Title: Definitely Not a Page-Turner
Product review: I've been a big fan of Stephen Baxter's work over the years, and much admired his best novels, like Titan and Voyage and Moonseed. He has been one of the best novelists to carry on the tradition of good, solid, interesting, hard sci-fi. But I am about 300 pages into Coalescent and can find little to recommend it. The historical characters are barely two-dimensional and the modern ones little better. The two alternating stories that make up Coalescent have too little intrinsic interest to sustain the reader's attention. The only reason to slog through Coalescent is if you intend to read the two promised follow-on novels that make up the trilogy, as it doesn't generate much interest of its own. Baxter has become one of the most prolific sci-fi writers, but I think Coalescent shows he is now spreading himself too thin.
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