Ultima

Proxima, Book 2

By: Stephen Baxter

Narrated by: Kyle McCarley

On the planet of Per Ardua, alien artifacts were discovered - hatches that allowed humans to step across light-years of space as if they were stepping into another room. But this newfound freedom has consequences. As humanity discovers the real nature of the universe, a terrifying truth comes to light: We all have countless pasts converging in this present - and our future is terrifyingly finite. There are minds in the universe that are billions of years old, and now we are vulnerable to their plans for us. It's time to fight back and take control.

©2014 Stephen Baxter (P)2015 Tantor

Book 2 delivers the goods.

Uri Eden, the main protagonist from Book 1, has just barely made it through the hatch with Steph Kalinsky and the Col-U. As their brains wrap around the idea that in this version the Roman Empire didn't fall and became space faring, Uri begins to succumb to what he calls Freezer Burn. Apparently when you've been subjected to Cryo sleep for a large portion of your life cancers run amok when you are thawed.
Back in the Sol system Penny Kalinski, Lex Macgregor, and Beth Eden Jones Narrowly escape distaster in a Hulk-kernel ship test platform as the Chinese Hedgemony crash a bundle of kernel ships moving at near relativistic speed into Mercury. The result propels them to the Roman-Bricante-Sheen Universe without the use of a hatch. One other person is with them...Earthshine. One of the three deep core artificial intelligences. He has an agenda.
There is yet two more Universes visited in this book but I will leave those for you to discover. The story is gripping and in this form excellently told through the vocal ranges of the narrator. It did not disappoint and I'm giving it four out of five entertainment points.

End of the world

Not sure killing off all the main characters in order to conclude the story was an original concept.
The universe ending at a natural wall or boundary is the basis for this story, this is not supported by physics published in the 21st century, therefore it delves into fantasy.

Not for those with short attention spans

The whole book is one very long introduction with minimal character development. Overall plot is thought provoking if boiled down to its core elements.

Lots of very interesting theories.

Overall, it was entertaining enough for me listen to both books in the series. I would say it was a very ambitious undertaking by the author. Maybe a little to ambitious? I would have given it a better review if not for the storyline being very difficult to follow at times.

Great and powerful story

Baxter does ideas better by far to anyone. Great story taking that I mostly enjoy