This is the second short story of Baxter's that I've read and I guess I'm just not a mark for him.
I do appreciate what eytanz said about the scientists not giving up, trying to continue to record data, etc. There is something beautiful about that. But this story felt so unbelievable. And I'm not even talking about the physics. I can easily suspend my disbelief on that one. The characters just didn't seem like real people to me. Coupled with being told about the end of the world, and how it was all going down instead of actually experiencing it, this read more like a report to me than it did a story, and just didn't do very much for me at all.
Different strokes for different folks, I guess.
Baxter's best work, that I've read anyway, is his near future stuff. the Manifold series, for me, became very ponderous by the second book and I never followed up. Really should.
Voyage is the story of the Nasa Mars project that should have been, taking in nuclear engines, the first woman on Mars and a very different Apollo program. If you have a shred of love for space travel in your soul, then this book will be for you. Also I believe somewhere in the archives over at Zombie Astronaut's old site, there may be the audio version. Which is magnificent and made me cry, twice, when I listened to it because I am an immense soft touch.
Titan takes a subtly different approach and follows the first mission out to Saturn. And where Voyage is a story about triumph over adversity, Titan is a story of attrition. Nothing goes right, nothing comes easy, it's like Hemingway writing science fiction. Grimmer but as good.
Moonseed however, just edges it out for second place behind Voyage. Something impossible is found on the moon and very quickly, something goes horribly wrong on an epic scale. I read a lot of John Wyndham when I was a kid, and this is right up there with his best as a story of the world ending, a desperate and scientifically pretty sound plan to save it and old spaceships.
All three are kick ass books, and whilst Last Contact clearly hasn't been a hit here, he's an author worth keeping an eye on, trust me.