Stephen Baxter

A modern British SF writer. He is a Very Technical Boy, with as hard a Hard SF background as you could ask for, and writing to match.

• isfdb:author/Stephen_Baxter
• http://www.baxterium.org.uk/ The Baxterium (official site)
• http://www.themanifold.co.uk/ The Manifold (more regularly updated)
• http://www.theses.com/idx/034/it034004738.htm possibly his PhD thesis; the name, institution and general field are right, but it's a bit late (he was 27 by then) and it's supposed to be something to do with aeronautical engineering

"I was born in Liverpool, England, in 1957. I have degrees in mathematics, from Cambridge University, and engineering, from Southampton University. I worked as a teacher of maths and physics, and for several years in information technology. I applied to become a cosmonaut in 1991 – aiming for the guest slot on Mir eventually taken by Helen Sharman – but fell at an early hurdle. I have been a full-time author since 1995." -- Stephen Baxter (shamelessly lifted from the Baxterium)

Widely considered the heir to Arthur C Clarke, and generally acclaimed as the best Hard SF writer of his generation. Unless you frequent RASFW, in which case it seems you have to think he's a talentless hack.

Stephen Baxter writes in two main veins: futuristic, wide-ranging, mind-bending large-scale stuff set in a Future History in which humanity is firmly at the bottom of the cosmic pecking-order (the Xeelee Sequence - Raft, Timelike Infinity, Flux, Ring, Vacuum Diagrams) and gritty, overtly technical, near-future or near-alternate-past stuff in which humans face limitless space armed only with courage and technical gumption (the so-called Shits In Space? works - Voyage, Titan, Moonseed and, to a certain extent, the Manifold trilogy). He has also written some ripping alternate histories (Anti-Ice, The Time Ships) and a few other books.

A major (and acknowledged) influence on Baxter, primarily in his short fiction but also in novels such as Flux , is the James Blish short story 'Surface Tension'.

Books as rated on a Five Point Scale by Wikizens:

• Raft [5 -- NH] [3 -- LL]
• Timelike Infinity [4 -- NH] [4 -- LL]
• Flux [3 -- NH] [3 -- LL]
• Ring [3 -- NH] [5 -- LL][4 -- MF]
• Vacuum Diagrams (short stories) [4 -- NH]
• Anti-Ice [4 -- NH]
• The Time Ships [5 -- NH] [5 -- WJR] [5 -- TL] [4 -- LL]
• Voyage [5 -- NH] [3 -- WJR] [4 -- LL]
• Titan [3 -- NH] [2 -- WJR] [3 -- LL]
• Moonseed [4 -- NH] [4 -- LL]
• Traces (short stories) [4 -- NH]
• Mammoth: Silverhair
• Mammoth: Longtusk
• Mammoth: Icebones
• The Light Of Other Days (with Arthur C Clarke) [3 -- NH] [4 -- LL]
• Deep Future (non-fiction)
• Omegatropic (non-fiction) [5 -- NH]
• Time: Manifold I [5 -- NH] [5 -- LL]
• Space: Manifold II [5 -- NH] [4 -- LL]
• Origin: Manifold III? [3 -- NH] [3 -- LL]
• Phase Space (short stories) [5 -- NH]
• Evolution [4 -- NH]
• Reality Dust? (novella for PS Publishing) [3 -- NH]
• Riding The Rock? (novella for PS Publishing) [4 -- NH]
• Coalescent [4 -- NH]
• Time's Eye: A Time Odyssey? Book 1 (with Arthur C Clarke)
• Sunstorm: A Time Odyssey? Book 2 (with Arthur C Clarke)
• Mayflower II? (novella for PS Publishing) [5 -- NH]
• Exultant [4 -- NH]
• Transcendent [4 ... no, what the hell, 5 -- NH]
• Emperor [3 -- NH]
• Resplendent [4 -- NH]
• Conqueror [4 -- NH]
• Navigator [3 -- NH]
• The H Bomb Girl?
• Weaver Novel [5 -- NH]

I notice his latest series of novels is running under the tag-line 'Destinys Children'.... Hitching himself to any passing wagon I see.... MF

It's either 'Destiny's Children' or 'Homo Superior', depending on where you go. This may be a UK/US thing. It makes it less plausible as a commentary on pop culture, though...unless, of course, he knows something we don't. -- NH

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