I loved this book, even more than the first, and I really want to read the next book as soon as possible. Whilst enjoying the travelogue, it is clear that, in the finest Clarkean tradition, the joy of discovery leads to even greater mysteries to be understood. Book Bag Ultima is a tour-de-force of grand Space Opera, where an unbridled enthusiasm and super-long timelines create a tale full of wonder and cool imaginings. The Independent Stephen Baxter is an incredibly skilled author - a successor to Arthur C Clarke and Philip K Dick who has kept me entertained for years with his clever books written around huge ideas and concepts. Ideas come thick and fast, and an exhilarating sense of wonder is guaranteed. is one of the few still producing massive, fastidiously textured SF epics that engage the intelligence of the reader. It is set to build on the massive success of PROXIMA and define Stephen Baxter's work going forward. This is grand scale, big idea SF of the best possible sort. It's time for us to fight to take back control. But as we learn the true nature of the universe we also discover that we have countless pasts all meeting in this present and that our future is terrifyingly finite. And we discover that there are minds in the universe that are billions of years old and they have a plan for us. Now in ULTIMA the consequences of this new freedom make themselves felt. In PROXIMA we discovered ancient alien artifacts on the planet of Per Ardua - hatches that allowed us to step across light years of space as if we were stepping into another room. Fresh from his latest collaboration with Terry Pratchett on the Long Earth sequence Stephen Baxter now returns to the mysteries and challanges first hinted at in his acclaimed novel PROXIMA.

Stephen baxter ultima