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A review by timinbc
The Medusa Chronicles by Stephen Baxter
3.0
Well, you can't say the story lacks for scope.
And there is some good work providing some solid hard SF for parts of it. I suspect Mr. Reynolds gets credit for that, while Baxter provides the handwaving.
There's a lot of plod, plod here, followed by the occasional mighty leap, sometimes to a new plot and on one notable occasion when we are on Mercury and in the span of one sentence. One sentence!
The leaps through time reminded me VERY strongly of Baxter's work in the Long Earth series. They save so much explanation. What has Falcon been doing for the 80-100 years between appearances?
For that matter, why has human society not changed much? And, as in Long Earth etc., why do a couple of families conveniently dominate the history of the entire solar system?
As others have noted, the Machines are mostly jerks, with the occasional touch of thoughtfulness.
Hope is essentially Pepper Potts from "Iron Man".
The human bad guys at the end are laughable, especially the one who gets so mad she drools when she sees that they are going to be "Curses, foiled again!"
And as we head to the end, everything goes off the rails a bit. For the sake of a grand, sweeping story we leave credibility far behind, almost like the end of Kubrick's "2001", and entities that can do anything are overwhelmed by entities that are, well, playing in a different league. One wonders if the authors struggled with an ending, got drunk, started to get silly, then had a couple more drinks and moved into, "No, wait, what if we (silly idea) HAHAHAHA! No, really, HAHAHA burp, inside the sun!!! C'mon, letsh TRY it!"
Also, at the end, a character and carries out something that could just as well have been done by an ordinary person/group. Pfui. That plot thread was fine as it had apparently been left.
Nevertheless, looking back after finishing the book, there IS an interesting story there, perhaps one that is best read quickly and without too much judgement. And a reasonable extension of Clarke's story.
And I for one didn't have a problem with the flashback sequences. I think I see what they were doing with it, and while it didn't thrill me I can respect it.
And there is some good work providing some solid hard SF for parts of it. I suspect Mr. Reynolds gets credit for that, while Baxter provides the handwaving.
There's a lot of plod, plod here, followed by the occasional mighty leap, sometimes to a new plot and on one notable occasion when we are on Mercury and in the span of one sentence
Spoiler
the Machines have turned the planet into a Dyson sphereThe leaps through time reminded me VERY strongly of Baxter's work in the Long Earth series. They save so much explanation. What has Falcon been doing for the 80-100 years between appearances?
For that matter, why has human society not changed much? And, as in Long Earth etc., why do a couple of families conveniently dominate the history of the entire solar system?
As others have noted, the Machines are mostly jerks, with the occasional touch of thoughtfulness.
Hope is essentially Pepper Potts from "Iron Man".
The human bad guys at the end are laughable, especially the one who gets so mad she drools when she sees that they are going to be "Curses, foiled again!"
And as we head to the end, everything goes off the rails a bit. For the sake of a grand, sweeping story we leave credibility far behind, almost like the end of Kubrick's "2001", and entities that can do anything are overwhelmed by entities that are, well, playing in a different league. One wonders if the authors struggled with an ending, got drunk, started to get silly, then had a couple more drinks and moved into, "No, wait, what if we (silly idea) HAHAHAHA! No, really, HAHAHA burp, inside the sun!!! C'mon, letsh TRY it!"
Also, at the end, a character
Spoiler
reappears after a long absence, hundreds of years old with no explanation of how,Nevertheless, looking back after finishing the book, there IS an interesting story there, perhaps one that is best read quickly and without too much judgement. And a reasonable extension of Clarke's story.
And I for one didn't have a problem with the flashback sequences. I think I see what they were doing with it, and while it didn't thrill me I can respect it.