Manifold is a series of three books. They're not a sequence, actually, as they describe parallel universes. The main character are the same, but the world they live in is different. Origin presents us a world where the good old Moon is replaced by a large red moon. As it happens, the main character, Reid Malenfant, loses his wife Emma on the new moon and has to rescue her.

Emma finds the new moon inhabited by various hominid species. Baxter offers us an interesting view to the life of different hominids, with a point of view of the hominids themselves and humans living with them. It's interesting, but it can also get slightly tedious - this is one long-winded book, with a plot that's a framework for all sorts of neat stuff Baxter wants to present.

But it works, for me at least, because even though I began reading book with some doubts, I soon got sucked into the events. It gets quite interesting and Baxter has some pretty wild ideas there. This book isn't for everybody (that is easy to see from the Amazon reviews, many of which give just one or two stars), but if you enjoyed the other Manifold books, this one is worth reading.

(Original review at my review blog) ( )

SF novel.

http://blog.worldmaker.net/2004/dec/0... ( )

I am not quite sure what about this story did not jibe for me. I may have to give it another go, or at least another in this series. I think it may possibly be that I never was, or never will be, a Steven Baxter fan. I suspect it is something about his style or how he writes that does not gel for me personally. Otherwise, I can't pin down what is wrong with it, but I have tried it twice and didn't finish.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2006/11... ( )