Very torn on this one. The book is chock-full of fascinating scientific, ethical, and philosophical ideas; yet the plotting is absent or very bad, as is the pacing. So it's certainly not a gripping story; however, it offers excellent worldbuilding --the occasional political naivite aside--, with remarkable and provocative ideas about the origin of life, planetary evolution, probability space, and the potential of humanity in the universe. Also one bonus star for it's portrayal of, and debate over the 'Next' post-humans. I wan't a fan of the other books in this series - so I shouldn't grump on about not liking this one. I must be a masochist for sticking with a trilogy I disliked from the start, because of some misguided loyalty to Sir Terry's name of the cover. It's pretty obvious most of the text between the covers is Baxter's - with the very occasional Prachett phrase leaping off the page in highlighter pen ("A monkey confronted with a banana with a zip!"). You can tell When Sir Terry stepped in and demanded Trolls on his airships and Beagles in the crew. You can see Sir Terry's social conscience in the passages that proclaim the value of diversity.Alas as with the rest of this dull trilogy, it's Baxter that does the writing.Allow me a couple of bitch points! This book is badly named! There's less than a third by weight or word count about multiversal Mars - and most of that is a long voyage over barren lands with the occasional bloom of algae. There are a couple of quick homages to SF writers who have tackled the red planet, but booking a get-away to this long Mars would be a hard sell for any interplanetary holiday agent. There are a couple of interesting discussions about evolution and the multiverse - but mostly this is pretty much the same as the last two books - long blurry sketches of landscapes with casts of millions of characters with no personality.Second big bitch point! "The Next". I know it's really hard to write about people who are supposed to be smarter than humans. Sensible writers avoid this - or do it in mysterious or literary ways that obscure the super-human qualities that separate such characters from us mere mortal readers. They don't just keep telling us that these people are like really clever. There is not one bloody example in this book that actually SHOWS us how they are clever - not. one. conversation. If you are not as clever as a character you invented - Please don't punch above your weight. It just makes you look really stupid. Bitch slaps endeth. Please Let this thing be a trilogy! I can't take it anymore.
I was quite disappointed with this book,the series doesn't seem to be developing particularly well.It shares a lot with Disc World, in the terms of being based on a good meta understanding of the genre, but is too earnest to be enjoyable.The story lacks any feeling of novelty, the concept of stepping being fully tapped in the previous two books. The Hard-Scifi style Baxter brings makes the book feel a little more soulless, ideas cobbled together from science articles.I would recommend going off and reading a good Disc World novel and Clarke's Childhood's End.
—JennaBogan
A strange book but a lot better than nr 2 of this series. I had the impression that the authors went out of their way to skip or gloss over all scenes that could have included any type of action or tension. A crisis approaching? Nah just turn the page and it's already resolved.Despite the lack of plot I liked the story lines and especially enjoyed the Midwich Cuckoos plot....of only there had been more of a plot it would have received more than 3*
—robin
A lot of interesting ideas, but kind of scattershot.
—shay020411
Martian rock snakes!
—purpleelephant123
what a piece of crap
—piu
