Gravity Dreams [jhc]

(One of 100 Jacketed Hardcover Novella signed by Stephen Baxter & David A. Hardy) Gravity Dreams is a notable new chapter in Stephen Baxters Xeelee future history, accompanied here by a new Introduction from the author and Raft, the short story that twenty years ago began the tale so compellingly continued here. A million years from now, humankind is in full retreat before the onslaught of the Xeelee, enigmatic aliens whose influence pervades the entire cosmos. Once rulers of the galaxy, our descendants must abandon planet after planet as their implacable foes seal off those worlds fromthe light of their parent stars. The Second Coalition is organising desperate evacuations, and frantically looking for exotic weapons fromthe far past to combat the Xeelee.Yet in this age of panic and decline, an unlikely groupinga high-ranking Coalition officer, an aged savant, a teenage boy, and a dealer in antiquities of extraordinary kindsstrives to carry out the strangest of rescues, keeping alive the dimming flames of altruism and hope.