Ultima

August 1, 2015
Picking up pretty much at the moment Proxima (2014) ended, this hugely inventive sf novel begins with two of the earlier tale's lead characters, Yuri Eden and Stef Kalinski, in an alternate timeline in which the Roman Empire became the planet Earth's major superpower. Can they use the mysterious Hatches, interdimensional gates built by humans but masterminded by an unknown and possibly alien intelligence, to get back to their own timeline? Baxter builds a completely believable alternate universehis conception of Roman space travel is just wonderful, a mixture of high-tech and ancient historyand then, later in the book, he builds still another alternate universe, entirely different but just as authentic. Themes are explored there that were merely hinted at near the conclusion of Proxima; this isn't so much a sequel as a thematic extension that (mostly) tells a new story. Baxter takes us on an interplanetary, interdimensional odyssey in which history is fluid, the past becomes many pasts, and the phrase the end of time suddenly has real meaning. Don't miss it.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)