Teaser

The universe is ancient, and has a long future. Humanity’s story may only be a small part of that history, but within it lie a multitude of tales . . .

Review

2024 was the year I absolutely fell in love with the writing of Stephen Baxter, and that was in no small pat due to his Xeelee series. Last year I read the original four-book series via a particularly chunky omnibus, and the related short story collection Vacuum Diagrams. Now that 2025 is here, I see no better time to read the final three Xeelee books. Not least because someone kindly gifted them to me for Christmas. These books were published almost two decades after the original four, so I’m expecting to have a smoother ride, especially given how much Baxter’s more recent books have awed me. The first of these is another short story collection, Endurance.

Like Vacuum Diagrams, there is an attempt to link the stories together, but it’s very much individual stories rather than a fix-up novel. These stories cover about five billion years of Baxter’s future history, and the connecting text is little more than a frame to place them in a bit of context. If you don’t know what the Qax are, for example, you’ll want to read the half-page before they’re introduced here. This is a good way of handling a problem that often comes up with short stories set in a particular universe. None of these stories are integral to to the universe, and they all make sense without that broader context, but it’s helpful to have that context nonetheless.

On that note, the last handful of stories in Endurance are a linked series of tales chronicling the very far future of Earth. These don’t appear to be connected to any larger part of the Xeelee universe (perhaps the related Destiny’s Children Quartet plays in here, I’m yet to read them), but because of that seeming disconnect, they make the universe feel larger. There is a tendency in storytelling universes to make everything centre on one idea, or one group of characters. The Xeelee Sequence is one universe that truly feels cosmic, with room for plenty of different narratives.

One thing that becomes clear when reading through this collection is that yes, Baxter has grown as an author. Arguably, Vacuum Diagrams had a greater variety of stories. What tips the balance in Endurance‘s favour is that, while the ideas are just as good as before, the quality of the writing has improved in leaps and bounds. Naturally, a short story collection will never be solid gold, but these short stories are pure Baxter brilliance. The ones that I am colder on, namely ‘Gravity Dreams,’ are ones I rate lower due to personal taste rather than any perceived weakness in the stories themselves. That said, there are no bad stories in this book. When ideas and prose are aligned this well, we’re onto a winner for sure.

To pick an obvious favourite individual story, we need look no further than the very first. ‘Return to Titan’ is a perfect slice of hard SF. There’s a team of scientists, a mysterious non-human presence, and more ideas than most authors would put in a whole novel. What more could you ask for? One thing I really admire about Baxter – one thing that sets him apart from his contemporaries – is that while other sci-fi authors might have an idea and use it to rive a story, Baxter has an idea, and uses as story to explore that idea. Another great story is ‘Remembrance,’ which takes a hard look at what it means to live through an occupation, and how those in power will manipulate the availability of information to fit their own ends.

Endurance is a great collection of stories, some of which are more novellas than shorts. It might not be the best introduction to the Xeelee Sequence, but if you want a sample of Baxter’s writing, I can think of far worse places to look.

Book Stats

• A Collection set in the Xeelee Sequence
• Contains 11 short stories
• First published 2015
• 435 pages