Baxter is back with the final volume in his monumental Destiny?s Children trilogy, a tour de force in which parallel stories unfold?and then meet as humanity stands poised on the brink of divine providence . . . or extinction.
Destiny's Children
Del Rey
November 2005
496 pages ISBN: 0345457919 Hardcover Add to Wish List
It is the year 2047, and nuclear engineer Michael Poole is
still in the throes of grief. His beloved wife, Morag, died
seventeen years ago, along with their second child. Yet
Michael is haunted by more than just the memory of Morag.
On a beach in Miami, he sees his dead wife. But she
vanishes as suddenly as she appears, leaving no clue as to
her mysterious purpose.
Alia was born on a starship, fifteen thousand light years
from Earth, five hundred thousand years after the death of
Michael Poole. Yet she knows him intimately. In this
distant future, when humanity has diversified as a species
and spread across the galaxy, every person is entrusted
with the duty of Witnessing the life of one man, woman, or
child from the past, recovered by means of a technology
able to traverse time itself. Alia’s subject is Michael
Poole.
When his surviving, estranged son is injured, Michael tries
to reconnect with him–and to stave off a looming
catastrophe. Vast reservoirs of toxic gases lie buried
beneath the poles, trapped in crystals of ice. Now that ice
is melting. Once it goes, the poisons released will
threaten all life on Earth. A bold solution is within
reach, if only Michael can convince a doubting world. Yet
as Morag’s ghostly visitations continue, Michael begins to
doubt his own sanity.
In the future, Alia is chosen to become a Transcendent, an
undying member of the group mind that is shepherding
humanity toward an evolutionary apotheosis. The Witnessings
are an integral part of their design, for only by redeeming
the pain of every human who has lived and died can true
Transcendence be achieved. Yet Alia discovers a dark side
to the Transcendents’ plans, a vein of madness that may
lead to an unthinkable renunciation.
Somehow, Michael Poole holds the fate of the future in his
hands. Now, to save that future, Alia must undertake a
desperate journey into the past. . .
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