Teaser

Much has been written of the Xeelee. Of their god-like technologies, of their war with humanity, of their bid to escape a collapsing universe. But what if the story went another way . . ?

Review

Speaking for myself, I put Vengeance and Redemption as the sixth and seventh books in the Xeelee Sequence, bringing the saga to a close. But that’s not the only way to see them. You could also see them as a two-parter that stands apart from the main series. Or as a reboot. A condensed version of the Sequence that takes the familiar ideas and wraps them in a new story. Baxter himself refers to them as a ‘pendant.’ Something that hangs off the main story, enhancing it while standing alone. They are, in essence, a ‘What If?’ story. ‘What if someone tried to alter the timeline of the other novels?’ This, I think, is a unique idea in science fiction. These days we’re positively drowning in retellings of myths and popular stories of days past. But has anyone but Baxter ever reimagined their own work in this way? I can’t think of any that have.

The beauty of the this story is not that it rewrites history, but that it does so in a manner accessible to readers both new to and familiar with the Xeelee Sequence. As proof, I enjoyed the nods to short fiction such as ‘The Xeelee Flower,’ but not having read the Destiny’s Children quartet did not affect my enjoyment of Vengeance and Redemption. This two-part finale is definitely enriched by familiarity with the rest of Baxter’s future history, but it is not reliant upon it.

Vengeance is the simpler (and marginally weaker) of the two. here we see the legendary Michael Poole build his wormhole, only to face an invasion from the future. This triggers a cascade of events reminiscent of yet different from those seen in other parts of the Xeelee Sequence. There’s no staright retellings of Raft or Flux, but the grand sweeping narrative of Qax, Xeelee, and humanity is rewritten. On that note, I am outraged to learn that Qax and Xeelee are pronounced Chaks and Cheelee respectively. Other options are provided in the text, but it irks me nonetheless. Vengeance can be quick-moving at times, but all the ideas are there.

Redemption is Baxter at his most Baxter. The story covers five billion years as Poole and his associates head for a reckoning not only with the Xeelee, but with the end of the universe itself. Along the way there are encounters with Spline and Ghosts. Familiar elements given new life. new layers placed on familiar images. It’s absolutely brilliant.

One problem that Hard SF runs into, given enough time, is that our understanding of science changes. When this happens, and author has two obvious choices. Keep the universe internally consistent and thus less hard, or update the science and make allowances for the changes. With the rewriting of time, Baxter has his cake and eats it. It is not just the story that is different this time around, but some of the underpinning assumptions of the universe. Once again I have to respect Baxter for his afterwords, which include further reading and scientific articles for the curious, showcasing just some of the research that goes into these novels.

I started the Xeelee Sequence a little under a year ago, and now that I’ve completed the main set of books, I have to say it broadly holds up. There are some shaky moments early on, but what can you expect of a series written over the course of three decades? With a conclusion this strange, however, it is a series that has left its mark on my impressions of Hard SF. Baxter has established himself as one of the benchmarks against which I hold the genre.

If you want to read some Hard SF, look no further than the Xeelee Sequence.