Phase Space (book)

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Phase Space
Author	Stephen Baxter
Country	Great Britain
Language	English
Series	Manifold
Genre(s)	Science fiction
Publisher	Voyager
Publication date	2003
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN	ISBN 0-00-651185-6
Preceded by	Manifold: Origin

Phase Space, subtitle: Stories from the Manifold and Elsewhere (published by Voyager an imprint of HarperCollins, ISBN 0-00-651185-6) is a 2003 science fiction collection by Stephen Baxter containing twenty-three thematically linked stories, in which the human relationship with the universe is explored: whether we are truly alone, if there are other intelligent species, if these have turned their backs on us, or if expansion itself is destined to fail. Maybe the reality we know is nothing but an elaborate hoax, protecting us from something far more sinister.

Written in the same style as most of Stephen Baxter's work, Phase Space is a collection of more or less scientifically based stories, in the tradition of Arthur C. Clarke. The stories are set in the same Multiverse as previous Manifold books, or are related to the NASA Trilogy (Titan, Voyage, and Moonseed.

The book contains the following short stories:

Dreams (I)

• "Moon-Calf" (1998) - A retired astronaut finds hints of an ancient space voyage while on holiday in England.

Earths

• "Open Loops" (2000) - An astronaut explores, and later becomes a colonist on, an asteroid, observing the expansion and evolution of humanity over the millennia.
• "Glass Earth, Inc." (1997) - A policeman must sort through the memories of a murder to find out who the killer is, and in the process, learns more about himself then he ever knew.
• "Poyekhali 3201" (1997) - The experiences of a Russian cosmonaut are no more than the ultimate re-enactment.
• "Dante Dreams" (1998) - A police woman from San Francisco travels to the Vatican to investigate the suicide of a Jesuit priest and an illegally-created sentient hologram based on the late priest.
• "War Birds" (1997)

Worlds

• "Sun-Drenched" (1998)
• "Martian Autumn" (2002)
• "Sun God" (1997)- A pendant to Titan, in which a Titanian beetle finds an abandoned Saturn rocket and studies the strange creatures (humans) who made it. Like "Poyekhali 3201", this is a Philip K. Dick - type look at human consciousness and reality.
• "Sun-Cloud" (2001)

Manifold

• "Sheena 5" (2000)- The sentient squid plotline of Manifold: Time as a separate short story, with a different ending.
• "The Fubar Suit" (1997) - An astronaut is stranded in space wearing a suit guaranteed to re-create her when her corpse is discovered. Meanwhile, a microscopic world evolves inside the suit, threatening her existence.
• "Grey Earth" (2001)- The end of Manifold: Space from the viewpoint of Mary, the Neanderthal friend of Nemoto, set on the axis-tilted Earth of the Neanderthals.
• "Huddle" (1999) - Madeleine Meacher from Manifold: Space returns to an Earth where the descendents of humans occupy the ecological niche of seals or penguins, a hundred thousand years after the events of the novel.

Paradox

• "Refugium" (2002)
• "Lost Continent" (2001) - Two friends discuss the possibility that Atlantis may have been more than a myth, and may have been more recent than anyone ever dreamed.
• "Tracks" (2001)
• "Lines of Longitude" (1997) - A physicist teaching a community college course must cope with reality when one of her students dies after having disappeared for several days. The aftermath of his death have graver consequences than she can imagine.
• "The Barrier" (1998)- Two old men travel through space in a malfunctioning ship toward the edge of all; an exploration of the Zoo Hypothesis.
• "Marginalia" (1999) - Baxter's novel Voyage as conspiracy theory- the idea that NASA really did go to Mars in the 1970s is explored.
• "The We Who Sing" (2002) - Intelligence exists in a universe of shining gas clouds, before space became transparent.
• "The Gravity Mine" (2000)- Posthuman beings in the deep future of Manifold: Time struggle in a dying universe.
• "Spindrift" (1999)
• "Touching Centauri" (2003) - Scientists attempting to use a laser to contact another world inadvertently cause the end of their universe, while everyone struggles with the ultimate nature of their existence. (While snippets of the story are touched upon between each previous story, the full explanation is given here.)

Dreams (II)

• "The Twelfth Album" (1998) - Two friends mourning their departed shipmate find a strange Beatles record, leading them to believe that their friend's drunken ravings might have been true.

v • d • e Books by Stephen Baxter Xeelee Sequence Raft · Timelike Infinity · Flux · Ring · Vacuum Diagrams · Reality Dust · Riding the Rock Xeelee story elements Great Northern · Other technology · Qax · Other species Destiny's Children Coalescent · Exultant · Transcendent · Resplendent Manifold Trilogy Time · Space · Origin · Phase Space The Mammoth Trilogy Silverhair · Longtusk · Icebones · Behemoth A Time Odyssey Time's Eye · Sunstorm · Firstborn The Web Series Gulliverzone · Webcrash Time's Tapestry Emperor · Conqueror NASA Trilogy Voyage · Titan · Moonseed Others Anti-Ice · The Time Ships · The Light of Other Days · Evolution Unrelated collections Traces · The Hunters of Pangaea Non-fiction Deep Future · Omegatropic · Ages in Chaos