New age: Details about 'Transcendent Stephen Baxter'
|
|||||||
Home
|
Transcendent (ISBN 0345457919) is a science-fiction novel by Stephen Baxter. It is part three of the Destiny's Children series. Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.The story alternates between Michael Poole, in the year 2047, and Alia, a post human girl who lives approximately half a million years after Michael Poole died. The chapters alternate with the characters, first Michael, then Alia. Michael Poole is an engineer whose wife, Morag, died years ago and is working on projects that involve leaving Earth, which has suffered greatly from Global Warming and pollution. When his son Tom is injured while working in Siberia by an explosion of methane gas released from hydrates frozen into the now-melting tundra, Michael begins to research whether this is an isolated incident or the start of something bigger. With the help of an artificial sentience named Gea, he discovers that a potential release of all such frozen greenhouse gasses could destabilize the environment enough to make the Earth uninhabitable to humans. With the help of his family members Tom, John, and George (previously appearing in Coalescent, as well as an environmental engineering company called EI, Michael sets off to develop a refrigeration system that will hopefully stabalize the frozen hydrates. Meanwhile, he is plagued by visions of Morag, and his investigation of these visions obsesses him and drives a wedge between him and his family. He goes to his aunt Rosa Poole (also previously in Coalescent), a Catholic priest and ex-member of the Order, who helps him to investigate the visitations. The rest of his family joins the investigation when Morag appears during a trial of the refrigeration system where everyone, even observing drones that record the event, can see her. Finally, after a bombing of the refrigeration system by a terrorist group, Morag appears in the flesh, seemingly brought back to life. Alia is a girl in a small family on an ice-structure spaceship called the Nord, who enjoys "skimming" or teleporting using nano-machines in her blood and the rules of quantum mechanics. Like others who live during her time, Alia is obligated to "witness" the life of someone who lived in the past as part of a mysterious program called the Redemption -- and her subject is Michael Poole. Alia, however, is pressured by her family to leave the Nord and attempt to join an organization called the Transcendence. After travelling the galaxy and observing several post-human life forms, Alia travels to Earth to meet the transcendence. The she learns about the true goal of the Transcendence and the meaning of the Redemption. The Transcendence is attempting to redeem the past suffering of all humans, first by witnessing every single one as Alia witnessed, then by living as every single human and experiencing everything that they experienced. However, since observing is not seen as sufficient for redemption, the Transcendence ultimately desires to erase all suffering in the past, thereby ensuring that every human that could have existed does so. Lastly, if that is seen as too great a task, the Transcendence is prepared to reach back in time and stop humans from ever existing, thereby "erasing" the suffering that they intend to redeem. Alia attempts to run from this back to the Nord, only to find that it has been attacked in an attempt to get her to go back and face the Transcendance by some who believe that the Redemption is a mistake and that she can help correct it. Alia, upon returning to the Transcendence, agrees to find a human who can join the Transcendence long enough to debate the Redemption and help them find the best course of action. Therefore, she projects herself back in time and attempts to bring back Michael Poole. She appears to him as the newly resurrected Morag, who she then morphs into her true form. After much consideration Michael comes back with her and faces the Transcendence, whom he ultimately convinces that their meddling is unnecessary. In a way, he forgives the Transcendence. In the end, Michael is returned to his own time, where he successfully completes the refrigeration project. The Kupier anomaly, first introduced in Coalescent, disappears, and is revealed to be related to Alia's connection with Michael. The Transcendence collapses and the Witnessing program is shut down -- but not before Alia reaches back in time once more and restores Morag to life for good. See also
References
|
||||||