Review: Resplendent

Resplendent is the 4th in the Xeelee sequence by Stephen Baxter. Unlike the previous book in the series, this one really succeeds in taking the reader into the future in a way that seriously expands your perception of what it means to think "long term".

Consisting of what is essentially a set of short stories strung loosely together over a million years of human future, the book hops and skips across a species that moves from captor to conqueror, where wars go on for longer than the human race has existed so far.

The real beauty of the book is the way it slowly stretches your impression of time until, when you finally pull yourself out of the book, you can barely imagine that we believe 50 years could be considered long term planning, and the idea that life will remain static and comfortable is almost impossible to believe.

Baxter is not a great storyteller, but his ideas, as always (when he isn't obsessing about "Michael Poole") are enormous in scope and fantastic in detail. Definitely recommended for the hard sci-fi fan.