The scope of this book is immense.

Reid Malenfant is a former USASF (Air and Space Force) Colonel turned entrepreneur who, following a meeting with a mysterious mathematician and a discussion of the Carter Prophecy (The Human Race - Extinct in 200 Years) devotes his energy and a large part of his corporation to trying to find out what will happen and prevent it.

The story starts in 2011, and Baxter describes a world very similar to today with just enough changes to make the near future seem futuristic without being too over the top. Indeed in the space program that Malenfant initiates we have Space Shuttle technology being used to propel his spacecraft out of the atmosphere. And we have an American governmental structure very similar to the one we hear of in the news.

We also have engineered super-intelligent squid, messages from the future, super-genius children and a gateway to unknown dimensions. This is heady stuff and this is the root of the book's only flaw, whereas in other of Baxter's works I have read I have always felt he integrated the scientific content into the story so well that it seemed unobtrusive. Here I felt that, although only at times, we were being treated to a section of research with one of the characters explaining current theories of cosmology, physics, mathematics etc. These sections seemed unusual forced for a writer of Baxter's ability.

This is a book that you will need to concentrate on, there are so many elements to the story. And by the very nature of it being book one of a series none of the story threads comes to what you would consider a final conclusion. Not to say that you will be left hanging at the end of the book, merely that there is more to read - and this book will make you want to read more.