Stephen Baxter

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Stephen Baxter

Stephen Baxter at 63rd World Science Fiction Convention.
Born 13 November 1957 (1957-11-13) (age 51)
Liverpool, England
Occupation Writer
Nationality British
Genres Hard SF
Official website

Stephen Baxter (born 13 November 1957) is a British hard science fiction author. He was born and raised Roman Catholic. He has degrees in mathematics and engineering.

Contents

[edit] Writing style

Strongly influenced by SF pioneer H. G. Wells, Baxter has been a distinguished Vice-President of the international H. G. Wells Society since 2006 .

His fiction falls into three main categories, each with a very different style and tone.

His Xeelee Sequence stories are set in the far future, where humans are rising to become the second most powerful race in the universe, next to the god-like Xeelee. Character development in these stories takes second place to the depiction of advanced theories and ideas, such as the true nature of the Great Attractor, naked singularities and the great battle between Baryonic and Dark matter lifeforms. Examples of novels written in this style: Ring, Timelike Infinity.

Stephen Baxter at the Science-Fiction-Tage NRW in Dortmund, Germany, March 1997

His present-day Earth stories are much more human, with characters portrayed with greater depth and care. They typically indulge in "if only" whimsy or outright alternate history, dreaming about what humanity could achieve in the exploration of space. NASA features prominently, and a great deal of research has obviously been done into its internal structuring and methods.

However, these novels have a much darker tone than any of his other stories and do not often portray much hope for humanity as a moral species. Examples of novels written in this style include Voyage (winner of the Sidewise Award for Alternate History), Titan, and Moonseed.

Each novel of the Manifold trilogy is focused on a potential explanation of the Fermi paradox.

His "Evolution" stories are a later development and show an increasing interest in the evolution of humanity. These seem to have their origins in stories of his other writing styles, such as Mammoth and Manifold: Origin. The novel Evolution is an example of this style.

Baxter also covers numerous other styles: his Mammoth stories, ostensibly for children, are often of great delight to adults, while The Time Ships (an authorised sequel to The Time Machine) is generally taken to be one of his greatest novels.[citation needed] It won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, the BSFA Award, and was nominated for other major science fiction awards, including the Hugo Award.

In February 2007, Baxter was announced as the author of what was to be the 100th story for Big Finish Productions' Doctor Who audio series. Earthstorm was originally scheduled to be released in late September 2007, but has been delayed indefinitely, according to a May 2007 announcement on the company's website.

Baxter has also written non-fiction essays and columns for such publications as Critical Wave and the British SF Association's Matrix.

[edit] Literary awards

Award Name Year For book Short stories printed in
BSFA Award SF Novel 1995 The Time Ships  
Sidewise Award for Best Short Form Alternate History 1995 Brigantia's Angels Traces
John W. Campbell Award 1996 The Time Ships  
Philip K. Dick Award 1996 The Time Ships  
Sidewise Award for Best Long Form Alternate History 1996 Voyage  
British Science Fiction Award Short Fiction 1997 War Birds Phase Space
SF Chronicle Award Best Novelette 1998 Moon Six Traces
Analog Award Best Short Story 1998 Moon-Calf Phase Space
Philip K. Dick Award 1999 Vacuum Diagrams  
Analog Award Best Short Story 2000 Sheena 5 Phase Space
Locus Poll Award Best Novelette 2000 Huddle Phase Space
Asimov's Readers' Poll Novelette 2001 On the Orion Line Resplendent
British Science Fiction Award Non-Fiction 2001 Omegatropic  
Analog Award Best Short Story 2002 The Hunters of Pangaea Evolution & The Hunters of Pangaea
British Science Fiction Award Short Fiction 2004 Mayflower II Resplendent

Baxter's story Last Contact is nominated for the 2008 Hugo Award for best short story.[1]

[edit] Bibliography

All ISBNs are for the first edition.

[edit] Xeelee Sequence

Title Year ISBN Notes
Raft 1991 ISBN 0-246-13706-1  
Timelike Infinity 1992 ISBN 0-00-224016-5  
Flux 1993 ISBN 0-00-224025-4  
Ring 1993 ISBN 0-00-224026-2  
Vacuum Diagrams 1997 ISBN 0-00-225425-5 Short story collection.
Reality Dust 2000 ISBN 1-902880-11-0 Novella (collected in Resplendent)
Riding the Rock 2002 ISBN 1-902880-59-5 Novella (collected in Resplendent)

[edit] NASA Trilogy

Title Year ISBN Notes
Voyage 1996 ISBN 0-00-648037-3  
Titan 1997 ISBN 0-06-105713-4  
Moonseed 1998 ISBN 0-06-105903-X  

[edit] The Web Series

See The Web (series)

[edit] Manifold Trilogy

Title Year ISBN Notes
Manifold: Time 1999 ISBN 0-345-43076-X  
Manifold: Space 2000 ISBN 0-345-43077-8  
Manifold: Origin 2001 ISBN 0-345-43079-4  
Phase Space 2002 ISBN 0-00-651185-6 Short story collection.

[edit] The Mammoth Trilogy

Title Year ISBN Notes
Silverhair 1999 ISBN 0-06-105132-2  
Longtusk 1999 ISBN 0-380-81898-1  
Icebones 2001 ISBN 0-380-81899-X  
Behemoth 2004 ISBN 0-575-07604-6 Omnibus of the Mammoth trilogy

[edit] Destiny's Children

Title Year ISBN Notes
Coalescent 2003 ISBN 0-345-45786-2  
Exultant 2004 ISBN 0-345-45788-9  
Transcendent 2005 ISBN 0-345-45792-7  
Resplendent 2006 ISBN 0-575-07896-0 Short story collection.

[edit] A Time Odyssey (Co-authored with Arthur C. Clarke)

Title Year ISBN Notes
Time's Eye 2003 ISBN 0-345-45248-8  
Sunstorm 2005 ISBN 0-345-45250-X  
Firstborn 2007 ISBN 978-0-345-49157-2  

[edit] Time's Tapestry series

Title Year ISBN Notes
Emperor 2006 ISBN 0-575-07432-9  
Conqueror 2007 ISBN 0-575-07673-9  
Navigator 2007 ISBN 978-0-441-01559-7  
Weaver 2008 ISBN 978-0-575-08204-5  

[edit] Un-named disaster series

Title Year ISBN Notes
Flood (2008 novel) 2008 ISBN 978-0575080584  
Ark Planned for 2009 ISBN  

[edit] Unrelated novels

Title Year ISBN Notes
Anti-Ice 1993 ISBN 0-06-105421-6 Alternate History
The Time Ships 1995 ISBN 0-06-105648-0 Alternate History. An authorised sequel to H. G. Wells's The Time Machine
The Light of Other Days 2000 ISBN 0-312-87199-6 Co-authored with Arthur C. Clarke.
Evolution 2003 ISBN 0-345-45783-8  
The H-Bomb Girl 2007 ISBN 0-571-23279-5 Young adult

[edit] Unrelated collections

Title Year ISBN Notes
Traces 1998 ISBN 0-00-649814-0 Short story collection.
The Hunters of Pangaea 2004 ISBN 1-886778-49-3 18 stories and five essays on science and science fiction.

[edit] Non-fiction

Title Year ISBN Notes
Deep Future 2001 ISBN 1-85798-844-2 Mainly articles on science.
Omegatropic 2001 ISBN 0-95407-881-0 Mainly science fiction criticism.
Revolutions in the Earth
Ages in Chaos		 2003 (UK)
2004 (US)		 ISBN 0-29782-975-0
ISBN 0-76531-238-7		 James Hutton and the True Age of the World[1]
James Hutton and the Discovery of Deep Time

[edit] References

  1. ^ Jim Gilchrist book review (26 July 2003). "How James Hutton rocked the world". The Scotsman. http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/s2.cfm?id=806902003. 

[edit] External links

Sister project Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Stephen Baxter
Sister project Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Stephen Baxter
v • d • e
Works by Stephen Baxter
Xeelee Sequence
Xeelee story elements
Destiny's Children
Manifold Trilogy
The Mammoth Trilogy
A Time Odyssey
The Web Series
Time's Tapestry
NASA Trilogy
Others
Unrelated collections
Non-fiction
Persondata
NAME Baxter, Stephen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Author
DATE OF BIRTH 1957-11-13
PLACE OF BIRTH Liverpool, England
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Baxter"
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