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Xeelee
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] |
Starfall (novel)
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] |
Timelike Infinity
''Timelike Infinity'' is a 1992 science fiction book by British author Stephen Baxter. The second book in the Xeelee Sequence, ''Timelike Infinity'' introduces a universe of powerful alien species and technologies that manages to maintain a realistic edge because of Baxter's physics background. It largely sets the stage for the ''magnum opus'' of the Xeelee Sequence, ''Ring'' (as opposed to ''Vacuum Diagrams'', ''Flux'', or ''Raft'', which concern themselves with side stories). Plot summary Set thousands of years in the future ( AD 5407), the human race has been conquered by the Qax, a truly alien turbulent-liquid form of life, who now rule over the few star systems of human space – adopting processes from human history to effectively oppress the resentful race. Humans have encountered a few other races, including the astoundingly advanced Xeelee, and been conquered once before – by the Squeem – but successfully recovered. A human-built device, the Interface project, ret ... [...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] |
Ring (Stephen Baxter Novel)
''Ring'' is a 1994 science fiction novel by British author Stephen Baxter. The novel tells the story of the end of the universe and the saving of mankind from its destruction. Two parallel plots are followed throughout the novel: that of Lieserl, an AI exploring the interior of the sun, and that of the ''Great Northern'', a generation ship on a five-million-year journey. Plot summary The AI Lieserl is abandoned for five million years, leaving her to observe the sun's interior. She discovers dark matter-based life, which she names "photino birds". These birds gradually drain the energy from the core of a star, ending fusion and causing premature aging into a stable white dwarf—the birds' preferred habitat, as it has no risk of going supernova and destroying them. A generation ship is sent with one end of a wormhole to explore the future and investigate the whereabouts of Michael Poole. It will be a round-trip journey, returning to the solar system after five million years, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flux (novel)
''Flux'' is a 1993 science fiction novel by British author Stephen Baxter. It is the third book in Baxter's Xeelee Sequence. Plot introduction Dura and her fellow human beings live inside a neutron star, as they have for generations. As long as they can remember, "glitches" (instabilities of the magnetic field inside the star caused by changes in the star's rotation) have happened from time to time. As the novel starts, the worst glitch that anyone can remember threatens to destroy her home. To survive, Dura must travel to a far-off city, and eventually outside of the star itself. Explanation of the novel's title ''Flux'' is so called as the main race of the book, microscopic human-like beings who live within a neutron star, travel around using the magnetic field lines within that star. It also relates to a bigger element of the plot, dealing with instabilities in this field which affect many characters in different ways. Plot summary As the novel begins, a glitch—an instabil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reality Dust
''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] |
Riding The Rock
''Resplendent'' is an English language science fiction collection by British writer Stephen Baxter (author), 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 (magazine), Interzone'' 153, March 2000) *''Reality Dust'' (2000) * “Silver Ghost” (''Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, Asimov’s'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mayflower II (Stephen Baxter)
''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] |
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] |
Vacuum Diagrams
''Vacuum Diagrams'' is a collection of science fiction short stories by British writer Stephen Baxter. The collection connects the novels of the Xeelee Sequence and also shows the history of mankind in the Xeelee universe, and ultimately the universe. While each short story in the collection is self-contained, the stories are presented as being contained in the context of the first story, "Eve", about a man (seemingly Jack Raoul from the portion of the timeline concerned with the Silver Ghosts) who is forced to witness the events in the short stories by a god-like being. "Eve" acts as a structure for the short stories, with an introduction at the beginning of ''Vacuum Diagrams'', short scenes occurring between each "era" (with "Eve" character explaining and introducing the next section), and an ending that wraps up the plot for the "Eve" story itself. ''Vacuum Diagrams'' won the Philip K. Dick Award in 1999. At the end of the collection, a chronology of the Xeelee Sequence is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Raft (novel)
''Raft'' is a 1991 hard science fiction book by British writer Stephen Baxter. ''Raft'' is both Baxter's debut novel and the first book in the Xeelee Sequence, although the Xeelee are not present. ''Raft'' was nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1992. Setting The novel is an elaborated version of his 1989 short story of the same title. The story follows a group of humans who have accidentally entered an alternate universe where the gravitational force is far stronger than our own, a "billion" times as strong. Planets do not exist, as they would immediately collapse under their own gravity; stars are only a mile across and have extremely brief life-spans, becoming cooled kernels a hundred yards wide with a surface gravity of five '' g''. Human bodies possess a "respectable" gravity field in and of themselves. "Gravitic chemistry" also exists, where gravity is the dominant force on an atomic scale. Plot summary The few thousand humans survive in a nebula of relati ... [...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] |