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Destiny's Children
''Destiny's Children'' is a science-fiction series by Stephen Baxter. It takes place within his larger series, the ''Xeelee Sequence''. Like his previous ''Manifold Trilogy'', the books are not direct sequels to one another, but are instead thematically linked by the appearance of concepts, themes, and sometimes characters in multiple books. Examples of this include: * A coalescence is visited in all three novels. * The Kuiper Anomaly, a tetrahedral artifact that appears in the Kuiper belt, is discovered in ''Coalescent'', mentioned briefly in ''Exultant'', and finally explained in ''Transcendent''. * The characters George Poole, Michael Poole, and Rosa Poole appear in both ''Coalescent'' and ''Transcendent''. * Each book deals in some way with the future evolution of humans, both physically and sociologically. For example, ''Coalescent'' discusses the ability of humans living with limited space and resources to evolve a society that resembles insect hives. ''Transcendent'' deal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stephen Baxter (author)
Stephen Baxter (born 13 November 1957) is an English hard science fiction author. He has degrees in mathematics and engineering. Writing style Strongly influenced by SF pioneer H. G. Wells, Baxter has been Vice-President of the international H. G. Wells Society since 2006. His fiction falls into three main categories of original work plus a fourth category, extending other authors' writing; each has a different basis, style, and tone. Baxter's "Future History" mode is based on research into hard science. It encompasses the Xeelee Sequence, which consists of nine novels (including the ''Destiny's Children'' trilogy and Vengeance/Redemption duology that is set in alternate timeline), plus three volumes collecting the 52 short pieces (short stories and novellas) in the series, all of which fit into a single timeline stretching from the Big Bang singularity of the past to his ''Timelike Infinity'' singularity of the future. These stories begin in the present day and end when th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xeelee Sequence
The Xeelee Sequence (; ) is a series of hard science fiction space opera novels, novellas, and short stories written by British science fiction author Stephen Baxter. The series spans billions of years of fictional history, centering on humanity's future expansion into the universe, its intergalactic war with an enigmatic and supremely powerful Kardashev Type IV alien civilization called the Xeelee (eldritch symbiotes composed of spacetime defects, Bose-Einstein condensates, and baryonic matter), and the Xeelee's own cosmos-spanning war with dark matter entities called Photino Birds. The series features many other species and civilizations that play a prominent role, including the Squeem (a species of group-mind aquatics), the Qax (beings whose biology is based on the complex interactions of convection cells), and the Silver Ghosts (colonies of symbiotic organisms encased in reflective skins). Several stories in the Sequence also deal with humans and posthumans living in ex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manifold Trilogy
The ''Manifold Trilogy'' is a series of science fiction books by British author Stephen Baxter. The series was published from 1999 to 2003. It consists of three novels and an anthology of short stories relating to the three. The three novels in the trilogy are not ordered chronologically; instead, they are thematically linked novels that take place in alternate universes. The series consists of: *'' Manifold: Time'' - Arthur C. Clarke Award nominee, 2000 *'' Manifold: Space'' *'' Manifold: Origin'' *''Phase Space'' (short stories) Similarities Each novel contains the same or mostly similar characters, though these characters find themselves in wildly different circumstances in each story. The protagonist in all three novels is a man named Reid Malenfant, a brash, ambitious entrepreneur and former astronaut who gets drawn up into the complexities of each novel's plot. Each novel starts off on Earth, in a relatively mundane near future, but eventually expands into the far future an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coalescence (genetics)
Coalescent theory is a model of how alleles sampled from a population may have originated from a common ancestor. In the simplest case, coalescent theory assumes no recombination, no natural selection, and no gene flow or population structure, meaning that each variant is equally likely to have been passed from one generation to the next. The model looks backward in time, merging alleles into a single ancestral copy according to a random process in coalescence events. Under this model, the expected time between successive coalescence events increases almost exponentially back in time (with wide variance). Variance in the model comes from both the random passing of alleles from one generation to the next, and the random occurrence of mutations in these alleles. The mathematical theory of the coalescent was developed independently by several groups in the early 1980s as a natural extension of classical population genetics theory and models, but can be primarily attributed to John K ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kuiper Belt
The Kuiper belt () is a circumstellar disc in the outer Solar System, extending from the orbit of Neptune at 30 astronomical units (AU) to approximately 50 AU from the Sun. It is similar to the asteroid belt, but is far larger—20 times as wide and 20–200 times as massive. Like the asteroid belt, it consists mainly of small bodies or remnants from when the Solar System formed. While many asteroids are composed primarily of rock and metal, most Kuiper belt objects are composed largely of frozen volatiles (termed "ices"), such as methane, ammonia, and water. The Kuiper belt is home to most of the objects that astronomers generally accept as dwarf planets: Orcus, Pluto, Haumea, Quaoar, and Makemake. Some of the Solar System's moons, such as Neptune's Triton and Saturn's Phoebe, may have originated in the region. The Kuiper belt was named after Dutch astronomer Gerard Kuiper, although he did not predict its existence. In 1992, minor planet (15760) Albion was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coalescent
''Coalescent'' is a science-fiction novel by Stephen Baxter. It is part one of the ''Destiny's Children'' series. The story is set in two main time periods: modern Britain, when George Poole finds that he has a previously unknown sister and follows a trail to a mysterious and ancient organisation in Rome (Puissant Order of Holy Mary Queen of Virgins); and the time of Regina, a girl growing up during the ending of Roman rule in Britain, around AD 400. ''Coalescent'' was nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 2004. Plot summary The book consists of four distinct parts. The primary purpose of part one is the introduction of the characters, in ancient Britain and the present. Part two introduces a modern first-person view of the Order in Rome while following Regina's budding legacy centuries before. Part three hosts the clash and resolution of Poole and the Order's realities. Part four is a look eons into Humanity's Expansion into the Universe and provides a conclusion in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2003 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 2003. Events *February 12 – An invitation from the First Lady of the United States, Laura Bush, for some poets to attend a conference at the White House is postponed when one of them, Sam Hamill, organizes a "Poets Against the War" group for poetry readings across the United States on the same date. *February 15 – Anti-war protests occur in London. They are later used as the setting for Ian McEwan's 2005 novel ''Saturday''. *March – The University of Mosul library is damaged and looted during the Iraq War, but many volumes are removed for protection by staff. *April 14 – The Iraq National Library and Archive is burned down during the Battle of Baghdad. *April – Nicholas Hytner succeeds Sir Trevor Nunn as artistic director of London's Royal National Theatre. * November 7 – UNESCO places among the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity ''wayang kulit'', a shadow pupp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Exultant (novel)
''Exultant'' is a science fiction novel by British author Stephen Baxter. It is part two of the ''Destiny's Children'' series. The book was published by Victor Gollancz Ltd in September 2004. Overview Much of the book is written as large sections of prose explaining theoretical exotic-matter physics. Baxter also sketches the evolution of the Xeelee and an imaginary history of the universe in which life is ubiquitous even under the most extreme conditions. Plot summary ''Exultant'' is set in Baxter's "Xeelee Sequence" twenty thousand years into the Third Expansion of Mankind, "a titanic project undertaken by a mankind united by the Doctrines forged by Hama Druz after mankind's near extinction." The human-supremacist Interim Coalition of Governance has conquered almost the whole Milky Way — all but the alien Xeelee concentrated at the galactic core around a supermassive black hole called Chandra. The mysterious Xeelee are far more advanced but less numerous than the humans, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2004 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 2004. Events *January **The poet Jang Jin-sung, in trouble with the North Korean authorities, defects to South Korea. **The Richard & Judy Book Club is launched on UK daytime television. *February – Canada Reads selects Guy Vanderhaeghe's '' The Last Crossing'' to be read across the nation. *February 16 – Edwin Morgan becomes Scotland's first official national poet, the Scots Makar, appointed by the Scottish Parliament. * May 23 – Seattle Central Library, designed by Rem Koolhaas, opens to the public. *June 1 – Controversy surrounds '' Battle Royale'' by Koushun Takami (高見広春), when an 11-year-old fan of the story in Sasebo, Nagasaki, murders her classmate, 12-year-old Satomi Mitarai, in a way that mimics a scene from the story. *October 14 – Edinburgh becomes UNESCO's first City of Literature. * October 31 – Denoël in Paris publishes Irène Némirovsky's '' Suite français ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Transcendent (novel)
''Transcendent'' is the third novel in the ''Destiny's Children'' series by Stephen Baxter, and a 2006 Campbell Award nominee. Plot summary The story alternates between two timelines: the world of Michael Poole in the year 2047, and that of Alia, a posthuman girl who lives approximately half a million years in the future. Engineer Michael Poole is recovering from the death of Morag, his pregnant wife. Poole works as a consultant designing space propulsion systems, and dreams of being able to one day explore the stars. However, there are more pressing matters; humanity faces a serious bottleneck, with the Earth reeling from the effects of anthropogenic climate change and resource depletion; automobile production has all but ceased, except for hydrogen-based mass transit, and air travel is limited to the very rich. Due to climate change, the oceans have become dead zones, with rising sea levels and severe weather displacing millions. While working in Siberia, Michael's son To ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2005 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 2005. Events *January 16 – This is the 400th anniversary of Miguel de Cervantes' publication of the first part of ''Don Quixote'' in Spain. *February 25 – Canada Reads selects ''Rockbound'' by Frank Parker Day as the novel to be read across the nation. *March 26 – The classic U.K. science fiction series ''Doctor Who'' returns to television with a script by Russell T Davies, the executive producer. * April 23 – The Grande Bibliothèque at the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec is officially opened. It actually opens on April 30. *June 13 – The poet Dannie Abse is injured and his wife Joan killed in an accident on the M4 in South Wales. *August 15 – An integrated National Library of Norway opens to readers in Oslo for the first time. New books Fiction *Tariq Ali – ''A Sultan in Palermo'' *Rajaa Alsanea – ''Girls of Riyadh'' (بنات الرياض, ''Banat al-Riyadh'') * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Resplendent
''Resplendent'' is an English language science fiction collection by British writer Stephen Baxter, published in 2006. It is the fourth and final book in the ''Destiny's Children'' series. This book is a collection of short stories relating to the previous three books, comprising new works and previously published stories, including the novellas ''Reality Dust'', ''Riding the Rock'' and ''Mayflower II'', an 88-page novella taking place in the Xeelee Sequence that won the 2004 BSFA Award for the Best Short Fiction. The short stories have been arranged into an overall narrative with brief single page interludes by the character Luru Parz, from the first story in the book. When read in series they form a history as seen by her up until the final story of the book. Contents *“Cadre Siblings” (from '' Interzone'' 153, March 2000) *''Reality Dust'' (2000) * “Silver Ghost” ('' Asimov’s'', September 2000) * “On the Orion Line” (''Asimov’s'', October 2000) * “In th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
