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Stephen Baxter Biography |
Stephen Baxter (born in Liverpool, November 13, 1957) is a British hard science fiction author. He has degrees in mathematics and engineering.
His writings fall into three main categories, each with a very different style and tone.
His "Xeelee Sequence" stories are set in the far future, where human beings are rising to become the second most powerful race in the universe, next to the god-like Xeelee. Character development in these stories take second place to the depiction of advanced theories and ideas, such as the true nature of the Great Attractor, naked singularities and the great battle between Baryonic and Photonic lifeforms. Examples of novels written in this style: Ring, Timelike Infinity.
His present-day Earth stories are much more human, with characters portrayed with greater depth and care. They typically indulge in "if only" whimsy or outright alternate history, dreaming about what humanity could achieve in the exploration of space. NASA features prominently, and a great deal of research has obviously been done into its internal structuring and methods. However, these novels have a much darker tone than any of his other stories and do not often portray much hope for humanity as a moral species. Examples of novels written in this style include Voyage, winner of the Sidewise Award for Alternate History; Titan; and Moonseed.
His "Evolution" stories are a later development and show an increasing interest in the evolution of humanity. These seem to have their origins in stories of his other writing styles, such as Mammoth and Manifold: Origin. Examples of novels written in this style: Evolution.
Baxter also covers numerous other styles: His Mammoth stories, ostensibly for children, are often of great delight to adults, while The Time Ships (an authorised sequel to The Time Machine) is generally taken to be one of his greatest novels. It won the John W. Campbell award and British SF Award and was nominated for other major science fiction awards.
Bibliography
The Xeelee Sequence
Raft (1991)
Timelike Infinity (1992)
Flux (1993)
Ring (1993)
Vacuum Diagrams (1997) (short story collection)
The Manifold Trilogy
Manifold: Time (1999)
Manifold: Space (2001)
Manifold: Origin (2001)
Phase Space (2002) (short story collection)
The Mammoth Trilogy
Silverhair (1999)
Longtusk (2000)
Icebones
Destiny's Children Series
Coalescent (2003)
Exultant (planned for 2004)
Transcendent (planned for 2005)
Time Odyssey series
Time's Eye (2003) (co-authored with Arthur C. Clarke)
Young Adult (part of the shared-world "The Web" series)
Gulliverzone (1997)
Webcrash
Others
Anti-Ice (1993)
The Time Ships (1995) (an authorised sequel to H. G. Wells's The Time Machine)
Voyage (1996)
Titan (1997)
Moonseed (1998)
The Light of Other Days (2000) (co-authored with Arthur C. Clarke)
Traces (1998) (non-Xeelee short stories)
Evolution (2003)
Non-fiction
Deep Future (2001) (mainly articles on science)
Omegatropic (2001) (mainly science fiction criticism) |
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| Stephen Baxter Resources |
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