getting the hardcover of this sucker. Stephenson is worth it.
8) The Real Character puzzle from the website was only a glimpse of what was to come in the book. Given the time and effort (and application of programming skills/OCR) I don't expect to be disappointed.
Bottom line, if you're new to Stephenson, you'll want to try Cryptonomicon first. Quicksilver can be a page-turner but it is by no means a quick read. I usually fly through books but have taken over a month on this one. This book represents an incredible amount of effort and cements Stephenson's position top among the most versatile, intelligent, (Linux friendly) authors today.
Make me your friend; my fans get +1 comment scores.
It was initially a Quadrilogy, but Beyonce didn't like one of the books.
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.
Can anyone tell me where I can download a netinst CD image to install the sid distribution?
The link on the official page doesn't seem to work.
"who communicate via the Internet and moderate each other's contributions to keep things ordered -- what a bizarre idea."
Does he conclude that it doesn't work?
Coalescent is unmistakeably a Stephen Baxter novel, but it's not the sort of novel you expect Stephen Baxter to write. The material is as big and bold as ever - this is a novel concerned with civilisation and society, order and chaos, as viewed through the lens of evolutionary biology - but the focus is more intense than usual. This is a novel about the role of the group and the role of the individual. This is a novel about family. Specifically, the Poole family.
I often find it more interesting when science fiction broadens its horizons into the dynamics of relationships and family, and not just blowing up spaceships.
Insert pathetic Destiny's Child (R&B) Joke here.
0110100100100000011000010110110100100000011000100
"Coalescent spans history from the Roman era to 20,000 years in the future".
What about trying to extrapolate to totalitarianism in the United States if G. W. Bush
is (unfortunately) re-selected?
Thanks and have a John_Ashcroft free weekend,
Kilgore Trout
You copied my review, you fucking karma whore fucker!
If you liked this book, check out The Light of Other Days which is by Steven Baxter and Arthur C. Clark.
Karma karma karma karma karma chameleon, you come and go, you come and go.
If Destiny's Children is anything like its namesake, the worst of the three books will become disproportionately more popular than the other two, and will be mistaken as comedic and subsequently featured in an Austin Powers movie.
Your final line is nearly identical to James Joyce comment two comments above. Are you schizo (logging in under two names) or a plagiarist? No quotes are indicated.
BTW - I'm always suspicious of book review comments as the author/significant others/rabid fans/competition comments always pile on.
GREEK SALAD PITA SANDWICHES
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons chopped pitted Kalamata olives or other brine-cured black olives
1 teaspoon dried oregano
3 cups (loosely packed) thinly sliced romaine lettuce
2 cups diced seeded tomatoes
1 cucumber, peeled, halved, seeded, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
1 cup crumbled feta cheese (about 4 ounces)
6 6-inch pita breads, top 1 1/2 inches trimmed
Whisk first 4 ingredients in large bowl to blend. Add next 4 ingredients and toss to combine. Season salad with salt and pepper. Carefully open pita breads at cut end. Fill each with salad and serve.
Makes 6 servings
There are some more reviews out there.
... shouldn't be written as trilogies. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say they shouldn't be published seperately. I don't mind reading book 1 in a trilogy and waiting to find out more if the book would have been a good read on it's own. But this book comes across as a novel that is more than a little unsatisfying without the following books.
.02 worth
My
If you're interested in non-fantasy books (at least books with no orcs and dragons) about post-Roman Britain, look up the Camulod Chronicles books by Jack Whyte. Very well written, and well-researched. I just wish he'd finished them.
By the taping of my glasses, something geeky this way passes
No longer enjoying the protection of the Emperor and his armies, the scattered and disorganised British have to fend for themselves against the invading Saxons intent on looting, pillaging and removing all traces of Roman civilisation.
Think "Grover Norquist".
Reposted review of a different book. Fantastic.
Sam North
...he copied me. Notice that my comment was posted first. "Keanu Anderson" just plagiarised it. You can tell he's a troll from his username.
I mean WHAT THE FUCK?
Our intelligent designer has never created an animal that we couldn't improve by strapping a bomb to it.
I find his "science knows all and God doesn't exist" attitude to be a little childish (once or twice okay, but as a recurring theme in nearly every book?).
how does this book stand up to such Baxter literature as Vacuum Diagrams (i realize that this is a collection of stories, but comparable to a book) which is another one of his excellent rambles through history? Baxter excels at such writing, which is evident in such works as the Time Ships, an elaboration (and stunning improvement on) Wells' Time Machine. When he grounds himself in too small a time frame, i find his imagination is somewhat constricted, which is why the manifold trilogy was good in my eyes, but was overshadowed by his more temporally epic work.
Baxter and Stephenson, who've been much discussed so far, are both doing incredible work in science fiction. anyone who hasn't read them definitely should. i would recommend Baxter's Time Ships (a lengthy but very enjoyable read) and Stephenson's Snow Crash (so entertaining) to begin, and then explore other books authored by them.
Heres a review I did of Ring, the only Baxter book I've read. Keep in mind I'm no writer myself, this is just my opinion, not a professional review.
As far as the ideas of grand scifi go, Ring ranks near the top. The story spans 5 million years, two universes and includes one character, Lieserl, a once-human AI whose life spans nearly all 5 millon years. Lieserl is one of the two most interesting characters in the book, the other is a 1000 year old man named Uvarov. Unfortunately, both characters exist only to serve a couple of key plot points. All of the characters are flat and uninteresting, with no decernable personality or drive.
The major elements are interesting, everything between is grating. Particularly the characters propensity to speak the name of the person they are addressing every second time they open their mouths. By the end of the book you will be subconciously filtering out the names, or just skipping the dialog outright. For the most part, you won't miss it.
Every problem is solved almost magically, the characters never break a sweat. Mostly they stand around addressing each other by name and explaining to each other (purely for the readers benefit) the technology and history of the story. The plot is very obviously there only as a tool for the author to speculate about some of the very cool things that an incredibly advance race might do with the universe.
If this book were a blanket, it would be a net of irritating wool holding together some very finely cut jewels. Thats why I'm giving it three stars. Its irritating to use, but still worth having around. If you want silk sheets, try Vernor Vinge instead.
if I'm not even in the damned thing.
Yeah. I mean, they even put the greased up Yoda doll guy in there. Even though he only existed for a few weeks. Where is Trollkore, I ask you, WHERE IS TROLLKORE?
Stupid philistines.
2.) Homepage URL is a porn link.
Now I would like to hear more about how you have come to the conclusion that God's incredible gift of sacrificing his son's life so that the human race could rejoice in the heavens instead of being cast to the fiery depths of hell equates to "intolerance, oppression and torture"?
and therefore a terrorist supporter and implicit nazi
There is a category of science romance out there, running parallel to science fiction. Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash)- a mathematician is one and Stephen Baxter is another. Putting the science back in fiction and taking us along with it into extraordinary scenarios with fantastic sweeps across history.
I'd previously come across Stephen Baxter when reading Reality Dust - pure but very alternative and thoughtful science fiction. It was accompanied by an another long short story in the Futures compendium by Peter F Hamilton called 'Watching Trees Grow'. An amazing detective story spanning generations, about a Britain that has never left the Roman Empire. The Empire, now nearly thousand years old never vanished or collapsed, but redoubled it's strength and held on, shaping all of history forever. But it's Stephen Baxter who has reached prominence with an extraordinary output of very intelligent science fiction and non-fiction too, with his engrossing book which traces the path not yet taken in Deep Future.
In Coalescent Baxter takes a different tack to Peter Hamilton. He sticks to reality. Rome collapses, a slow terrible implosion over hundreds of years as the Barbarians crush the life out of her. He now deals in historical fact. It's Britain where Rome chooses to leave first, needing soldiers to defend Rome itself and Gaul. The population, led from Rome, is used to almost five hundred years of rule of law and prosperity. It cannot adjust, basic craftsmen skills seem to vanish, crime soars, most cannot believe the Emperor won't be back. Order will be restored soon they hope. But this not science fiction; Baxter uses history to chart a novel that is quite wonderful in many respects, doing something that has long been needed and probably should become a textbook for all high schools across the land.
This is a story of a young girl Regina, a Roman British girl living in a villa with a lavish lifestyle and slaves who is suddenly abandoned by her mother Julia after her father accidentally kills himself. Regina is saved from ruin by her Grandfather, an old soldier and they flee to the safety of the wall. Regina's story is central to this book, told over her lifespan and more, alternating with a more contemporary story of one George Poole searching for his long lost twin sister in Rome.
It is Regina's story and the story of Britain suddenly engulfed by marauding Saxons and tribal chieftans trying to fill the gap that the absence of Roman garrison's left behind.
The disintegration of Romano Britain is a huge hole in the teaching of history in schools. We know they came, what they did, when they left, but then history glazes over and becomes the 'Dark Ages'. Baxter shines a very bright light indeed on those years and with subtle weaving entangles the adult Regina and her daughter Brica with the forever battling Artorius (Authur) and his mystic Myrddin (Merlin).
Baxter is no romantic. This shambolic, receding, violent Britain is full of rapists and killers and Regina has to learn to survive with cunning. Everything is crumbling. Eventually she finds a way to get herself and her reluctant daughter to Rome - ostensibly to find her mother, but also to seek revenge for the man who raped her when she was a beautiful seventeen and left her with child.
The sub-story of George Poole and his search for his sister is consumed by the growing story of 'The Puissant Order of Holy Mary Queen of Virgins'. What is the connection between this secret convent in Rome and Regina's story some sixteen centuries ago? Who is the mysterious Peter, friend of George's father who seems to appear in George's life without warning. What does he want from George?
Baxter has a vision and everything always comes back to Rome. Our modern history began there and it is still entwined in modern Europe. Indeed as I write this review, the Prime Minister of Italy is wrapping up six months of Presidency of Europe...and the President of Europe is in fact Romano Prodi. A lot of history between this and Regina's tough ordeal to esc
Karma karma karma karma karma chameleon, you come and go, you come and go.
Very clever redirect though.
pants on fire
I've said it (here) before, and I'll say it again. If you're looking for excellent authors in the space-opera subgenre of SF, read all of Peter F Hamilton's stuff first.
I just finished his Second Chance at Eden, a collection of short-stories loosely related to his other novels and works. Very good stuff. But, the Reality Dysfunction/Neutronium Alchemist/Naked God trilogy (6 700+ pg paperbacks in the US) is just plain excellently engrossing, in my opinion. Check it out.
Whatever floats your boat.
You're such a jackass...lying about redirects to a site just because you hate the spammer who posted the link.
Sold.
Has anyone done a bot to automatically detect such duplication? Seems easy, even with the occasional edit to give it a different checksum.
Mencken had it right. So glad that's old news.
Check out this thread. Also look at his posting history. Although his last few comments got modded up, he has a history of trolling. He's plagerizing insightful comments and storing up karma for future trolling efforts. Please stop him!
Stephen Baxter deals in big concepts: just how big only becomes obvious at the end of Coalescent, the first of three books planned for the Destiny's Children series. Split between the story of Regina, a child living at the collapse of the western Roman empire, and our world now, Coalescent jumps the historical gap with a religious order which has, over the millennia, become something very different - something post-human.
One of Baxter's key abilities is to make the apparently impossible suddenly seem simple with a few well-chosen scientific examples. Coalescent is still recognisably hard SF, but the characters are more closely observed than usual; the scene where a man sees the scribbled notes of his recently dead father, along with the cup he will never pick up again, is almost cruel in its clarity. It's been said for years that Baxter is the natural successor to Arthur C Clarke, but on a good day, he's better than that.
I certainly agree that Vinge does a better job with this genre.
Mencken had it right. So glad that's old news.
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.
Anyone who is up-to-date with Dawkins work would know that Dawins says the exact opposite - as sentient beings we are not bound these imperatives.
Anyone can do this epic uinverse-spanning stuff, but you have to at least have decent multi-dimensional characters. Vinge's characters I cared about (well, some of them, those annoying kids in A Fire upon the Deep really annoyed me).
Best British science fction authors are Iain M Banks and Alastair Reynolds IMHO. Baxter is largely not worth reading, let alone buying.
So around here we are mostly geeky nerds, right?
It follows that in order to interest us a review of a fiction book should clearly state at least the following points:
1. Why, if a trilogy, it is worth reading on beyond the first book (this test fails 87% of all SF, hard, soft, or AI-written);
2. What is the unique element distinguishing this book from the approximately 50-60 SF new books being published every month (originals, no translations, USA+UK);
3. Why the reviewer thought worth looking at this particular book rather than documenting the spaghetti code he/she had just written; we want to know a detailed explanation of the urge that assailed him/her, not just the usual fluff;
4. Before using the expression 'hard SF' which should allegedly make the book more attractive to us (though it's true I hate fantasy quests full of orcs and dwarves), submit the book to the Charles Sheffield test (i.e. every scientific deus ex machina may not be based on chemically pure drivel, but should instead be based on at least one unsupported, perhaps daring, assumption).
With thanks to all reviewers, though...
ThufirHawat
Thufir Hawat
Part-time Mentat
... in that I didn't know I would ever throw away a hardcover book. But baxter made me do it. I found myself reading about a diseased, pregnant gorilla on the train. A pregnant gorilla. This is sci-fi? I would have left the book when I reached my station, but they hate it when you leave trash behind, so I threw it in the nearest bin.
I did like the Xeelee stuff, but after manifold and Triton, baxter will need to send me a personal apology before I spend another cent on his new stuff.
I have not read Banks, but I have several of Reynolds books and have enjoyed reading them very much. Good enough that when I browse the shelves his is one of the few specific names I watch for.
Your comment was stupid. Very stupid. One need look no further than the phenomenom known as the LOTR trilogy to see just how stupid your comment was. The LOTR books do not by any means each stand on their own; they may each be enjoying in their own right, but they are incomplete by themselves.
Ok, I'm done being a dick, heh :P
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
Karmawhoring is such an easy task on this site, unfortunately, and certain trolls know how to harvest the karma. It's a pity that the losers that run this site aren't even aware of this.
As far as I can tell, most of Baxter's books are in the same universe. They may appear to be unrelated, but they aren't. Well, maybe not Time Ships, but while creating all the universes, it surely passes through the main Baxter-verse.
Check out the ultimate fate of Mike Poole, and consider what little was mentioned of the mysterious being which turned him into a super being. Later, when the people of the Raft come back into this universe, and Poole decides to care for them, they're already sitting on top of the ultimate travel machine -- go anywhere in space or time, this universe or the next. Suddenly, Poole's future begins to seem a lot like the mysterious being's past...
So, Baxter's Universe is a Very Large closed timelike curve. Woot!
FWIW, the LOTR 'trilogy' was intended by Tolkien to be published as one physical book. The cost of publishing such a large book at the time (post-WWII) was such that the publisher divided it into three volumes.
The names "The Fellowship of the Ring", "The Two Towers", and "Return of the King" were made up after the fact. Tolkien preferred "War of the Ring" as the name of the third, as he believed "Return of the King" gave away the plot.
Source: Appendices to TTT 4-DVD set. There is some info at Wikipedia also.
Besides, there are other examples of great trilogies. For example, the original Star Wars trilogy. The first and third do, however, stand on their own, but the second, while considered by many to be the best of the series, is in its entirety a bridge from the first to the third and does indeed leave much to be desired.
There are plenty of other examples - Asimov's Foundation and Robot series - while some of the books do stand on their own, some don't.
It was an overly broad and generalizing statement the original poster made, IMO. My insulting him was also purely in jest, which some moderator apparently didn't get...
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
I agree. It's too bad you read Origins at first. Manifold Space was imho by far the best of the trilogy. To me basically the WHOLE book was like the very end of 2001. This guy is suddenly launched into interacting with powerful aliens, however it is a one way trip because in order to do this he must also travel hundreds of years into the future with every step he takes -- leaving his own culture and society behind forever. Although towards the end it has some aspects which are grueling in the same way where that main guy ends up with some neanderthals. Xelee books are good, Manifold Space is good, but avoid Evolution at all costs! It's like the worst parts of origins for the whole damn book. NO high tech :(
"Coalescent spans history from the Roman era to 20,000 years in the future, and examines the beginnings and evolution of a strange form of human society. "
isn't that basically the twist of almost all science fiction novels...
I read the trilogy while on a trip, and frankly I can understand any of the hype. I found the work dull and lifeless, with equally lifeless characters. Moreover the books just didn't make any sense, while it was claimed they were "hard science" the only thing "hard" was trying to understand the gigantic leaps of logic in his apparent attempt to make a linear plotline. Replace any technobabble in the story with any other technobabble and the story remains the same -- that's Star Trek, not hard sci fi.
Also try Rosemary Sutcliffe.
"Sword at Sunset", for eg, is her take on the Arthurian legend positing Arthur as the son of a Roman trying to hold back the tides of barbarian darkness after the Romans have left.
|>
Here be Dragons
Yeah. I'm not agreeing with the original post (there's plenty of great trilogies around), I was just tossing in some related info for anyone who might be interested.
Parent post is copied straight out of a review from The Guardian's Books section.
Review the poster's history. Poster generally copies others' highly moderated comments and reposts them as his own -- a Troll attempting to gain Karma.