The appropriately named Origin is the third book in the
Manifold trilogy. In the first two books Malenfant travels throughout the
galaxy in space and time. In this one, he stays in the Solar system,
exploring a mysterious red moon which has replaced our Moon. He goes in
search of his wife who has been abducted on to this moon. Emma (Mrs
Malenfant) is the real hero(ine) of this book as she learns to survive in
a tropical paradise / hell with a number of groups of extinct hominids and
proto-humans such as Homo Erectus, Australopithecus and Neanderthals who
have also been mysteriously transported to this moon.
I found this book to be harder going than the first two. There is little
scientific thought here as Emma fights to stay alive despite the best
efforts of various tribal leaders. If you enjoy books set in the Old Stone
Age, then you will probably enjoy this. It reminded me a bit of Pierre
Boulle's Monkey Planet (inspired Planet of the Apes). If you have read and
enjoyed the first two books, then Origin is worth reading just to hear
Stephen Baxter's conclusion to his argument. But, be warned it is
completely different in style and content from the first two volumes. For
the most part it is even a different genre. |