Stephen Baxter

Reid Malenfant redoubles his efforts to become an astronaut when it becomes clear that the future of the universe depends on the colonization of space to solve Earth's devastating problems.

Manifold: Time

Justin Jerome Price

What is the ultimate destiny of humanity? Are humans the only sapient, sentient life form in the universe? If not, where are the other life forms? If so, why? Existential questions such as these form the heart of the book Manifold: Time, a science fiction novel written by Stephen A. Baxter and published in 1999. The author manages to explores these questions through multiple third-person limited perspectives centering around a series of events, beginning with the preparation of the launch of a squid-operated rocketship to the asteroid Cruithne by private space company Bootstrap due to a message from downstreamers, humanity’s descendants from a potential far future. And as outlandish as that previous sentence may sound, the author deftly manages to make the story feel realistic and thus the reader feel immersed in the story. Part of this is from how the author incorporates hard science into his work; the presence of a bibliography at the end of the book about the real world research that inspired the author shows how much care went into the story to give it a semblance of verisimilitude. Yet what truly powers the realism of the story is the characters.

While the story does use the multiple third-person limited perspectives to give one a sense of how the public is reacting to the events throughout the story, the narrative does focus on three main characters; Reid Malenfant, Emma Stoney, and Maura Della. Reid Malenfant is CEO and founder of the private space company Bootstrap. Emma Stoney Is Malenfant’s ex-wife and personal secretary. Representative Maura Della is a US Congresswoman. Each one of their perspectives becomes important in understanding the narrative. Through Malenfant’s perspective, we learn about the Carter Hypothesis, the idea that since the largest population of humans are living today than any other time period, there has to be an upcoming cataclysm, otherwise people would be born further in the future. This is the defining catalyst of the story from which all the perspectives revolve around and motivate the actions of all of the main players. Through Emma’s perspective, it focuses more on the relationship between Malenfant and herself and the tasks that she does to keep the company running. And since there is not too much self-reflection or character growth throughout the story, though there is character development, she provides a nice counterbalance to Malenfant’s perspective. 

If Emma Stonely is meant to be a counterbalance to Malenfant’s perspective, Representative Della is meant to give us insight into the thoughts of the government of the United States and its people. Her perspective is important for several reasons. One is that it serves as a critique of the Machiavellian mindset that some politicians in real life tend to have. Della constantly finds herself having to ignore moral concerns for what she considers to be the “greater” good of the country. And given the events of the story, it does not bode well for the country. Her perspective also shows how things helplessness and existential dread can drive a society to commit atrocities against a minority population if they feel that that population is somehow better than them. 

All in all, Manifold: Time is a classic in the genre of hard science fiction and it is easy to see why. Its exploration of how technology and science can lead to existential dread and the potential consequence of that dread gives the book importance that should not be dismissed. Especially nowadays. Highly recommend.

Alex Deee

Super interesting book. I really liked the first ⅔ of it, before the future technology got pretty intense. I loved knowing that the science was possible, though I started skimming some of the explanations. I think end notes or an extended afterward would have been a great place for those explanations. 

The squid were a great addition. 

I think Emma's tolerance for Reid was way too high, especially with his "revelation" near the end. That was kind of a sappy storyline. I actually think the book would have worked really well without any of Reid's POV. Despite being the instigator he was pretty uninteresting. Michael and the Blue Children, however, were fascinating. I'd like to hear more about them.

Manifold: Time

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