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Firstborn (A Time Odyssey #3)

3.65 of 5 stars 3.65 · rating details · 1,172 ratings · 78 reviews

The Firstborn–the mysterious race of aliens who first became known to science fiction fans as the builders of the iconic black monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey–have inhabited legendary master of science fiction Sir Arthur C. Clarke’s writing for decades. With Time’s Eye and Sunstorm, the first two books in their acclaimed Time Odyssey series, Clarke and his brilliant co-a...more

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Published December 26th 2007 by Del Rey (first published 2007)

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Nov 12, 2012 Katie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Gah, this series just won't end. It's no Wheel of Time, true...but still. I think I read two other books while messing about trying to finish this one.

Earth is at war with aliens. Only it's not all about spaceship battles & shootouts. These are intelligent aliens. They trigger catastrophic sunflares to wipe us out, send bombs to tear hunks of the planet into alternate realities, basically engage us with the elements while never revealing themselves. Humanity continues to prevail, but barely...more

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Mar 21, 2011 Patrick Gibson rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

This is the 3rd book in the series, the collaboration between Clarke and Baxter further explores both authors interests in god-like aliens and the Fermi paradox. Unfortunately for me, it was a disappointment.

As in the previous Sunstorm, earth is threatened with extinction, this time by an "unstoppable" cosmological bomb. This is the device to keep the plot moving along, which it does, although ultimately the solution is poorly thought out and unsatisfying.

The better points of the book are the...more This is the 3rd book in the series, the collaboration between Clarke and Baxter further explores both authors interests in god-like aliens and the Fermi paradox. Unfortunately for me, it was a disappointment.

As in the previous Sunstorm, earth is threatened with extinction, this time by an "unstoppable" cosmological bomb. This is the device to keep the plot moving along, which it does, although ultimately the solution is poorly thought out and unsatisfying.

The better points of the book are the trademark descriptions of technology. Unfortunately we have read about them before. The space elevator, now updated from the Fountains of Paradise, are exactly as envisaged by Brad Edwards "The Space Elevator." The solar sail spacecraft are updated from Clarke's "The Wind from the sun" written over 40 years ago, but are essentially the same. We have anti-matter spaceships, not that dissimilar from Baxter's steam punk "Anti-Ice". The AIs are domesticated and benevolent HAL 9000s. Other ideas, such as the inflatable Martian habitats are current Nasa models and the re-wilding of the US is lifted in whole cloth from a SciAm article.

The bad points of the book are the poor plot and unnecessary events. We are given glimpses of a dying alien world around Procyon and hints that the Firstborn are systematically wiping out other races. We return our heroine, Bisesa Dutt to Mir again, but for no real reason as she plays little part in the resolution of the threat to earth, so the events are more of a distraction from where the real action is taking place. The bomb is unstoppable except that luckily the Last Martian in the Mir universe is contacted in a roundabout way, and using almost no information, correctly determines a course of action that fortuitously results in the bomb not destroying earth, but Mars instead. Very convenient, almost Deus ex Machina.

So we are left with more questions unanswered. Who are the Firstborn? Why do they really want to destroy technological life (a hint is given)? Why is Bisesa Dutt so special that she can travel between the 2 universes and why is her phone allowed to communicate between the worlds? Why was Mir created, yet for an apparently short lifetime? Are we going to get answers, or will they just remain plot devices, and for what real purpose?

Overall the ideas and plot are a mish-mash of ideas and plots that Clarke and Baxter have explored before, in better works. The space elevator journey is almost boring here, as is the solar sail space craft journey. Mir is conceptually similar to Manifold: Origins, yet the events are almost prosaic.

The book ends on a cliff-hanger. Let me guess, the next book will be entitled "Lastborn"? Can Baxter write on his own? Okay, I am being unfair, I know he can. He just doesn’t. Ouch.
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Jan 06, 2012 Rusty rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I try to remind myself that my enjoyment of a book, or movie, or TV show, or game, whatever, stems from my expectations going into it. Which of course is why I’m sure I’ll hate the new Avengers movie when it comes out later this year, but I’ll probably love something that should be lame, like The Phantom Menace 3D experience – which I would probably see in 2D.

Anyhow, the last book I reviewed I was a bit harsh on. I expected a fun romp through a future universe full of FTL and mysterious aliens,...more I try to remind myself that my enjoyment of a book, or movie, or TV show, or game, whatever, stems from my expectations going into it. Which of course is why I’m sure I’ll hate the new Avengers movie when it comes out later this year, but I’ll probably love something that should be lame, like The Phantom Menace 3D experience – which I would probably see in 2D.

Anyhow, the last book I reviewed I was a bit harsh on. I expected a fun romp through a future universe full of FTL and mysterious aliens, and instead I got a lesson in economics and bureaucratics… wait, is bureaucratics a word? Whatever, I got a lesson in how a bureaucracy can hamper pretty much anything important. I was disappointed and I vented. I still feel bad about it. I just hate being angry like that, anyone with kids might understand. After your kid does something stupid and you lose your cool and yell and scream and threaten and later realize that you might have overreacted… that’s the kind of guilt I feel over that last review.

Well, keep that in mind as I go forward. I had picked up Firstborn recently, a book by Arthur C Clarke and Stephen Baxter. If what I’ve heard is true, it’s really a book by Stephen Baxter with Clarke’s name attached. As this was shortly before Clarke passed away, and I’ve heard rumors that he hasn’t really contributed much to his collaborative efforts in a very long time anyway.

Regardless, Stephen Baxter is an author that I caught onto back in the early nineties and was someone I now look at like – if you can forgive me for dipping into baseball terms – a batter that in his second or third year in the major leagues, seemingly out of nowhere, manages bat .350 for a season. You think you have the next Ted Williams on your hands, but then he spends the rest of his career hitting around .290. You keep asking yourself why he’s not hitting the ball like he used to, but really, he was just an okay hitter that had an unbelievable hot streak one year.

In the case of Baxter, he had about 7 or 8 books that came out from around 94 til 2000 or so that blew me away with their sci fi awesomeness. Timelike Infinity, Ring, Mainfold: Time, Manifold: Space, Titan, Vacuum Diagrams (a short story collection). I couldn’t get enough of his stuff. He was my favorite author. This is the guy that made me a science fiction fan. In a lot of ways, he helped mold me into the person I am today.

But since that time, his novels have gotten a bit more… I don’t know, abstract. Things bottomed out for me when I read his Weaver books, I just didn’t like them, so much so that I quit the series without reading the final book.

Since that time, I’ve just been leery of Baxter, I see flashes of that great streak he had, but it’s only flashes. The man has this going for him though, he has BIG ideas.

Now, Firstborn is the third book in a trilogy, I read the first two, but is seemed like it was a very long time coming before the third one came out, so long in fact, that I didn’t bother to pick it up when it was new. I recall the first one I enjoyed, and the second one I thought was a bit odd. Wait, maybe I have that backwards. Damn. I just can't remember.

Regardless, when I was in the discount store the other day, they had stacks and stacks of this novel laying out for $3 I thought I would give it a chance. Maybe it was because I was coming off such a negative experience with my previous book, or because I was so ambivalent about starting this one – but whatever it was, I loved it.

Funny, as I look at other reviewers, I can see that not everyone felt this way about it. For me though, it was a grand tour of a post-apocalyptic earth, in a universe where some god like entity is determined to wipe out humanity from the cosmos, and humanity thumbs their nose at the gods, and decides to fight back.

Well, not fight back exactly, but avoid confrontation with as much balls as they can. I like Baxter’s take on the subject, it made me think. I struggled for a bit trying to recall characters from previous books, and I still am not sure I understand the aliens’ logic in the actions they took. But whatever, if this book was a letdown for some, it wasn’t for me, I wish he would riff off this theme for the rest of his career as an author. It’s awesome sci fi with a Clarke-like feel to it. Except with better characters. Not great characters mind you, but at least people I don’t think of as robots.
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Jan 29, 2011 Tancredi rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi

E così la nuova Odissea nel Tempo giunge ad una conclusione. Forse.
Dopo il mediocre e banale secondo capitolo, questo terzo romanzo si presenta decisamente migliore, e non solo perché tutti i nodi finalmente vengono al pettine.
La trama si presenta ben dispiegata, equilibrata, e se anche può sembra un po' troppo priva di azione il ritmo rimane comunque incalzante.
Ciò che fa brillare comunque questo romanzo è la cura nei dettagli e la resa di tutto lo sfondo sociale-culturale-tecnologico del mondo...more E così la nuova Odissea nel Tempo giunge ad una conclusione. Forse.
Dopo il mediocre e banale secondo capitolo, questo terzo romanzo si presenta decisamente migliore, e non solo perché tutti i nodi finalmente vengono al pettine.
La trama si presenta ben dispiegata, equilibrata, e se anche può sembra un po' troppo priva di azione il ritmo rimane comunque incalzante.
Ciò che fa brillare comunque questo romanzo è la cura nei dettagli e la resa di tutto lo sfondo sociale-culturale-tecnologico del mondo, anzi, dei diversi mondi in cui si svolge la storia. Dalla Terra di fine XXI secolo, agli esuli terrestri su Marte, agli spaziali, che hanno scelto di vivere in piena libertà nelle stazioni spaziali, con le loro religioni pagane. Clarke, soprattutto, non manca di fornire sempre i dettagli delle sue "invenzioni", dall'ascensore spaziale all'esplorazione di Marte (tutti progetti scientifici in via di sperimentazione e ben documentati).
Un altro punto a favore è il ritorno al lontano mondo di Mir, la Terra-collage temporale del primo episodio, che qui viene recuperata, e che mostra uno sviluppo molto coerente. Ritroviamo quindi Alessandro il Macedone, ormai vecchio, ed il suo sogno di conquista mondiale.
Insomma, in questo terzo episodio della trilogia c'è davvero di tutto e di più.
Ciò che ho apprezzato particolarmente, nella narrazione, è la facilità con cui i due autori usano punti di vista particolarmente singolari: macchine intelligenti, sonde, navicelle, e persino forme di vita aliena.
Nemmeno la caratterizzazione dei personaggi è trascurata. Se alcuni appaiono appena abbozzati, per il ruolo loro richiesto, brilla invece la resa di certi personaggi e la volontà di affrontare certi temi, come quello del rapporto madre-figlia. Il che può suonare quasi rivoluzionario: siamo davanti ad un romanzo di hard sci-fi, ma c'è una fortissima componente femminile, moltissimi personaggi femminili ed una continua incursione nella psicologia femminile, in tutte le sue sfaccettature. E' un romanzo in cui ad agire sono quasi sempre donne, madri, figlie, mogli.

In definitiva, è un'ottima conclusione per una trilogia sci-fi molto originale e stimolante. Non un capolavoro, ma abbastanza degna di attenzione. Quanto al finale aperto (apertissimo!), è un classico finale alla Clarke, che persino poco prima della sua morte non ha voluto smentirsi.(less)

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Sep 16, 2012 Shanrina rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jul 18, 2009 Stephanie rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Book 4 of the last series co-penned by Clarke (and his 2nd to last book), a supurb sci-fi futurist author. His works read as a future that is plausible and this one doesnt fall short. I enjoy the story line of this series, even though I am no fan of time distortion (if even that is what has taken place in this series) and I look forward to see where they go with this final book.
****
Finishing this book was a bit of a disappointment. The 'universe' was great , though a lot of it is much the same a...more

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Mar 28, 2012 Army of Penguins rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Oof. I'll say this series was... interesting. I hadn't been a big fan of Time's Eye, but Sunstorm had been absolutely epic. And now this book... ends up somewhere between the other two, which is kinda fitting since it also tries to balance the uber-epic threat level of Sunstorm with the fantastic setting of Mir from Time's Eye.

I won't go into too spoiler-y plot details here, so I'll just say that my main issues with this book were the pacing and the last few chapters, which left me mildly confus...more

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Aug 23, 2010 Jake rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, science-fiction, arthur-c-clarke

Like some other readers, I had a harder time getting into this book than Time’s Eye and Sunstorm . I'll admit that one reason was my inability to fully grasp the scientific concepts involved. However, I also think that Stephen Baxter uses so much ink developing the technological and theoretical concepts that character development gets neglected.

Nevertheless, I loved the last 70 pages or so. Once Mr. Baxter gets past the predictable fate of the Q-bomb, the story opens up into a fascinating ex...more

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Jul 29, 2011 Rick Ludwig rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-since-retirement

A conclusion that ties up the other two books, but I was disappointed. I rank this between the other two. the first in the series was my favorite and promised more than the subsequent two delivered. This one was better than the second in the series, which had little to do with the first. I wish I had stopped after reading Time's Eye to be honest. Taken on its own, Firstborn had some good moments, but they were scattered. I was glad to see Bisesa return to Mir and to see what had happened there,...more

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Jan 29, 2013 Matt rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

I think I started reading this book a while ago, and I don't think I finished it. I did not have the stamina, and it had a lot of similar plot elements to the book "The Last Theorem" which was Clarke's posthumous novel completed by Frederick Pohl. I liked "Last Theorem" as Pohl had turned it into novel to pay homage to Clarke.

Clarke was having a tough time of things during his final days and I wonder if Clarke had just given Pohl the material his was working on with Baxter.

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Dec 18, 2009 Javier rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I SO wanted to love this book. In fact, I did, right up to the ending! Still, it was a fun read and I was totally drawn into the conclusion. I just wasn't happy with the way it ended. If Sir Arthur C. Clarke had not passed away, we might have seen a sequel. But, alas, I don't think we will and I'm stuck using my imagination to see how the whole thing really ends. That may have been the point of the sorry ending, but where's the fun in that? LOL. ;)

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Aug 07, 2011 Ted Hopkins added it · review of another edition

I have to disagree with the immediately previous review. This is the most Clarke of the three novels in this series, right down to the short sharp chapters and vividly imagined impact of alien influences on human activity. I like the character development through this book as people change more realistically than in the first two. I found it the most satisfying of the three.

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May 01, 2012 Robert rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: _reviewed, _owndont

It wasn’t like waking. It was a sudden emergence, a clash of cymbals.

This was a dissapointing conclusion to an otherwise fantastic series. Firstborn lacked the mystery and excitement of A Time's Eye, the action and science of Sunstorm and felt more like the opening of a series and not the closing of one. The majority of the book came off as a nostalgic tour through previously introduced settings where more interesting things happened while introducing less interesting characters. The pacing part...more

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Jun 15, 2009 Mark rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the final book in the Clarke-Baxter Time Oddessy series and one of Clarke's final books before passing away in 2008. It's tangentially related to Clarke's 2001, 2010, 2064, and 3001 Space Oddessy series with the "Eyes" taking the place of monoliths and the Firstborn being the intelligence behind the Eyes/Monoliths. Not quite as good as the Space Oddessy series. Nevertheless, Clarke & Baxter bring in some fun ideas and interesting angles in regards to dark energy and quintessence. Man...more

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Feb 12, 2013 M T rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The book builds toward's a climatic cliffhanger, too bad it'll never be finished it only really gets exciting near the end and even then it is a bit of a chore.

It is a let down that the story will never have a conclusion and from Sir. Clarke's previous works the ends are always worth the plodding that has to be done in the middle.

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Sep 18, 2011 Eric rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read this, the last book of the Time Odyssey series, expecting more elaboration upon the goals and motivation of the Firstborn, with the hope of a glimpse of the actual McCoy...dashed in the end. The conclusion leaves much to be desired, though the story was riveting throughout much of its run...

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May 30, 2012 Slightly rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Honestly: meh.
Kind of a let down. I guess everything was wrapped up. Maybe my mind was wandering while i was reading... but it sort of left me with a lackluster feeling when it all ended. the ideas were pretty cool. I really liked the parts set on Mir. but.... idk... it didn't move me.

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Jan 29, 2012 Erik rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

At times the authors delve a little too deeply into politics that slow the story down, but otherwise a worthy conclusion to the trilogy, if still a bit too optimistic about humankind's ability to endure despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

In the end, it seems all stories (especially by these authors) that try to address the far future of the universe end in overwhelming cold, darkness, and loneliness. That, I find extremely depressing.

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Apr 15, 2013 Jake Dejarnette rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi

Absolutely phenomenal. Clarke and Baxter do an amazing job of weaving a seemingly-unstoppable threat to all of humanity with fundamental interpersonal conflicts. It's a shame that the sequels hinted at will likely never see the light of day. Definitely a must-read for any sci-fi fan.

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Apr 26, 2011 Stephen Twelker rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I so wanted to like Firstborn, but my patience for it fell apart about halfway through. While many of the science-inspired elements were fascinating, some thinly sketched characters and a loose plot eventually turned me off. Still, it's probably a must read if you're into the series.

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Dec 21, 2012 Charleen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: year-2012, 3-stars

The third book in this series brings together elements of the first two, but lacks the best parts of each. Reading other reviews, it seems like I'm not alone in finding this the weakest of the series. It still had some enjoyable parts, but overall it wasn't all that satisfying.

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Sep 11, 2012 Karen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I enjoyed this last of the series that I found.. was looking for another in the series. it continued the journey of the other two books in the future of space travel, space history, future and past and alternate answers if we are alone or pawns in someone else's history.

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Jun 20, 2009 Tony rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The conclusion of the Time's Odyssey series. Science fiction should have some chance at becoming science fact. Clarke & Baxter are very good at exploring very achievable technology. A good read, it helps to believe in space exploration. I believe this is AC Clarke's last book.

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Sep 03, 2012 Michel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I think this is the weakest book in the Firstborn trilogy, although still very good. Don't expect closure. The technology described in the book is simply awesome. A couple of heart-wrenching moments. What this series miss the most is a fourth book.

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Feb 01, 2013 Peter rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It started as an interesting SciFi and ended as a convoluted and complicated story that was very hard to understand. I finished it but it was hard work and took ages. Not recommended unless you are a complete science fiction fan.

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Apr 20, 2011 Michael MacConnell rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Enormously disappointing. Weak, agonisingly slow in places, unfocussed and in dire need of professional editing. It isn't even a conclusion to the series, ending with a flaccid open final chapter. Don't bother with this one.

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Feb 08, 2011 Nikola rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read it in two days! Now much to say, your usual Clarke-ian SF and I felt that the resolution in the end was a bit of a deus ex machina but overall it was a very exciting ride, with brilliant pacing and fantastic ideas!

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Jul 12, 2009 Dave Kennedy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Great book. It seemed to bounce between classic Sci-Fi that I expect from Clarke, and an action-adventure. There were a few chapters that I extremely enjoyed that discussed the implementation of a Space Elevator in great detail.

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Jun 21, 2009 Maciej Janiec rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Trzeci tom trylogii "Odyseja czasu" kończy się w sposób taktyczny - bezpośrednie niebezpieczeństwo przedstawione w książce zostaje zażegnane, ale główny problem pozostaje nierozwiązany.

Zastanawia mnie niska skuteczność działań podejmowanych przez tytułowych Pierworodnych. Niby tacy potężni, a - jak można przeczytać w książce - bardzo wielu (większości?) zadań nie udaje im się zrealizować, mimo że próbowali ich już co najmniej kilkakrotnie. Jakby zupełnie nie uczyli się na własnych błędach, tylko...more

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Jan 19, 2009 Cindy added it · review of another edition

A big asteroid is on track to hit the earth in 2019. Want to know what to do? Fix NASA, and read Firstborn. Arthur Clarke & Stephen Baxter tackle asteroids as only the first challenge in the Odyssey series.

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About Arthur C. Clarke

Arthur C. Clarke was one of the most important and influential figures in 20th century science fiction. He spent the first half of his life in England, where he served in World War Two as a radar operator, before emigrating to Ceylon in 1956. He is best known for the novel and movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, which he co-created with the assistance of Stanley Kubrick.

Clarke was a graduate of King's Co...more

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Firstborn (A Time Odyssey #3)

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