ISBN: 0345457838 9780345457837

Category: Fiction / Science Fiction / Hard Science Fiction

Page count: 656

<b>“Magisterial and uplifting . . . A brilliant, grandscale sampling of sixty-five million years of human evolution . . . It shows the sweep and grandeur of life in its unrelenting course.” —<i>The Denver Post</i></b><br><br>Stretching from the distant past into the remote future, from primordial Earth to the stars, <i>Evolution</i> is a soaring symphony of struggle, extinction, and survival; a dazzling epic that combines a dozen scientific disciplines and a cast of unforgettable characters to convey the grand drama of evolution in all its awesome majesty and rigorous beauty. Sixty-five million years ago, when dinosaurs ruled the Earth, there lived a small mammal, a proto-primate of the species <i>Purgatorius</i>. From this humble beginning, Baxter traces the human lineage forward through time. The adventure that unfolds is a gripping odyssey governed by chance and competition, a perilous journey to an uncertain destination along a route beset by sudden and catastrophic upheavals. It is a route that ends, for most species, in stagnation or extinction. Why should humanity escape this fate?<br><br><b>Praise for <i>Evolution</i></b><br><br>“Spectacular.”<b>—</b><i><b>The New York Times Book Review</b></i><br><br>“Strong imagination, a capacity for awe, and the ability to think rigorously about vast and final things abound in the work of Stephen Baxter. . . . [<i>Evolution</i>] leaves the reader with a haunting portrayal of the distant future.”<b>—<i>Times Literary Supplement </i></b><br><br>“A breath of fresh air . . . The miracle of <i>Evolution</i> is that it makes the triumph of life, which is its story, sound like the real story.”<b>—<i>The Washington Post Book World</i></b>