Blue Remembered Earth (Poseidons Children 1) [Hardcover]

 

 

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I've read nearly all of Alastair Reynolds books.

If you're new to Alastair Reynolds this is a very consumable sci-fi title which you could easily read in 2/3 days. I would categorise it as a mystery/thriller set in the near future within our solar system and as such I found it hard to put down. It doesn't stress current thinking about space travel/technology too far, so could also be seem as another "hard science fiction" title.

However, if you are a regular Alastair Reynolds reader, this title definately lacks the sheer majesty (copyright Brian Cox) of titles like "House of Suns" and "Pushing Ice", there is nothing to really stretch your mind. If you like this side of Alastair Reynolds perhaps wait for the paperback or a special offer. At the end, the story hints of much bigger things to come and I look forward to a much bigger canvas in the next two titles of this trilogy.

Again, as a regular Alastair Reynolds reader I found some concepts and characters similar to earlier titles;

The virtual Eunice Akinya seems to be modelled on Mademoiselle from Revelation Space

Parts of an undergound moon city are described like Chasm City (post plague)

And so on.

Overall, a very good sci-fi starter book.

Reynolds has always set himself apart from other science fiction authors by widening the scope of the plot to the nth degree, by infusing the setting with richness and depth, and by marbling all of this with awe-inducing science and technology. Akin to Revelation Space and House of Suns, Blue Remembered Earth proves he still has the gift for exhibiting unique ideas, penning an intriguing story, and capturing the imagination of the reader. It's not his best work, but it's definitely the great beginning to a surely great series.

At the end of the year 2161, after sixty years of solitude orbiting the moon, the empress to a solar system-wide company passes away. Her genetic legacy includes one pair of grandchildren, Geoffrey, who studies elephants on the African plains, and Sunday, who pursues sculpture in the Descrutinized Zone on the moon, away from the patrolling omniscient eye of the Mechanism. Controlling the interests in the family company are their cousins Hector and Lucas, who have a frosty relationship with Geoffry and Sunday. Once into 2162, the cousins bride Geoff into travelling to the moon in order to recover the contents of a safe-deposit box once belonging to their wealthy and reclusive grandmother, Eunice. With agreement not to meet his sister when he's on the moon, Geoff breaks this treaty by visiting her enclave in order to unravel the mystery behind the contents of the box: a antique spacesuit glove which holds yet another mystery... colored gems.

Earth in the year 2162, as stylized by Reynolds, is one of African prosperity born from decline of the unmentioned Western nations and where humanity is recovering from the symptoms of a century of global warming. Pages 148-149 outlines a post-warming earth, where sea levels had risen and were battled with seawalls, where Sahara has extended its arid grip upon the continent, where depopulation has been enforced, where where humanity derives its energy from deep-penetration geothermal tap and solar arrays spanning the globe, efficient transmission accomplished by superconducting cables. Once ill-weather regions of the earth now harvest grapes and produce fine wines, such as Patagonia, Iceland, and Mongolia. In contrast to this great human revival to calamity, there has been an unheard of decline in crime because of the nearly worldwide Mechanism, which uses algorithms to predict human behavior... each person with an augmentation connected to this incorruptible sentinel:

"Murder isn't impossible, even in 2162... Because the Mechanism wasn't infallible, and even this tirelessly engineered god couldn't be in all places at once. The Mandatory Enhancements were supposed to weed out the worst criminal tendencies from developing minds... it was inevitable that someone... would slip through the mesh." (278)

The plot has a feel similar to Chasm City and The Prefect, where a mystery is unraveled step-by-step in order to find the nexus of "what it all means." Jumping from shadows of Kilimanjaro, to the lunar cityscapes, to the underwater expanse of the Panspermian Initiative, to the still inhospitable Martian atmosphere, and beyond... the scope of action on these and other settings is enough to please any space opera fan. Chuck in a few wholesome bits of orbital technology, mind transference technology, and a few spaceships - bam, what more could a hard sci-fi fan long for?

Plot aside, there is a core of characters which is tightly woven, numbering around six. It's easy to keep track of the ongoings, but when you start to toss in some far-flung family lineage, some transient personages, some representatives of human sects, and some semi-sentient corporal golem figures... you may need to keep a list if you're going to take more than three days to read this tome. A tome it may be, but it's not without its peppering of poetic prose:

"It was mid-afternoon and cloudless, the sky preposterously blue and infinite, as if it reached all the way to Andromeda rather than being confined within the indigo cusp he had seen from space." (154-155)

Nor it is without its share of humor, if you know your history of Mars in fiction: one character thinks the Martian city of Robinson is named after the novel Robinson Crusoe. The dialogue is less than airy at times, something Reynolds has been guilty of ever since Revelation Space. At times it's dry and recapitalizing. There's more swearing here than in his other novels, which is fine by my. Again, one more fault I found is a similar in fault to Chasm City: the unraveling is too convenient, the timing too auspicious, the clues too quickly understood, the backpedaling too awkward (i.e. the Phoboes Monolith).

It's not as preciously crafty as The Prefect or as expansive as Redemption Ark (my favorite Revelation Space novel), but Reynold's doesn't disappoint with Blue Remembered Earth- an optimistic tale of humanity's collective potential on the earth we live and on the orbiting bodies we will settle, develop, and prosper upon.

Tanzania, 2161. The matriarch of the Akinya family, Eunice, a famous pioneer of space travel and exploration, has died at the age of 130. The family convenes for the funeral, but grandson Geoffrey would prefer to be carrying on his research into elephant cognition. When an anomaly is discovered amongst Eunice's possessions, Geoffrey is asked to investigate, the beginning of a journey that will take him from Earth to the Moon to Mars...and further still.

Alastair Reynolds's new novel is the first in a new sequence, Poseidon's Children, which will span 11,000 years of human history. As such, the three books in the sequence will presumably be stand-alones, divided by immense gulfs in history, but with added context given to the reader by reading all three in order. Reynolds and his publisher have backed away from the 'trilogy' moniker (and the 'Book One of Poseidon's Children' tagline present on some early drafts of the cover has been removed) to de-emphasise the idea this is a serialised story that people will have to wait years to be concluded.

Reynolds is noted for having a somewhat grim vision of the future in his previous books, so Blue Remembered Earth is notable for its more optimistic tone. The human race has become richer and more technologically advanced than ever before, with Africa now driving the world economy and formerly war-torn, poverty-stricken states are now prosperous and driven. The price of this new era of peace and development is the Surveilled World, a state of near-total coverage of the planet by AIs which intervene if any crimes are detected. As a result almost no crimes or murders have been committed in decades (although Reynolds, a noted fan of crime thrillers, can't help dropping one puzzling and apparently impossible murder in as a subplot). This near-total surveillance state is not so prevalent on other planets and moons, however, due to time-lag issues.

The book is essentially a treasure hunt, with Geoffrey and his sister Sunday following the trail of clues left behind by their grandmother which ultimately leads to the Big Reveal. The trail, and the resulting plot, are somewhat convoluted and, it has to be said, unconvincing. Nevertheless, the story is entertaining with a constant stream of inventive ideas: an area on Mars controlled by rogue machines; an AI simulacrum of Eunice who provides advice and becomes more and more like the real Eunice as they uncover more information; attempts to help improve the quality of life for zoo elephants by merging them holographically with a real herd in the African wilderness; and a system-wide telescope being used to scan for signs of life on other worlds. The characters, particularly Geoffrey and Sunday (our main POV characters) are well-developed as we learn their respective reasons for turning against the family's strict business-oriented hierarchy, but even their antagonistic siblings (who initially appear to be villainous) are fleshed-out satisfyingly by the end of the book.

As the most low-tech of Reynolds's books to date, Blue Remembered Earth is perhaps his most conservative in terms of ideas and scale and scope. This isn't a bad thing and he seems to enjoy working under greater technological constraints than previously, but occasionally he seems to chafe against the restrictions (the robots on Mars and the large-scale mining of the Oort Cloud both seem somewhat more advanced than the tech elsewhere). He also doesn't fully explore the freedom implications of having a state of total surveillance, other than in a cursory surface manner.

Still, Blue Remembered Earth (****) is highly readable, brimming with ideas and refreshingly optimistic. Recommended. The novel is available now in the UK and on 5 June 2012 in the USA.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Strong start to a new series
This is a change what Alastair normally writes, I think it starts a little slowly, but it's well worth it, I'm looking forward to the next one.

Published 1 day ago by Mr. Stephen M. Hunt

5.0 out of 5 stars Valentine for Earth
I'm fairly new to Mr Reynolds work and was drawn to him through his Steampunk novel Terminal World. Unlike a lot of reviewers I loved that book which was head and shoulders above... Read more

Published 5 days ago by Andrew Aitken

4.0 out of 5 stars Scifi combining blue seas, vast space, Africa, elephants, starships, mystery - wonderful
Science fiction that combines elephants, starships, underwater kingdoms and the wastelands of Mars - not to mention packed settlements on the Moon, with their fancy restaurants,... Read more

Published 13 days ago by Kate

4.0 out of 5 stars Quite enjoyable solar game of Cluedo
I quite liked this novel and found it much much better than Terminal World, although there were some similar settings. Read more

Published 13 days ago by bob

2.0 out of 5 stars Not up to par
I wanted to love this but it failed to grab me in the same way all his other books have. The sense of a massive galactic world has been lost and i no longer feel immersed within a... Read more

Published 14 days ago by Ben

2.0 out of 5 stars Average pulp fiction
I always have great hopes when I see a new Alastair Reynolds books coming. To make the review short, recently I have been disappointed. Read more

Published 20 days ago by Mr. G. Curtis

1.0 out of 5 stars Blue Remembered.... Ching
Well I'm very sorry if my one star upsets anyone but there it is. I was really looking forward to this new book from Mr Reynolds, especially after reading several of his previous... Read more

Published 26 days ago by Shakespeare 4

4.0 out of 5 stars Sorry - kindle version poorly priced
I would like to read the latest Alistair Reynolds, despite not enjoying Terminal World, as I think I have everything he's published and he remains my favourite SF author. Read more

Published 28 days ago by Paul

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommended
I would give my right nut to have half the imagination that Alastair Reynolds has, I burned through this in one day, just as enjoyable as House of Suns, far more accessible than... Read more

Published 1 month ago by J. P. Devine

1.0 out of 5 stars Digital Rip Off
I have always enjoyed Alastair Reynolds books and have read most of them however I have to totally agree with the previous comments made under this title and having received a new... Read more

Published 1 month ago by BlackCrow

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