Customer Reviews

Manifold: Origin

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

This is a third volume in the Manifold series; the same characters reappear in a different universe. Now, I agree with other reviewers. This book contained far too much violence and the Zealots (the "villains") were disappointing. Baxter does best with antagonists who are never seen, such as his mysterious Xeelee Sequence. As mentioned, characterization is as weak here as for Baxter's predecessor, Larry Niven.
The ending was very sad and left me thinking: in *Manifold:Time: Malenfant and the super-children collapse the universe and create a myriad of potential universes. At the end of *Origin* we're told that the Red Moon (itself reminiscent of Baxter's *Moonseed*) wanders between a series of parallel Earths. *Manifold:Space* presumably happens in a universe outside this circuit, as its galaxy contains myriad intelligent species.
These books had several interesting themes in common: Malenfant's journey and ultimate death, love and faith as essential to human existence, the Neandertal toolmaking as a meditation, malfunctioning and meaningless supertechnology, and a vast, incredible view of all reality that dwarfs most sf writers' abilities to make their readers *see*. (The black hole miners, mentioned in the first and third book, are an idea so amazing that they deserve a whole novel...) The extremely depressing tone of all Baxter's writings is present here as well, and makes this less satisfying a read than it would have been if he let his heroes win for once. Overall, a strange series that reveals this writer's weaknesses as much as his strengths. A writer who has to reuse so much material needs to slow down or stop until he has more to work with.

I read Manifold:Time, his first in the series, and found it a very satisfying SF read. The science is solid, the characters well-developed and the pace perfect. The next in the series, Manifold:Space, was a disappointment, but still bearable--Note that although the characters (at least their names) are the same in all 3 books, it is not really a series as the author uses "parallel universe" plot lines to make each book stand on its own. The third one, Manifold:Origin is truly a waste of paper. The plot has so many holes, inconsistencies and in general inanities that you almost feel the whole thing is a joke, or maybe Mr. Baxter really sacrificed ideas for speed (less than a year between M:Space and M:Origin). The main character of the book, a well-developed and engaging personality in the first book, is shallow and failry boring in this instance, with few endearing or engaging traits. The main plot line starts with his significant other being kidnapped to (he presumes) a new planet that has just appeared orbiting the Earth and replacing the moon. He fights tooth and nail to get a ship to go there (never mind why an overcrowded planet with existing technology would not be rushing to colonize a new planet with water and atmosphere less than 5 light-minutes away). When he gets there, primary objective being to resuce his loved one, he is met by hostile hominids and is saved by what appears to be a lost English lord. of course the next logical step is to: leave the ship, his only means of getting out, open and abandoned, have his only communications device with Earth destroyed, and proceed to go have beers and sleep off the hangover at the Brits' camp.
Never mind that he also just found out that this planet happens to be a "link" between parallel Earths and just phases in and out bwtween universes and therefore any second he could be phased to a different universe and forget any hope of coming back. The plot goes downhill from there. it becomes excrutiatingly boring and even less believable. It is a shame that an author with such a stellar oeuvre felt compelled to publish such an unworthy novel. I hope his next effort is more satisfying, but after M:Origin, I will definitely wait for reviews before buying it.

ORIGIN finishes off Stephen Baxter's trilogy in a way that may initially seem less grand than the other space operatic installments, yet makes sense given that all three books deal with the Fermi Paradox and its depressing prospect that intelligent life is unique and alone in our universe, confined to Earth. In ORIGIN, Baxter responds by dropping the relentless quest for aliens pursued in the first two books, and instead tells a slightly more accessible story about what we do have--our humanity--and all the profound secrets and insights lying deep within our collective evolutionary past, and future(s). It is a story of the destiny of the human species.

When the main characters from the series find themselves on a rogue, wandering moon that seems to be capable of traveling through the vast manifold of potential universes, Baxter directly justifies (not that it necessarily needed it) the reusing of the same characters gimmick that unites the trilogy, as well as provides for a few sly quips ("Maybe we knew each other in a past life" etc). In characteristic fashion, he flits from one stylized narrative to the next, presented from the eyes of the diverse hominids and pre-hominids that mysteriously share this primeval moon, assessing events in their own terms, all in minimalistic and lucid prose. Also characteristic of Baxter, the personalities are flimsy (even Emma Stoney, this story's definite heroine) and are often revealed to be little more than puppets ventriloquizing the author's ideas, or explanations. Inconsistencies abounds, most notably the huge fluctuations of apparent cognitive capacity held by various characters, and the
completely pointless but nevertheless disturbing side-tale starring Shadow, an alienated and abused presapient "Elf-woman."

Overall, though--for readers of TIME and SPACE--this is a strikingly dark story. For those who haven't cared to think about it, early life was grisly and short, poignant little bursts of sentience unfortunately chock-full of violence, rape, and cannibalism. Baxter explores this delightful blur of pain a little more acutely than I would have wanted, but ORIGIN's real heart of darkness is in its analysis of the humanity that we stake a claim to--us modernized humans who read stuff like this--and its essential faults, which I read to be overanalysis and the drive to possess and expand. The basic facts of our humanity are not so much decried as compared to other ways of life in the "It doesn't have to be this way..." scenario used throughout the MANIFOLD series. Needless to say there are many melancholy revelations sprinkled throughout, and a surprising ending which makes one question what redemption may be to a homo sap.

Despite its shortcomings, I enjoyed ORIGIN better than the other two precisely because of the subject matter. Baxter has a way with his writing that makes incongruity seem trivial when you meet and engage with his incredibly potent ideas, expressed in beautifully streamlined prose. To end, a rumination on a past mode of living, an immersion in the moment of a sunset as perceived by a Neanderthal:

"Joshua felt himself dissolve, out from the center of his head, to the periphery of the world. There was no barrier around him, no layer of interpretation or analogy or nostalgia; for now he was the plain and the sea and the clouds, and he was the slim doe that looked up at the cliff, just as he was the stocky, quiet man who gazed down from it. For a time he was immersed in the world's beauty in a way no human could have shared."

Manifold: Origin is apparently the completion of the Manifold: trilogy, and, according to the clerk at Borders, this one was already in the drawer and ready to go to the publisher when the second one came out, which explains the amazing speed of publication.

This book is--well, like Quantum Physics Meets Stephen King. It's hard reading, and not because of the quantum physics! It's a brutal, hardhitting book, painful to read at times, and in many ways I felt that it was at the core of Baxter's meanderings around the universe: it felt to me as if he was working through some anguish that his very creative mind was trying to
resolve--there is great sadness in this book, somehow.

There are also many unanswered, irritating questions about resolutions (plot problems). In some ways I found the book exhiliarating, in others revolting, and essentially frustrating.

See what you think. I have to say this: Baxter has a wonderful imagination.(But his characters, like those of many science fiction writers, are virtually interchangeable--even Reid Malenfant the Rogue is basically undeveloped--just a somewhat bewildered, oafish space jockey, imho..)

But, for me, Baxter's books always pass the test: they continue to haunt me after I've finished reading them. And the only way to fix the problem is to buy another Baxter book.

(This one felt, at times, like a great video game...)

As usual, there is a core of hard science to the book. Knowing a touch of quantum theory and special relativity is a big boon.

The plot seems to be a trellis on which other, more interesting, elements are hung. Those other elements, such as theoretical views of proto-human activities, thought patterns, and motivations recur in Baxter's writing. I enjoy them.

As for the "darkness" in the story, it's true that this isn't clan of the cave bears. Criminalizing homicide was a huge mental leap for our ancestors and is of recent vintage. Baxter understands this.

I was disturbed by the notion that predators know to keep their populations down. Not true. There are too many population studies revealing the critters in general have population explosions and implosions based on resource availability, predation, and disease. Oh well, no author is perfect.

This third Manifold novel starts in time about half-way between the first two, in 2015. But that doesn't really matter because they are all three set in universes parallel to each other, and could each stand alone. In this version, Malenfant and his wife Emma are separated when she is thrown onto the Red Moon, which suddenly replaces our own familiar Luna one day. She survives, interacting with the local hominid peoples, while Malenfant mounts a NASA expedition to rescue her with the help of Nemoto. Parallel versions of each of these characters play roles in the first two books. In fact, this book is primarily about Emma, who is nothing more than a tattered photograph in Manifold:Space.

I found this story, unlike the first two, to be quite gory, with abundant descriptions of rape, torture, and cannibalism. I'm not sure if all that was necessary - except to show the pervasiveness of that across all the hominid species, and how it is a factor in evolution. The portrayal of Michael Praisegod, whose culture if not biology is close to our own, shows the use of more modern cultural institutions such as religion are not proof against the brutality.

Thematically, I think the hominid species can be categorized into two camps - with most in a static stagnant relationship with the universe, while a few are growth and expansion oriented. Baxter's position seems to be that both are flawed. With an infinity of time and space to play out to their logical outcomes, it's hard to find much ultimate hope - other than local and temporary happiness along the way.

Overall, I have to say that Baxter's Evolution is a more satisfying and enjoyable exploration of the concept of past and future evolution than this, although this one needs to be seen in the context of the series it is a part of.

Stephen Baxters Manifold series is as good as it gets
in science fiction today. And after
Manifold 1, Time, and Manifold 2, Space, I was
looking forward to Manifold 3, Origin.
Expectations high, if not enormous.

Origin begins in the year 2015 when a red moon appears
in the Earths orbit. Scientists scramble to understand what
is on the big red moon and how it got there.
Eventually, Manifold heroes Reid Malenfant, his wife Emma,
and Japanese scientist Nemoto
ends up on the new moon.
We are then presented with a journey of survival. Which
reminds me more of "The Clan of the Cave Bear" by Auel than
the science fiction of Manifold 1 and 2.
A story of Neanderthals figthing Cro-Magnons and other
hominids on a brutal Earth like Luna world.
A world where humans, human ancestors and could-have-been
human forms co-exist.

Going overboard in this world of blood and pain -
Where dying without illusions of afterlife,
redemption or hope just saves you a lot of trouble -
Stephen Baxter could have ended up with
a deeply pessimistic book.
But actually he seems to be saying in Manifold 3, Origin,
that the (this) multiverse was created by the far
downstreamers (our children) to avoid "a saga of
meaningless survival in a dismal future of decay and
shadows", but instead a reshaped multiverse
that creates a storm of mind.

So, here (on the new Moon) we have blood and pain.
And we know that given sufficient time, the universe
itself is doomed as the 'heat death' kills
off the expanding universe.

But by creating the multiverse, filled with different
kinds of lonely hominids in brutal worlds, the far
downstreamers (our god-like children) actually also
creates the worlds filled with mind.

And so everything is alright?
Actually, I am not completely convinced,
and would have liked to seen this explored
further. Perhaps at the expense of Stephen Baxters (too)
long depiction of the horrible hardships on
this Luna world.
Still, after Manifold 1 and 2 there is no escape, you have
to read manifold 3 as well.

-Simon

This book started out with a bang! I loved the first person narrative from a hominid view point and as usual, I really enjoyed Stephen Baxter's literary style. What really disappointed me was the cliche use of the "inquisition" type characters who are sexually repressed and ultimately evil. I also think that the story could have done without the gratuitous amount of violence, especially sexually related violence and violence against infant hominids. I got the point regarding humanity's view of lower life forms early on in the book and I resented the message being pounded on me through out the book. In addition, was this deja vu, or was Stephen recycling a lot of his ideas from his first two Manifold books?

I really enjoy Stephen Baxter's writing and I thought that his first books were great science fiction. This book lacked any hard science fiction and was geared more toward a sociological observation of both the nature of evolution and how man's cruelty is related to his stage of evolution. I wish that Mr. Baxter would have taken more time on this book and allowed his imagination to travel past the Red Moon. Had there been more interesting and interactive characters (instead of saving them for a sequel), I would have given this book a much higher rating.

Baxter explores some of the holes in the theory of evolution and comes up with a unique answer to fill some of those holes. I thought it really started well and he created some interesting characters and situations. But after a while it really began to drag, I got his premise after the second group, I didn't need to have it hammered home with three more groups. He also began reusing the situations/scenarios, I believe one character got raped five times, three or four babies had their heads bitten off or dashed against a tree, etc. I believe with the exception of the "god" like beings all of the female characters were involved in a forced sexual episode of some kind - one or two and we could infer that a very dark vision was being presented.

He has some interesting ideas and that made the book worth reading, but he could have cut it in half and removed a lot of the sex and violence and had a much better book IMHO.

In my opinion, some readers have misunderstood the nature of this novel. It is a fragmented, gory, unpredictable story that leaves the reader simultaneously nauseous and confused. And this is the point. The Manifold series is a discovery of alternate universes, alternate possibilities, from the context of a central but loosely constructed character Reid Malenfant.

In `Time' and `Space', Malenfant's adventures were more linear and core to a saga of the universe. In the final chapter of the trilogy, `Origin', Baxter discusses a set of possible evolutionary paths, a group of differently evolved humans, coexisting on a moon that jumps from one alternate possibility to another, with each group of humans acting out their primal instincts on one another. Malenfant acts more as an observer to a greater drama.

Thus, this chapter is gory, because nature is gory. It is disjointed, in that transgressing alternate worlds is disjoining. It is exactly what it should be, a discussion of big ideas in a context where they can be understood and the relevance can be taken away and pondered.

I give this novel five stars, not entirely of its own merit, but in collection with the previous two chapters. It fulfils my expectation of a story that allows me to stretch my imagination and at the same time challenge my humanity.