Manifold: Time started out with great promise. The story builds on one of my favorite sci-fi themes: private entrepreneurs and adventurers ignoring the stifling red tape of government and beating NASA at their own game. In Manifold: Time, Reid Malenfant (doesn't that mean bad child in French?) has made a fortune in high-tech industry, and uses that fortune to fulfill his dream of going into space. What starts out as a business venture to make billions of dollars mining the asteroids gets a bit sidetracked when a message from the future directs the mission to a less-promising asteroid.
Baxter, with degrees in math and engineering, brings a convincing sense of realism to his science fiction. The design of his spaceship uses currently available technology. His descriptions of the mundane details of space travel reflect the time he took training for a guest spot on the Mir (he wasn't chosen). The brain augmentation of squids to equip them with the ability to follow commands and operate the spaceship seems brilliant, and adds to the story in a very interesting way, but I don't know how believable it is.
The conflict with the government over the launch, the squids' adaptation and quick evolution in space (as swimmers, they are more suited to zero-g), the mystery around the brilliant children, all put together make for some gripping story telling. When they arrive at the asteroid and discover a time/space portal, the speculative nature of the story gets pretty wild. The squids stage a revolt and take off in a space ship of their own design for a new home, and Malenfant ends up taking a tour of the future for millenia, via the space/time portal, giving a fast forward picture of the destiny of the galaxy.
Manifold: Space builds around one of my other favorite sci-fi themes. I remember as a kid thinking that either God created this universe to be colonized, eventually, by humans, or he created beings on other worlds that we would eventually meet. I didn't think the infinite universe would exist only for us to observe from our little corner of the solar system. Baxter explores similar thoughts, which Enrico Fermi articulated in what is known as the Fermi Paradox. In an infinite universe, the paradox states, there should be abundant extraterrestrial life, so why don't we encounter any?
In Manifold: Space, we do. The Gaijin, who remain very mysterious and aloof, have used the time/space portals, such as we saw in Manifold: Time, to explore many galaxies. They selectively let humans in on some technological secrets, but many suspect the Gaijin's humanitarian (Gaijinarian?) motives. Humans begin to see evidence of planets laid waste, they suspect as a result of invading species from other planets, and wonder if Earth is next.
Manifold: Space, even more than Manifold: Time, becomes too unwieldy to enjoy. Both of these have wonderful ideas, brilliant descriptions of technology and explorations of scientific ideas, and some elements of an interesting plot. The problem is that the latter (plot) gets lost amid all the brilliance. Manifold: Time especially suffers from Baxter's scope; the story drags on for centuries, with a huge, sparsely related cast of characters. I got lost. But I have a little bitty brain.
There is a third book, Manifold: Origins, but I don't think I care enough about the fate of Malenfant's many universes to pick that one up. I'm not through with Baxter, though. I read Light of Other Days, which he co-wrote with Arthur C. Clarke, and enjoyed it, and I'd like to read his alternative history in which the U.S. space program heads to Mars rather than focusing on the shuttle program. Maybe with that series, he can stay a little more focused and bring together the great science and great story telling.
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