Phase Space (book)

Phase Space (book)

Infobox Book
name = Phase Space


author = Stephen Baxter
cover_artist =
country = Great Britain
language = English
series = Manifold
genre = Science fiction
publisher = Voyager
release_date = 2003
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages =
size_weight =
isbn = ISBN 0-00-651185-6
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"Phase Space" (subtitled "Stories from the Manifold and Elsewhere") is a 2003 science fiction collection by Stephen Baxter containing twenty-three thematically linked stories, in which the human relationship with the universe is explored: whether humanity is truly alone in the universe, if there are other intelligent species, if these have turned their backs on us, or if expansion itself is destined to fail.

Written in the same style as most of Stephen Baxter's work, "Phase Space" is a collection of more or less scientifically based stories in the tradition of Arthur C. Clarke. The stories are mostly set in the same Multiverse as the books in his Manifold series, with a few stories related to his separate NASA Trilogy.

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 "" (1997).)::*"Dante Dreams" (1998) - A police woman from San Francisco travels to the Vatican to investigate the suicide of a Jesuit priest and an illegally-created sentient hologram based on the late priest.::*"War Birds" (1997)

::Worlds::*"Sun-Drenched" (1998)::*"Martian Autumn" (2002)::*"Sun God" (1997)- A pendant to "Titan", in which a Titanian beetle finds an abandoned Saturn rocket and studies the strange creatures (humans) who made it. Like "Poyekhali 3201", this is a Philip K. Dick - type look at human consciousness and reality.::*"Sun-Cloud" (2001)

::Manifold::*"Sheena 5" (2000)- The sentient squid plotline of "" as a separate short story, with a different ending.::*"The Fubar Suit" (1997) - An astronaut is stranded in space wearing a suit guaranteed to re-create her when her corpse is discovered. Meanwhile, a microscopic world evolves inside the suit, threatening her existence.::*"Grey Earth" (2001)- The end of "" from the viewpoint of Mary, the Neanderthal friend of Nemoto, set on the axis-tilted Earth of the Neanderthals. ::*"Huddle" (1999) - Madeleine Meacher from "" returns to an Earth where the descendents of humans occupy the ecological niche of seals or penguins, a hundred thousand years after the events of the novel.::Paradox::*"Refugium" (2002)::*"Lost Continent" (2001) - Two friends discuss the possibility that Atlantis may have been more than a myth, and may have been more recent than anyone ever dreamed.::*"Tracks" (2001)::*"Lines of Longitude" (1997) - A physicist teaching a community college course must cope with reality when one of her students dies after having disappeared for several days. The aftermath of his death have graver consequences than she can imagine.::*"The Barrier" (1998)- Two old men travel through space in a malfunctioning ship toward the edge of all; an exploration of the Zoo Hypothesis.::*"Marginalia" (1999) - Baxter's novel "Voyage" as conspiracy theory- the idea that NASA really "did" go to Mars in the 1970s is explored.::*"The We Who Sing" (2002) - Intelligence exists in a universe of shining gas clouds, before space became transparent.::*"The Gravity Mine" (2000)- Posthuman beings in the deep future of "" struggle in a dying universe.::*"Spindrift" (1999)::*"Touching Centauri" (2003) - Scientists attempting to use a laser to contact another world inadvertently cause the end of their universe, while everyone struggles with the ultimate nature of their existence. (While snippets of the story are touched upon between each previous story, the full explanation is given here.)

::Dreams (II)::*"The Twelfth Album" (1998) - Two friends mourning their departed shipmate find a strange Beatles record, leading them to believe that their friend's drunken ravings might have been true.


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