[infurl]

In my leisure time I typically read science fiction by the likes of Iain M. Banks, David Brin, and Neal Stephenson.

Lately I've been exploring the works of a new author: The Xeelee Sequence by Stephen Baxter. Just like my life-time favorite author, Arthur C. Clarke, Mr Baxter is first and foremost an accomplished professional physicist and engineer. He writes hard science fiction, stories that are firmly rooted in reality as we currently understand it. There is no place for magic in his narratives and I really like that because when suspension of disbelief is not required, the possibilities are much more exciting and provocative.

In more than fifty novels and short stories The Xeelee Sequence speculates just how far intelligence could go in our universe. It turns out that when galactic superclusters are your playthings, it's very far indeed. The stories that I've read so far revolve around the fate of human beings in our various future forms. We are not the Xeelee, a race of super-beings that exist at the limits of our comprehension, but ants that struggle to survive in the interstices of their vast projects.

I have read the first two novels so far and I highly recommend them. Has anyone else read these stories yet?

[HS]

There's a familiar name. I read his collaboration with Pratchett, "The Long Earth", but never anything that was entirely his own work. Thanks for the recommendation, I will happily give it a try. You got me started reading science fiction and its been an epic journey so far. ...Engage