Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Coalescent | 2003 | Stephen Baxter | Buy |
| 2 | Exultant | 2004 | Stephen Baxter | Buy |
| 3 | Transcendent | 2005 | Stephen Baxter | Buy |
| 4 | Resplendent | 2006 | Stephen Baxter | Buy |
Coalescent opens in present-day Rome and in the far future simultaneously, linking a man investigating his family history with the ancient origins of a strange human hive society. It is one of Baxter’s more accessible entry points, grounded in recognizable human emotion before the scale expands.
Exultant moves to the galactic core during a war that has lasted for tens of thousands of years, and Transcendent jumps further still to a future where the fate of the universe hangs on decisions made across billions of years. The series is ambitious even by Baxter’s standards, asking questions about what humanity is for on a timescale that makes individual lives look like moments.