Timelike Infinity

In the bleak future of Stephen Baxter's 'Timelike Infinity,' humanity has fallen from its golden age of immortality to brutal subjugation under the enigmatic Qax, who have transformed Earth into an alien food factory. Hope, however, emerges from a most unexpected source: a colossal time tunnel, an engineering marvel from humanity's pre-Qax past, anchored near Jupiter and stretching into the 'timelike infinity' – a mysterious region at the end of time where the ancient Xeelee await. When a desperate band of humans, including the tunnel's architect Michael Poole, outmaneuver the Qax to escape through this temporal conduit, their motives are far from simple heroics. These fugitives from the future are not seeking to warn their ancestors, but rather to pursue their own 'quantum grail,' revealing a dangerous fanaticism that poses a new threat to all. Poole is thrust into a profound confrontation with the moral and existential ramifications of his own creation, as the fate of humanity becomes inextricably linked with the cosmic scale of the Xeelee and the profound paradoxes of time itself.