Customer Reviews

Coalescent (Children of Destiny 1)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I liked this book more than some of the other reviewers. The theme clearly extends from his earlier works, most notably, Evolution. In this case the pace is slower, as our 2 protagonists, one in the ancient Roman empire, and the other contempory, spin the texture of the novel. The central concept, the evolution of a human hive species, while not original, is reasonably, if a little implausible biologically, characterized. More importantly, we are given a rationale for its existence and structure. We are are also given tantalizing clues as to where Baxter may want to go with this idea. In one case, the hive engineers the destruction of a another, nearby. In the second, we see a vignette of a familiar Baxterium universe where hive societies have spread out to the stars.

The book is weakest with its side plot of the discovery of an alien artifact in the Kuiper belt, and the possible suggestion of detection of a photino bird. I sense that Baxter wants to ensure the threads of his Xeelee sequence are incorporated into the plot, but in this book, the first of a promised series, this thread seems gratuitious. Perhaps the following novels will expand on this backdrop.

As other reviewers have argued, the hive is a living cellular automata. Because the rules for this particular hive were created by a founder, there is the possibility of exploring other structures based on different rules, defined by different constraints. Given the space of viable possibilties, one can easily see this idea expand like another "Manifold".

In summary, this book is a solid read, which entertained this reader with an interesting theme, painted against a detailed historical backdrop. I look forward to more in the series.

I think there were, possibly, three different books within "Coalescent": an historical story of Regina and her ancestor George, a speculative science story of emergent organizational systems, and some futuristic space story. That these were all combined into one book is a shame, but I don't blame Baxter-not really-I blame his publisher. I have not read anything by Baxter that I didn't think was great or extremely thought provoking (including this book) but I have been noticing the bastardization of great plots lately, all for the sake of marketing, I presume, such that seemingly unrelated stories can be hacked together into a profitable series (to see this trend run amok, read anything by John Ringo). It is hard for me to believe that authors are incorporating these devices into their books on their own.You can always tell when your favorite author has been co-opted-their books begin to be released in $25.00 hardcover editions (do you all remember when Weber's Honor Harrington books only came out in very affordable paperback editions?) Alas, though, in order to be able to accumulate enough reading material to wile away our hours, allowances must be made.

For the first story in "Coalescent", the historical story, I became engrossed-I could not put the book down. This was a fascinating historical story with no apparent connection to the science-fiction genre (until the bastardization occurred), but I became caught up in the story and I didn't care that it wasn't science-fiction. Baxter recreates the soon-to-collapse world of Roman Britain brilliantly through the eyes of the young girl Regina, and all of the hints of collapse are right there, within Regina's childish interpretations of the events affecting her life. As the long, slow demise begins to spread across Britain, the reader can feel the despair of the era in a very tangible way. Baxter is highly skilled at creating and maintaining these emotions (just read or re-read "Titan", as Baxter's idealistic astronauts are confronted with the reality of long-distance space travel). George, the present-day ancestor of Regina, is going through his own spiritual demise-his need to connect with something larger than himself leads him into a journey of discovery. As he explores London's ancient Roman walls, the reader can easily place George's ancestor, Regina, along the same walls but in ancient times. There is a connection, albeit separated by almost two thousand years, which ultimately takes George to Rome. This is where the speculative science story begins to expand.

My first advice to the reader would be to stop here and imagine-or write-your own ending. Too bad that this isn't the way things really work-we all know that we have to push ahead, to hope and pray that the author will come through for us. Baxter begins to flesh out his character, Peter, whom I began to call "Mulder" in my mind. Peter is an obsessed paranoiac, but his character could have still played a pivotal role. By this time, though, Baxter is heading toward his silly third story, the space adventure, and Peter becomes nothing more than a device to move the story along. The second story deals with emergent organizational systems and possible evolutionary destinations for Homo sap. This was fascinating stuff, and could have yet tied in satisfyingly with Regina's ancient story, but Baxter spends ¾ of the book developing Regina and her world-by the time his characters get to Rome, the story is being hurried along to make room for the space adventure to come. I have rewritten the book in my mind-it could have been a great story.

The third story, the space adventure, is just plain silly.

So what is the prognosis here? There are enough interesting elements in "Coalescent" to make it worth a look in paperback, but be prepared for an emotional let-down. The sequel to this book, "Exultant", seems to have no connection to the central characters in "Coalescent", and I will not read it (sorry Stephen). Perhaps the fan sites will start a movement to rewrite these great, but bastardized, stories so that we can enjoy them, covertly, on-line.

Ah Stephen, what have you done? I found this book mostly disappointing. Yes it does come together in the end so to speak but the end could have come sooner with the elimination of about one third of the entire novel. Although Regina's story sets the background there was just way too much of it and it could have been handled in much shorter form. I also didn't like how Daniel appeared to be a key part of the story and then he vanishes, showing up for a cameo at the end. Throw in the fact that young Daniel just happens to be able to hack in to hospital computers and what not and well, it's all a little silly.

S.B. is a brilliant author but this is certaintly nowhere near his usual efforts. 2 stars.

Baxter has distinguished himself by writing novels that work well as meditations on particular aspects of science and history but are somewhat lacking in character development and other traditional literary criteria. Here his subjects are civilization and society. While it does not quite come together, its an interesting and thought provoking read.

The first part of the double narrative centers on George Poole, a depressed and alienated everyman who discovers when his father dies that he apparently had a twin sister who was given to a mysterious Order when he was very young. Poole is completely disconnected from society. He has only one moderately good friend, from work. He is divorced. He is talented but his skills as a software analyst who tests and finds flaws in programs is increasingly devalued by the industry, which is interested in moving new products to market as soon as possible. Lacking any other driving motivation, he reunites with an eccentric childhood friend -- who would probably be welcomed into the ranks of the lone gunmen -- in search of his lost twin.

The second narrative is the story of George's distant relative, Regina, who is born around the time the Roman Empire begins withdrawing from Britain and dies in Rome in 476, the year most often used to mark the "fall" of the Western Empire. (Although by this time the capital had been moved to Ravenna, a point Baxter ignores). Regina, a spoiled young girl from a wealthy British family, is forced to become a self-reliant peasant farmer as the last of the Roman legions depart and Britain descends into barbarism. The portrait of post-Roman Britain is compelling and the interlude involving King Arthur (yep that King Arthur) is relatively original. Regina's character and her struggle for survival bears an uncanny resemblance to Scarlett Ohara's, right down to the murder of the marauding soldier. Eventually, Regina starts the foundation of a new matriarchal society that will provide more stability than Rome did.

The two plots come together in modern day Rome, where George discovers his sister and the underground order Regina founded, whose members have evolved into a hive like society very different from our own. It is here that narratively things fall apart. The ease with which the Order is penetrated is unconvincing, and then there is a misguided and clumsy attempt to connect the novel to the Destiny's Children series of which this book is the first part.

Still, this is no simple minded polemic against the evils of collectivism. The ways in which traditional society fail both George and Regina are poignant. And George's yearning for the community he briefly experiences in the Order is convincing, even though one can also understand why it is, to say the least, unappealing.

I am only rating this a four because I am reluctant to give something by Stephen Baxter a three. At his best, he is one of the best authors and everything he writes is a five star book. However, he is not at his best here.

In Coalescent, Baxter is trying to do character development and description, two things which he doesn't use that often. While I appreciate the effort, he frequently misses the mark. Stephen Baxter is strongest when he is writing stories about space, but in this book, he is stranded on Earth.

As for the story itself, it is pretty enjoyable. The book is similar to Evolution in that it shows how one event can shape the destiny of a species. In the case of this book, the species in question is a small group of humans who develope a hive mentality. Complicated, I know, but Baxter almost pulls it off.

To sum up, Coalescent is an okay read. It moves fast and reading it certainly won't hurt you. However, it will not change you either.

I'm a big Stephen Baxter fan. I've read most of his books and this one lacks the flow his other books have. He doesn't tie the story together very well. Perhaps he will do it in the other two books but rather than leaving you in a state of suspense it makes you feel about 1/3 of the book is wasted paper.

Normally, I can't put his books down until I'm finished. I had to force my way through this book because I had already wasted money on it.

It wasn't a great story and it seemed all rather pointless. It wasn't insightful and didn't make you think like his other books do.

Also, there were parts that felt like he was trying to pull a Dan Brown.

I bought this novel at the airport bookstore, which never has a great selection. Having heard of Baxter, and faced with a choice between this, some Dan Brown dreck, and some generic fiction, I chose "Coalescent." I wish I had simply stared at the back of the seat in front of me, like Puddy from Seinfeld, for the entire flight instead.

Early in the novel, we meet the main characters: George, a nebbishy middle-aged white man, and Peter, a nerdy middle-aged white man whose character is defined in part by his Internet proficiency. One might say that Baxter knows his audience. More cynically, one might place this book solidly in the "wish-fullfilment" subgenre of SF (what Gerrold would call "Mary Sue" stories), where the protagonist is the outsider innocent (like the reader) who is gradually introduced to some greater truth and some adventure at the same time.

The first two-thirds of this book are serviceable, if tedious and somewhat boring. They are unfocused, and in the best tradition of lazy historical fiction, get by with name dropping. King Arthur and Mussolini? Please. At least he gets points for creativity in name dropping. In the last hundred pages, though, "Coalescent" picked up the pace, and started to capture some of my waning interest. The "human hive" idea set forth on the back cover finally starts to come into play toward the end. But then the novel encounters a serious problem: Peter.

The character of Peter is problematic in many regards, particularly with regard to the Internet. The novel fosters the idea that some nuts in a chatroom can actually solve the mysteries of the universe, when the reality of chat is that it's merely a place for adolescent boys to argue with each other and for retirees to talk about contrails. Peter, with little actual expertise, a laptop, and participation in some conspiracy chatroom, figures out the nature of some vague threat to humanity. OK, although implausible, this is simply wish-fulfillment stuff for a subset of his readership that actually might believe that science, or societal change, or anything else useful might result simply from chatting with your fellow conspiracy buffs. Yet, Peter proceeds to take quite serious action based on silly chatroom speculation, action with dire consequences - and the novel approves! Peter's actions are much more insane than heroic, and yet the book treats him as if he was justified in his actions. Great. This drops my rating down to 1 star from 2 stars, as it comes awfully close to encouraging a subset of his readership to do things in real life they and others might regret.

I have not read any of Baxter's other books. After this, I don't think I want to.

A version of my review appeared in the Huntsville (AL) Times.

George Poole, the modern-day British narrator in Stephen Baxter's latest novel, "Coalescent", is not a pleasant man. A perfectionist who somehow is alienated from family, friends, coworkers, and an ex-wife, Poole's blind search for a twin sister lost in childhood to a mysterious Order provides the novel's superficial plot. But the heart of this novel is the Order itself, separated from the rest of the world for 1600 years. And its history starts with a seven-year-old Roman-British girl, Regina.

Regina's story is compelling, much more so than Poole's, and Baxter slides a lot of 5th century history into the long narrative. Even Arthur (Artorius) is there, as a brilliant but over-ambitious soldier-king, with secretive techie side-kick Myrddin - Baxter won a few points from me there. Regina's life history and experiences lead to the foundation of the Order on principles that, with Baxter's usual impeccable science, allow for the evolution of a new form of human. The hidden ant-like hive of the Order, the Coalescents, is not really new to science fiction; Jules Verne, Orson Scott Card, and Jorge Luis Borges are among the huge range of authors to touch on the concept. Baxter's exploration is interesting, however; this hive is heavily decentralized, with a founding principle that "ignorance is strength". And its members have evolved to be quite distinct from normal humanity.

Unfortunately, the novel is unsatisfying both in form and logic. Is there actually a higher purpose to the Order, an overall guiding intellect that we could recognize, even if none of the members could see it? Other than Regina's founding purpose to safeguard her family (at the expense of their happiness!) none seems evident; the question is raised but not explored. There are many loose ends, many implausibilities, particularly in the non-scientific portions of the book. Ages and dates seem to be tracked haphazardly - Regina and her half-sister are more than seven, then only five years apart. One member of the Order is examined twice by doctors and found odd; what about all those who left the Order freely over the years, including Poole's grandmother? How can the Order keep its nature secret while educating thousands of girls who then leave? The age ranges and small numbers of mothers don't seem to mesh with the 70 to 80 generations of evolution Baxter explains as necessary. And so on. Many of Baxter's 500 pages don't really add much to the novel; there is little subtlety here, and the reader gets the point long before Baxter gets to it - worse are the repeated phrases that seem a result of careless editing.

Two brief chapters near the end describe, somewhat incongruously, a far future with conflicts across the vastness of space between normal human beings and "warrens", the latter still portrayed as purposeless beyond self-perpetuation. Poole's thoughts in the final chapters suggest another angle - the structure of the Coalescents is mirrored in non-family groupings that organize themselves, for example, over the internet. But Baxter seems to miss the fact that any modern corporation shares most of these traits as well; in fact most any successful human organization is effective in ways beyond the understanding of any of its individual members. Should we be worried?

Two further novels are promised to trace the future of humankind's evolution; perhaps loose ends will be resolved. On its own the novel seems over-long, incomplete, and somewhat carelessly written, but still an interesting read for the up-to-date science and the depictions of life in ancient Britain and Rome.

My response to the Historical Racism insanity is to take yourself less seriously. You'll get a stroke at that rate. I mean... dang.

The story dragged. It was almost a physical struggle to finish the book, George Poole is just a loser, a nowhere man who is wandering through life and is so devoid charisma he may as well be dead. Regina is just unsympathetic. With those two main characters even the greatest plot would be as slow as molasses on Vermont winter day.

I wish there was a way to force people to read this book without any sort of foreknowledge of what it is. I got into it without having read Baxter before, and vaguely aware it had SF-ish concepts in it. As a result, this novel blew my socks off.

This is indeed a SF novel, but a very strange one indeed. A solid half of the novel concerns a British girl, Regina, trying to survive the Fall of the Roman Empire, while the other half of the book shows mild-mannered George on the lookout for his long-lost twin sister.

How does it all come together? Do yourself a favor, skip all the other reviews, and read it to find out for yourself. Let me simply say that by laying down his concepts in such a subtle, thought-out manner, Baxter managed to pack an incredible punch in his reflexions on the nature of human societies and their evolution. It's all the more thought-provoking that he elected to carry out his concepts in historical Earth instead of some far-future society.

In short, Coalescent is a unique, immensely thought-provoking book. The writing is uneven, some parts are very slow and sometimes downright useless, and you'll be hard-pressed at first to find SF in the adventures of a young post-Roman Brit on the run. But trust me, the payoff will make it all worthwhile.

Post-scriptum: Although this book is identified as Book 1 of the 'Destiny's Children' trilogy, be advised that Coalescent is self-contained and reading the greatly inferior Book 2, 'Exultant', is NOT required.