Coalescent - Destiny’s Children 1 - Stephen Baxter Book Review

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Review Summaries

" Del Rey, Dec 2003, 25.95, 496 pp. ISBN: 0345457854 As the Kuiper Belt anomaly grips the planet, George Poole leaves London for Manchester to sell the house of his recently deceased father and split the profit with his Florida based decade older sister. Upon entering his dad's house (his mom died ten years ago), the memories of his youth flash by the now forty-five year old George until his world crumbles. George finds a photograph of two three year old children that look like fraternal twins standing in front of his family home. The male is George, but who is this female version of him? In post Roman Britannia, Regina misses her carefree youth that ended about the time the strange lights arose in the heavens. She travels to Rome where she establishes the Order that lives and prospers under the streets of the city even to George's time Almost two millennium later George learns that he not only has a living twin, but she was given to the Order over two score ago. He treks to Rome to find a perfect hive of evolved humans that plan to expand their web beyond the Roman underground. COALESCENT, the first book in Stephen Baxter's Destiny's Children trilogy, is an exciting science fiction tale that uses social order to propel human evolution. The story line alternates between George in the present and Regina in the past. The clever modern day tale provokes thought on evolution and social conditioning. However, Regina's world fails to materialize as it feels more like an account than a visit. Still readers will appreciate this deep tale and look forward to further debate over the pros and cons of human COALESCENT. Harriet Klausner "
Harriet Klausner, Resident Stephen Baxter Scholar

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Overall Review

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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot

Composition of Book
Descript. of chases or violence - 10%
planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 40%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30%
Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 20%

Tone of book - suspenseful (sophisticated fear)
FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION? - science fiction story
Tech./$$$/Info hunt Yes
Stealing/recovering/destroying - info about lifeform(s)/society/phenomena
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book

Main Character
Identity: - Male
Profession/status: - business executive
Age: - 40's-50's
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - average physique

Main Adversary
Identity: - Male
Age: - 40's-50's
Profession/status: - mastermind
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - a moderate amount
How sensitive is this character? - hard edged
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Very much smarter than other characters
Physique - very athletic

Setting
Earth setting: - current (early 21st century)
Takes place on Earth? Yes

Style
Person? - mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death? - no torture/death
scientific jargon? (SF only) - a moderate amount of scientific explanation
How much dialogue? - significantly more dialog than descript

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Beyond Infinity by Gregory Benford

Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).

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