Product Description

The first in a new trilogy that will chart different evolutionary futures for mankind, COALESCENT is the story of a divergent strain of humanity; a hive mind, that subsumes the individual. It is a story that begins with a vivid depiction of the decline of the Roman Empire and which, down through the years, shows how one woman's determination to protect her daughter has such frightening consequences for mankind's future existence. This is at once a stunning historical novel, a superb piece of ideas-driven SF and the intensely felt story of one man's discovery of the dark secret at the heart of his family.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #110355 in Books
• Published on: 2004-06-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 544 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Stephen Baxter's novel Coalescent explores the SF possibilities of our own evolution--and whether, like ants or naked mole rats, a human community could develop a hive mind.

In modern England, George Poole learns in mid-life that he once had a twin sister, given as an infant to The Puissant Order of Holy Mary Queen of Virgins. The what? Poole tracks down what seems a perfectly respectable Rome-based organisation, not all that religious but with hints of underlying strangeness. Yet apparently they're not strangers. "They're family."

Sixteen centuries before, the Roman-British girl Regina lives through the final, painful passing of Roman law and order in a Britain increasingly ravaged by Saxon invasion. It's a grimly moving historical story, which even links to the legend of Arthur.

Hardened by much brutal experience, Regina is determined to protect her bloodline and her household gods through the Dark Ages, until this temporary disturbance is over. By luck, cunning and sheer ruthlessness she reaches sanctuary in Rome, where she founds an enclave that will survive into the modern era and beyond. Instinctively, Regina lays down rules that will fundamentally change "human nature" as the centuries slip by:

Ignorance is strength. Listen to your sisters. Sisters matter more than laughters.

A third narrative strand follows Lucia, a girl of the modern-day Order who sees these slogans on every wall, lives underground in the artificial light of the "Crypt" and is always surrounded by many sisters. No room is ever empty. When Lucia finds herself physically changing and becoming different from her workmates, the resulting upheaval has ripples that affect Poole, his own rediscovered sister and the world.

The lifestyle of the Order is a new quirk in mankind's evolution, alternately seductive and shocking. Baxter switches effectively between harrowing historical narrative and the slow revelation of a threat whose understated chill is reminiscent of John Wyndham's quieter menaces. Coalescent is a strong, standalone novel that opens a new SF sequence titled "Destiny's Children". --David Langford

About the Author
Stephen Baxter is the critically acclaimed and award-winning author of, amongst others, THE TIME SHIPS, MOONSEED, VOYAGE, TIME and EVOLUTION. He is published all over the world. Born in 1957 he was raised in Liverpool and has a degree in mathematics from Cambridge and a PhD from Southampton. He is married and lives in Buckinghamshire.

Customer Reviews

A good, but not a great, book
Some of the reviews above are a bit harsh. I read the book quickly, over a few days, because it has an interesting and fast-moving narrative. I put it down reluctantly, but not extremely reluctantly. The ancient Britain side is very well done indeed, perhaps the most plausible and interesting story I have seen of the fall of the Roman empire in Britain. But the modern side is less convincing. The author didn't convince me that the hive was a bad thing, and he should have been able to do so. It was difficult to sympathise with any of the modern characters.

The bizarre chapter at the end set thousands of years in the future was surprising. Is the author setting the scene for a sequel? That's how it reads. And is press-ganging likely to be an efficient way of manning deep-space battle fleets of the future? It strikes me as unlikely.

One of the interesting points in this book is the theme, also explored in the Absolution Gap/Redemption Space series, that the galaxy is a dangerous place and we should not be broadcasting our presence. This is a key theme for future sci-fi.

It doesn't really coalesce
Coalescent is fascinating and flawed at the same time. And the flaw is not in the characterisation. These are rounded, interesting people. Not heroes, not perfect, not always nice, but very human (ironically, given the book's theme).

The charting of the slow and painful collapse of the roman empire in Dark Ages Britain and Europe is fascinating and evocative. The Arthurian connection is fun - a playful dig at the myth - and I like the way Ambrosius gets the upper hand.
The fatal flaw, for me, is in the structure. Baxter is running two timelines for most of the book, separated by centuries. However the present day timeline provides all the answers to the historical timeline early in the book, eliminating any possible tension. The historical timeline peters out three quarters of the way through (probably for this reason). The modern timeline swaps viewpoint several times.

Then, finally, for some bizarre reason, the author introduces a third timeline, set thousands of years in the future, right at the end of the book. You have no opportunity to get to know the characters or the setting but it distracts attention enormously from the climax, totally severing my connection with the story. A huge mistake and totally unnecessary.

The style of writing in Coalescent is fluid and assured. The basic idea is not startlingly original but is interesting and is explored proficiently - without the old sci-fi stand by of the information dump. In a way, this philosophical exploration - of the relationship between evolution and forms of social organisation (hive versus individuality) - stands in place of a more dramatic plot.

In summary: good exploration of an intriguing idea; vivid historical background; rounded characters; well written; intellectually stimulating rather than suspenseful. Disastrous structure.

Fascinating and Scary
Coalescent

Stephen Baxter is the leading contemporary science fiction writer and the equal of any of the past greats of the genre: he can pack more Big Ideas into a single novel than some SF writers manage in a whole career, and even his turkeys - Moonseed and The Light of Other Days, say - still manage to pass muster in a genre that is, in the words of Nick Lowe, 'absolutely addicted to crappiness'.

In Coalescent we follow the adventures of one George Poole, a middle-aged IT professional who, while finalising his late father's estate, discovers that he has a long-lost twin sister. This girl, Rosa, was sent away as a child to join a religious order in Rome, and Poole, in mid-life crisis mode, determines to track her down. Meanwhile, in a parallel story, Poole's remote ancestress, a Romano-Briton of the 5th Century, escapes the anarchy of Sub-Roman Britannia, travels to Rome and founds a religious order...

Is this science-fiction? Well, yes, it is, when written by Baxter. Poole's investigation into the very weird indeed Puissant Order of Saint Mary Queen of Virgins allows the author to address some favourite themes: political and social decadence, the Fermi Paradox, privacy (the lack thereof), evolution, humans-as-aliens and, of course, Cosmic Destiny. We also get a fascinating and scary new Baxter theme, eusociality (don't look it up, you'll spoil the story). plus an insight that may be very disturbing to internet users!

What we don't get is the Baxterian Cosmic Angst that had become a depressing feature of his stories. Coalescent has, to my mind, a hopeful ending. It also has well-drawn characters, although they're not particularly likable ones. Poole is stereotypical cult-fodder - intelligent, well-educated and directionless; Peter is the grown up school weirdo and Regina is just plain repugnant. It's difficult to care about these people (as is so often the case with Baxter's characters), so it's the intriguing plot that keeps one turning the pages; and even that is a bit flabby - I found myself skipping paragraphs and even whole pages with no discernable loss of signal.

Baxter is, as always, the master of his source materiel, the 'invisible literature' of scientific papers, speculative articles and obsessive geek websites where the ideas that will shape the future make their first unheralded appearance. He mixes this stuff into his stories with such effortless authority that even readers who share Baxter's interests will wonder where the science ends and the fiction starts. Having said that, I'm curious to know what his sources are for the pagan revival in post Roman Britain: the one thing Gildas did not accuse his contemporaries of was apostasy.

Coalescent is the most enjoyable Stephen Baxter hard SF I've read for a while, and I'd recommend it as a good place for newbies to start, though I must say that I enjoyed the story all the more because of the subtle links to the fabulous Xeelee sequence!