Manifold: Space

In the near future of 2020, brilliant but maverick astronaut Reid Malenfant embarks on a solo mission to the solar system's farthest reaches, where he unearths an astonishing alien artifact: a quantum gateway capable of instantaneous interstellar travel. Driven by insatiable curiosity, Malenfant ventures beyond the known, confronting an unfathomable reality that demands an impossible choice, pushing him beyond terror, sanity, and even humanity itself. Meanwhile, back on Earth, Japanese scientist Nemoto uncovers a horrifying cosmic truth. Startling discoveries reveal that life on the Moon, Venus, and Mars wasn't just extinguished once, but repeatedly, through cyclical patterns of birth and destruction. As Malenfant grapples with the implications of the gateway, Nemoto realizes humanity is on the precipice of the next devastating cycle, threatening to unravel existence as we know it. Baxter masterfully weaves these threads into an epic hard science fiction narrative questioning humanity's place in a vast, indifferent universe.