Moonseed

By Stephen Baxter

Venus has exploded.

Showering Earth with radiation and bizarre particles that wipe out all the crops and half the life in the oceans.

Suddenly, the ground itself begins melting into pools of dust that grow larger every day. For what has demolished Venus, and now threatens Earth itself, is part machine, part life-form – a nano-virus, dubbed Moonseed.

Four scientists are all that stand between Moonseed and Earth’s extinction, four brilliant minds that must race to cut off the virus and save what’s left of the planet.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK
• Release date: Jun 28, 2012
• ISBN: 9780007392353

Stephen Baxter

Stephen Baxter is an acclaimed, multiple-award-winning author whose many books include the Xeelee Sequence series, the Time Odyssey trilogy (written with Arthur C. Clarke), and The Time Ships, a sequel to H. G. Wells's classic The Time Machine. He lives in England.

Reviews for Moonseed

[didireallyreadthat · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I couldn't finish this book. Too much detail and I couldn't identify with the characters at all.

[Mary Conlon · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What a fantastic, enthralling read. You get the human touch with human characters who you want to know better. And even though the book is more than 20 years old, the science is fascinating and I would imagine still spot on - being clueless about geology myself. And there is a lot of geology but I found myself reading it all, not skipping bits, though I understood only half of it. I love apocalyptic fiction and this is a whole different level of end of the world stuff. This stimulates your imagination, makes you aware of the insignificance of the human race, but also our great potential. Highly recommend.

[yarriofultramar · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Not as breathtaking as Titan by the same author, but interesting nevertheless. Humanity brings doom upon itself by bringing a nano-technological grey goo from the Moon that slowly devours the Earth. This is a sad story where there is a very little hope. The first part is especially poignant - destruction of Edinburgh, misery and human stupidity. The interesting thing in Baxter's books is that his characters are full of flaws - not really typical heroes of SF but very much humans troubled by issues. The book is full of technical details regarding space exploration and geology. Large info-dumps are perhaps a nuisance to some but I enjoy them and Baxter certainly makes the subject interesting. Some issues I had with the book: one particular character behaves in a very unbelievable way - I am taking about a teenager rascal turn into Space Religion Guru, secondly I feel that whole shtick in the end with main character convincing US to give him a nuke, no question asked - that rises some doubts - I understand that it was necessary for a big surprise in the end but still.In the end - not my favorite Hard SF but certainly memorable. I think I will further my interest into Mr. Baxter's works.

[dawnbirduk_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Very slow, i did plough through it though, started off promising

[rw_flyer · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Stephen Baxter's work is good hard science fiction, and Moonseed is no exception. It is long and has many characters, but it is a intriguing idea for world disaster, made more so because it doesn't happen over a weekend but takes years to unfold. The political, personal, and technology elements are mixed well.