From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Phase Space (story collection)
Phase Space (story collection)
Phase Space The book contains the following short stories:
Dreams (I)
• "Moon-Calf" (1998) - A retired astronaut
finds hints of an ancient space voyage
while on holiday in England.
Earths
• "Open Loops" (2000) - An astronaut
explores, and later becomes a colonist on,
an asteroid, observing the expansion and
evolution of humanity over the millennia.
• "Glass Earth, Inc." (1997) - A policeman
must sort through the memories of a
murder to find out who the killer is, and
in the process, learns more about himself
then he ever knew.
• "Poyekhali 3201" (1997) - The experiences
of a Russian cosmonaut are no more than
the ultimate re-enactment. (An earlier
version of this story appeared in Decalog 5:
Wonders (1997).)
Author(s) Stephen Baxter • "Dante Dreams" (1998) - A police woman
Country Great Britain from San Francisco travels to the Vatican
to investigate the suicide of a Jesuit priest
Language English
and an illegally-created sentient
Series Manifold hologram based on the late priest.
• "War Birds" (1997) - When Apollo 11
Genre(s) Science fiction
explodes on the Moon, the US blames the
Publisher Voyager Russians, then fast-tracks its Space
Publication date 2003
Shuttle program for military applications.
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback) Worlds
• "Sun-Drenched" (1998) - When two Apollo
ISBN 0-00-651185-6
astronauts are stranded on the Moon,
OCLC Number 52287993 they decide to expose themselves to the
Preceded by Manifold: Origin
elements in the hope of colonising the
Moon with bacteria and viruses from
Phase Space (subtitled Stories from the Manifold and Else- their own bodies.
where) is a 2003 science fiction collection by Stephen Bax- • "Martian Autumn" (2002) - Too much
ter containing twenty-three thematically linked stories, environmental stress and life on Earth
in which the human relationship with the universe is ex- might undergo an evolutionary "reboot",
plored: whether humanity is truly alone in the universe, like what happened on Mars.
if there are other intelligent species, if these have turned • "Sun God" (1997) - A pendant to Titan, in
their backs on us, or if expansion itself is destined to fail. which a Titanian beetle finds an
Written in the same style as most of Stephen Baxter’s abandoned Saturn rocket and studies the
work, Phase Space is a collection of more or less scientif- strange creatures (humans) who made it.
ically based stories in the tradition of Arthur C. Clarke. Like "Poyekhali 3201", this is a Philip K.
The stories are mostly set in the same Multiverse as the Dick - type look at human consciousness
books in his Manifold series, with a few stories related to and reality.
his separate NASA Trilogy.
1
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Phase Space (story collection)
• "Sun-Cloud" (2001) - A sentient multi- • "Lines of Longitude" (1997) - A physicist
corpuscular being travels to the distant teaching a community college course
future to fulfill her dying sister’s dream: must cope with reality when one of her
to witness the emergence of stars. students dies after having disappeared for
several days. The aftermath of his death
Manifold have graver consequences than she can
• "Sheena 5" - The sentient squid plotline of imagine.
Manifold: Time as a separate short story, • "The Barrier" (1998) - Two old men travel
with a different ending. through space in a malfunctioning ship
• "The Fubar Suit" (1997) - An astronaut is toward the edge of all; an exploration of
stranded in space wearing a suit the Zoo Hypothesis.
guaranteed to re-create her when her • "Marginalia" (1999) - Baxter’s novel
corpse is discovered. Meanwhile, a Voyage as conspiracy theory- the idea that
microscopic world evolves inside the suit, NASA really did go to Mars in the 1970s is
threatening her existence. explored.
• "Grey Earth" (2001) - The end of Manifold: • "The We Who Sing" (2002) - Intelligence
Origin from the viewpoint of Mary, the exists in a universe of shining gas clouds,
Neanderthal friend of Nemoto, set on the before space became transparent.
axis-tilted Earth of the Neanderthals. • "The Gravity Mine" (2000) - Posthuman
• "Huddle" (1999) - Madeleine Meacher beings in the deep future of Manifold: Time
from Manifold: Space returns to an Earth struggle in a dying universe.
where the descendents of humans occupy • "Spindrift" (1999) - Will human endeavors
the ecological niche of seals or penguins, (eg colonisation of the Moon) have any
a hundred thousand years after the ultimate consequence? Or will humanity
events of the novel. arise then vanish unobserved, like
spindrift?
Paradox
• "Touching Centauri" (2003) - Scientists
• "Refugium" (2002) - Two men, an
attempting to use a laser to contact
enthusiast and a cynic, set out in an alien
another world inadvertently cause the
spacecraft to discover an answer to the
end of their universe, while everyone
Fermi paradox: where have all the extra-
struggles with the ultimate nature of
terrestrial civilisations gone?
their existence. (While snippets of the
• "Lost Continent" (2001) - Two friends
story are touched upon between each
discuss the possibility that Atlantis may
previous story, the full explanation is
have been more than a myth, and may
given here.)
have been more recent than anyone ever
dreamed. Dreams (II)
• "Tracks" (2001) - Two astronauts are on • "The Twelfth Album" (1998) - Two friends
the Moon in 1973 collecting rock samples; mourning their departed shipmate find a
things go wrong and the mission is strange Beatles record, leading them to
aborted. But what the astronauts believe that their friend’s drunken
remember is much stranger than what ravings might have been true.
the video tapes show.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Phase_Space_(story_collection)&oldid=451926331"
Categories:
• 2002 short story collections
• Short story collections by Stephen Baxter
This page was last modified on 22 September 2011 at 22:30. Text is available under the Creative Commons
Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of use for details. Wikipedia® is a registered
trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.Contact us
Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers
2