Series
Manifold
Stephen Baxter · 3 novels · 1 novelette · 3 short stories · 1 collection · 1997–2002
Manifold: Time, Manifold: Space, and Manifold: Origin follow overlapping characters through three mutually exclusive answers to the Fermi Paradox - why we appear to be alone in the universe - each book taking one answer seriously enough to build an entire future history around it. Stephen Baxter designed the trilogy to be read in any order, since it plays out across a multiverse rather than a single continuous timeline.
Summary by Loreful, from public sources
The order the books came out.
Best read in the order they were published.
Map
Manifold at the centre, its books fanned around what holds them. Pick anything for its details, and zoom out for similar series in orbit — the reading order above lists the same books as text.
Stats
By decade
- 1990s3
- 2000s5
Shape
3 novels · 1 novelette · 3 short stories · 1 collection
1 author
reads like:science fictionspace explorationspacefar futurechallengingadult
Mood
Grim and intense: 83% of this series' placed works, the catalog's 46%.