Stories set in a variety of futures from the award-winning heir of Arthur C. Clarke: Traces gives a kaleidoscopic vision of the possibilities for humankind.

There are vision of histories which differ from our own, either through small changes – what if Germany had won WWI (‘Mittelwelt’) – or through a fundamental difference in physical laws – what if Archimedes had been right in his clockwork-like cosmological vision (‘No Longer Touch the Earth’).

There are visions of futures in which people struggle to survive in a variety of bizarre environments (‘Downstream’, ‘The Blood of Angels’), or, weakened and powerless, inhabit the end of worlds (‘Inherit the Earth’, ‘George and the Comet’).

There are explorations of astonishing events of our own lifetimes, in particular the grand expansion into space (‘Zemlya’, ‘Moon Six’, ‘Pilgrim 7’).

These visions give an impression of the contingency of our everyday here-and-now, surrounded as it is by an infinite array of possible pasts, presents, and futures.

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Feeling secure in our everyday here-and-now? Then let Stephen Baxter reveal to you disturbing traces of other worlds: traces of other pasts, other presents, other futures. Here are vestiges of civilizations lost, long-gone, footprints of passing life-forms, visions of histories that differ from our own, some in small ways, some through a fundamental difference in physical laws. Here are twenty-one extraordinary stories from the best science fiction writer of his generation.

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