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Xeelee Sequence #5
Vacuum Diagrams
"And everywhere the Humans went, they found life..."
This dazzling future history, winner of the 2000 Philip K. Dick Award, is the most ambitious and exciting since Asimov's classic Foundation saga. It tells the story of Humankind - all the way to the end of the Universe itself.
Here, in luminous and vivid narratives spanning five million years, are the first Poole wormholes spanning the solar system; the conquest of Human planets by Squeem; GUTships that outrace light; the back-time invasion of the Qax; the mystery and legacy of the Xeelee, and their artifacts as large as small galaxies; photino birds and Dark Matter; and the Ring, where Ghost, Human, and Xeelee contemplate the awesome end of Time.
Eve (1997)
The Sun-People (1993)
The Logic Pool (1994)
Gossamer (1995)
Cilia-of-Gold (1994)
Lieserl (1993)
Pilot (1993)
The Xeelee Flower (1987)
More Than Time or Distance (1988)
The Switch (1990)
Blue Shift (1989)
The Quagma Datum (1989)
Planck Zero (1992)
The Gödel Sunflowers (1992)
Vacuum Diagrams (1990)
Stowaway (1991)
The Tyranny of Heaven (1990)
Hero (1995)
Secret History (1991)
Shell (1987)
The Eighth Room (1989)
The Baryonic Lords (1991)
Eve (1997)
This dazzling future history, winner of the 2000 Philip K. Dick Award, is the most ambitious and exciting since Asimov's classic Foundation saga. It tells the story of Humankind - all the way to the end of the Universe itself.
Here, in luminous and vivid narratives spanning five million years, are the first Poole wormholes spanning the solar system; the conquest of Human planets by Squeem; GUTships that outrace light; the back-time invasion of the Qax; the mystery and legacy of the Xeelee, and their artifacts as large as small galaxies; photino birds and Dark Matter; and the Ring, where Ghost, Human, and Xeelee contemplate the awesome end of Time.
Eve (1997)
The Sun-People (1993)
The Logic Pool (1994)
Gossamer (1995)
Cilia-of-Gold (1994)
Lieserl (1993)
Pilot (1993)
The Xeelee Flower (1987)
More Than Time or Distance (1988)
The Switch (1990)
Blue Shift (1989)
The Quagma Datum (1989)
Planck Zero (1992)
The Gödel Sunflowers (1992)
Vacuum Diagrams (1990)
Stowaway (1991)
The Tyranny of Heaven (1990)
Hero (1995)
Secret History (1991)
Shell (1987)
The Eighth Room (1989)
The Baryonic Lords (1991)
Eve (1997)
512 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published August 24, 1997
257 people are currently reading
2448 people want to read
About the author
Stephen Baxter
394Ìýbooks2,527ÌýfollowersStephen Baxter is a trained engineer with degrees from Cambridge (mathematics) and Southampton Universities (doctorate in aeroengineering research). Baxter is the winner of the British Science Fiction Award and the Locus Award, as well as being a nominee for an Arthur C. Clarke Award, most recently for Manifold: Time. His novel Voyage won the Sidewise Award for Best Alternate History Novel of the Year; he also won the John W. Campbell Award and the Philip K. Dick Award for his novel The Time Ships. He is currently working on his next novel, a collaboration with Sir Arthur C. Clarke. Mr. Baxter lives in Prestwood, England.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 111 reviews
March 19, 2018
This is some of the hardest of the hard SF out there. Staggering, even.
Let me back up. Baxter's hardest SF is several magnitudes harder than almost any SF author out there. His Xeelee Sequence novels are vast. I mean, we're dealing with an average of 5 million years worth of human evolution, galaxy crafting, and nearly unimaginable hugeness.
Stars' evolution are being sped up for the sake of Dark Matter alien civilizations and vast, inscrutable aliens of the baryonic universe (IE., us and those close to us) are fighting a losing battle against the quickening heat-death of the universe.
I remember my jaw dropping with the scope and how messed up the Ring was, a galaxy-sized superstring constructed around a naked black hole in order to punch a hole OUT of this universe because we can't defeat the truly alien aliens. And by we, I mean the Xeelee.
Humans are kinda idiots. But we have epic struggles and we change ourselves into very strange life, sometimes immortal, sometimes living on the crust of neutron stars, sometimes enslaved by other alien races, but usually always ten steps behind the Xeelee who just don't care about anyone else.
5 million years. That's a lot of amazing ideas jammed in here. Nanotech, physics discoveries, P complete theorems, black-hole quantum intelligences, spiders making webs between Pluto and Charon, deep sun explorers, living spaceship aliens, and truly vast wars and desperation.
Amazing.
And this novel is actually a future history made up of Baxter's short stories, all locked into the same worldbuilding. They're often centered around physics reveals, but there is also a ton of good character building going on, too.
The writing is sometimes not always the best I've ever read, but the sheer volume of ideas and mind-blowing events and situations more than makes up for that.
When I say I'm mind-blown, this is true after reading MOST of his other truly mind-blowing novels. The Xeelee sequence is simply... AMAZING. Wow. Wow. Wow. :)
It won't be for everyone. Not by along shot. But it is a definite must for fans of Cixin Liu or Peter Watts or Alaistair Reynolds. :) Robert L. Forward, too! Or David Brin! :)
Let me back up. Baxter's hardest SF is several magnitudes harder than almost any SF author out there. His Xeelee Sequence novels are vast. I mean, we're dealing with an average of 5 million years worth of human evolution, galaxy crafting, and nearly unimaginable hugeness.
Stars' evolution are being sped up for the sake of Dark Matter alien civilizations and vast, inscrutable aliens of the baryonic universe (IE., us and those close to us) are fighting a losing battle against the quickening heat-death of the universe.
I remember my jaw dropping with the scope and how messed up the Ring was, a galaxy-sized superstring constructed around a naked black hole in order to punch a hole OUT of this universe because we can't defeat the truly alien aliens. And by we, I mean the Xeelee.
Humans are kinda idiots. But we have epic struggles and we change ourselves into very strange life, sometimes immortal, sometimes living on the crust of neutron stars, sometimes enslaved by other alien races, but usually always ten steps behind the Xeelee who just don't care about anyone else.
5 million years. That's a lot of amazing ideas jammed in here. Nanotech, physics discoveries, P complete theorems, black-hole quantum intelligences, spiders making webs between Pluto and Charon, deep sun explorers, living spaceship aliens, and truly vast wars and desperation.
Amazing.
And this novel is actually a future history made up of Baxter's short stories, all locked into the same worldbuilding. They're often centered around physics reveals, but there is also a ton of good character building going on, too.
The writing is sometimes not always the best I've ever read, but the sheer volume of ideas and mind-blowing events and situations more than makes up for that.
When I say I'm mind-blown, this is true after reading MOST of his other truly mind-blowing novels. The Xeelee sequence is simply... AMAZING. Wow. Wow. Wow. :)
It won't be for everyone. Not by along shot. But it is a definite must for fans of Cixin Liu or Peter Watts or Alaistair Reynolds. :) Robert L. Forward, too! Or David Brin! :)
October 29, 2014
Much like reading Asimov's complete robot stories Vacuum Diagrams gives you a complete history of Stephen Baxter's world from the human point of view; not strictly a novel but not really just a collection of short stories either, this is an epic novel than spans millions (billions? I forget) of years in human evolution, focussing on small (not minor) actions taken by important individuals throughout the timeline and how their bravery or stupidity, failures and intelligence affected the evolution of the human species through war, exploration, expansion and the inevitable decline of civilisation instead of the contemporary popular style of space opera epic, of heroes of might and valour.
Written in a non-linear manner throughout his career, in between the astonishing novels that make up the bulk of the Xeelee Sequence, they have been reassembled in to a cohesive linear unit as witnessed by ageless entity and told to another ageless entity, a decent framing device but easily the weakest component of the whole. Baxter's scientific extrapolations are necessarily watered down in the short form (either that or I'm finally getting used to it) making it a much more accessible read whilst still encouraging a sense of wonder and imagination stimulating exploration of the far future. Potentially this would make an excellent start point for anyone interested in getting to grips with Baxter's hard science fiction.
Written in a non-linear manner throughout his career, in between the astonishing novels that make up the bulk of the Xeelee Sequence, they have been reassembled in to a cohesive linear unit as witnessed by ageless entity and told to another ageless entity, a decent framing device but easily the weakest component of the whole. Baxter's scientific extrapolations are necessarily watered down in the short form (either that or I'm finally getting used to it) making it a much more accessible read whilst still encouraging a sense of wonder and imagination stimulating exploration of the far future. Potentially this would make an excellent start point for anyone interested in getting to grips with Baxter's hard science fiction.
August 19, 2020
A chronologically herky jerky ride with ginormous astrophysics plagued by thin characters and clunky dialogue.
August 31, 2007
This is the very best sci-fi book I've ever read. This book attempts to offer PLAUSIBLE ideas about what other forms of life might exist in our universe, may have existed, or might exist in the future. These are not your average lizard-like aliens with large black eyes. No sir, these are "life forms" that will bend your mind over backwards and turn it inside out.
Absolutely fascinating read from cover to cover. If I could forget this book and read it again, I would.
Absolutely fascinating read from cover to cover. If I could forget this book and read it again, I would.
November 17, 2024
Really good capstone to the end of the series, don't listen to reddit and read this first, I don't think this would make much sense without the context of the previous books. I think at a minimum Timelike Infinity and Ring are required reading in the series with the other books are somewhat optional but add additional info and flesh out the timeline more.
The ideas are consistently interesting but can be challenging to figure out what exactly is going on, definitely varied a bit how some of the stories landed and how important they are to the main timeline.
The ideas are consistently interesting but can be challenging to figure out what exactly is going on, definitely varied a bit how some of the stories landed and how important they are to the main timeline.
October 20, 2024
Pretty solid stories throughout giving a glimpse of the whole future-history timeline, but the last section of three stories were genuinely fantastic, on the level of Ring.
March 17, 2014
First, let me mention the stuff that I didn’t like.
1. The connecting thread, trying to join all these stories written across the years (decades actually) dealing with events pertaining to millennia of future history of humanity into something holistic, was rubbish and absolutely pointless.
2. The later stories, describing events taking place at a time when humanity has forfeited its enterprising spirit in order to become all-out warmonger and has paid the terrible price for it, are bleak as well as over-long.
Now, let me mention the good things.
1. The early stories are brilliant, and may well encourage you to seek out the various novels that part the initial half of the ‘Xeelee sequence�.
2. Even at its pedantic worst, the stories ALWAYS have hard scientific facts at their core, and unabashedly mention theories & facts, displaying faith in the intelligence of the constant reader.
Overall, recommended reading if you are a reader of hard SF, or would like to enjoy the space opera and associated visions.
1. The connecting thread, trying to join all these stories written across the years (decades actually) dealing with events pertaining to millennia of future history of humanity into something holistic, was rubbish and absolutely pointless.
2. The later stories, describing events taking place at a time when humanity has forfeited its enterprising spirit in order to become all-out warmonger and has paid the terrible price for it, are bleak as well as over-long.
Now, let me mention the good things.
1. The early stories are brilliant, and may well encourage you to seek out the various novels that part the initial half of the ‘Xeelee sequence�.
2. Even at its pedantic worst, the stories ALWAYS have hard scientific facts at their core, and unabashedly mention theories & facts, displaying faith in the intelligence of the constant reader.
Overall, recommended reading if you are a reader of hard SF, or would like to enjoy the space opera and associated visions.
September 20, 2019
Huge, mind-bending setting and bold ideas, as expected from Baxter. Individual characters were sometimes lacking depth, but in some cases I was pleasantly surprised.
What made me give this 4 instead of 5 stars is the lack of change in humans. When you are telling a story covering such a large time-span, it looks ridiculous that humans still sound like us.
What made me give this 4 instead of 5 stars is the lack of change in humans. When you are telling a story covering such a large time-span, it looks ridiculous that humans still sound like us.
April 24, 2018
7,5 This collection of short stories is a 'mosaic novel' of sorts giving an overview of Baxters future history with some broad strokes, filling in a few details on the way. To me Baxter is one of the most invigorating and thought provoking SF-authors of today. Not because of his view of the human condition (which is pretty cynical) or insight into characters (they are as flat as those in 50's SF), of in society. But well, I myself am more interested in cosmology, physics and the natural world than in anthropology or sociology. And Baxters speculations about the diversity of possible life in our solar system, the history and future of the universe on very long scales and the scope of his imagination in coming up with intergalactic warfare, far future forms of humanity and the fate of life itself always ignite my own imagination and inspire me awe. I get from him the sense of wonder that I crave in SF. It's not different here. Especially the final few stories in the collection describing a far future offshoot of humanity living in a failing artificial construct were mindblowing. Here Baxter is on his best with strange scenario's and universe wide implications. I did enjoy the opening stories as well, because of their biological speculation, but the stories didn't seem to have much to do with the story of the XeeLee, and the human characters in them were not engaging (there was not much on the line for them). Some of the middle stories were engaging, but felt a bit anecdotal. This is due to the nature of the book being marketed as a 'mosaic novel', with a bridging story connecting them. It tries to tell of the future history of mankind, but the important moments, the defining choices are described in other books and are only alluded to here. So we do not get a good sense of the suffering of mankind under the occupation of the Squeem and the Qax. We also do not get a feel of the war effort of humankind against the Xeelee, and the way humans rule over other races. The stories that are collected here seem inconsequential, and I missed more involvement with the overall story. (Which was important as that is what the final parts of the book are all about). Only at the end I thought I was reading about the main thread of the future history. This doesn't mean the individual stories are bad - just that it didn't feel very much like a complete tale as a whole. I did enjoy the story Hero that takes place inside a Neutron star and the artifacts in the Gödel Sunflowers. Interesting speculation, grand scientific concepts, taken to their ultimate conclusions. This is hard SF 'avant la lettre', but for those willing to put their thinking caps on, it is ultimately satisfying.
March 16, 2021
I didn't realize I was a fan of the xenobiology/xenopsychology subgenre of science fiction, much in the same way I didn't realize I was a fan of assassin-with-a-heart-of-gold movies. I had to see The Professional, In Bruges, You Were Never Really Here, and The American to even realize the sub-genre of movies even existed, let alone that I liked that particular grouping.
Vacuum Diagrams was the book to make the "oh, this is a thing, and I like that thing" lightbulb go off for me, even though I should have realized it sooner given my love for books like Vinge's Fire Upon the Deep and Deepness in the Sky, Tchaikovsky's Children of Time, VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy, Liu's Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy (better known, at least to me, as The Three Body Problem trilogy), etc.
Other than the xenobiology/xenopsychology, I really enjoyed Baxter's thinking in Vacuum Diagrams, a group of short stories, taking place in his Xeelee universe / 25 billion year timespan (admittedly, "concentrated" into around 5 billion years). I brushed up on my quantum physics -- particularly the Pauli Exclusion Principle, Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, quantum inseparability/entanglement, and some particle/wave basics I had either forgotten or never knew in the first place. (Note to self: look up Yukawa forces, galactic drift, Kerr metric... there's probably a lot more, like something about a limit of data storage being set by the temperature of the universe -- was it 3K?)
The thing that surprised me the most about this book, though, is that I don't feel a need to dive into the rest of this particular universe. I feel like this set of short stories were not only excellent, but also complete. I feel like I had closure, and I don't know if I will read any more Stephen Baxter.
Quotes:
p. 133 "The Qax enslaved mankind simply because it was an economically valid proposition," Eve said. "They occupied Earth because it was so easy -- because they could. They had to learn the techniques of oppression from humans themselves. Fortunately for the Qax, human history wasn't short of object lessons..."
p. 234
"What do you know about glotto-chronology?"
Thet snorted "What do you think?"
"It's one of our standard dating mechanisms. Starting from a common root, the languages of two human groups will diverge by a fifth every thousand years."
P. 238
The fish-folk were beyond the reach of the glotto-chronology dating technique. Rodi turned to genetic analysis. Two groups on Earth will show divergence of genetic structure at a rate of one percent every five million years.
Vacuum Diagrams was the book to make the "oh, this is a thing, and I like that thing" lightbulb go off for me, even though I should have realized it sooner given my love for books like Vinge's Fire Upon the Deep and Deepness in the Sky, Tchaikovsky's Children of Time, VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy, Liu's Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy (better known, at least to me, as The Three Body Problem trilogy), etc.
Other than the xenobiology/xenopsychology, I really enjoyed Baxter's thinking in Vacuum Diagrams, a group of short stories, taking place in his Xeelee universe / 25 billion year timespan (admittedly, "concentrated" into around 5 billion years). I brushed up on my quantum physics -- particularly the Pauli Exclusion Principle, Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, quantum inseparability/entanglement, and some particle/wave basics I had either forgotten or never knew in the first place. (Note to self: look up Yukawa forces, galactic drift, Kerr metric... there's probably a lot more, like something about a limit of data storage being set by the temperature of the universe -- was it 3K?)
The thing that surprised me the most about this book, though, is that I don't feel a need to dive into the rest of this particular universe. I feel like this set of short stories were not only excellent, but also complete. I feel like I had closure, and I don't know if I will read any more Stephen Baxter.
Quotes:
p. 133 "The Qax enslaved mankind simply because it was an economically valid proposition," Eve said. "They occupied Earth because it was so easy -- because they could. They had to learn the techniques of oppression from humans themselves. Fortunately for the Qax, human history wasn't short of object lessons..."
p. 234
"What do you know about glotto-chronology?"
Thet snorted "What do you think?"
"It's one of our standard dating mechanisms. Starting from a common root, the languages of two human groups will diverge by a fifth every thousand years."
P. 238
The fish-folk were beyond the reach of the glotto-chronology dating technique. Rodi turned to genetic analysis. Two groups on Earth will show divergence of genetic structure at a rate of one percent every five million years.
October 8, 2016
The conclusion to the original Xeelee sequence.
So do we FINALLY get to meet the Xeelee?
Baxter's style lends itself well to short stories. He can be more focused and deliver his brilliant idea and get out.
For the most part this a series of "slices" from the Xeelee universe. It is not a series of stories with a beginning, middle and end. It can be hard to adjust to each new slice since it might jump ahead thousands of years from the last one. It always took me a few pages to work out what was going on in each new story and I had to go back and re read at times.
The first series of stories are not really Xeelee sequence stories. They are all about types of life forms that could concievably exist within our own solar system. If that kind of realistic science porn is your thing you will love them. If you just want to know more about the Xeelee you will be skimming.
What we do get are the Jim Bolder stories any fan of the series would be interested in.
We get more on the Qax. I always enjoy reading about those very alien aliens. We get some interactions with Xeelee artefacts.
One of these was the story "the Xeelee flower" where Baxter's tone was more glib and humorous then I thought he could do. I was pleasantly surprised with this story because it was so different.
The titular story "Vacuum diagrams" introduces us to the character of Paul who is a very interesting addition to the Xeelee pantheon.
I am kind of thinking/hoping that Paul will be part of the "Destinys Children" stories.
The book finishes with the novella length "The Baryonic Lords" which tells the story of the last generations of humans. This one was an epic, great story.
If you are in a rush you could just read the Eve stories, Bolder's story, Planck zero, and the Baryonic Lords and get what you need to complete the original sequence.
If you want a series that literally takes you from the birth of the cosmos to the death of the last star, this is it.
So do we FINALLY get to meet the Xeelee?
Baxter's style lends itself well to short stories. He can be more focused and deliver his brilliant idea and get out.
For the most part this a series of "slices" from the Xeelee universe. It is not a series of stories with a beginning, middle and end. It can be hard to adjust to each new slice since it might jump ahead thousands of years from the last one. It always took me a few pages to work out what was going on in each new story and I had to go back and re read at times.
The first series of stories are not really Xeelee sequence stories. They are all about types of life forms that could concievably exist within our own solar system. If that kind of realistic science porn is your thing you will love them. If you just want to know more about the Xeelee you will be skimming.
What we do get are the Jim Bolder stories any fan of the series would be interested in.
We get more on the Qax. I always enjoy reading about those very alien aliens. We get some interactions with Xeelee artefacts.
One of these was the story "the Xeelee flower" where Baxter's tone was more glib and humorous then I thought he could do. I was pleasantly surprised with this story because it was so different.
The titular story "Vacuum diagrams" introduces us to the character of Paul who is a very interesting addition to the Xeelee pantheon.
I am kind of thinking/hoping that Paul will be part of the "Destinys Children" stories.
The book finishes with the novella length "The Baryonic Lords" which tells the story of the last generations of humans. This one was an epic, great story.
If you are in a rush you could just read the Eve stories, Bolder's story, Planck zero, and the Baryonic Lords and get what you need to complete the original sequence.
If you want a series that literally takes you from the birth of the cosmos to the death of the last star, this is it.
August 24, 2009
Being a hard sci-fi nut, I find it difficult to get my sci-fi fix without compromising something. In this case my compromises were minimal - Baxter isn't the greatest writer in the genre, but damn if his science isn't glorious!
This book is less a novel than a collection of stories drawn from a single unique universe of his devising, loosely connected by a segregated secondary narrative that gives them some additional weight and context. Many of the tales can be read as stand-alone stories, and in fact were published as such, so even if reading a hard sci-fi novel seems daunting I'd recommend giving this a shot.
I especially enjoyed his portrayals of utterly not-like-us life. Life on the outer planets and their moons? Non-molecular life? Life as probability? Shweeeet.
Hard sci-fi fans should consider this a must-read. Other sci-fi fans should definitely give it a look.
Kudos, Mr. Baxter!
This book is less a novel than a collection of stories drawn from a single unique universe of his devising, loosely connected by a segregated secondary narrative that gives them some additional weight and context. Many of the tales can be read as stand-alone stories, and in fact were published as such, so even if reading a hard sci-fi novel seems daunting I'd recommend giving this a shot.
I especially enjoyed his portrayals of utterly not-like-us life. Life on the outer planets and their moons? Non-molecular life? Life as probability? Shweeeet.
Hard sci-fi fans should consider this a must-read. Other sci-fi fans should definitely give it a look.
Kudos, Mr. Baxter!
June 11, 2016
The scale of these stories is breathtaking, the events, artifacts, wars and story lines immense and awesome, but the human elements are not convincing. Thousands of years in the future with new technologies, new worlds, contact with aliens, an many other transformative events and people have changed a bit. There's no sign of cultural evolution or novelty. And, despite population in the trillions or higher, the human race seems to be one culture with one set of goals. I guess you're supposed to read Baxter for the super-sized science and ignore the holes.
May 2, 2022
4.75/5
December 27, 2023
The strength of "Vacuum Diagrams" lies in its ambitious scope and Baxter's surprising mastery in presenting intricate ideas in an accessible manner. Going into it, I was most interested in its and Baxter's comparisons to Asimov and his way of writing sci-fi that I love so much. That is, huge and expansive worlds that don't get fully explained unless some detail or aspect is important to the narrative. I love authors that throw you into the world and ask you to find the writing on the wall.
The stories span vast expanses of time and space, exploring the evolution of civilizations, the birth and death of stars, and the possibilities of alternate realities. Each tale is a unique exploration of scientific speculation, allowing readers to contemplate the wonders of the universe.
Baxter's prose is both eloquent and scientifically informed, making even the most abstract concepts relatable and engaging. His attention to detail and commitment to scientific accuracy add depth to the stories, creating a sense of authenticity that enhances the overall reading experience. The collection serves as a testament to the author's deep understanding of astrophysics and his ability to translate complex theories into captivating narratives.
One of the standout features of "Vacuum Diagrams" is the thematic consistency that runs through the stories. This interconnectedness adds a layer of depth to the collection, inviting readers to piece together the puzzle of the overarching narrative, as confusing as it could be.
The stories span vast expanses of time and space, exploring the evolution of civilizations, the birth and death of stars, and the possibilities of alternate realities. Each tale is a unique exploration of scientific speculation, allowing readers to contemplate the wonders of the universe.
Baxter's prose is both eloquent and scientifically informed, making even the most abstract concepts relatable and engaging. His attention to detail and commitment to scientific accuracy add depth to the stories, creating a sense of authenticity that enhances the overall reading experience. The collection serves as a testament to the author's deep understanding of astrophysics and his ability to translate complex theories into captivating narratives.
One of the standout features of "Vacuum Diagrams" is the thematic consistency that runs through the stories. This interconnectedness adds a layer of depth to the collection, inviting readers to piece together the puzzle of the overarching narrative, as confusing as it could be.
June 4, 2025
The first collection of short stories for the Xeelee cycle didn`t disappoint. A stories follow the history of the human race and the whole universe in chronological order, so we can learn more about the gigantic cosmic conflict in the background.
July 31, 2022
Stunning!
May 4, 2018
For the first time in something like� geez, eight years, I forgot that I read a book and didn’t write a review. That isn’t to say I’ve read books and chosen not to write a review. I’ve read a bunch of Manga which I’ve not reviewed recently, and I think there is some art books I’ve not reviewed. Still might, now that I think of it. I dunno.
Point of all that is that I read a prose book� a friggin novel, and I forgot to so much as mark it as currently reading. Dumb me. I have reasons/excuses. Mostly my work has been insane lately and I have been spending extra time there, doing work things, and reading has been nothing more than a distraction as a result, something I do while eating a quick meal, or right before I go to bed. I’m not sitting down in a chair for several hours and really pouring over a novel and getting super lost in that fictional world.
Anyhoo - I think I last read and reviewed Ring, that super-epic universe spanning head trip that first made me really fall in love with science fiction way back when it was first published. That book still delivered to me all that awe and wonder that I love so much.
Well, this anthology is a collection of stories that tells the future history of mankind over the next few million years� very similar to The Last and First Men in concept, I do believe.
Stephen Baxter is an enigma to me, he writes the most readable prose, explores questions that are about the fundamental nature of reality� about the deep past and the deep future, and he manages to hit almost all my sweet spots intellectually in his books.
In some ways he’s my favorite author. That was undeniably true until he’s non-traditional storytelling veered him just a tad too far away from the storytelling beats and large plots I need to feel truly engaged. But going back and rereading this old stuff of his. Man, it’s been a real treat for me.
So, in the case of this book, he collected the short stories he’s written over the prior decade (I think this was published in the late 90’s) that were set in the same universe as almost all his early books, and tied them together with a larger story that wove all these barely related works together. I don’t know. I thought it was pretty cool. He could have easily dumped them all in a book and said, ‘here you go.�
But he didn’t. He took the time to make original content and turn each story a stepping stone that led to a climax in its own right.
I loved it. I loved it when I first read it 18 or so years ago, and I loved it when I read it again a year or so later, and again when I read it about 5 years after that, and I loved it when I read it this time. I won’t break down the stories and review them separately, that’s way too much work. I’ll just say they start about a thousand years from our present day and go on until sometime after 4 million years have passed, it covers humanity as they creep out into the larger galaxy and get enslaved by aliens with tech infinitely mightier than our own. Then we see humanity throw off that yolk of slavery only to be brought low by yet another alien race, this one a much more brutal overlord to serve.
Then the shackles of slavery are broken again, and humans expand into the cosmos, changed, and intent on dominating any would-be competitor for the resources the cosmos provides.
But all the while, humans, are discovering that their unquestioned dominance of the universe is similar to an ant colony thinking it rules Manhattan because all the other ants are conquered. Challenging the unquestioned baryonic lords of the universe, the Xeelee, normally aloof and concerned with their own unfathomable projects, leads to humanity’s eventual destruction.
All these stories take place with the larger history I outlined above as background material. But most of the stories are quite personal, touching, and tinged with sadness. Some are excerpts from his novels - Ring, Raft & Flux all had parts excerpted here, so there is that bit of redundancy if you, like me, have read those books numerous times (Not sure if there was more than that, that’s all I noticed).
I love this stuff unabashedly. I think my favorite part is seeing the last remnants of humanity, reduced to bronze age tech by the mighty Xeelee, trying to escape from the habitat they had been trapped in for possibly as long as a few million years (I’m fuzzy on the timeline � The book provides one, I think, but I don’t have it handy to check) as the artificial star that they’ve used for so long is slowly dying. So there is this trek into the unknown that I found particularly moving, especially knowing how far they’d fallen from where humans had once been.
Reading this as an introduction to Baxter might be weird, I think this is icing on the cake that is his other older Xeelee novels. You know, filling in the gaps here and there.
Deep, dark, and depressing. Just the way I like my fiction. Great job!
Point of all that is that I read a prose book� a friggin novel, and I forgot to so much as mark it as currently reading. Dumb me. I have reasons/excuses. Mostly my work has been insane lately and I have been spending extra time there, doing work things, and reading has been nothing more than a distraction as a result, something I do while eating a quick meal, or right before I go to bed. I’m not sitting down in a chair for several hours and really pouring over a novel and getting super lost in that fictional world.
Anyhoo - I think I last read and reviewed Ring, that super-epic universe spanning head trip that first made me really fall in love with science fiction way back when it was first published. That book still delivered to me all that awe and wonder that I love so much.
Well, this anthology is a collection of stories that tells the future history of mankind over the next few million years� very similar to The Last and First Men in concept, I do believe.
Stephen Baxter is an enigma to me, he writes the most readable prose, explores questions that are about the fundamental nature of reality� about the deep past and the deep future, and he manages to hit almost all my sweet spots intellectually in his books.
In some ways he’s my favorite author. That was undeniably true until he’s non-traditional storytelling veered him just a tad too far away from the storytelling beats and large plots I need to feel truly engaged. But going back and rereading this old stuff of his. Man, it’s been a real treat for me.
So, in the case of this book, he collected the short stories he’s written over the prior decade (I think this was published in the late 90’s) that were set in the same universe as almost all his early books, and tied them together with a larger story that wove all these barely related works together. I don’t know. I thought it was pretty cool. He could have easily dumped them all in a book and said, ‘here you go.�
But he didn’t. He took the time to make original content and turn each story a stepping stone that led to a climax in its own right.
I loved it. I loved it when I first read it 18 or so years ago, and I loved it when I read it again a year or so later, and again when I read it about 5 years after that, and I loved it when I read it this time. I won’t break down the stories and review them separately, that’s way too much work. I’ll just say they start about a thousand years from our present day and go on until sometime after 4 million years have passed, it covers humanity as they creep out into the larger galaxy and get enslaved by aliens with tech infinitely mightier than our own. Then we see humanity throw off that yolk of slavery only to be brought low by yet another alien race, this one a much more brutal overlord to serve.
Then the shackles of slavery are broken again, and humans expand into the cosmos, changed, and intent on dominating any would-be competitor for the resources the cosmos provides.
But all the while, humans, are discovering that their unquestioned dominance of the universe is similar to an ant colony thinking it rules Manhattan because all the other ants are conquered. Challenging the unquestioned baryonic lords of the universe, the Xeelee, normally aloof and concerned with their own unfathomable projects, leads to humanity’s eventual destruction.
All these stories take place with the larger history I outlined above as background material. But most of the stories are quite personal, touching, and tinged with sadness. Some are excerpts from his novels - Ring, Raft & Flux all had parts excerpted here, so there is that bit of redundancy if you, like me, have read those books numerous times (Not sure if there was more than that, that’s all I noticed).
I love this stuff unabashedly. I think my favorite part is seeing the last remnants of humanity, reduced to bronze age tech by the mighty Xeelee, trying to escape from the habitat they had been trapped in for possibly as long as a few million years (I’m fuzzy on the timeline � The book provides one, I think, but I don’t have it handy to check) as the artificial star that they’ve used for so long is slowly dying. So there is this trek into the unknown that I found particularly moving, especially knowing how far they’d fallen from where humans had once been.
Reading this as an introduction to Baxter might be weird, I think this is icing on the cake that is his other older Xeelee novels. You know, filling in the gaps here and there.
Deep, dark, and depressing. Just the way I like my fiction. Great job!
November 24, 2024
This was an excellent collection of short stories covering the entire Xeelee universe and made me run to read books 2-4 in the series. I really liked the crazy timelines and the interweaving crises.
February 11, 2020
An absorbing introduction to the Xeelee sequence.
August 22, 2024
4.5/5
A classic.
Reading a short stories book can be a roller coaster. The very nature of this kind of books is that more than 50% of the stories must be excellent to keep you reading, otherwise if 2 continuous stories are boring, then is easy to give up on the book.
The thing is, here we have a few weak stories for sure but they are still good, and the good ones, are just top quality SF and I'll eventually read them again. There was not a single one that did not put my brain to work , I liked that.
This one and Timelike Infinity are my favorites from Baxter.
A classic.
Reading a short stories book can be a roller coaster. The very nature of this kind of books is that more than 50% of the stories must be excellent to keep you reading, otherwise if 2 continuous stories are boring, then is easy to give up on the book.
The thing is, here we have a few weak stories for sure but they are still good, and the good ones, are just top quality SF and I'll eventually read them again. There was not a single one that did not put my brain to work , I liked that.
This one and Timelike Infinity are my favorites from Baxter.
March 23, 2009
Quite possibly the best collection of hard sci-fi stories ever. I've read it twice and I think its about time I read it again.
February 1, 2023
This review is prefaced with the fact that I have not, and do not intend to read the rest of the Xeelee Sequence (aside from the other short story collection, Xeelee: Vengence, which I thought was just okay).
I really love Vacuum Diagrams. It occupies a weird zone between short story collection and fully fledged novel. All of the stories in the text do stand alone, but joined together with the frame story they comprise a very powerful story that chronicles humanities cosmic growth over a period of several Myr.
The book is great in spite of the writing style. Many characters are admittedly not fully formed, and dialogue is often flat. That's okay mostly, this is not an emotionally evocative book. It's a grand tale over cosmic time and doesn't spend much time producing multi-dimensional characters and conversations. So be it.
Most of the stories are very good, and more importantly I still frequently think about many of them almost a decade after the first read through. I've read the book maybe twice since, and it still makes an impression on each follow up.
The science is fun, and it does posit itself to be "hard" science fiction. This means different things to different people, but this Vacuum Diagrams isn't like reading a textbook or anything. Baxter sometimes tries to explain the underlying mechanism for some of the more far-fetched technological accomplishments. I think it typically sticks just fine.
Much better than the follow up collection of the same premise, Xeelee: Vegence. Not sure what changed but that one had less stories and focused heavily on what I admittedly find the blander part of the chronology (post Xeelee war Earth).
Hugely recommend.
I really love Vacuum Diagrams. It occupies a weird zone between short story collection and fully fledged novel. All of the stories in the text do stand alone, but joined together with the frame story they comprise a very powerful story that chronicles humanities cosmic growth over a period of several Myr.
The book is great in spite of the writing style. Many characters are admittedly not fully formed, and dialogue is often flat. That's okay mostly, this is not an emotionally evocative book. It's a grand tale over cosmic time and doesn't spend much time producing multi-dimensional characters and conversations. So be it.
Most of the stories are very good, and more importantly I still frequently think about many of them almost a decade after the first read through. I've read the book maybe twice since, and it still makes an impression on each follow up.
The science is fun, and it does posit itself to be "hard" science fiction. This means different things to different people, but this Vacuum Diagrams isn't like reading a textbook or anything. Baxter sometimes tries to explain the underlying mechanism for some of the more far-fetched technological accomplishments. I think it typically sticks just fine.
Much better than the follow up collection of the same premise, Xeelee: Vegence. Not sure what changed but that one had less stories and focused heavily on what I admittedly find the blander part of the chronology (post Xeelee war Earth).
Hugely recommend.
February 1, 2023
Vacuum Diagrams by Stephen Baxter is a collection of short stories in his Xeelee Sequence. The stories follow a timeline of human history into the far future as humans expand and explore the galaxy. Along the way humans find life in unexpected places. Humanity also finds out the hard way that we are not the only space faring civilizations. After getting conquered by the Squeem, and then the Qax, and then the Xeelee, humanity endures to the universe’s end, and then the photino birds come along. It’s a wild ride into the far future of our galaxy.
This collection of stories is the hardest of hard science fiction. At least, some of the hardest scifi that I’ve read. The science is physics and mathematics, and, at times, was difficult for me to digest. But, I still enjoyed all the stories and the writing. Every story introduced a new and interesting concept backed by Baxter’s scientific knowledge. He invents new lifeforms in the most unexpected ways that survive thanks to far-out mathematical concepts. The spherical Silver Ghosts alien species fascinated me the most. The Ghosts have managed to engineer themselves into large floating spheres of silvery chrome, and they like to play with the laws of nature.
We don’t get in-depth character development in most of the stories, but I don’t think that detracts from the collection. Baxter is an author of ideas, and ideas are what he provides. That’s not to say his characters are bad, just don’t expect too much.
If you’re a fan of Alastair Reynolds, or Arthur C. Clarke, or any of the hard scifi authors, I recommend you give Stephen Baxter’s Vacuum Diagrams a try. This is quintessential hard science fiction.
This collection of stories is the hardest of hard science fiction. At least, some of the hardest scifi that I’ve read. The science is physics and mathematics, and, at times, was difficult for me to digest. But, I still enjoyed all the stories and the writing. Every story introduced a new and interesting concept backed by Baxter’s scientific knowledge. He invents new lifeforms in the most unexpected ways that survive thanks to far-out mathematical concepts. The spherical Silver Ghosts alien species fascinated me the most. The Ghosts have managed to engineer themselves into large floating spheres of silvery chrome, and they like to play with the laws of nature.
We don’t get in-depth character development in most of the stories, but I don’t think that detracts from the collection. Baxter is an author of ideas, and ideas are what he provides. That’s not to say his characters are bad, just don’t expect too much.
If you’re a fan of Alastair Reynolds, or Arthur C. Clarke, or any of the hard scifi authors, I recommend you give Stephen Baxter’s Vacuum Diagrams a try. This is quintessential hard science fiction.
October 26, 2024
PLOT 4/5
Loved the plot. So many interesting stories and different perspectives on things. Some of them, like the logic pool, were a bit outside my understanding of science and physics. So that's where a star was lost for me personally. But I was entranced by the final chapters, imagining what universe-scale warfare would look like for humanity, interdimensional photino birds destroying all the stars in the universe over millions of years, humanity relegated to a tiny quantum box because of their pestering behavior by the all powerful xeelee, a human whose consciousness has expanded throughout the whole universe yet decides to risk it all to save this dying civilization once it emerges from its box MILLIONS of years later?? I could barely put it down at night.
CHARACTERS 4/5
I read somewhere that Baxter's characters aren't great. I enjoyed these though. Perhaps in his longer fiction, I could see that. Dialogue was odd at times. I think he was trying to portray awe, but I could not get over how occasionally each character would repeat the other characters name in dialogue, IN EACH LINE. In one story in particular it went on for like three pages.
"Chris, I have to tell you..."
"John, what is it?"
"It's important, Chris..."
"Just tell me, John, damn it!"
It was almost unreadable!
OVERALL 4/5
Entertaining, easy to read, fun to think about big ships and cool future concepts on intergalactic scales. Would like to read more of his stuff.
Loved the plot. So many interesting stories and different perspectives on things. Some of them, like the logic pool, were a bit outside my understanding of science and physics. So that's where a star was lost for me personally. But I was entranced by the final chapters, imagining what universe-scale warfare would look like for humanity, interdimensional photino birds destroying all the stars in the universe over millions of years, humanity relegated to a tiny quantum box because of their pestering behavior by the all powerful xeelee, a human whose consciousness has expanded throughout the whole universe yet decides to risk it all to save this dying civilization once it emerges from its box MILLIONS of years later?? I could barely put it down at night.
CHARACTERS 4/5
I read somewhere that Baxter's characters aren't great. I enjoyed these though. Perhaps in his longer fiction, I could see that. Dialogue was odd at times. I think he was trying to portray awe, but I could not get over how occasionally each character would repeat the other characters name in dialogue, IN EACH LINE. In one story in particular it went on for like three pages.
"Chris, I have to tell you..."
"John, what is it?"
"It's important, Chris..."
"Just tell me, John, damn it!"
It was almost unreadable!
OVERALL 4/5
Entertaining, easy to read, fun to think about big ships and cool future concepts on intergalactic scales. Would like to read more of his stuff.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 26, 2017
No lack of imagination in this novel-length collection of short stories, loosely linked together to form an epic future history of the universe. Some of the concepts - the alien races, the advanced technologies - are breathtaking in their scope. Baxter does an impressive job of evoking a sense of wonder with his development of scientific concepts into stories.
However, though this book works brilliantly as hard SF, it falls short as literature. By which I mean that it fails on some of the more mundane and basic aspects of storytelling. Characterisation is generally weak - the stories are populated by people who's main purpose is to tell us about science. The plotting is also poor and feels contrived in places. For example, one story depends for its resolution on a race of highly intelligent aliens doing something really stupid. It's the sort of weakness that for me undermines the entire story - and consequently the rest of the book, since this story is a significant part of the whole collection.
So read and enjoy it for its clever use of science and its imaginative scope. But not for its storytelling.
However, though this book works brilliantly as hard SF, it falls short as literature. By which I mean that it fails on some of the more mundane and basic aspects of storytelling. Characterisation is generally weak - the stories are populated by people who's main purpose is to tell us about science. The plotting is also poor and feels contrived in places. For example, one story depends for its resolution on a race of highly intelligent aliens doing something really stupid. It's the sort of weakness that for me undermines the entire story - and consequently the rest of the book, since this story is a significant part of the whole collection.
So read and enjoy it for its clever use of science and its imaginative scope. But not for its storytelling.
November 30, 2023
If ever there was a book that was more than the sum of its parts, it would be "Vacuum Diagrams."
I compare it to the video game "Dark Souls," and its ilk. Dense, frustrating, and often difficult to get through, but once the smoke clears, you're left with an experience that will stick with you for a long time. For every bland character, stretch of robotic prose, and textbook-esque science dump that is borderline impossible to visualize or even conceptualize (or at least it occasionally was to me) despite Baxter going into pages-worth of exhaustive detail, you're treated to some truly awe-inspiring scenes and imagery.
If we're considering pure scale, both in the physical and temporal sense, this is the science fiction genre at its absolute peak. The million-year history this book depicts is incredibly ambitious, tracing humanity's journey from its humble first contact with another species to its conflicts with god-like beings capable of building structures larger than galaxies.
"Pilot," "Blue Shift," "The Tyranny of Heaven," and "Baryonic Lords," were the standouts for me. Great stuff.
I compare it to the video game "Dark Souls," and its ilk. Dense, frustrating, and often difficult to get through, but once the smoke clears, you're left with an experience that will stick with you for a long time. For every bland character, stretch of robotic prose, and textbook-esque science dump that is borderline impossible to visualize or even conceptualize (or at least it occasionally was to me) despite Baxter going into pages-worth of exhaustive detail, you're treated to some truly awe-inspiring scenes and imagery.
If we're considering pure scale, both in the physical and temporal sense, this is the science fiction genre at its absolute peak. The million-year history this book depicts is incredibly ambitious, tracing humanity's journey from its humble first contact with another species to its conflicts with god-like beings capable of building structures larger than galaxies.
"Pilot," "Blue Shift," "The Tyranny of Heaven," and "Baryonic Lords," were the standouts for me. Great stuff.
July 16, 2020
This is a collection of short stories covering 5 million years and the timeline of the whole original Xeelee series, and it is Baxter at his best.
Like a lot of science fiction the human characters are, for the most part, one-dimensional plot pushing mechanisms. Although a certain long-lived sun dweller does shine, pretty much literally, above the rest and you do get a rich understanding and develop s real feeling for her as a person. However, much like the Xeelee / Photino bird universe itself, the humans are not really that important. It is the many fresh concepts, aliens and cultures rather than the individual humans that make these stories work.
From the convection cell based Qax ,and dark matter Photino birds, to Xeelee flowers, and the source of the great attractor, he presents an array of invented technologies, artifacts, societies and aliens that will leave most readers over following with a sense of wonder and awe � except for the Squeem � now really they were just too silly. You were just having a laugh there Stephen. Weren’t you? Please tell me that is true�.
Like a lot of science fiction the human characters are, for the most part, one-dimensional plot pushing mechanisms. Although a certain long-lived sun dweller does shine, pretty much literally, above the rest and you do get a rich understanding and develop s real feeling for her as a person. However, much like the Xeelee / Photino bird universe itself, the humans are not really that important. It is the many fresh concepts, aliens and cultures rather than the individual humans that make these stories work.
From the convection cell based Qax ,and dark matter Photino birds, to Xeelee flowers, and the source of the great attractor, he presents an array of invented technologies, artifacts, societies and aliens that will leave most readers over following with a sense of wonder and awe � except for the Squeem � now really they were just too silly. You were just having a laugh there Stephen. Weren’t you? Please tell me that is true�.
September 28, 2021
Baxter's Xeelee sequence of far, far, far future novels is famously written all out of order, and in one interview he suggested reading this book of short stories first, as they collectively span close to the full range of the novels and provide a framework into which to slot the various other stores. Um, OK. Lots of "big ideas" and scientific mumbo jumbo that I won't pretend to be able to understand, the stories themselves are often just rickety frameworks on which to build his various big ideas. Some good, some lie flat, but overall just the scale and scope are pretty interesting and I salute the ambition.
August 6, 2017
Holy cow. This one really made my mind work. These stories are truly grand in scale and I love Baxter's style. Makes me feel smart but keeps me reading! The second I finished this book I turned right back to Page 1 and made it to pg 250 again before I figured I should read something else. Some stories could be skipped or skimmed but most of them are insanely cool and interesting. The last 1/3 of the book is where things start to get super interesting. Who doesn't want to know what humans are doing in year 4million?! Highly recommended.
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