Time鈥檚 Eye, Baxter鈥檚 collaboration with Arthur C. Clarke, was published last month and his solo novel, Exultant, is all set for September (both Gollancz). For his next book? Climate change in the near future is the framework for this so he is reading Future Evolution: An illuminated history of life to come by Peter Ward and Alexis Rockman (Times Books, 2001): 鈥淚鈥檝e been a fan of Ward鈥檚 visionary clarity for some years.鈥�
Inspiring science fiction? Science fiction techniques and subject matter have spread far beyond the traditional boundaries of the genre, he says. Girlfriend In a Coma by Douglas Coupland (Flamingo, 1998) is a 鈥渇ascinating anti-utopian response to Clarke鈥檚 classic Childhood鈥檚 End (1953): atomization, not transcendence.鈥�