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Review Summaries
"
Del Rey, Nov 2004, 25.95, 480 pp.
ISBN 0345457889
Humanity has been at war with the Xeelee for three thousand years. Thanks to FTL spaceships that enables movement through time the aliens know what humans are going to do before they do it. Mankind has one great advantage over the Xeelees in that the human population is so much greater than the Xeelees, which enables them to confine the enemy to the center of the galaxy.
Humanity has not been able to penetrate the alien base of operations at Chandra. While trying to evade a Xeelee ship, a pilot named Pirius ignores his orders to disengage; he manages to catch the alien spaceship, something never done before. He brings it back into human space two years in the past where he meets his seventeen-year old self. Both are put on trial for disobeying orders. The older Pirius is transferred to a penal asteroid while the younger version is taken under the wing of Commissary Nilis who believes the young man will be of great help in finally resolving the Xeelee problem.
Although there are two Pirius in this story about, the future history of mankind depends on the younger version who has not been battle scarred and believes in the mission the Commissary is pursuing. Stephen Baxter's; second installment of “Destiny's Children” shows a future in which mankind is brought up to fight a war and die young, not leaving a trace of their passing.
Harriet Klausner
"
Harriet Klausner, Resident Stephen Baxter Scholar
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Overall Review
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Plot
Composition of Book Descript. of chases or violence - 20% planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 30% Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 40% Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 10%
Tone of book
- suspenseful (sophisticated fear)
FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION?
- science fiction story
Time Travel:
- largely forwards/future
Tech./$$$/Info hunt
Yes
Stealing/recovering/destroying
- warship
Is this an adult or child's book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Time Travel story?
Yes
Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Profession/status:
- fighter (air/space) pilot
Age:
- a teen
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- very athletic
Main Adversary
Identity:
- an entire race
Setting
Spaceship setting:
- one or two man fighter/scoutship
A substantial portion of this book takes place on a non-Earth planetary body:
- humans in a futuristic society
Planet outside solar system?
Yes
Takes place in spaceship?
Yes
Style
Person?
- mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death?
- generic/vague references to death/punishment
scientific jargon? (SF only)
- some scientific explanation
How much dialogue?
- significantly more dialog than descript
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