The H-bomb Girl - Stephen Baxter

Well worth reading

I enjoyed this work. It differs from Baxter's other stories in a refreshing manner.

It is set in the Cuba crisis which I lived through (survived in this one of Everett's many worlds). Basically it is an enjoyable read. British readers who were aware of events at the time will note that the government response to the crisis was not as Baxter portrays. Baxter explains in the appendix that this liberty was taken for dramatic effect and I think he made the correct decision.

Baxter back down to Earth, with a very big bang...

Stephen Baxter is well known as an author of very technical, imaginative and theoretical science fiction. Huge works like the Xeelee Sequence, the Manifold series and the Destiny's Children series are millenia-spanning epics of the destiny of mankind making liberal use of the latest theories of astrophysics.

The H-Bomb Girl is different. It is a fictional account of a 14 year old girl's part in the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 and how survivors of several possible outcomes of these events travel back in time to manipulate the past for their own ends. Far less heavy on the grey matter than Baxter's usual work this is a highly accessible novel and a very human story.

Don't be fooled by the teen girl's novel cover though. Chapter 21, an account of a nuclear attack on Liverpool and its aftermath told mainly through the girl's diary entries, is one of the most gripping, chilling passages of fiction I have ever read.

Cameos by the Beatles, Cilla Black and others are a fun touch, while the moment towards the end of the story when you realise a minor character in the book is a major character from the Destiny's Children series will raise a smile from Baxter diehards.

Baxter is a master of his genre. The H-Bomb Girl is further proof, alongside the Mammoth books and the current Time's Tapestry series, that he is a brilliant writer outside his genre too. If you haven't read any of Baxter's books this is an excellent place to get hooked.