It turns out that the Hatches are not just wormholes in space, but also between dimensions/universes. While Ultima is definitely a sequel to Proxima, it goes in a really different direction, which is not too surprising given the discovery of the mysterious Hatches at the end of Proxima. I liked the previous volume in this duology, Proxima, which you might say is part of the trend of "Interstellar Voyaging 101" (see my post on the topic). With Ultima, I particularly enjoyed thinking about the contingency of history in addition to Baxter's usual Arthur C. Hard SF is not everyone's cup of tea, but Baxter brews some of the best hard SF tea there is. Stephen Baxter is one of my favorite practitioners of so-called " hard science fiction" (a sub-genre generally longer on scientific speculation and Big Ideas than things like characterization and plot).
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