Firstborn

October 29, 2007
Though supposedly the last volume of Clarke and Baxter’s Time Odyssey series (after 2005’s Sunstorm
), this intriguing and frustrating installment of the high-octane space opera ends with an astounding cliffhanger just as humans have begun to confront the ancient and super-powerful Firstborn, who attack any species that might become a rival. Having barely survived a Firstborn-created solar flare, Earth now must cope with a meteor bomb approaching from deep space. Tensions rise between secretive, paranoid forces on Earth and equally suspicious groups among the Spacers, whose identification with humanity’s home is waning. Meanwhile, in a pocket universe created by the Firstborn for some inscrutable purpose, slices from different Terran eons nervously adjust to each other. The narrative leaps about too much to develop characters, but Clarke has never been as interested in individuals as in humanity’s ability to accept change as a species. It’s too early to tell whether that theme will be enough to carry the story to a coherent conclusion.

Starred review from December 15, 2007
Ever since the appearance of the black monolith in 2001 (as detailed in Clarke's classic "2001: A Space Odyssey"), humanity has been fascinated with the creatures they call the Firstborn, possessors of technology far more sophisticated than earthly scientists can even imagine. In 2064, an anomalyan object traveling through spacedestroys a deep-space monitor and continues on a trajectory that will impact Earth in 2072 unless steps are taken. The Firstborn have arrived. SF Grand Master Clarke and Locus Award winner Baxter bring their "Time Odyssey" ("Time's Eye"; "Sunstorm") series to a close while leaving room for yet another phase of their saga. Most libraries should purchase.

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from December 1, 2007
Clarke and Baxter conclude the saga, begun in Time's Eye (2004) and continued in Sunstorm (2005), of a near-future Earth's death duel with an ancient alien race, the Firstborn. Having kidnapped samples of humanity and human history to the planet Mir and tried to fry Earth with the Sunstorm, the attackers now attempt obliterating Earth with something called the Q-bomb. This generates a frantic, initially unsuccessful scramble for countermeasures, employing everything that comes to hand. Meanwhile, Bisesa Dutt, released from years of hibernation, turns her military background to exploring a further set of options, on Mars and then on Mir, where a solution crops up in a nineteenth-century Chicago about to perish before advancing glaciers. The successful diversion of the Q-bomb, using a Firstborn artifact on Mars, may save Earth for the time being, but the ending leaves readers in doubt as to whether Bisesa and daughter Myra have fought their last round with the Firstborn. The trilogy thus ended carries on the exploration of human evolution into space that Clarke launched in the sf classic Childhood's End (1953), a line of sf inquiry Baxter is well suited to continue from where he and the venerable Clarke leave it here, tantalizingly open-ended.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)