Book Note: Stephen Baxter, Manifold: Origin

This note contains spoilers for the book.

The conclusion to this series, apparently (so reviews seem to say). I never did like Reid Malenfant much. But the scenarios and societies are interesting. And I'm invested enough in the series that I gotta finish it if it's this short.

Surprisingly, I like this the best of the series. I don't think that's the normal view. I'm not sure if I just happened to hit it in a receptive mood, or what.

The basic scenario is completely ridiculous. Makes no sense at all. Just gotta accept it. Normally I wouldn't. I dunno.

After he strands the main characters, separately, on the Red Moon, which seems to spend its time sweeping through various timelines and collecting samples, he does a nice job on differentiating the different hominid societies. I don't mean I think he somehow knows how they'd differ; I just mean that the differences are vaguely believable. I ended up feeling I had a vague understanding of how our ancestors could be so much like us and so much different. The details, I'm sure, have no support whatsoever. But I now have a model that sorta makes sense.

He kills Reid kinda arbitrarily, but whatever; anything killing Reid is good.