Sunstorm

January 17, 2005
Set in the same universe as Clarke's 2001
and its sequels, Clarke and Baxter's second and final Time Odyssey book (after 2004's Time's Eye
) will especially appeal to fans of hard SF who appreciate well-grounded science and humans with a can-do attitude to problem solving. In 2037, the same day the enigmatic alien Firstborn return Bisea Dutt, the heroine of Time's Eye
, to her home in London, the city grinds to a halt as a sun storm sends a massive surge of energy to Earth, temporarily destroying the world's electronic infrastructure. This surge presages another, much larger sun storm, due to hit in 2042, which will utterly annihilate life across the globe. Against all odds, the nations of Earth come together to construct a huge space umbrella that will shield the planet from the worst of the barrage. The answer to why the sun's activity is being manipulated to wipe out life on Earth must wait, given the day-to-day difficulties and politics of the construction project. The five-year sweep of events, the plethora of characters and the cuts from Mars to Earth to the moon during the climactic sun storm give the story a movie montage feel, but the focus on the enormously challenging task at hand will keep readers turning the pages. Agent, Scovil, Chichak, Galen.

March 15, 2005
British officer Bisesa Dutt, newly returned from a bizarre out-of-time experience on another world, now faces a crisis of world-shattering proportions. Along with Astronomer Royal Siobhan McGorran, Phillippa Duflot of the office of the mayor of London, and solar specialist and lunar resident Mikhail Martynov, Lieutenant Dutt must assemble an ambitious project to save Earth and its population from a fatal sunstorm just five years away. Sf grandmaster Clarke ("2001: A Space Odyssey") and Baxter ("Manifold" series) deliver a page-turning sequel to "Time's Eye "and conclude the "Time Odyssey" series. Combining the best of disaster fiction and hard sf, the authors maintain their focus on the compelling characters caught in the midst of a cataclysmic cosmic event. Most libraries will want this.

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2004
In this splendid sequel to " Time's Eye" [BKL O 15 03], Bisesa Dutt returns from Mir, the scrambled world of kidnapped human samples, just when Earth is stricken by a massive solar flare. Astronomer Royal Siobhan McGorran learns from scientists on the moon that the flare is only a precursor to one that will destroy all life on Earth, and Bisesa's travels offer clues that the flares are constituents in a lengthy plot on the part of the alien Firstborn to destroy the human race. A superbly drawn battle for the survival of Earth takes up the rest of the book. The details of humanity's survival device (an Earth-sized sun shield) and the fraying of society, and the characters of the astronauts, engineers, lunar settlers, and artificial intelligences (each with its distinctive personality) are filled out with skill and total conviction, and without at any point slowing the pace. Most of the novel and its predecessor are based on concepts that Clarke absolutely masters (e.g., that of watchful elder races, though the Firstborn have entirely different plans for humanity than the Overlords had in Clarke's classic " Childhood's End," 1953). Since Baxter is gaining similar mastery, " Sunstorm" is his and Clarke's most seamless collaboration to date.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)