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Stephen Baxter (born in Liverpool,
November 13, 1957) is a British hard science fiction author. He has degrees in mathematics and engineering.
His writings fall into three main categories, each with a very different style and tone.
His "Xeelee Sequence" stories are set in the far future, where human beings are rising to become the second most powerful race
in the universe, next to the god-like Xeelee. Character development in these stories take second place to the depiction of
advanced theories and ideas, such as the true nature of the Great
Attractor, naked singularities and the great battle between
Baryonic and Photonic lifeforms. Examples of novels written in this style: Ring, Timelike Infinity.
His present-day Earth stories are much more human, with characters portrayed with greater depth and care. They typically
indulge in "if only" whimsy or outright alternate history,
dreaming about what humanity could achieve in the exploration of space. NASA features
prominently, and a great deal of research has obviously been done into its internal structuring and methods. However, these
novels have a much darker tone than any of his other stories and do not often portray much hope for humanity as a moral species.
Examples of novels written in this style include Voyage, winner of the Sidewise Award for Alternate History; Titan; and Moonseed.
His "Evolution" stories are a later development and show an increasing interest in the evolution of humanity. These seem to
have their origins in stories of his other writing styles, such as Mammoth and Manifold: Origin. Examples of
novels written in this style: Evolution.
Baxter also covers numerous other styles: His Mammoth stories, ostensibly for children, are often of great delight to
adults, while The Time Ships (an authorised sequel to
The Time Machine) is generally taken to be one of his
greatest novels. It won the John W. Campbell
award and British SF
Award and was nominated for other major science fiction awards.
Bibliography
- The Xeelee Sequence
- Raft (1991)
- Timelike
Infinity (1992)
- Flux (1993)
- Ring (1993)
- Vacuum Diagrams (1997) (short story collection)
- The Manifold Trilogy
- The Mammoth Trilogy
- Silverhair (1999)
- Longtusk (2000)
- Icebones
- Destiny's Children Series
- Coalescent (2003)
- Exultant (planned for 2004)
- Transcendent (planned for 2005)
- Time Odyssey series
- Young Adult (part of the shared-world "The Web" series)
- Gulliverzone
(1997)
- Webcrash
- Others
- Non-fiction
- Deep Future (2001) (mainly articles on science)
- Omegatropic (2001) (mainly science fiction criticism)
External links
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