Xeelee: An Omnibus – Stephen Baxter
This is a science fiction book with heavy emphasis on the science part. I did not know anything about the author or the book when I started reading. The author's name was familiar, but that was it.
The stories in the book are set in a unique and well though out setting, Everything has a plausible reason for existing, even the most far fetched technological feats are explained and given enough credibility to make them believable. The science parts gets a bit too drawn out at times, and the characters are not always the most engaging, but the universe Stephen Baxter has created more than makes up for those shortfalls.
Two of the four stories, "Timelike Infinity" and "Ring", tie nicely together. The same characters are present in both stories, either as historical figures or in person. I found the most interesting character to be a woman, Lieserl, who had her consciousness placed inside our sun. We see her life among the magnetic fluxes and solar storms, and get to experience the change in both her humanity and her view of time as her immense lifespan separates her from everything else. It is interesting story with a unique perspective and Stephen Baxter does it very well, but after a while the descriptions of her life in a star becomes a bit tedious and repetitive. The other scientific parts of the books suffer under the same over-indulgence at times, but those parts never lasted long enough to make the book dull.
The third book, "Flux", is a strange story. The story of "Flux" takes place inside the core of a star were civilization of the resident humans is being torn asunder by sun storms. The reason for this civilization to exist and the consequences of their struggle is were this story ties in with the other stories in the omnibus.
"Raft", the first book in the omnibus, was a the strangest story in the collection. Humans have somehow ended up stranded in a galaxy where gravity is many multitudes higher than what we are used to. With barely any natural resources they try to eke out a living, while marveling at the technology left behind by the first humans that arrived in their galaxy. As a stand alone story I would have enjoyed it immensely, but as the first book in the collection I kept trying to place it with regards to the other books. At the very end I found the place for it, but it was a small and insignificant place that did not really affect anything. I think it would have been much better to read this as the last book, when the premise for the story is set and you can enjoy the strangeness compared to the other stories.
Lurking in the shadows, and stepping into the light on a few occasions, is the Xeelee race. They are the master race that has solved fast-than-light travel and they are the most advanced civilization the universe has ever seen. After having read the whole omnibus you realize that it is the conflict between humans and this race, as well as a third entity, that has shaped all of the stories. The underlying conflict and history of the Xeelee is also what makes me want to pick up more books from Stephen Baxter. There is so much history hinted at throughout the books that there should be room for plenty of interesting stories in this setting.
Published here on 3rd of May 2011, but dated to 23rd of January to keep some kind of synchronization with my Goodreads list going.