The Medusa Chronicles

By: Stephen Baxter, Alastair Reynolds

Narrated by: Peter Kenny

Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

A sequel to Sir Arthur C. Clarke's Nebula Award-winning novella A Meeting with Medusa, this novel is a continuation of the thrilling adventure of astronaut Howard Falcon, humanity's first explorer of Jupiter, from two modern science fiction masters.

Howard Falcon almost lost his life in an accident as the first human astronaut to explore the atmosphere of Jupiter - and a combination of human ingenuity and technical expertise brought him back. But he is no longer himself. Instead he has been changed into an augmented human: part man, part machine, and exceptionally capable.

With permission from the Clarke estate, Stephen Baxter and Alastair Reynolds continue this beloved writer's enduring vision and have created a fresh story for new listeners. The Medusa Chronicles charts Falcon's journey through the centuries granted by his new body but always goes back to the mysteries of Jupiter and the changing interaction between humanity and the universe. A compelling listen full of incredible action right from the beginning, this is a modern classic in the spirit of 2001 and The Martian.

©2016 Stephen Baxter & Alastair Reynolds (P)2016 Simon & Schuster Audio

Arthur C. Clarke would be proud!

I really enjoyed the story and the reader. Arthur C. Clarke would be proud of the life his short story took on.

Hard scifi w nearly all male cast :-(

Decent enough hard scifi novel spanning many centuries. Some of the cool ideas in the book include the use of zeppelins to explore other planets, the uplift of chimps to sentience, the rise of a machine civilization, intelligent animal life on Jupiter, the colonization of Mercury, life extension for humans, and much more. I found the science and the tech very interesting, but the story and the characters behind the tech were pretty flat. I was particularly dismayed that the only major female character was a nurse (eventually she does become a doctor) who spends most of her time comforting her patient, the male main character, by holding his hand. On top of that stereotyped relationship, one of the characters calls the other one "Tonto" a couple of times and even says "white man speaks with forked tongue"! I was astonished that a book written in 2016 would use such offensive language. I don't care that these characters were from the 1950s or 60s, that is no excuse for including that kind of language. There are other ways to give the reader the flavor of the era without resorting to racial slurs.

The best parts of the book were the descriptions of the planet Jupiter and its life forms. These sections were almost poetic; a welcome contrast to all the technological infodumps. The ending was also quite unique and eschewed the usual gigantic final battle for a much more thought-provoking resolution.

[I listened to this as an audio book read by Peter Kenney, who did an amazing job differentiating the (mostly male) characters by using a wide variety of accents.]

An amazing piece

I can’t tell this wasn’t done by Arthur C Clarke. Reynolds & Baxter did a fantastic job.

Odd narrator

I liked the story but had a problem with the narrator. Peter Kenny has an odd upward inflection in his voice which makes him sound overly cheery.

Magnificent

I rarely write reviews. The book has to really be impactful. Something that makes me stop after reading and wonder. This is such a book. Forget about the negative reviews. Yes the first handful of chapters are slow. But the final chapters escalate to a satisfying crescendo. You won’t be disappointed. Well done Misters Baxter and Reynolds!

Monday. performance and wonderful story

As one might expect from a collaboration between two of the great SF writers of the Era, combining long time imagination and practical science/engineering expertise, and in reflection upon a short by one of the all time masters of the craft, this book is wonderful. Fleshed out in lively details, the story of one man turned cyborg explorer traveling through the future of humanity century by century, always called to be a tool in the negotiation between man, machine, and life itself. This is truly a refreshing perspective, a break from the typical space opera military man or savvy politico, as an explorer by trade Commander Falcon (no relation to the Captain) provides levity, poise, and a thirst for knowledge mirroring that of the reader.

As always, Peter Kenney takes to story to brilliant heights with a deft and entertaining performance. Truly the preeminent talent of SF narration in my opinion, he does not disappoint with this one.

Intriguing follow-on to an Arthur C Clarke short

The Medusa Chronicles, a joint effort by Alastair Reynolds and Stephen Baxter is a follow-on story to a 1971 Arthur C Clarke short (A Meeting with Medusa) that originally appeared in a magazine (Playboy) and as such may not have enjoyed wide distribution. Howard Falcon, the main character from the Clarke short who is a cyborg, serves as a witness and participant in the passage of time within the solar system, chronicling the conquest of the planets and asteroids, the discovery of alien life, and the emergence of machine intelligence, along with political and societal upheaval. Always the mediator, go between, and negotiator, Falcon plays in central role in nearly every significant event in Earth's future history.

The sci-fi elements are a mix of rudimentary space travel, alien lifeforms within a gas giant, and the rise of machine intelligence. Perhaps more fascinating than the science fiction and the story plot is the gradual transition in presentation from the more classic sci-fi of Clarke's era to a more contemporary style as displayed by the authors' other works, leading to a progression towards a more complex, nuanced and engaging tale as the story evolves. In the end, Falcon has a Forrest Gump quality that places him squarely in the middle of every significant turning point for humanity and the other forms of life and intelligences that come to inhabit the solar system eventually becoming a type of ambassador for the whatever come next.

The narration is nicely done with a good range of voices, including the non-human entities that comprise a large set of the major players.

Very good.

It very much comes off as a brilliant nod towards the imaginative worlds of Clarke. I hope these two work together again. This is definitely worth listening too.

it gets better

What did you like best about The Medusa Chronicles? What did you like least?

it turns into some good interesting sci fi. stick with it. the front half is rather bland but it picks up. good ending.

A Great Expassion From Simple Beginnings

I love Arrhur C Clarke. I enjoyed his short story , A Meeting With Medusa. I was surprised when I saw two great authors of modern sci-fi, picking up where the short story left off and expanding the literary universe of that short story into this epic saga. As a huge fan of Clarke and his work, I decided to see what Baxter and Reynolds could do with the idea and the character.

This book exceeded my expectations! Being VERY familiar with the writing style of Clarke and the majority of his writing, I was pleasantly surprised at how the narrative even felt and flowed like Clarke had written it! Not and easy feat for an author to emulate the style of another and to pull it off with grace and style.

Main character starts and is by nature a little flat, but something about the epic sprawl of this saga and the grandiose narrative (spanning decades to centuries) managed to pull me in despite the initial flatness of a half robotic character from a short story. Somehow, the almost comical stoic flatness of main character Falcon grew on me. I began to open up to the John Wayne-like bravado and damn-it-all, do the right thing at all costs attitude of the nearly immortal cyborg. Character failings that bugged me at first and almost felt like warning signs of an under defined character, somehow worked to pull into the character as the absurdity of the ridiculously long timeline and story arch stretched on.

Eventually, these things that I saw as character flaws turned into marker points of consistency... Falcon pulls you along for the ride through a saga that could have been easily ruined by cheapness or sentimentality. Instead, it unfolds in unexpected and surprising ways... reaching new depths of insight into the capacity for goodness within the soul of humanity and beyond.