1999-07-08 A near-overwhelming blast of ideas...with a bleak climax.

The 21 stories here cover a huge range of themes and styles, but be aware that a similarly broad spectrum of quality is also a characteristic of this collection. 'The Droplet' seems rather clumsy in it's portrayal of human relationships, 'Weep for the Moon' is so full to bursting of superb ideas it becomes a bizarre mess, and 'Good News' is simply limited by concerns of copyright and continuity of a certain Man of Tommorow. But, as in his novels, when Baxter is good, he's the best. 'Columbiad' totally convinces us that Verne's Lunar voyage really happened, and Baxter's research and attention to detail, as well as his insight into the minds of real space explorers, makes 'Pilgrim 7' an excellent piece of sf. In 'Zemlya', again we are given a near-overwhelming blast of ideas- Gagarin's shocking secret destiny after Vostok, and the development of life on Venus - yet this time the reader just about comes through. It is 'Moon Six' which seems to be the grand moment of 'Traces'. In this, human reactions and emotions are noted perfectly, the various moon missions that the US and USSR never flew are described with total realism, and the science is intruiging. The display of an early-A.C.Clarke/Dan Dare world is suprising, funny, and shocking- a great moment in sf, as is this whole collection. We end our trip with Baxter 'In the MSOB', and, like in his other shorts collection 'Vacuum Diagrams', we find the destination is terribly bleak. Clarke's Universe is indifferently hostile; Baxter pulls no punches in showing us that man is, also.