Coalescent: Destiny's Children Book One

2003 Baxter, Stephen [Michael] (b. 1957). Coalescent: Destiny’s Children Book One. London: Gollancz, 2003. PSt

The first volume in a series that includes an isolated religious sect that has survived from Roman times and created a eutopian community. See also Exultant. Destiny’s Children 2. New York: Ballantine Books, 2004; Transcendent: Destiny’s Children 3. New York: Ballantine Books, 2005 which has two parallel stories, one of an earth deeply affected by global warming and another set in the far future with a young woman being prepared to join the “Transcendence”, the next step beyond the limits of humanity (during which she visits a Coalescent planet, which is reminiscent of Wells’s 1901 First Men in the Moon), but the Transcendence is rejected and dies; and Resplendent: Destiny's Children: Book 4. London: Gollancz, 2006, which is a linked set of stories illustrating aspects of the series. The stories, all revised, are: “Cadre Siblings.” Interzone, no. 153 (March 2000): 6-18. Resplendent (5-19; Paper ed. 5-20), which gives a bit of the dystopia created on Earth by an alien invasion; “Conurbation 2473.” Living without a Net. Ed. Lou Anders (New York: Roc, 2003), 58-69. Resplendent (20-31; Paper ed. 21-33) which begins with more detail of the dystopia but shifts immediately to the dystopias created by humans in the overthrow of that dystopia and the imposition of their own, which is overthrown and another human dystopia created, and so on; Reality Dust. Leeds, Eng.: PS Publishing, 2000. Rpt. London: Gollancz, 2002 bound with Paul McAuley, Making History. The items are bound back-to-back and separately paged. Resplendent (32-80; Paper ed. 34-86), which continues the conflict among humans and the dystopia they have created; “All in a Blaze.” Stars: Stories Based on the Songs of Janis Ian. Ed. Janis Ian and Mike [Michael Diamond] Resnick (New York: DAW Books, 2003), 292-301. Resplendent (81-90; Paper ed. 87-97), in which humans prepare to travel outside the solar system; “Silver Ghost.” Asimov’s Science Fiction 24.9 (296) (September 2000): 84-95. Resplendent (93-106; Paper ed. 101-15) on alien contact; “The Cold Sink.” Asimov’s Science Fiction 25.8 (307) (August 2001): 36-45. Resplendent (107-17; Paper ed. 116-27) on war; “On the Orion Line.” Asimov’s Science Fiction 24. 10 & 11 (297 & 298) (October/November 2000): 62-86. Resplendent (118-51; Paper ed. 128-63) on war; “Ghost Wars.” Asimov’s Science Fiction 30.1 (360) (January 2006): 98-126. Resplendent (152-89; Paper ed. 164-204) on war; “The Ghost Pit.” Asimov’s Science Fiction 25.7 (306) (July 2001): 62-73. Resplendent (190-204; Paper ed. 205-20) on war; “Lakes of Light.” Constellations: The Best of New British SF. Ed. Peter Crowther (New York: DAW Books, 2005), 57-77. Resplendent (207-23; Paper ed. 223-41) on the discovery of a sun inhabited by posthumans who have a simple agricultural society, which is implied to be eutopian but with no real detail; “Breeding Ground.” Asimov’s Science Fiction 27.2 (325) (February 2003): 10-27. Resplendent (224-47; Paper ed. 242-67) on war; “The Dreaming Mould.” Interzone, no. 179 (May 2002): 16-20. Resplendent (248-60; Paper ed. 268-81) on war; “The Great Game.” Asimov’s Science Fiction 27.3 (326) (March 2003): 58-71. Resplendent (261-79; Paper ed. 282-301) on war; “The Chop Line.” Asimov’s Science Fiction 27.12 (335) (December 2003): 70-91. Resplendent (283-312; Paper ed. 305-36) on war; “In the Un-Black.” Redshift: Extreme Visions of Speculative Fiction. Ed. Al Sarrantonio (New York: ROC, 2001), 201-17. Resplendent (313-30; Paper ed. 337-56), which is a dystopia of the Coalescent style; Riding the Rock. Harrogate, England: PS Publishing, 2002. Resplendent (331-74; Paper ed. 357-404) on war; Mayflower II. Harrogate, Eng.: PS Publishing, 2004. Resplendent (377-438); Paper ed. 407-73); rpt. in The Year’s Best SF: Twenty-Second Annual Collection. Ed. Gardner Dozois (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2005), 405-49 with an editor’s introduction on 404, which describes a multi-generation starship evolving a number of societies over thousands of years, from the initially eutopian gradually in a more and more dystopian direction; “Between Worlds.” Between Worlds. Ed. Robert Silverberg (Garden City, NY: Science Fiction Book Club, 2004), 1-59. Resplendent (439-94; Paper ed. 474-533) about post-humans; and “The Siege of Earth.” Previously unpublished. Resplendent (497-546; Paper ed. 537-90) about post-humans.