Phase Space

Phase Space

Author	Stephen Baxter
Country	Great Britain
Language	English
Series	Manifold
Genre(s)	Science fiction
Publisher	Voyager
Publication date	2003
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN	ISBN 0-00-651185-6
Preceded by	Manifold: Origin

Phase Space, subtitle: Stories from the Manifold and Elsewhere (published by Voyager an imprint of HarperCollins, ISBN 0-00-651185-6) is a 2003 science fiction collection by Stephen Baxter containing twenty-three thematically linked stories, in which the human relationship with the universe is explored: whether we are truly alone, if there are other intelligent species, if these have turned their backs on us, or if expansion itself is destined to fail. Maybe the reality we know is nothing but an elaborate hoax, protecting us from something far more sinister.

Written in the same style as most of Stephen Baxter's work, Phase Space is a collection of more or less scientifically based stories, in the tradition of Arthur C. Clarke. The stories are set in the same Multiverse as previous Manifold books.

The book contains the following short stories:

Dreams (I)

• "Moon-Calf" (1998)

Earths

• "Open Loops" (2000)
• "Glass Earth, Inc." (1997) - A policeman must sort through the memories of a murder to find out who the killer is, and in the process, learns more about himself then he ever knew.
• "Poyakhali 3012" (1997) - The experiences of a Russian cosmonaut are no more than the ultimate re-enactment.
• "Dante Dreams" (1998) - A police woman from San Francisco travels to The Vatican to investigate the suicide of a Jesuit priest and an illegally-created sentient hologram based on the late priest.
• "War Birds" (1997)

Worlds

• "Sun-Drenched" (1998)
• "Martian Autumn" (2002)
• "Sun God" (1997)
• "Sun-Cloud" (2001)

Manifold

• "Sheena 5" (2000)
• "The Fubar Suit" (1997) - An astronaut is stranded in space wearing a suit guaranteed to re-create her when her corpse is discovered. Meanwhile, a microscopic world evolves inside the suit, threatening her existence.
• "Grey Earth" (2001)
• "Huddle" (1999)

Paradox

• "Refugium" (2002)
• "Lost Continent" (2001) - Two friends discuss the possibility that Atlantis may have been more than a myth, and may have been more recent than anyone ever dreamed.
• "Tracks" (2001)
• "Lines of Longitude" (1997) - A physicist teaching a community college course must come to terms with reality when one of her students dies after having disappeared for several days. The aftermath of his death have graver consiquences than she can imagine.
• "The Barrier" (1998)
• "Marginalia" (1999)
• "The We Who Sing" (2002)
• "The Gravity Mine" (2000)
• "Spindrift" (1999)
• "Touching Centauri" (2003) - Scientists attempting to use a laser to contact another world inadvertantly cause the end of their universe, and everyone must come to terms with the reality of their existence. (While snippets of the story are touched upon between each previous story, the full explaination is given here.)

Dreams (II)

• "The Twelfth Album" (1998) - Two friends mourning their departed shipmate find a strange Beatles record, leading them to believe that their friend's drunken ravings might have been true.

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