{4.5\/5} “We’re both in the same boat, aren’t we? Both having lived long enough to become more than a little embarrassing to our peers. Me because I’ve shown a touch too much sympathy for Machines over the years, you maybe because you’ve spent much too long in the presence of ideological contaminants like me.”<\/p>\n
The Medusa Chronicles<\/strong> by Stephen Baxter & Alastair Reynolds, published in 2016<\/p>\n Howard Falcon heads out to an iceteroid far from Earth, where a mining operation is going on that’s worth billions. After an incident, the Machines who do the mining have stopped working. The Machine in charge, Adam, has possibly become conscious — and the powers that be want Falcon to erase the last month from its memory.<\/p>\n This is a sequel to Arthur C. Clarke’s story “A Meeting with Medusa.” In the hands of these 2 terrific authors, it’s a worthy sequel.<\/p>\n It’s episodic, with Falcon participating in important events through the centuries. There’s some astonishing speculation.<\/p>\n It’s about the wonder of exploration. It’s about the relations between humans, Machines, superchimps, and alien creatures.<\/p>\n I’ve read 10 books by Baxter. I previously reviewed his novel Ultima<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n