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Stephen Baxter's new series is full of page-turning action, intriguing mystery and awe-inspiring scientific speculation. Full of evocative historical detail and characters who jump of the page this is history lived by people whose future is not yet locked as our past. Navigator is the third of the series, and delves deep into the discovery of America. ... Read more

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Discovering a new element, Anti-Ice, a mysterious substance that unleashes vast energies when warmed, a millionaire industrialist dreams of power from an item that promises world peace--or world destruction. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Entertaining Homage to Verne and Wells with a Bit of Seriousness
In the year 1720, a comet enters Earth orbit and remains there as the "Little Moon".However, a chunk of the comet ends up in the Antarctic where it is found by Ross the polar explorer.It's no ordinary chunk of cometary ice, it's anti-ice.Rather like anti-matter, it reacts explosively with ordinary matter - but only above a certain temperature threshhold.Using its condensed power, the British Empire embarks on an age of vast technological innovation and world dominance.

Politically, though, things don't immediately change.British political history certainly deviates from our experience with many 19th century reforms not undertaken and Manchester as the capital and not London.But Continental politics only begin to change after England uses an anti-ice weapon to end the siege of Sebastopol in the Crimean War.

It is at Sebastopol the novel begins, its destruction recounted by the narrator's brother.Then we jump to 1870, and the eve of the Franco-Prussian war.Our hero, self-described as a man of shallow character and shallow intellect, makes the acquaintance of Josiah Traveller, the engineering genius who has developed most of the anti-ice technologies.He also develops an infatuation for Francois, a French woman who is not only politically ardent but also unusually knowledgeable about anti-ice engineering.

The novel echoes Verne and Wells and nowhere more deliberately than a voyage to the moon.Five men --the narrator, Traveller, his butler, an English journalist, and a saboteur - inhabit a small spaceship.But the narrator discovers more than the depth of Traveller's ingenuity and life on the moon.He undergoes a political awakening about the new order being shaped back on Earth and the true nature of his love Francois.

This is a fun work of steampunk, a nice homage to Verne and Wells.As long as you don't mind your alternate histories built on more outre premises, Baxter presents an interesting divergence of European history.And, though it's relatively brief at the end, he makes a serious point about the limitations of even well-intentioned imperialism.

Baxter's Best Tackles Steam-Punk
Fans of steam-punk and Victorian adventures will love ANTI-ICE by Stephen Baxter.In this book, Baxter flawlessly combines many great SF themes.Victorian exploration, super science, alternate history, and the personal accounts of a minor functionary made this a delight for me to read.

The industrial revolution has come a little early and in an unexpected form.An Antarctic expedition finds a substance called anti-ice.So dubbed because if it starts to warm up, it releases incredible amounts of energy.Thus evolves a British empire like you have never seen.Imagine all the great creations of Verne being controlled by the British and available to the common man.Anti-ice becomes the new fuel of the empire.Its discoverer continually finds new ways to use its power.One such method was to power a flying rocket that he travels the world in.But after some sabotage, he finds himself in space and headed for the moon.

Besides fueling the empire, anti-ice can also be a terrible weapon.And wouldn't you know it, Bismarck is on the march and the French are out to stop him.Look out!If you like alternate history of the great voyages of Verne, this is a book for you.

One of Baxter's Best
I'd had a bad experience with Baxter (also known as Timelike Infinity) which had me prepared to ignore anything he wrote. But I'm a sucker for alternate history and Victoriana, so when I heard that Baxter had written an alt-history in which 19th century England gets its hands on antimatter (Kaboom!), I just had to give it a try. And I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was.

This book works on a lot of levels. The use of the naive protagonist alongside the newspaper reporter and the professor allows for a lot of exposition without straining the plot. Once you accept the hand-waving explanation of how antimatter got to Earth in a form that 19th century tech could handle, the rest of the technology and history follows pretty logically. And the writing itself is a wonderful pastiche of Wells, Verne, and 19th century English novels in general.

But the aspect of it that I most enjoyed was the political allegory. The parallels of anti-ice technology with nuclear technology followed our own history in many ways: its first use followed by horror at the devastation that it wrought, then an attempt to harness it for peaceful purposes, and finally a cold war in which two super-powers hold weapons of mutually assured destruction. But more subtly, England's domination of France at the end of the book, and France's resentment, could be seen as analogous to US domination of Europe after WWII.

A wonderful science fiction story, but also a lesson on the dangers of the misuse of power, whether it be the destructive power of weaponry or the political forces of imperialism.

A nice piece of fluff - or as fluffy as Baxter ever is.
Nota bad story all round, though it sould be taken with a grain of salt. It is meant as a humorous light-hearted little tale, and as long as you read it in that vein, you won't be disappointed.Personally I found the "super" industrial revolution to be a very intriguing idea, and I really liked that Baxter wasn't afraid to depict man's more bestial side, in turning this "miracle" of Anti-Ice to violent ends.

Grand good time sci-fi alternate universe adventure!
I really enjoyed this book!Like all of Baxter's work it just seems to have a heck of a lot more meat on its bones than a lot of what I read.Good speculative SUBSTANCE, if you know what I mean.Yes, I had to pick upan encyclopedia and read a few paragraphs on the Crimean War.Took all oftwo minutes and added exponentially to the depth of the reading experience. Good book, good ideas and a whopper of a finale! ... Read more

Product Description
DEEP FUTURE takes you on dazzling ride to the limits of time and space. Along the way Stephen Baxter looks at our place in the universe, considers the possibility that we are in fact alone, and wonders whether that fact gives us the right to inherit everything. He also looks at how we might strive to overcome the limitations of the physical universe and win the deepest future. Stephen Baxter has brought his trademark narrative flair and imaginative brilliance to the latest ideas in physics and cosmology and produced a breathtaking guide to our possible futures. ... Read more

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This book constitutes a major reappraisal of the late Anglo-Saxon state on the eve of its demise. Its principal focus is the family of Ealdorman Leofwine, which obtained power in Mercia and retained it throughout an extraordinary period of political upheaval between 994 and 1071. In doing so it explores a paradox: that earls were extraordinarily wealthy and powerful yet distinctly insecure. The book contains the first extended treatment of earls' powers in late Anglo-Saxon England and shows that although they wielded considerable military, administrative and political powers, they remained vulnerable to exile and other forms of political punishment including loss of territory. The book also offers a path-breaking analysis of land tenure and the mechanics of royal patronage, and argues that the majority of earls' estates were held from the king on a revocable basis for the duration of their period in office. In order to compensate for such insecurities, earls used lordship and religious patronage to construct local networks of power. The book uses innovative methods for interpreting the representation of lordship in Domesday Book to reconstruct the affinity of the earls of Mercia. It also examines how the house of Leofwine made strategic use of religious patronage to cement local power structures. All this created intense competition between the earls of Mercia and their rivals for power, both at court and in the localities, and the book explores how factional rivalry determined the course of politics, and ultimately the fate of the late Anglo-Saxon state. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

not for a dilettante
History majors rejoice, but if you are fan of that same history well-stirred by theeerie effects of some science fiction flavored alteration, this book is not your cup of tea. It educated me to the the effects of Roman influence on Britain ,and thus on all of us English-speakers down through the years. It did not transport me into a page-turning frenzy to find out what happened next. I suspect Mr. Baxter is laying a well-researched ,solid, and yes, stolid groundwork for book II. Maybe his story will diverge from history (pun intended) in strange and interesting ways come next book, making me perk up. I will stick with it in hopes of some plot pyrotechnics.

Rome's Changing Fortunes
This is a book about the trials and tribulations of the Roman Empire. It tells the story of the Empire and it's ever expanding borders as each subsequent Emperor vows to bring even more land and conquered people under the yoke of Rome. Who can stand against the mightiest fighting force that the world has ever seen, the legions of Rome.

One of the far outpost of the Empire is Britain, a cold, damp island, where there is continual unrest and the legions have to be on there guard at all times. In one of the smoky, dark buildings the British call home, a woman is in the throes of childbirth. As the pain becomes worse she screams out some Latin words. The words are in a language the woman has never heard before, never mind spoken.

The words are scribbled down and it is only later it becomes clear that the woman has spoken a prophecy, a prophecy that foretells the death of an Emperor. A death that could change the fate of the Roman Empire and all of the future up until the present day . . .

The author has woven a wonderful tale of war and hate and the fortunes of Rome as they wax and then begin to wane. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, give me anything with Rome and the legions and I am in my element. ... Read more

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This exciting volume contains four mind-expanding novellas of humanity's struggle for survival in the far future.Peter F. Hamilton's "Watching Trees Grow" In an era of immortality, murder is the ultimate crime, with no statute of limitations-but a relentless detective can pursue his quarry for centuries.

Stephen Baxter's "Reality Dust" A young man vows to investigate war criminals from Earth's alien occupation-even after humanity's past has been erased and reality itself may no longer exist.

Paul McAuley's "Making History" On a ravaged space colony, a historian from the winning side of The Quiet War sets out to chronicle the official story-but will history record the most important battle?

Ian McDonald's "Tendeleo's Story" An alien technolife overruns the African savannah and infects its people-and a preacher's young daughter is at the center of its interstellar transformation. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

what SF is really all about!
Four novellas that are everything that is great about science fiction. These four authors are absolutely among the greatest voices in the genre today.

In WATCHING TREES GROW Peter Hamilton took history, turned it upside down, shook it a bit & gave us an alternate view of a history quite unlike anything I had ever read before.

Stephen Baxter's REALITY DUST made the reader look at reality in a whole new way.

In MAKING HISTORY, Paul McAuley showed how history is not always written by the victor.

Ian MacDonald's TENDELEO'S STORY took me back to the Chaga in EVOLUTION'S SHORE which always impressed me as being one of the most possibly real First Contact stories ever written.

All four novellas explore the very trait of our species' survival, adaptability, that brings hope & after all that's what science fiction is really about.

Worth the price for Ian Macdonald alone.
I bought this collection for one reason and one reason only: it contained another slice of Ian McDonald's world-turned-upside-down 'Chaga; sequence. As it turned out this was by far the best piece in the book, but more of that later.

I haver never been convinced by Pater Hamilton, much as I want to like a British author who can do cyberpunk and do space opera with the best of the yanks. However his piece in this collection, 'Watching Trees Grow' changed my opinion of him. It is an alternative-history crime novella based on the premise that descendants of the Romans still rule Britian through a set of East India Company-style families who combine economic control with a monopolies over various areas of scientific progress. It is a neat idea, and takes the premise further than many other alternative histories by throwing the story further and further into the future, as an old rivalry becomes an obsession that almost transcends time.

I enjoyed it despite the episodic feel - perhaps a novel would have been more appropriate - but its 'Britishness' seemed slightly musty and old-fashionned, and redolent of dreams of Empire, in stark contrast to McDonald, or more overtly hip authors like Jeff Noon or Justina Robson. Maybe that was the point, and if so it was well made: science fiction is much the poorer if it doesn't teach you something about the society in which you live.

As for Stephen Baxter's 'Reality Dust': well, he does try, and he does keep churning them out, but this is so boring and so mainstream and so traditional. It is all done very competantly, but it is basically the kind of SF I enjoyed when I was a teenager, it isn't challenging in any way.

I was a little disappointed with Paul McAuley's novella, 'Making History', especially as he is one of my favourite writers. This was partly because at the heart of it was a very tedious old argument about the nature of history (great men versus social processes) which tended to intrude on the quite interesting story of the processs of war, defeat, reconciliation and the way history is written. Perhaps this was set up as part of the character of the historian to demonstrate his own flaws, but it didn't really convince. This is certainly not one of his best stories.

As I said at the start, I bought this collection for Ian McDonald's 'Tendeleo's Story'. I was certainly not disappointed by this one. McDonald is one of the few writers in the genre today who can combine real politics and a strongly compassionate and empathetic grasp of human nature. He is also a superb writer, able to portray setting and character in a vivid, dynamic and sensual way.

This novella, as the title suggests is the story of Kenyan girl, Tendeleo, the arrival of a extraterrestrial nanotech lifeform, the Chaga, that begins to transform Africa, and as a result the balance of global power. Initally for Tendeleo, however, this means growing up and simply trying to survive in the ferment that follows, which in her case means geting more and more deeply involved in street gangs smuggling Chaga material out of Africa. Capture and exile is never far away and whe it comes she loses here family in tragic and guilt-inducing circumstances. She winds up in cold, rainy Manchester, England, where she meets the other central character and narrative voice of the story, Sean, a black Irishman, who is also an exile in various ways, and a tentative love affair begins. Of course, inevitably Tendeleohas to return to Africa, where the Chaga has begun to revolutionise everyday life and the place of Africa in the world.

'Tendeleo's Story' is worth the price of this collection alone. It is an almost perfect example of how to write a novella that with none of the structural problems of the others in the book. The narrative is perfectly paced, with a deft handling of both action and emotion and no forced-ness or pretension. It is truly worthwhile and heartbreakingly real story that exist within an utterly fantastic and transforming world, yet a world which says so much about our own. A true gem of a story, from one of the best and most underrated writers around.

A quartet of British SF authors show their stuff
This volume is somewhat different than the usual flurry of anthologies that come out, especially during the holiday season, on two counts.

First, it is a British import, and thus the authors represented, while to varying degrees familiar to most of the rest of the world, really are British in tone and outlook.

Second, rather than stories, this volume has the longer novella form for the stories, and thus there is one story apiece.SF seems to be the last bastion of this "not quite short story, not quite novel" length work, and the virtues of the form are admirably displayed here.

The first story is Peter F. Hamilton's WATCHING TREES GROW.Although far better known for his Reality Dysfunction space opera, Hamilton has written detective SF before (The Mindstar Rising novels) and this is another example, with a twist...it is set in an alternate history where Heinleinian long-lived families vie for power and influence, and that is just the backdrop to a murder mystery.

The second story is REALITY DUST by Stephen Baxter. Unlike Hamilton, Baxter's story is set in his trademark universe, the "Xeelee Sequence".This is set after the Qax Domination, where their former collaborator-lackeys seek escape from the freed peoples of Earth in a rather unusual escape route.

MAKING HISTORY, by Paul McAuley is set in a more standard "near future" solar system, in the aftermath of a war...and even if it is true that history is written by the victors, that history can sometimes be rather muddled in the making.

The last story is TENDELEO'S STORY by Ian MacDonald.Like the Baxter, it is set in a trademark world of his, the "Chaga stories", where a strange alien life (nanotech? technolife?) has started to colonize the Earth, beginning with Africa.This story, like his other novels and stories, focuses more on the people affected by the Chaga, much more so than the actual event itself.

All four of these stories are strong, but of course, tastes may vary.The stories do range a far chunk of SF, and it is very possible that while you might like two or three, you may not like all four (personally, I liked the Baxter the best and the McDonald the least). Thus, the 4 star rating. Still, all in all, if you are at all interested in what the best British SF writers are doing, this paperback is perfect for the purpose. ... Read more

Product Description
Stephen Baxter breaks genre boundaries and brings his unique imagination, epic scope and elegant style to an anthropomorphic fantasy.Starting with the story of a young female mammoth and the struggle her herd has to survive into the present day on a remote Siberian Island the MAMMOTH trilogy encompasses thousands of millions of years, the geological and climatic history of earth and a vision of a startling future.All via an astounding evocation of mammoth. Life, biology, intelligence, culture, myth and legend. It is a triumph of imaginative story telling. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

Review of Ages in Chaos: James Hutton and the Discovery of Deep Time by Stephen Baxter
This book gives an accurate assessment of the contributionsof James Hutton (1726-1797) to science in general and geology in particular.Baxtergives "deep time"emphasis, but he does this, not by allowing the question of time to dominate the book. The organization of the bookserves to elucidatethe scientific concept of geologic time,a conceptwhich Hutton jump-started,and delineates how theconcept of deep time has evolved to modern day.

New ground and interesting for me is Baxter's treatment of "design arguments" (page 42) stemming all the way back to Aristotle."Fred Hoyle - the British astrophysicist who unraveled the production of carbon I stars - said in 1959, 'I do not believe that any scientist who examined the evidence would fail to draw the inference that the laws of nuclear physics have been deliberately designed with regard to the consequence they produce inside the stars."

Stephen Baxter, the author,is an award-winning science fiction writer and wasformerly educated as a physicist and engineer.I am a geologist by training and profession,and initially wondered ifBaxter could give an adequate perspective to a work on Hutton.Please let me state to my geological friends that Baxter seems to have assimilated geology very welland sharesmost or all of our sensibilities.I can only guess thatwriting science fiction must be wonderful training and preparation for understanding and explaining the history of science and geology.As an example of two areas that satisfied my geologic chauvinism, Baxter pays very close attention to the roles of "field work" andHutton's rock collection in the development of his scientific conclusions. This was new Hutton territory for me and I found Baxter's treatment fascinating - great book.

One of Baxter's final conclusions concerning Hutton is: "There have been many great geologists, but no figure before or since bequeathed a package of so many profound andintegrated insights as James Hutton. And he was the first to construct a model of Earth's history containing its most essential feature, a vast and deep abyss of time."

To reach this conclusion Baxter takes us through a real History of Science lesson, not just Hutton biography, but the biographyand contributions of his precursors,teachers, scientific peers,and successorswho were impacted, conflicted by,andwho supported and elaborated Hutton's work. Baxter is able to do this in 231 pages,and I think it would have been difficult to do it in fewer.

Baxter quotes Stephen Jay Gould:"......though Hutton was a great thinker, he was not a modern thinker.And he has been hugely misunderstood" (page 216). Baxter attempts to place the reader in the historic context in which Hutton lived: "How much harder it was for Hutton in a time when the textbooks had yet to be written!"There is a splendid review of James Ussher, the Irish bishop, that had established the earth's birthday as 22 October, 4004, BC, on a Saturday, at about six in the evening.Although this was established religious dogma at the time of Hutton's youth".......it was obvious there was something wrong.You didn't even have to look at the rocks to know that." (Baxter, page 23).And, going against the Church was dangerous. Some of Hutton's most vociferous criticsdecried him as an atheist, in print.In addition to the obvious religious conflicts,Hutton's writing was obscure.

He assumed that the reader was more knowledgeable. "In addition nobody had really understood Hutton's careful epistemology and his uniformitarianism, or his arguments about heat - partly because he hadn't sufficiently explained them in a presentation Playfair called too brief." (Baxter, page 147)"Hutton was endeavoring to produce a complete and consistent body of physical theory and epistemological methodology to support his assertions about the Earth;..."(Baxter, page 177).By separating his observations from his inferences, Hutton was trying to explain the basis on which he derived his hypotheses, and by opening up his methodology for examination he was setting out his thinking as a basis for a true science of geology inthe future-for that methodology itself could be improved (Baxter, page 132).

It was almost as if Hutton had two enormous goals: 1) explaining how the earth worked and 2) how to think and reason scientifically about the new unnamed science of geology. It is no wonder that readers had difficulty.

Playfair is well know to all geologists as the translator for Hutton. He was a warm friendand sought to make the significance of Hutton's work understood. He also wrote a biographic sketch of Hutton after his death which Baxter suggests is too idealized. Baxter attempts, I think successfully, to sleuth and flesh out the real man,Hutton,quoting some of his letters which are lively andsalty.

Hutton begins university at age fourteen (1740), and studied math under Colin Maclaurin, who had been recommended by Newton.Hutton developed an interest in chemistryin spite of the University of Edinburgh not having a chemistry curriculum.After three years at University he took a position as an apprentice to a solicitor, but this did not work out. Hutton was still interested in chemistry.He went back to the University to study medicine. He met a fellow medical student named John Clerk who was from a prominent Midlothian land and coal mine owning family. Baxter believes that this began Hutton's interest, at age eighteen, in minerals, coal, and rocks (1744). After three years studying medicine at Edinburgh he left to continue his studies abroad.At age 21 he arrived in Paris (1747)."Hutton probably attended Professor Francois Rouelle's lectures on mineralogy in Paris.Rouelle pioneered ideas, concerning the order in which rocks had been laid down....." (Baxter, Page 45). From Paris he went to Leiden to complete his medical training. He wrote a thesis in French entitled, "On the Circulation of Blood in the Microcosm".

Returning to Edinburgh through London at age 23 he struggled with what to do next (1749). Apparently being a physician was not in the cards.He and a friend James Davie began a business producing sal ammoniac which was used in dyes and in the production of tin and brass.It was being imported from Egypt but he and Davie had worked a method to produce it in Scotland from chimney soot collected in Edinburgh.

"But now his life was devastated by scandal." (Baxter, page 58)There is fragmentary evidence of a women,and a son emerges after Hutton's death. The episode was so embarrassing to Hutton that he felt a need to retreat from Edinburgh to two small farm properties of his father's southeast of Edinburgh along the coast in Berwickshire (1752)."The Land was wild and uncultivated, just open fields that backed on to sheep country.Stones had to be split and hauled away before Hutton could work the soil at all" (Baxter, page 64).

Here from age 26 to age 39 farming became his chief occupation.Initially he focused on learning what he could from other farmers that were sucessful.He traveled to and apprenticed under excellent farmers in Norfolk, Yarmouth, and Belton."He made many journeys - mostly on foot - to different parts of England. He visited Northumberland, Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Cambridgeshire, Oxfordshire, and the Isle of Wight.These trips were made primarily to study agricultural techniques, butby this time Hutton had also begun to study geology and mineralogy in a more serious way" (Baxter, page 61)."Hutton would later boast that he could tell you where a piece of gravel had come from anywhere on the eastern side of Britain" (Baxter, page, 61).

"Hutton persevered with his farming, and slowly his situation improved.His Norfolk plough transformed the land.As Adam Ferguson noted, 'The joke [of his Norfolk plough] has become serious, and is now the general practice from one end of Scotland to the other.' The farm, once 'very wild and uncultivated piece of land', had a 'degree of neatness and garden-like culture, which in farming had not been seen before.Persons of every description came from every quarter to gratify their intellectual curiosity, as well as to get information' " (Baxter, page 72).With pioneering techniques, he had greatly improved the condition of his land, and his agricultural studies had become the focal point of his interlocking interests in chemistry, meteorology, geology and botany.His achievements showed the quality of his character and his mind" (Baxter, page 80).

Hutton's natural focus on soil must have led to this key intuition:...."the world did not suffer only decay: perhaps it also had the capability for repair" (Baxter, page 76).

"This was Hutton's picture, then: rocks decayed through erosion, the rubble was consolidated into new rocks, and then somehow uplifted to make new lands - erosion, deposition, consolidation, uplift.And cupped in the heart of this immense rocky machine, the priceless soil that sustained life was subtly created" (Baxter, page 78).Arguing with the support of final causes and design arguments Hutton reached this hypothesis.".....starting from first principles-that the final cause for the Earth is to sustain life - Hutton deduced that it must have some mechanism of repair from erosion, just as Harvey had once deduced the existence of capillaries in the body,then undetected, to complete his model of blood's circulation.The task now was to find that mechanism....."Baxter continues on page 77 quoting Hutton: ' This is the view in which we are now to examine the globe, to see if there be, in the constitution of this world a reproductive operation, by which a ruined constitution may be again repaired, and a duration or stability thus procured to the machine, considered as a world sustaining plants and animals.'

At the age of 41 in 1767 Hutton determined to return to Edinburgh. He build a new home facing thespectacular geology of Salisbury Crags and Arthur's seat for himself and his three sisters.Previously...."He had been elected to a committee which was to supervise the construction of the Forth and Clyde canal" (Baxter,page 79)."It was against the background of the elegant new city, and in the heads of a literate, independent-minded and newly prosperous populace, that the Scottish Enlightenment would bloom, causing Voltaire to say, 'It is to Scotland that we must look for our idea of civilization' (Baxter, page 86).

It was a relief for Hutton to move into his new house on St. John's Hill, his collection was taking up to much space.......Hutton would examine his specimens chemically and under the microscope, and then varnish them to keep them looking bright.He would prune his hoard to focus on the most intellectually valuable samples" (Baxter,page 97).

This era was know as the Scottish Enlightenment.Many of the most famous men were personal acquaintances or good friends of James Hutton. The David Hume family farm was near Hutton's farm.Joseph Black, Adam Smith, and James Watt were personal friends. Hutton visited with Erasmus Darwin, grandfather to Charles Darwin.And Hutton attracted and mentored younger talents such as Sir James Hall and John Playfair. These men met and shared their scientific theories at the Philosophical Society and at gentleman's clubs such the Poker Club.Large volumes of Claret were also imbibed.

As previously mentioned Hutton began a tradition of field work and travel with his agricultural studies.He went back to the low countries in 1754.In 1764 he traveled to the Scottish highlands with George Clerk-Maxwell where Hutton compiled notes, observations, and reflections on the geology. In 1774 made a long trip to Birmingham, Wales, Anglesey, Wiltshire, Bath, Warwickshire, and Derbyshire. "....as early as 1764 his forays into the field had become directed and specific, as he sought evidence to support his arguments" (Baxter, page 116)."In Wales he mostly had to ride on horseback, and his backside took a good deal of punishment: during this forty-day tour his riding breeches would wear out four times" (Baxter, page 111).In 1779 he went to Shropshire to climb Wrekin.In 1785 he went to Glen Tilt.In 1787 he went to Arran to search for his concept of an unconformity with, marginal results. Later in 1787 he discovered his first clear unconformity at Jedburgh, by serendipity in the "borders region" of Scotland. And finally by a directed effort from the sea to the coast he discovered at Siccar Point,a clear cut example of an unconformity.On that dayhe was accompanied in the field by John Playfair and Sir John Hall.What better way to make permanent disciples.Baxter quotes from Playfair: "The mind seemed to grow giddy by looking so far into the abyss of time; and while we listened with earnestness and admiration to the philosopher who was now unfolding to us the order and series of those wonderful events, we became sensible how much farther reason may sometimes gothan imagination can venture to follow."

Baxter does a masterful job of piecing together the rest of the story, and at the same time putting it into historical context. This includes the oralpresentationin 1785 and print version in 1788and book version of Hutton'sTheory of the Earthin 1795 and the blistering attacks which followed."Hutton knew he had to defend himself.Even moreso then in 1785, Britain in 1793 was not a good place to be called a heretic" (Baxter, page 174).

"By now most European geologists were divided into two camps, neither of which had been influenced much by Hutton's theories. The 'Vulcanists', including Desmarest and Faujas, were fire geologists, who believed that volcanoes must have had significant effects on the evolution of the Earth.The other school was the Neptunists, who thought volcanoes were irrelevant special effects.To them water was the key agent .All Neptunists hypothesized some kind of universal ocean, out of which the rocks had been deposited.But there was still a whole spectrum of theologically inclined thinkers, ranging from those who still held to the most literal interpretation of the Bible account, to others who interpreted its teaching in a more symbolic or allegorical way" (Baxter, page 165-166).

On a Saturday in March 1797 James Hutton died."Essential or not, Hutton's huge work was almost universally ignored by learned society, then and since.Even his closest friend, Black, wouldn't buy a word of it" (Baxter, page 168). These words by Playfair serve as a memorial: "With [Hutton's] relish for what ever is beautiful and sublime in science, we may easily conceive what pleasure he derived from his own geological speculations.The novelty and grandeur of the objects offered by them to the imagination, the simple and uniform order given to the whole natural history of the Earth, and, above all, the views opened of the wisdom that governs nature, are things to which hardly any man could be insensible, but to him they were matter, not of transient delight, but of solid and permanent happiness....No author was ever more disposed to consider the enjoyment of them, as the full and adequate reward of his labours" (Baxter, page 185).

Baxter continues with the history of the conflicts among the Vulcanists, Neptunists, Catatastrophists, and Uniformitarianists and the development of the concept of geologic time. By and large Hutton's team wins but the men he mentored, John Playfair, and Sir James Hall led the way by clarifying communication, updating, andfinishing the science. "In 1824, aged sixty-three Hall accompanied yet another keen young geologist on a repeat of Hutton's classic expedition to Siccar Point. The youngster was much impressed - and, a quarter of a century after Hutton's death, it was to him that the responsibility for the next stage of the argument would devolve. ....... His name was Charles Lyell" (Baxter, page 203).

Baxter abstracts the rest of the story, carrying on with Lyell, Darwin, Kelvin, Rutherford, and Holmes to near present day. This neat and concise volume gives us an excellent introduction to James Hutton and how he almost single-handedly turned the study of the earth into a science called geology; and gave us a way of fruitfully thinking about and making sense ofthe Earth.

excellent
This is a very, very good book -- its combination of Hutton's philosophy of knowledge with his theory of the Earth is a great step in the right direction -- the first in a popular book cencerning Hutton. It aslo places Hutton in his intellectual millieu really well. ... Read more

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Concluding the epic Manifold series that began with TIME and continued with SPACE: the adventures of the maverick astronaut Reid Malenfant bring him at last to the beginning of everything.NASA astronaut Reid Malenfant is flying a military jet over Africa when a vast electric-blue circle appears in the air -- and the Red Moon dramatically replaces our ancient, cherished moon. Malenfant's plane is destroyed as he chases the alien circle of light.Though Malenfant survives, his wife Emma is swept up and hurled towards the Red Moon. Through the months of floods and earthquakes that follow Malenfant singlemindedly lobbies for a moonshot to rescue her.He's heading for the Red Moon where time and space converge, the origin of the manifold. ... Read more

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A brand new short novel, lavishly praised by Greg Bear, from the internationally bestselling author of THE TIME SHIPS; an epic story of a far future war that shows Baxter at the top of his game. Paired with MAKING HISTORY, a new short novel from the Arthur C. Clarke award-winning Paul McAuley. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good but available in a bigger collection
Baxter's novella is an important part of his ongoing "Xeelee sequence"; if you are into the whole Xeelee thing then you MUST read this story!.

I bought a Gollancz book with 2 stories in it, this one
"Reality Dust" by Stephen Baxter, back-to-back with "Making History" by Paul McAuley. Both stories are very good (and are apparently both available as very short standalone books on their own).

However, later I found another book, "Futures: Four Novellas"
with these same 2 stories in it, PLUS 2 more good stories!
("Watching Trees Grow" by Peter F. Hamilton, and
"Tendeleo's Story" by Ian McDonald)....

So I would suggest getting the "Futures" book with all 4 novellas in it, if you can, over either volume with just Baxter's and/or Hamilton's ... ... Read more

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James Cameron's Avatar is the biggest movie of all time.Such has been its effect on audiences that some have reported begin depressed at having to leave the vividly realised setting of Pandora to return to the real world. In the Science of Avatar, bestselling science-fiction author Stephen Baxter examines James Cameron's epic.Over twelve years, the Director created richly imagined world that had its roots in real scientific discovery. From journeys into deep space to anti-gravity unobtanium, from Pandora's extraordinary flora and fauna to transferring consciousness, Baxter reveals that we are closer to world of Avatar than we know. Stephen Baxter is the master ofwhat-if?' science fiction. In the Science of Avatar he's written a book that will appeal to fans of both science-fiction and popular science.And a book that provides a glimmer of hope to those poor film-fans bemoaning their return to the earth after time spent on Pandora. ... Read more

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In the eighteenth century, the received wisdom, following Ussher's careful biblical calculations, was that the Earth was just six thousand years old. James Hutton, a gentleman farmer with legal and medical training and a passion for rocks, knew that this could not be the case. Looking at the formation of irregular strata in the layers of the earth he deduced that a much deeper abyss of time would be required for the landscape he saw to have evolved. In the turbulent world of Enlightenment Scotland he set out to prove it. He could not have achieved this without his friends. Hutton's entourage in Edinburgh would turn out to be the leading thinkers of the age. His close circle consisted of such luminaries as Erasmus Darwin, Adam Smith, James Watt and David Hume. These brilliant men would work together to develop the nascent science of geology but would also make spectacular advances in agriculture, chemistry, philosophy, economy and engineering; as well as devising steam engines and military tactics.Hutton's geological theory of the Earth would cause a profound religious debate as well as provoking decades of criticism. His revelation, however, was ultimately one of the most extraordinary and essential moments in scientific history. This is the little-known story of a man who fought hard against orthodox beliefs to prove the antiquity of the earth and of the dedicated loyalty of an enlightened circle of friends. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

well done
This is a very, very good book -- its combination of Hutton's philosophy of knowledge with his theory of the Earth is a great step in the right direction -- the first in a popular book cencerning Hutton. It aslo places Hutton in his intellectual millieu really well.

A Great scientific biography
Baxter shows all his narrative and novelistic skill in this wonderful sketch of the life and thoughts of James Hutton.
He adroitly sets the scene with a very full account of Ussher's biblical chronology for the world - against which 'modern' geology strained to progress.
We learn about Hutton, the agricultural innovator, as well as Hutton, the natural law thinker and Hutton the scientific observer.
Shot though the narrative are glimpses of Edinburgh and the Scottish Enlightenment, with compact yet substantial portraits of Hutton's contemporaries and colleagues - such as Hume, Playfair, Watt. And his opponents, Werner and Kirwan.
Finally the book concludes with the work of Playfair and Lyell and some snippets to bring events up to date.
Overall, if you want a readable, sensible, thorough biography which does justice to the man, the age and the science, this is an excellent one.
... Read more

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2028. Aliens arrive - the first of a brand new series of adventures in the Web. 1 year after her adventure in GULLIVERZONE, Metaphor is still as excited by the web as anyone else her age. But even she isn't ready for the chaos and excitement that comes when the whole system crashes...No one knows what caused it; few people know how tosolve it. But everyone knows what a nightmare it is. Different sites are melting together, and when that means Vikings and spaceships are meeting, the last thing you want is to be stuck in the middle. But that is exactly where Metaphor is. And soon, sheis involved in a fight for survival with a group of Vikings who are displaying knowledge that no phace should have. Little does Metaphor know that the web crash is only the 1st part of an adventure that is going to overtake the world. And not just the world of the web but the Real world too. ... Read more

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Four new novellas from four of the best writers of British SF, gathered together in one volume with a new introduction by Peter Crowther. A perfect illustration of why British SF is dominating the world SF market at the moment. Top class fiction, cutting edge design, innovative format - the perfect way to catch up with the latest from your favourite SF writers ... Read more