Deep Future (Gollancz S.F.) Book

Stephen Baxter's popular SF novels describe fantastic journeys into deep time, both past and future, audaciously imagined but rooted in speculations by working scientists. In Deep Future he presents state-of-the-art futurology without the greasepaint and stage props of fiction. Beginning with a travelogue through a reasonably likely Year 2100, Baxter discusses problems, techniques and limits of futurology, notes that "surprise-free" predictions can be overturned by new, transforming gadgets (the automobile, the Internet), and ponders scenarios of imminent doom. Then he soars off into space and surveys the incredible wealth that awaits in our own solar system, if only we can reach out for it. Like his mentor Arthur C Clarke, Baxter coins evocative phrases. For example, describing Callisto's impermanent ice-landscapes: "The ancient craters subsided, like great geological sighs..." Next stop, the stars--with due consideration of the enormous problems of interstellar flight, and the consequences of solving them. Given exponential population growth, will we fill the Galaxy as quickly as we filled Earth? And is there anyone else out there? Baxter deals at length with this compelling issue, which sparked his "Manifold" SF novels: Time, Space and Origin. Onward, then, into the truly deep future and final thoughts on how life might still struggle on when the stars have died, the black holes are used up, and matter itself is old history. Deep Future is a lively though often chilling tour of possible futures, looking afresh at classic speculations (from Freeman Dyson, Carl Sagan and many others) and updating them for our new millennium. --David LangfordRead More