Firstborn

Rating All Ages Genre sci-fi Publisher Random House Publishing Group

In the third installment of the Time Odyssey series, the Firstborn are back, once again attempting to eradicate humankind through the use of an artifact called the Q-bomb. All regular attempts to steer the bomb away from the earth have failed, and the countdown to the destruction of the earth is imminent. It'll take the cooperation of people on Mars, Earth, and Mir to protect the planet once again from the attacks of the Firstborn.

Although we never actually 'meet' the Firstborn, we learn more about the extent of their destruction and the reason behind why they are regulating the development of sentient life in the universe as stated before in Sunstorm. Humans are a particular threat to the Firstborn's plan due to our increased development as well as our inclination towards self-destruction. It turns out that humans weren't the only 'experiments' targeted by the Firstborn. Mars seemed to be a primary target of elimination, and Earth soon after. Bisesa Dutt is back in action after 15 years of being cryogenically frozen and is thrust into action almost immediately. She and her daughter Myra are on the run from the government and are helped by a young Spacer named Alexei, whose intentions seem dubious. They later meet up with several scientists who are researching an artifact of the Firstborn, The Eye. Without giving away too much of the plot, the raggedy team of scientists, AI, Spacers, governmental officials, and civilians must band together and make one of the most difficult decisions in history.

For those familiar with the previous books, Clarke and Baxter revisit familiar worlds of future Earth, Mir, and Mars. The story jumps back and forth between the three locations and can at times be confusing, especially the segments in Mir. There Alexander the Great is conquering the world, again, Neanderthals live alongside regular humans, Mars and Venus are in the prime of their existence with water and land, and people from all different eras live together and attempt to make sense of the world. Although confusing, Baxter and Clarke do an excellent job of incorporating all the elements and making them seem normal to the reader. Rather than go into detailed explanation about the oddities of the world, the characters in the setting act as though everything were commonplace. The only outsider, Bisesa, gives insight to the reader who is in a similar position: revisiting the world after several years. In the 'normal' dimension there are barely any descriptors besides explaining the mechanics of the Space Elevator (which seems super cool, elevators that run on fine webs and travel at high speed in space) and the actual science of the story. For many books, there seems to be almost too much detail that it takes away from the actual story-telling, and fantasy stories have a tendency to be overly detailed. In contrast, this book is very minimalistic in terms of descriptions. There is no real description for Mars as most of the book takes place in the laboratories in the North pole of Mars. Mir is described in basic detail, having been introduced in previous books, and Earth requires no real description. Although this seems quite obvious, the book focuses more on explaining the science aspect of the story. If you don't know anything about quantum mechanics, alternate dimensions, and so forth, by the end of the book you'll have some inkling as to how these things work (or at least how they might be possible).

One of the major complaints is that this book was advertised as the last installment of the Time Odyssey books. I'm not sure if Clarke and Baxter will continue the series under a different series title, but the ending left enough room for several more books. The relationship between Myra and Yuri also seems thrown in there at the end. Sure, you'll develop feelings for someone if you've been cooped up in the same lab for about a year with only the company of four other people, but why not make the development of feelings on Myra's part a little more believable? Perhaps I hadn't been observant enough, but it took me by surprise. Continuing on this trend, the relationships in general don't seem that believable besides the one between Myra and Bisesa. Alexei and his girlfriend rarely spend time on 'camera,' which to an extent is understandable as Alexei spends most of his time in space and his girl is on Earth. The other major point that seemed strange was the fact that suddenly the Spacers and Earth government were able to come to an agreement over a short amount of time at the end. Sure there were some skirmishes between the two factions, but it seemed like the two factions came to terms a little too easily. I suppose the fact that everyone was nearly eradicated brought people together for a common cause, much like the previous book, Sunstorm. And finally, the fact that the dust jacket stated that we would 'meet the Firstborn' is completely misleading. You don't meet anyone besides the scientists and some new characters. You hear the thoughts of the Firstborn relic, the Q-bomb, but not the actual entities. Perhaps the relics are the Firstborn? There's no resolute answer.

Despite these fallacies, I enjoyed the book. It certainly left a cliffhanger of an ending that leads me to believe that although this is the end of the Time Odyssey series, Clarke and Baxter intend to create another series to continue the story. Or at least that is my hope. It's interesting, the science is fascinating, and although the characterizations and interactions aren't the best, I kept reading to figure out, will I meet the Firstborn? Nope. Perhaps in the next book. It seems like the book wants to show the fact that humans can triumph despite all odds and can help each other despite making a difficult decision. Just, you know, work together. There are better sci-fi stories out there (The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Ship of Fools, etc.), but if you want to continue the series, this is a welcome addition.