Fiction Reviews


Traces

(1998) Stephen Baxter, Voyager, £16.99, hrdbk, 359pp, ISBN 0-00-225427-1

Hard on the heels of Vacuum Diagrams, and perhaps somewhat inevitably, this is a collection of all Baxter's short stories not set in the Xeelee universe. If you like Baxter's work enough to be attracted to this book, there's not much I can say to you. Some of the stories are better than others, obviously, and some you'll dislike and some you'll like. If you don't like Baxter, then there's nothing I can say to make you change your mind, other than 'give him another chance'. So, for the undecideds: this is as good an exposition of one author's style and ability as I've ever read; most of the stories are, at the very least, entertaining; and none of them are particularly bad. A good introduction to Baxter -- several very good novels await your attention...

Tony Chester


[Up: Fiction Reviews Index | SF Author: Website Links | Home Page: Concatenation]

[One Page Futures Short Stories | Recent Site Additions | Most Recent Seasonal Science Fiction News]

[Updated: 99.9.30 | Contact | Copyright | Privacy]