The whole aspect of destruction is one that arouses a lot of interest for a non-connected observer. This could explain why newsreel footage of terror attacks, calamities and accidents glue so many viewers across continents to their television sets. Movies like Independence Day ,Deep Impact and Armageddon were totally unsettling for me when I watched them as a child. Dinosaurs roaming around in my hometown was an aftermath (in a dream form !) of Jurassic Park. The common thread across most of these have been this obsession with destruction, the widespread net of chaos on a mostly global scale. Stephen Baxter takes such a premise and spins a truly enjoyable yarn from it and from it is born : Moonseed.The sole reason why I truly liked this novel is its unique antagonist. The alien form which in short time devours our earth is a rather unique one in my short reading experience. It is not a horrendous, horizon spanning, tentacled monstrosity but a microbial form which may or may not be sentient. There is however no stopping this agent as it turns our greatest ally against us : nature. The images of catastrophe that Baxter conjures up are truly terrifying in terms of their destructive power. The conclusion is something that you can anticipate considering the number of clues that the author leaves during the narrative. While all these have been factors in favor of this entertainer, this tale brought in that cliche back from oblivion : America saves the world ! Yes, I know it is called the NASA trilogy and that I should have anticipated this but then a line in the book like So there he was, the man that saved humanity seriously set my eyeballs rolling ! How could you possibly imagine that a tale that spanned the entire world with so many people involved could finally be resolved by a single man figuring out the impossible solution ? Then again there seemed to be a lot of characters crowding into the narrative at the start almost all of who were killed off at one point of time or the other. Well, you can't complain about a disaster novel !The focus is mostly on the apocalypse here and not on the post-apocalyptic side of things although I would have loved to understand how life went on. Baxter though reserves a few pages for this thought. Excellent thought process behind the book. A few tweaks here and there would have made a brilliant one !
The book started out well and had a great plot and premise, but it had one major flaw that I just couldn't get past: Lack of characterization. There was virtually no character development. They seemed immune to the fact that the planet was dying and it seemed to have absolutely no impact on their personality at all, save from a few romantic connections and even those relationships were described in flat, generic terms. I think this could have been a really great book if we knew more about the characters inhabiting this world, and if we saw the plot have an effect on them. As it was, they were 2 dimensional and I found myself not caring if they made it or not. In fact, the flat characterization made it difficult for me to read, which is why it took so long for me to finish this book. It was a disappointment, really, because the plot was very interesting. It was just too bogged down in science and setting and didn't have enough focus on characters and people.
What do You think about Moonseed (1999)?
While I thought the science in it was excellent (though not always accurate, it evoked tremendous images of the wonders of science and engineering both current and future), the ‘fiction’ part was sadly lacking. The characters, for the most part, were flat: though they may have had fleshed out backstories, the knowledge that almost all of them would die before the end of the book (which was rather obvious about a third of the way in) made sympathizing and relating to them much easier. I found mys
—David
I enjoyed this book, but don't have too much to say about it. Probably the second best of Baxter's NASA trilogy after Voyage. This book is hard-core geology fiction with some space and disaster fiction thrown in on the side. A good read if that appeals to you at all.I do have one comment I'd like to make about the entire series in general about all the comments people have about the trilogy being depressing. I disagree completely. While it is the case that two of the books feature (view spoiler)[the complete destruction of Earth's biosphere (hide spoiler)]
—Brent Werness
A very satisfying disaster story, that strikes hard at the convention that the chosen people get to have and keep a haven of tranquility even as the world at large falls apart. There are no havens in Moonseed, and the fact that everyone has to keep struggling for and losing safety did a lot to hold my attention.Part of the fun in any disaster story is seeing what fresh awfulness the author has to deliver to us. Baxter is great for this, with calamities not a lot like anyone else's, applying classic principles of disaster-oriented extrapolation to quite recent scientific discovery and speculation. This time around, the world gets slagged by alien deconstructors that might be machines, or organic, or something that doesn't really fit either of those boxes (and the lack of obtainable answers about questions like that helps drive the story). It's epic, but anchored at each step of escalation in well-told personal experiences - there's pity as well as horror/shock here.
—Bruce Baugh
