Books - Coalescent

Well, I did it! I finished the book in time. It was barely, and I had to stop reading everything else to do it, but I did it for you, my one reader. Don't you just feel so special?

Coalescent by Stephen Baxter, was really a different kind of book than I expected. On the outside, like the cover and the blurb on the back it is a science fiction novel. On the inside...not so much. There are basically two broad stories being told in this novel. The first is that of George Poole, a man looking for his long lost sister in modern England and Regina, a young woman who is a Roman citizen in fifth century Britain, during the fall of the Roman empire.

These stories, as well as the story of one other young woman, are all intertwined. If you decide to pick up the book and read the back, you will quickly find out how and then, of course, wait 200 pages or more to watch it happen (see my Book post from last week). If you are wise and avoid that pitfall, I have a feeling that the reveal would be quite rewarding.

I have to admit that between the two stories I really enjoyed Regina's quite a bit more. Something about the history of Britain during and after the fall of Rome really appealed to me. It was neat to see the way she thought about things "getting back to normal" and trying to survive when they don't. I had a really hard time relating to George as a character, as he just did not seem believable to me. It does, at times, seem that Baxter has a hard time relating believable emotions of characters, which I can see considering he is an engineer. ;)

The ending of this book, while not a twist, was a bit odd. I won't spoil it for you here, but two of the last chapters take quite a turn that really force a stretch of the imagination. I suspect that these lead into the three sequels, which it seems will be much more sci-fi oriented. While it is the first book of a series, I do think that it could stand on it's own, but I look forward to checking out the next books in the series.

I do believe that this book was well worth my time, and it you are interested in history and unique takes on society check this book out. Treat it as a stand alone novel, and you won't be disappointed.