Rate this book1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 starsOrigin(Manifold #3)byStephen Baxter3.69·Rating details·3,013ratings·86reviewsStephen Baxter continues to think big and create SF on a grand cosmic scale inOrigin, the third novel of his Manifold trilogy.The Manifold is an infinite sheaf of alternative universes which Baxterexplores in terms of Fermi's Paradox. There's no reason why humanityshould be unique; logically there should be alien races, some longenough established to have made their mark on the galaxy;where are they?Book one,Time, offered a vision of lonely humanity extending to the far end of eternity and finally rebooting a "better" universe.Spaceshowed the consequences of teeming interstellar life, a cruel strugglefor resources, punctuated by galactic-sized extinction events. NowOriginconfronts the whole Manifold and its and humanity's manipulation by enigmatic "Old Ones".Astronaut Reid Malenfant (versions of whom starred inTimeandSpace)again encounters advanced technology as a huge, glowing blue circle--aportal to and from the Red Moon that wanders between universes and hasjust replaced our own moon. It's habitable and populated by anextraordinary medley from all stages of human evolution, scooped up fromdifferent Earths. There's much conflict with primitives leading nasty,brutish and short lives... plus super-evolved humans who debate whetherweare truly sentient.At its core the Red Moon contains the failing World Engine which flipsbetween universes. Also down there is the secret history of thismulti-verse, right back to the cataclysmic branch-point from which theManifold flowered. Who are the Old Ones? "They made the manifold"--butwere maybe not so different from us and rash, quixotic Malenfant afterall.