World Engines: Destroyer: A post climate change high concept science fiction odyssey

Upon re-reading Amazon's description, I wondered what book they were talking about. There is NO "Kernel, a strange object on a five-hundred-year-orbit," nothing "returns after 500 years, "Emma II" did NOT wake up Malenfant and there certainly is NO "wormhole, through which Malenfant and Emma II, exploring further, plummet back in time, across five billion years." WTF!If you want to know what the book is ACTUALLY about, read the paragraph that follows. The "TL:DR" version of my review is that the whole book is a bunch of utter nonsense with an equally nonsensical AND thoroughly depressing ending. Whoever said this book is "thoroughly believable" must be on LSD. For those who want to know what it's actually about, keep reading. I must warn that there are spoilers ahead, although the correct warning should be, "Avoid this turkey like the plague."Malenfant wakes up after a 400 year nap and adjusts to the new reality in which the world has learned to protect the environment. Unfortunately, the world is going to be destroyed in 500 more years by a collision in outer space caused by rogue planet "Shiva." Malenfant and 17-year-old Deirdra (because of course 17-year-olds can easily find their way into dangerous space missions) ride a spaceship (from a museum, no less) to Mars' moon Phobos, where "tunnels" have brough a whole party of humans there from other times and universes, including a British ship and crew where they use slide rules, drink tea and talk with a stiff upper lip (!). You can't make this stuff up!We are told nothing about where these tunnels on Phobos came from or why these people are there, and the tunnels have no connection to the rest of the book, either. Phobos ends up being just a meeting place from which the humans go to planet "Persephone," where someone built 65,000 large structures of unknown purpose (the "world engines" which are actually giant rockets). In a long exposition, the author speculates that the "someone" who built these rockets was prepared to use "Shiva" to destroy Earth and everything else in the Solar System in order to mine Venus (or perhaps to build an intergalactic bypass). Okay -- except that doesn't make sense because the structures on Persephone had no connection to this plan. Their purpose was apparently only to be a convenient way for the humans to **try** to knock Shiva off course and save Earth by dropping nuclear weapons into one of the rockets. We've only got 500 years, no time to study this -- let's just drop nukes in to a giant alien rocket and see what happens! What could possibly go wrong?Not surprisingly, something goes wrong. So, they went through all that nonsense and the plan to save Earth failed anyway. All that work by the environmentalists here on Earth trying to save the planet went for nothing. So apparently the moral of the story is, "Why try to save the environment when we're all doomed in the end anyway?" How much more depressing can you get?

Colonel Reid Malenfant is brought back to life in an alternate 25th century. Earth has received radio messages from his wife, calling for him to rescue her in Phobos. The problem is, she’s supposed to have died in an accident in the 21st century.This is how this book begins and, as usual, Baxter takes the reader on a sci-fi rollercoaster.The story is basically around the concept of parallel universes. History flows differently in all of them (imagine alternate 20th century history, with different outcomes for WWII, for the Russian Revolution, for American presidential politics, for the evolution of science and space exploration, etc.). The solar system is different in these universes as well, with different geological and astrophysical layouts for all the planets (closer or further from the Sun, rings, temperature, evolution of life, etc.).Even though the book has some gaps (characters, story flow, etc.), it nicely explores this concept and crystalizes other concepts. It might not be Baxter’s best (I prefer the Xeelee sequence), I recommend it to anyone that enjoys Baxter’s Clarkian work.

This may be Baxter's best yet. In this book alone, there's enough plot for an entire series of reasonably-sized paperbacks, and enough concepts and ideas to fuel a dozen more.To those familiar with Baxter's Manifold series: This is a Manifold book in all but name. Reid Malenfant, the common protagonist of the Manifold tales, wakes up from cryosleep in the year 2469, and is, tacitly, given one hell of an unusual mission. So this one, more than the other books Malenfant features in, is rather more along the lines of a classic adventure yarn... but it works very well, and the themes underlying the Manifold series -- the fate of mankind, the Fermi paradox, and so forth -- all feature prominently here nevertheless.To those unfamiliar with the Manifold series, I should note one thing: The books are standalone novels, and need not be read in any particular order, but a common thematic thread runs through them all.Now I must emphasize that this book is not only a Manifold story, it is the best of the bunch. Baxter has filled it with more interesting characters, more humor, and more action than the others, and, despite its deep themes, it's written with great skill, clarity, and punch. It tells a very compelling story, with characters who may not all be human, but who all have personalities, actions, and goals to which a human audience can relate -- in a drama that has serious emotional heft on both human and cosmic scales -- in a setting which is very different from the world of our time, but which hews closely to a rigorous logical framework, and which contains a human society that isn't too implausible and is even, in some respects, vaguely familiar....Though perhaps only familiar to me because it was somewhat reminiscent of "The Songs of Distant Earth"!And, indeed, I'd compare this particular book of Baxter's to the best from Arthur Clarke -- a fairly hackneyed comparison at this point -- but now it seems to me that, in the future, people may do just the opposite and compare Clarke to Baxter! To me, Baxterian science fiction is the best kind, and this may be his best book. I just finished reading the Kindle version, but now I've gone and purchased the hardcover. For this is a book that is going to stand the test of time.

Bloody Malenfant again, again and again, though with an embryonic smattering of PCwhich makes it less believable, meets Utopian 25 th century inhabitants ( Buck Rodgers got there first btw)Just a re work of his last novels nothing new, just re heated left overs like a thick porridge ofgelatinous,slow moving,pulp.You might like it ....

I wish the blurb had mentioned that the main character was Malenfant, I wouldn’t have bought it. Having met this character in previous novels by Baxter, and found him most unlikeable, I would have given this one a miss.However, I finished reading the book, and I can now only say, “what a bore”. Terrible plot, paper thin (as others have said) and consists of continuous and tedious talking, with little action.Sorry Baxter, I should have stopped buying your books after the Long Earth series.For info, I’m in my seventies and have been an avid reader of SciFi since I was 12 years old. This book is the first to go straight to a charity shop. I won’t be re-reading it.

I'd stopped reading Baxter sometime ago, none of the novels or shorts excited me a much as his first few, Raft, Flux, Timelike Infinity or Ring. So after my self imposed hiatus I decided to try again.World Engines: Destroyer feels like a attempt to shoehorn all of Baxter's favorite tropes into a cohesive whole and unfortunately it doesn't quite live up to it's parts. It felt padded, each new character getting a small biographical chapter - fun for the alternate universe buffs, but ultimately padding. Did the novel need all the information? Sadly the answer is no.I'll check out Baxter down the road, but for now I'm left feeling disappointed.

I loved the original Manifold series so was glad to see Malenfant back in action in a new timeline. For now, there's no definite link to the events of the previous books but I wouldn't be surprised to see more on that in the next book due to drop in September 2020.It was good to revisit a few of the characters from "Titan" (mainly Nicola Mott) as well as some reference to the events of "Voyage". Also, while I never had a chance to read "Anti-Ice", I can't help wondering about the British in this tale.Overall, the story was pretty compelling and falls only slightly short of five stars for me and I'm looking forward to the next chapter to further unravel the mystery of the world engines.

Just finished the book and feel let down. Nothing new in this storyline. Unlikeable characters. Poor ending. Not recommended especially for the cost of the book. Am disappointed mainly after earlier Baxter novels.