Once gained, he is determined to stop them. He is determined to send out a message to their creators, (who he calls The Dreamers) in order to gain their attention. Starshine has determined the origin of the creator of the kernels, the seemingly unlimited energy source. The AI Earthshine has managed to be transported there and clearly has plans of ‘his’ own. In another plotline, the destruction of the planet Mercury and the subsequent bombardment of Earth in the ongoing war between the Chinese and the rest of the world in Proxima has led to another group of characters leaving Earth to end up at Mars. (Fans of the legendary Trigan Empire comic strip of the 1960’s will love this.) They are met by Centurion Quintus Fabius aboard the airship Malleus Jesu. Two of our heroes, Yuri Eden and Steph Kalinski, have gone through a Hatch to arrive at a world where the Roman Empire has never fallen. It’s time for us to fight to take back control. But as we learn the true nature of the universe we also discover that we have countless pasts all meeting in this present and that our future is terrifyingly finite. And we discover that there are minds in the universe that are billions of years old and they have a plan for us. Now in ULTIMA the consequences of this new freedom make themselves felt. You have been warned.)įrom the publisher: “In PROXIMA we discovered ancient alien artifacts on the planet of Per Ardua – hatches that allowed us to step across light years of space as if we were stepping into another room. (And so, in order to explain further, major plot revelations from Proxima have to be revealed here. After the pleasant surprise of Proxima ( review here), in Ultima we’re launched straight into the cliff-hanger ending of the previous novel.

Stephen baxter ultima