This book is stunning, both in its ambition (it chronicles the entire 20 billion year history of the universe in only 512 pages) and in its creativity (living space ships? topologically impossible worlds that wrap around one another and exist inside a cube? cell-like creatures that exist on mathematical postulates? genetically engineered AI beings raised as humans? It's all here).

The book is a collection of short stories that Baxter wrote over a 10 year period, with one story, "Eve," written to wrap around the whole. The stories are all part of Baxter's Xeelee sequence and chronicle an epic battle between two powerful species (neither of which is human) for control of the universe.

The Xeelee are the oldest species in the universe, and they are engaged in a project that both begins and ends with the big bang -- and they aren't interested in sharing with outsiders. They have a sometimes adversarial and sometimes paternalistic relationship with humans, whose actions thwart or enhance their project somewhat randomly. Thematically, the stories are all imbued with a deep awe of life in all its shapes and sizes and forms. This reverence gives the book more cohesiveness than any other short story collection I have read.

I had the same problems with this book that I had with Raft, the only other book of Baxter's I have read. Characterization is bad and usually non-existent, and Baxter's grand ideas are sometimes difficult to translate into mental images. However, those problems didn't bother me as much in this book. In general, I think it's ok for a short story to be lacking in these elements, so I enjoyed this book far more than Raft (which I also liked very much and assigned a "+").

Furthermore, the characterization problem is attenuated a bit at the end of the book, where the last three stories follow two people (a woman and her granddaughter-in-law) and their families to the end of the universe. The epic pace of the book slows down so that the reader really gets to know this family, their world and their problems. Baxter manages to link their tiny, human problems to the end of time and space in a way that is not only believable, but deeply moving.

The biggest problem in the book is the wraparound story, "Eve." I found it irritating. Its only purpose for being is to connect the stories into a grand whole, and I really think readers could manage that themselves, if given the opportunity. The stories are also uneven, with a couple of real stinkers. However, setting those issues aside, I do recommend the book to those whole like their sci-fi bold and ambitious.