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World Engines: Destroyer by [Stephen Baxter]

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Stephen Baxter

World Engines: Destroyer Kindle Edition

by Stephen Baxter (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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In the year 2570, a sleeper will wake . . .

In the mid-21st century, the Kernel, a strange object on a five-hundred-year-orbit, is detected coming from high above the plane of the solar system. Could it be an alien artefact? In the middle of climate-change crises, there is no mood for space-exploration stunts - but Reid Malenfant, elderly, once a shuttle pilot and frustrated would-be asteroid miner, decides to go take a look anyway. Nothing more is heard of him. But his ex-wife, Emma Stoney, sets up a trust fund to search for him the next time the Kernel returns . . .

By 2570 Earth is transformed. A mere billion people are supported by advanced technology on a world that is almost indistinguishable from the natural, with recovered forests, oceans, ice caps. It is not an age for expansion; there are only small science bases beyond the Earth. But this is a world you would want to live in: a Star Trek without the stars.

After 500 years the Kernel returns, and a descendant of Stoney, who Malenfant will call Emma II, mounts a mission to see what became of Malenfant. She finds him still alive, cryo-preserved . . . His culture-shock encounter with a conservative future is entertaining . . . But the Kernel itself turns out to be attached to a kind of wormhole, through which Malenfant and Emma II, exploring further, plummet back in time, across five billion years . . .

Length: 576 pages	Word Wise: Enabled	Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
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Review

This is space opera on a vast scale, backed up by Baxter's customary impressive research as he seamlessly weaves planetary exploration, genome reconstruction, climate change, artifi cial intelligence and much more into the compulsively readable narrative. The opening volume of a projected series, it's Baxter at his very best., GUARDIAN

It's another triumph for Baxter. A page turner that not only fascinates on an intellectual level, but on a science fiction thriller level too., SCIFINOW MAGAZINE

You can rely on Stephen Baxter to come up with solid science fiction that does everything you'd expect a bit of classic sci-fi to do., STARBURST MAGAZINE

Hard SF science smarts... yet is great fun too., SFX MAGAZINE --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Review

gripping science fiction utilising big concepts and backed by brilliant writing - Starburst Magazine

Grown up SF, a masterpiece from a star who shines as bright as any "mainstream" author - Sun

Baxter is the natural heir to the hard sci-fi crown of Arthur C. Clarke and he shares Clarke's generous imagination and ability to extrapolate a plausible future technology from the cutting-edge theories of today. Imaginative appeal is what counts with Baxter and in that he delivers reliably - Daily Telegraph --This text refers to the paperback edition.

ASIN : B07Q25DKKF
Publisher : Gollancz (19 September 2019)
Language : English
File size : 1547 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 576 pages

Best Sellers Rank: 86,845 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 343 in High Tech Science Fiction
- 513 in Hard Science Fiction (Books)
- 1,303 in Space Opera Science Fiction (Kindle Store)

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385 ratings

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4 star		34%
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2 star		4%
1 star		4%

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Mean, selfish person wakes up in 500 years time

Reviewed in Australia on 17 November 2019

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I gave up a third of the way in, because the main character was so unpleasant; I just didn't want to spend any more time in his company. His name translates as "bad child" and he really lives up to it; petulant, uncaring, arrogant, selfish, and wantonly cruel. This may be the whole point of the book, to show how people in the world we live in now happily destroy the world that we live in now, because they care little about anyone but themselves.
The future world in the book is about 500 years from now, after Peak Carbon made the world almost unlivable. The planet is still hot (tropical in London) and sea level rise drowned all the coastal cities hundreds of years ago. People now build to last for centuries and repair their machines and belongings, rather than throw them away and buy a new one. They are also much nicer to each other and want to get along and help each other.
There may be wonderful things in the rest of the book; I will never know.

One person found this helpful

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fredderf

Disapointed in this book

Reviewed in Australia on 19 January 2020

Verified Purchase

I have read many Baxter books and enjoyed them. Sad to say if this was the first one I read, I doubt I would read anymore. The thing I disliked most was that the main character was so opinionated, arrogant, obnoxious and thoughtless that I could not get to like him. I have read other similar reviews and decided to try to understand him but I only got to 30% of the book on Kindle before I could stomach him no longer and gave up.

2 people found this helpful

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Awesome is the only word for this.

Reviewed in Australia on 22 February 2020

Verified Purchase

Truly inspiration sci-fi that just cements the author’s place in the pantheon of great writers in my favourite genre. Galactic visionary writing that changes the way we look at creationist history and indeed the history espoused by Darwinism. Thanks for a great read and please try and follow this up so I can continue my journey with Malenfant.

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Top reviews from other countries

Graff Chevaline

characters and a plot as thin as paper

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 September 2019

Verified Purchase

Bloody Malenfant again, again and again, though with an embryonic smattering of PC
which makes it less believable, meets Utopian 25 th century inhabitants ( Buck Rodgers got there first btw)

Just a re work of his last novels nothing new, just re heated left overs like a thick porridge of
gelatinous,slow moving,pulp.

You might like it ....

25 people found this helpful

Fizzog

Terrible

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 October 2019

Verified Purchase

I wish the blurb had mentioned that the main character was Malenfant, I wouldn’t have bought it. Having met this character in previous novels by Baxter, and found him most unlikeable, I would have given this one a miss.
However, I finished reading the book, and I can now only say, “what a bore”. Terrible plot, paper thin (as others have said) and consists of continuous and tedious talking, with little action.
Sorry Baxter, I should have stopped buying your books after the Long Earth series.
For info, I’m in my seventies and have been an avid reader of SciFi since I was 12 years old. This book is the first to go straight to a charity shop. I won’t be re-reading it.

18 people found this helpful

RobR

Ultimately disappointing.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 November 2019

Verified Purchase

I'd stopped reading Baxter sometime ago, none of the novels or shorts excited me a much as his first few, Raft, Flux, Timelike Infinity or Ring. So after my self imposed hiatus I decided to try again.

World Engines: Destroyer feels like a attempt to shoehorn all of Baxter's favorite tropes into a cohesive whole and unfortunately it doesn't quite live up to it's parts. It felt padded, each new character getting a small biographical chapter - fun for the alternate universe buffs, but ultimately padding. Did the novel need all the information? Sadly the answer is no.

I'll check out Baxter down the road, but for now I'm left feeling disappointed.

7 people found this helpful

M. Clare

Thin plot with naff ending

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 October 2019

Verified Purchase

Just finished the book and feel let down. Nothing new in this storyline. Unlikeable characters. Poor ending. Not recommended especially for the cost of the book. Am disappointed mainly after earlier Baxter novels.

11 people found this helpful

Julian Wattam

Reid Malenfant rides again!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 February 2020

Verified Purchase

I loved the original Manifold series so was glad to see Malenfant back in action in a new timeline. For now, there's no definite link to the events of the previous books but I wouldn't be surprised to see more on that in the next book due to drop in September 2020.

It was good to revisit a few of the characters from "Titan" (mainly Nicola Mott) as well as some reference to the events of "Voyage". Also, while I never had a chance to read "Anti-Ice", I can't help wondering about the British in this tale.

Overall, the story was pretty compelling and falls only slightly short of five stars for me and I'm looking forward to the next chapter to further unravel the mystery of the world engines.

3 people found this helpful

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