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Poseidon's Children #2
Terästuulen yllä
Avaruusoopperan kiintotähden eeppinen odysseia ihmiskunnan matkasta uudelle kotiplaneetalle
Kaikkitietävä Mekanismi-tekoäly hallitsee maapalloa ja Marsia rautaisella otteella, ja ihmisten ja koneiden rinnakkaiselo uhkaa kärjistyä väkivaltaiseksi konfliktiksi. Ulkoavaruudesta löytyy asumaton planeetta, jonka olosuhteet vaikuttavat ihmiselämälle suotuisalta. Pioneerikaravaani lähtee valovuosien päähän perustamaan planeetalle siirtokuntaa. Chiku Akinyian klooni osallistuu retkikuntaan salaisena pyrkimyksenään selvittää Akinyian suvun ulkoavaruuteen kadonneen matriarkan kohtalo.
Pioneeriretkikunta löytää planeetalta merkkejä vieraasta sivilisaatiosta. Chiku Akinyia tajuaa, että koko siirtokuntahanke perustuu Mekanismin vääristämälle totuudelle. Hän epäilee Mekanismin suunnittelevan ihmiskunnan tuhoamista, ja retkikunta päättää nousta kapinaan ylivoimaista vihollista vastaan. Mutta onko Maassa tai Marsissa enää ihmiskuntaa, jonka puolesta taistella?
Alastair Reynolds (s. 1966) on palkittu walesilainen kirjailija. Hän on erittäin arvostettu Euroopan scifipiirien keskuudessa. Like on julkaissut häneltä suomeksi 11 romaania.
Kaikkitietävä Mekanismi-tekoäly hallitsee maapalloa ja Marsia rautaisella otteella, ja ihmisten ja koneiden rinnakkaiselo uhkaa kärjistyä väkivaltaiseksi konfliktiksi. Ulkoavaruudesta löytyy asumaton planeetta, jonka olosuhteet vaikuttavat ihmiselämälle suotuisalta. Pioneerikaravaani lähtee valovuosien päähän perustamaan planeetalle siirtokuntaa. Chiku Akinyian klooni osallistuu retkikuntaan salaisena pyrkimyksenään selvittää Akinyian suvun ulkoavaruuteen kadonneen matriarkan kohtalo.
Pioneeriretkikunta löytää planeetalta merkkejä vieraasta sivilisaatiosta. Chiku Akinyia tajuaa, että koko siirtokuntahanke perustuu Mekanismin vääristämälle totuudelle. Hän epäilee Mekanismin suunnittelevan ihmiskunnan tuhoamista, ja retkikunta päättää nousta kapinaan ylivoimaista vihollista vastaan. Mutta onko Maassa tai Marsissa enää ihmiskuntaa, jonka puolesta taistella?
Alastair Reynolds (s. 1966) on palkittu walesilainen kirjailija. Hän on erittäin arvostettu Euroopan scifipiirien keskuudessa. Like on julkaissut häneltä suomeksi 11 romaania.
575 pages, Paperback
First published September 26, 2013
187 people are currently reading
3681 people want to read
About the author
Alastair Reynolds
313 books9,307 followersI'm Al, I used to be a space scientist, and now I'm a writer, although for a time the two careers ran in parallel. I started off publishing short stories in the British SF magazine Interzone in the early 90s, then eventually branched into novels. I write about a novel a year and try to write a few short stories as well. Some of my books and stories are set in a consistent future named after Revelation Space, the first novel, but I've done a lot of other things as well and I like to keep things fresh between books.
I was born in Wales, but raised in Cornwall, and then spent time in the north of England and Scotland. I moved to the Netherlands to continue my science career and stayed there for a very long time, before eventually returning to Wales.
In my spare time I am a very keen runner, and I also enjoying hill-walking, birdwatching, horse-riding, guitar and model-making. I also dabble with paints now and then. I met my wife in the Netherlands through a mutual interest in climbing and we married back in Wales. We live surrounded by hills, woods and wildlife, and not too much excitement.
I was born in Wales, but raised in Cornwall, and then spent time in the north of England and Scotland. I moved to the Netherlands to continue my science career and stayed there for a very long time, before eventually returning to Wales.
In my spare time I am a very keen runner, and I also enjoying hill-walking, birdwatching, horse-riding, guitar and model-making. I also dabble with paints now and then. I met my wife in the Netherlands through a mutual interest in climbing and we married back in Wales. We live surrounded by hills, woods and wildlife, and not too much excitement.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 413 reviews
March 4, 2017
Despite of general opinion that is slower than the Blue Remembered Earth and does not have that sense of wonder, I found it better than the first; mainly, because its scope is greatly increased and second, because of the focus on the psychology behind the actions of the two trios: Chiku and the artilects. Moreover, a good part of the story takes place in Lisbon, which is my favorite city and it was so easy to immerse myself in the book, to be side by side with Chiku when she drank her coffee above the Santa Justa elevator or taking a stroll in Belem.
It has, of course, plenty of tech stuff, interstellar voyage to colonize Crucible, alien artifacts, enhanced elephants and lot more. The world building is as perfect as ever; it is, after all, Al R’ strength.
It does not have much character development but instead it depicts the extent of what colonization does to a whole society: the struggle, the dedication of few individuals, the fights between others and of course, the utter selfishness of humans as a whole, mainly based on fear and ignorance: “Explain this to me: why do people have to keep on being such fucking idiots?”
Although is viewed as a standalone, it has deep roots in the first volume, therefore I would recommend reading them in order.
It has, of course, plenty of tech stuff, interstellar voyage to colonize Crucible, alien artifacts, enhanced elephants and lot more. The world building is as perfect as ever; it is, after all, Al R’ strength.
It does not have much character development but instead it depicts the extent of what colonization does to a whole society: the struggle, the dedication of few individuals, the fights between others and of course, the utter selfishness of humans as a whole, mainly based on fear and ignorance: “Explain this to me: why do people have to keep on being such fucking idiots?”
Although is viewed as a standalone, it has deep roots in the first volume, therefore I would recommend reading them in order.
November 21, 2013
4 Stars
On the Steel Breeze (OtSB), book two in the Poseidon’s Children series by Alastair Reynolds is a tremendous work of science fiction and a real page turner. It does not have the technical specs of the first book Blue Remembered Earth, nor does it have as much character development in it. It also comes up short from the first in regards to the depth and complexity of the plot and story. That being said, OtSB is a much better page turner and maybe even more enjoyable of a read as it is an easy page turner.
In On the Steel Breeze, Reynolds really centers on the machine versus the living plot line. He delves deep into the philosophy, the science, and even the feelings behind sentience. Arachne near and Arachne far as well as our artificial heroine Eunice Akinya are great counterpoints to our three Chiku’s and the Mermen. I love how the maiden voyage for humans reaching out to our nearest “like” star is preempted by a hostile takeover and voyage of a machine intelligence.
Reynolds mixes in doses of cool science but this series in a much more accessible level than his brilliant hard science series of Revelation Space. He throws in a great futuristic political culture and environment. He explores dynamic space environments on planets and in the interstellar space. He creates a group of characters that are easy to identify with and to empathize with.
If you have read the first book, then this is a must read for you. If you have any love for the science fiction then you must put Alastair Reynolds at the top of your must read list. I really had fun reading this one and cannot wait to see where it goes next…
On the Steel Breeze (OtSB), book two in the Poseidon’s Children series by Alastair Reynolds is a tremendous work of science fiction and a real page turner. It does not have the technical specs of the first book Blue Remembered Earth, nor does it have as much character development in it. It also comes up short from the first in regards to the depth and complexity of the plot and story. That being said, OtSB is a much better page turner and maybe even more enjoyable of a read as it is an easy page turner.
In On the Steel Breeze, Reynolds really centers on the machine versus the living plot line. He delves deep into the philosophy, the science, and even the feelings behind sentience. Arachne near and Arachne far as well as our artificial heroine Eunice Akinya are great counterpoints to our three Chiku’s and the Mermen. I love how the maiden voyage for humans reaching out to our nearest “like” star is preempted by a hostile takeover and voyage of a machine intelligence.
Reynolds mixes in doses of cool science but this series in a much more accessible level than his brilliant hard science series of Revelation Space. He throws in a great futuristic political culture and environment. He explores dynamic space environments on planets and in the interstellar space. He creates a group of characters that are easy to identify with and to empathize with.
If you have read the first book, then this is a must read for you. If you have any love for the science fiction then you must put Alastair Reynolds at the top of your must read list. I really had fun reading this one and cannot wait to see where it goes next…
November 4, 2014
Typical Reynolds: untypical Reynolds.
This novel follows on from Blue Remembered Earth, telling the tale of human space exploration through the history of the Akinya family. It could be read independently but it'll work better if you've read it's predecessor - and why wouldn't you? That was a superior piece of SF. This is, too!
Three colour-coded members of the Akinya family split up and go very separate ways -light years apart - yet they all end up embroiled in history-making adventures and they all end up influencing each other.
There are lots of Reynolds themes here; no FTL, body modification, grand scale in space and time, mysteries upon mysteries. There's very little trade-mark gothic grotequery, though - even less than in Blue Remembered Earth - and heavily disguised insofar as it's present at all. There are still some brutal acts, though - horrendous if you can actually grasp the scale of them, which is difficult.
Reynolds is rarely just telling a tale for its own sake though, and here, among other things, he's looking at humanity and war: is war so ingrained in human nature that the only way to prevent it is alter human nature itself? Is surveillance and external control that almost entirely eliminates violence worth the price of almost total loss of privacy? Themes tackled by numerous SF writers, past and present, maybe but they keep coming up because they don't ever seem to get less relevant, important, urgent.
There's a lot of wildlife in this book, which I had fun noting. See how many different species you can spot.
Blue Remembered Earth left a lot unexplained; you get a few answers here but over all more questions and a bigger cliff-hanger - there's a lot of people in a lot of jeopardy and some big adventures to come in the third volume of this series. I'm looking forward to it!
This novel follows on from Blue Remembered Earth, telling the tale of human space exploration through the history of the Akinya family. It could be read independently but it'll work better if you've read it's predecessor - and why wouldn't you? That was a superior piece of SF. This is, too!
Three colour-coded members of the Akinya family split up and go very separate ways -light years apart - yet they all end up embroiled in history-making adventures and they all end up influencing each other.
There are lots of Reynolds themes here; no FTL, body modification, grand scale in space and time, mysteries upon mysteries. There's very little trade-mark gothic grotequery, though - even less than in Blue Remembered Earth - and heavily disguised insofar as it's present at all. There are still some brutal acts, though - horrendous if you can actually grasp the scale of them, which is difficult.
Reynolds is rarely just telling a tale for its own sake though, and here, among other things, he's looking at humanity and war: is war so ingrained in human nature that the only way to prevent it is alter human nature itself? Is surveillance and external control that almost entirely eliminates violence worth the price of almost total loss of privacy? Themes tackled by numerous SF writers, past and present, maybe but they keep coming up because they don't ever seem to get less relevant, important, urgent.
There's a lot of wildlife in this book, which I had fun noting. See how many different species you can spot.
Blue Remembered Earth left a lot unexplained; you get a few answers here but over all more questions and a bigger cliff-hanger - there's a lot of people in a lot of jeopardy and some big adventures to come in the third volume of this series. I'm looking forward to it!
March 4, 2018
I couldn't put the book down but once I did, I didn't want to pick it up again because it made me feel uncomfortable. It was a feeling of wrongness. Of desolation and futility.
An odd one.
An odd one.
September 11, 2015
A surprisingly disappointing sequel. The first book was hit and miss, but was interesting enough to keep me going. This book, though.... Reynolds has a knack for finding the least interesting plot development, making that the center of the narrative for an interminably long stretch, and then following that by having a character show up to give the protagonist a detailed, after-the-fact account of events happening elsewhere that would have made a much more engaging focus for the story. This happens more than once in On the Steel Breeze, and it left me wondering if this book might have been the author's first, rather than his tenth or eleventh.
This is a real shame, because the Akinya family still has a lot of potential. But the series is consistently undermined not only by the problem mentioned above, but also by an excess of supporting characters having little purpose, constant repetition of the same limited information, and (by the end of the book) a moral incoherence that makes characters' reactions to plot developments seem completely bizarre and implausible. Yet as harsh as I might sound, I feel more disappointed than dismissive, because Reynolds does seem to be a talented writer in many respects. Enough so to make me think the flaws of this book should have been entirely avoidable.
*SPOILER WARNING*
Some glaring examples:
1) Both Pedro and Noah are given very limited skills by comparison with the Akinyas, with the result that neither of them has much purpose in the story beyond dying at convenient moments. And for this very reason, neither death really has the impact I suspect it was intended to have.
2) The Tantors are a great concept that gets incredibly short-shrift. We meet a few members of one generation almost in passing, and then later their descendant, Dakota, who we are told is tremendously significant without being given actual evidence to justify the claim. Much more could have been done with them here, especially given the bloat elsewhere in this overlong novel.
3) Why exactly was Chiku Red necessary? What vital part did she play that couldn't have been handled by someone else or simply left out entirely?
4) Given the number of pages devoted to the visits to Venus and to the Akinya estate, they both felt, in the end, much less important to the novel than they could have been. Neither was much more than an excuse for a very contrived action sequence that added little to the story (including Pedro's death for the reason given above).
5) The providers are untrustworthy. I got it the first time. Was it necessary to kill so many trees in making this point again and again?
6) Arachne kills millions of human beings in three holoships, but Chiku's primary concern is with the colonies of elephants on the other two ships. And in the discussion that follows, the death of so many people is dealt with by the characters in a manner that is, at best, perfunctory, while they explain away Chiku's complicity in a staggering crime as a simple matter of being a little too rushed to think things through. I think even Peter Singer would find this moral framing perverse, if not outright monstrous.
7) Given the vast (and unconvincing) power wielded by Arachne, Eunice felt utterly insignificant and inconsequential. When she (with the Tantors!) finally gets an opportunity to step forward and influence the future of Zanzibar, we see nothing of the dramatic events which ensue. Instead the narrative devotes page after page to Chiku doing effectively nothing--and then gives us a dull account after the fact of what could have been an exciting political confrontation played out across a massive holoship.
* SPOILERS END*
I put this book down with the same nagging feeling I had with Blue Remembered Earth. There are things here to like, and evidence of real talent, but all the potential promised by On the Steel Breeze is undermined by inexplicable authorial choices. I wish I had some reason to try book three, but there's just not enough here to justify it.
This is a real shame, because the Akinya family still has a lot of potential. But the series is consistently undermined not only by the problem mentioned above, but also by an excess of supporting characters having little purpose, constant repetition of the same limited information, and (by the end of the book) a moral incoherence that makes characters' reactions to plot developments seem completely bizarre and implausible. Yet as harsh as I might sound, I feel more disappointed than dismissive, because Reynolds does seem to be a talented writer in many respects. Enough so to make me think the flaws of this book should have been entirely avoidable.
*SPOILER WARNING*
Some glaring examples:
1) Both Pedro and Noah are given very limited skills by comparison with the Akinyas, with the result that neither of them has much purpose in the story beyond dying at convenient moments. And for this very reason, neither death really has the impact I suspect it was intended to have.
2) The Tantors are a great concept that gets incredibly short-shrift. We meet a few members of one generation almost in passing, and then later their descendant, Dakota, who we are told is tremendously significant without being given actual evidence to justify the claim. Much more could have been done with them here, especially given the bloat elsewhere in this overlong novel.
3) Why exactly was Chiku Red necessary? What vital part did she play that couldn't have been handled by someone else or simply left out entirely?
4) Given the number of pages devoted to the visits to Venus and to the Akinya estate, they both felt, in the end, much less important to the novel than they could have been. Neither was much more than an excuse for a very contrived action sequence that added little to the story (including Pedro's death for the reason given above).
5) The providers are untrustworthy. I got it the first time. Was it necessary to kill so many trees in making this point again and again?
6) Arachne kills millions of human beings in three holoships, but Chiku's primary concern is with the colonies of elephants on the other two ships. And in the discussion that follows, the death of so many people is dealt with by the characters in a manner that is, at best, perfunctory, while they explain away Chiku's complicity in a staggering crime as a simple matter of being a little too rushed to think things through. I think even Peter Singer would find this moral framing perverse, if not outright monstrous.
7) Given the vast (and unconvincing) power wielded by Arachne, Eunice felt utterly insignificant and inconsequential. When she (with the Tantors!) finally gets an opportunity to step forward and influence the future of Zanzibar, we see nothing of the dramatic events which ensue. Instead the narrative devotes page after page to Chiku doing effectively nothing--and then gives us a dull account after the fact of what could have been an exciting political confrontation played out across a massive holoship.
* SPOILERS END*
I put this book down with the same nagging feeling I had with Blue Remembered Earth. There are things here to like, and evidence of real talent, but all the potential promised by On the Steel Breeze is undermined by inexplicable authorial choices. I wish I had some reason to try book three, but there's just not enough here to justify it.
October 6, 2013
This semi-direct sequel to Blue Remembered Earth is problematic, mainly because it is two novels in one:
The first is an account of the rise of artificial intelligence on Earth to produce an egalitarian society akin to Iain Banks's Culture. Known as the Mechanism, this all-knowing, all-seeing presence, however, becomes 'corrupted',which leads to an inevitable stand-off between humans and machines.
The second is about humanity's first expedition to an Earth-analogue planet in a caravan of generation starships. Called Crucible, the habitable planet is also home to a mysterious alien structure called the Mandala.
The two narrative strands are combined when the expedition discovers that the Mechanism has been 'lying' about conditions on Crucible, leading to a desperate attempt to not only find out what is going on, but to subvert the intentions of the Mechanism.
The main viewpoint character is Chiku Akinya, of the famous Akinya clan (her mother was Sunday Akinya; you can read OTSB as a standalone novel, but won't get all the references to the clan history).
Chiku is actually three characters, as she has had herself cloned: one is on the Crucible expedition, another is in the solar system, and the third embarked on an attempt to discover the lost spaceship of Eunice Akinya. The trick here is that all three essentially share one consciousness. I found the first transition between the Crucible Chiku and solar system Chiku to be quite jarring, but one does get used to the shifting point of view as the novel progresses.
I suspect Reynolds decided on this triple viewpoint approach as he is quite rigorous about his science: no wondrous Star Trek warp drive to subvert the speed of light (apart from Post Chibusa Physics, of course); this means quite a big chunk of the narrative is spent explaining the implications of relativity - not exactly the most gripping subject matter. Combined with the often heavy-handed philosophising about human vs. machine culture, this makes for a curiously stodgy narrative.
Reynolds also makes some fatal authorial decisions. Towards the end, there is a wonderful scene where Eunice Akinya leads a rebellion on the holoship Zanzibar, at the head of a herd of augmented elephants. Elephants on a starship, how cool is that!
Except Chiku only learns about this sequence of events when she is on Crucible, fighting the Mechanism, and taps into a feed from Zanzibar to find out what is going on with the caravan. Obviously Reynolds was faced with a bit of a dilemma: focus on the Crucible landing and the Mechanism struggle, or the story of the holoships, but not both, or he would have ended up with a rather unwieldy novel.
He should have gone with the elephants.
The first is an account of the rise of artificial intelligence on Earth to produce an egalitarian society akin to Iain Banks's Culture. Known as the Mechanism, this all-knowing, all-seeing presence, however, becomes 'corrupted',which leads to an inevitable stand-off between humans and machines.
The second is about humanity's first expedition to an Earth-analogue planet in a caravan of generation starships. Called Crucible, the habitable planet is also home to a mysterious alien structure called the Mandala.
The two narrative strands are combined when the expedition discovers that the Mechanism has been 'lying' about conditions on Crucible, leading to a desperate attempt to not only find out what is going on, but to subvert the intentions of the Mechanism.
The main viewpoint character is Chiku Akinya, of the famous Akinya clan (her mother was Sunday Akinya; you can read OTSB as a standalone novel, but won't get all the references to the clan history).
Chiku is actually three characters, as she has had herself cloned: one is on the Crucible expedition, another is in the solar system, and the third embarked on an attempt to discover the lost spaceship of Eunice Akinya. The trick here is that all three essentially share one consciousness. I found the first transition between the Crucible Chiku and solar system Chiku to be quite jarring, but one does get used to the shifting point of view as the novel progresses.
I suspect Reynolds decided on this triple viewpoint approach as he is quite rigorous about his science: no wondrous Star Trek warp drive to subvert the speed of light (apart from Post Chibusa Physics, of course); this means quite a big chunk of the narrative is spent explaining the implications of relativity - not exactly the most gripping subject matter. Combined with the often heavy-handed philosophising about human vs. machine culture, this makes for a curiously stodgy narrative.
Reynolds also makes some fatal authorial decisions. Towards the end, there is a wonderful scene where Eunice Akinya leads a rebellion on the holoship Zanzibar, at the head of a herd of augmented elephants. Elephants on a starship, how cool is that!
Except Chiku only learns about this sequence of events when she is on Crucible, fighting the Mechanism, and taps into a feed from Zanzibar to find out what is going on with the caravan. Obviously Reynolds was faced with a bit of a dilemma: focus on the Crucible landing and the Mechanism struggle, or the story of the holoships, but not both, or he would have ended up with a rather unwieldy novel.
He should have gone with the elephants.
March 4, 2014
Consistently hi-quality. I haven't read a Reynolds novel that I've disliked. I'm always surprised, pleasantly, by how he can turn relatively innocent main characters into normal people thrown into massively world-changing situations and yet still allow them the opportunities to make the big decisions that change the galaxy anyway. These are very fun and satisfying novels. Every time I think to myself, "Well, this is probably not my cup of tea, I'll just get through this one and then move on to another author," I get to the end with frantic enjoyment in my heart that puts me in knots.
Suffice to say, I then have to go get another of his novels. Thank god he's still alive and writing.
Fantastic fun, all. Future history rules, ATW! :)
Suffice to say, I then have to go get another of his novels. Thank god he's still alive and writing.
Fantastic fun, all. Future history rules, ATW! :)
July 17, 2014
Although quieter than the Revelation Space books, On the Steel Breeze is still a mind blowing novel. It centers around a fascinating question - it is possible for a Galactic Civilization to be born in a universe like ours, where greater than light travel is not possible? The answers are even more intriguing than the question, and show that the space-opera subgenre can still feel fresh and interesting.
January 15, 2015
Not the easiest read, with a lot of technological concepts to integrate. However, it was a fulfilling read. And a form of therapy for an artificial intelligence phobic person like myself.
Reviewed for Bitten by Books. http://bittenbybooks.com.
Reviewed for Bitten by Books. http://bittenbybooks.com.
November 12, 2020
Spacefaring whales and elephants, artilects and aliens, and politics, politics, politics.
This was not as good as Poseidon’s Children. Somewhere between the character triplication, skipovers/time compressions, and dystopian dips this story lost its way.
Well, book three has room to impress.
This was not as good as Poseidon’s Children. Somewhere between the character triplication, skipovers/time compressions, and dystopian dips this story lost its way.
Well, book three has room to impress.
June 29, 2014
A very enjoyable read! I've dithered about giving this 3 or 4 stars, and realized the difference between the 2 is a 4 makes me ponder "deep" stuff, while a 3 very much engrosses me but when I'm done reading, it's out of mind.
October 16, 2013
I would suggest reading BLUE REMEMBERED EARTH first, not necessary, but it adds so much to the depth of story, making ON THE STEEL BREEZE a wonderful experience, beginning to end. Alastair knows how to end his stories and have me craving his next work.
February 7, 2022
Mazliet pliekans. Mistērija ap tālo planētu bija vienīgā, kas noturēja mani lasīt līdz beigām. Viss pārējais likās lēns un ne pārāk saistošs.
Notikumi uz Venēras man personīgi šķita visinteresantākie, dēļ milzīgā spiediena uz planētas.
Pie beigām cilvēku daba (iznīcināt visu) likās ļoti depresīva.
Notikumi uz Venēras man personīgi šķita visinteresantākie, dēļ milzīgā spiediena uz planētas.
Pie beigām cilvēku daba (iznīcināt visu) likās ļoti depresīva.
October 12, 2013
The speculative edge of Blue Remembered Earth is replaced not so much by Monolith/Mandala shenanigans (as I feared) but by artilect stuff. Pretty standard fare? Not quite. This is a Reynolds so the light lag complicates matters.
In spite of serious plot issues, the middle of the book especially is a more engaging read than the prequel on a superficial level. If you're looking for space adventures with less violence, less impossible physics and less Anglo supremacism than is typical in the genre, this could be a great book for you. That is, if you're not too picky about stuff that doesn't make much sense and that's been blatantly put there to serve the plot or to make grand events hinge on a handful of characters (but they why would you be looking at the sequel of BRE?). Reynolds often writes stuff that would pass in a fast movie but not in such long books.
A novelty however is that the narrative structure is aligned with a cool plot device. It made the beginning of the book drag a bit but when I understood what Reynolds was doing I thought it was brilliant. Unfortunately, the end of the book abandons this approach and devolves into the usual structure (fast and nonsensical POV cuts).
Now I'll delve into a few important themes without belaboring the material which was already in the prequel...
First, the AI stuff which rubbed me the wrong way. BRE already had some bizarre essentialist bigotry but that stuff plays a much more important part in this book. Reynolds even used the word "essence". It's not merely the characters which occasionally blurt out ill-considered opinions: it's now become some kind of ground rule of the setting, complete with technobabbly plot points. So the author must actually take this stuff seriously.
The one thing that most marred the book in my eyes was how much the issues relevant to both present-day politics and the future of humanity such as surveillance end up being superceded by some kind of essential man/machine conflict, complete with the half-baked resolution we've seen many times in other stories. Much of the plot and especially the ending was predicated on that stuff.
The gen ship stuff I was looking forward to was eclipsed by the "new" (read impossible and overly convenient) physics which afflicted the setting with Revelation Space-type gigantism, as I feared. But there's still some cool stuff, including a Paradises Lost vibe.
One thing which stands out is the so-called slowdown problem which I could not resist reading as an allusion to contemporary issues such as climate change. On the one hand, the relevant global (or rather galactic?) planning is so mind-boggingly lacking in foresight and plain insane I could not suspend disbelief. But on the other hand, what's going on in our world is no less insane. So on some level I thought it was plausible. The cognitive dissonance type of effect would be brilliant if it was indeed what the author intended. But then why ruin it with such a convenient techo-fix?
Another interesting feature of this part of the story one may read as a paralleling current events is the denialists, their politics and their motivations. I'll not say more because I don't want to spoil this part.
I thought the relationships of the narrators with their partners wasn't convincing, and they're not always merely background. The partners were unconvincing as characters actually. Maybe they were intended as male versions of female stereotypes.
The economics of the book is bad and more importantly unimaginative. That's become too common in the genre.
The information security stuff was as nonsensical as I've come to expect. There are some howlers. It would be a bigger issue if that was the only problem with the plot.
We already knew Reynolds takes into account the weaponization potential of the energies involved in interstellar travel. So there's a smattering of Atomic Rockets-type material in this book.
Nitpick: ther are too many codescending recaps and reminders aimed at dead tree readers who aren't paying attention.
In sum, a mild disappointment for me but still a good read. Others might enjoy it more. There's plenty to like.
In spite of serious plot issues, the middle of the book especially is a more engaging read than the prequel on a superficial level. If you're looking for space adventures with less violence, less impossible physics and less Anglo supremacism than is typical in the genre, this could be a great book for you. That is, if you're not too picky about stuff that doesn't make much sense and that's been blatantly put there to serve the plot or to make grand events hinge on a handful of characters (but they why would you be looking at the sequel of BRE?). Reynolds often writes stuff that would pass in a fast movie but not in such long books.
A novelty however is that the narrative structure is aligned with a cool plot device. It made the beginning of the book drag a bit but when I understood what Reynolds was doing I thought it was brilliant. Unfortunately, the end of the book abandons this approach and devolves into the usual structure (fast and nonsensical POV cuts).
Now I'll delve into a few important themes without belaboring the material which was already in the prequel...
First, the AI stuff which rubbed me the wrong way. BRE already had some bizarre essentialist bigotry but that stuff plays a much more important part in this book. Reynolds even used the word "essence". It's not merely the characters which occasionally blurt out ill-considered opinions: it's now become some kind of ground rule of the setting, complete with technobabbly plot points. So the author must actually take this stuff seriously.
The one thing that most marred the book in my eyes was how much the issues relevant to both present-day politics and the future of humanity such as surveillance end up being superceded by some kind of essential man/machine conflict, complete with the half-baked resolution we've seen many times in other stories. Much of the plot and especially the ending was predicated on that stuff.
The gen ship stuff I was looking forward to was eclipsed by the "new" (read impossible and overly convenient) physics which afflicted the setting with Revelation Space-type gigantism, as I feared. But there's still some cool stuff, including a Paradises Lost vibe.
One thing which stands out is the so-called slowdown problem which I could not resist reading as an allusion to contemporary issues such as climate change. On the one hand, the relevant global (or rather galactic?) planning is so mind-boggingly lacking in foresight and plain insane I could not suspend disbelief. But on the other hand, what's going on in our world is no less insane. So on some level I thought it was plausible. The cognitive dissonance type of effect would be brilliant if it was indeed what the author intended. But then why ruin it with such a convenient techo-fix?
Another interesting feature of this part of the story one may read as a paralleling current events is the denialists, their politics and their motivations. I'll not say more because I don't want to spoil this part.
I thought the relationships of the narrators with their partners wasn't convincing, and they're not always merely background. The partners were unconvincing as characters actually. Maybe they were intended as male versions of female stereotypes.
The economics of the book is bad and more importantly unimaginative. That's become too common in the genre.
The information security stuff was as nonsensical as I've come to expect. There are some howlers. It would be a bigger issue if that was the only problem with the plot.
We already knew Reynolds takes into account the weaponization potential of the energies involved in interstellar travel. So there's a smattering of Atomic Rockets-type material in this book.
Nitpick: ther are too many codescending recaps and reminders aimed at dead tree readers who aren't paying attention.
In sum, a mild disappointment for me but still a good read. Others might enjoy it more. There's plenty to like.
April 29, 2020
As with 'Blue Remembered Earth', this starts off languorously. A third of the book had passed before I felt involved, something not helped by some particularly chilly (and under-described) characters who were initially hard to like, plus a lot of lengthy dialogue which wasn't pretending to be anything but expositional.
There are payoffs to this slow start, however. When interesting things do start to happen, the detailed groundwork of early chapters makes the ramping of tension and disquiet both believable and remorseless. By the end of the book, it was quite a surprise to look back at where the story began, and see how much ground had been covered. In common with the first book there remain some decidedly quirky plot points, which feel shoehorned in more on a whim than because they make any sense plot-wise. But why not? Perhaps we all need more space-elephants.
Arcs of the central characters also prove unexpectedly pleasing - again, perhaps being at such a chilly remove to begin with helps the reader warm to them as experience changes them. The story is notably underpopulated with fleshed-out secondary characters, however. In particular, what might have been a fascinating 'mad scientist' character (and a very useful foil to the - equally imperious, in her own way - Chiku Green), sometimes feels barely on the page. Chiku's lovers get slightly more of a look-in, but still feel like an addendum, and the best-observed secondary characters - both AIs - achieve a prominence out of proportion to their relatively fleeting appearances. Perhaps that's the point, though. Events are seen very much through Chiku's eyes, and it's clear that other individuals in her life are very much expendable in the name of what she considers her and her family's Path, and the greater good. This is a character so absorbed with her own importance that she decided one of her wasn't enough.
However, to sustain the interest in such a lengthy book with effectively just one fully-developed character (even if there are three iterations of her) takes some writing skill. Like an optical illusion, in its last pages, all the disparate pieces of the picture, which I feared would leave me unsatisfied, suddenly slotted together very well, leaving me wondering why I'd been concerned.
I'd have left 3 1/2 stars if I could. Flawed, but well worth a read.
There are payoffs to this slow start, however. When interesting things do start to happen, the detailed groundwork of early chapters makes the ramping of tension and disquiet both believable and remorseless. By the end of the book, it was quite a surprise to look back at where the story began, and see how much ground had been covered. In common with the first book there remain some decidedly quirky plot points, which feel shoehorned in more on a whim than because they make any sense plot-wise. But why not? Perhaps we all need more space-elephants.
Arcs of the central characters also prove unexpectedly pleasing - again, perhaps being at such a chilly remove to begin with helps the reader warm to them as experience changes them. The story is notably underpopulated with fleshed-out secondary characters, however. In particular, what might have been a fascinating 'mad scientist' character (and a very useful foil to the - equally imperious, in her own way - Chiku Green), sometimes feels barely on the page. Chiku's lovers get slightly more of a look-in, but still feel like an addendum, and the best-observed secondary characters - both AIs - achieve a prominence out of proportion to their relatively fleeting appearances. Perhaps that's the point, though. Events are seen very much through Chiku's eyes, and it's clear that other individuals in her life are very much expendable in the name of what she considers her and her family's Path, and the greater good. This is a character so absorbed with her own importance that she decided one of her wasn't enough.
However, to sustain the interest in such a lengthy book with effectively just one fully-developed character (even if there are three iterations of her) takes some writing skill. Like an optical illusion, in its last pages, all the disparate pieces of the picture, which I feared would leave me unsatisfied, suddenly slotted together very well, leaving me wondering why I'd been concerned.
I'd have left 3 1/2 stars if I could. Flawed, but well worth a read.
September 28, 2025
I liked how we jumped forward and saw the story through the three (well, two) clones. I felt the narrative kept me engaged and felt refreshingly new. It doesn't have the same weight as Revelation Space, but this self-contained trilogy still gets the job done with solid characters, unpredictable plotting, and great writing. Very creative and fun reading.
January 9, 2018
I loved Blue Remembered Earth but On the Steel Breeze, its distant sequel, surpasses it. This is no mean achievement.
September 2, 2021
On The Steel Breeze (2013) is the middle novel of Alastair Reynolds’ space opera trilogy Poseidon’s Children. It comes after Blue Remembered Earth (2012) and before Poseidon's Wake (2014). While each lengthy novel ends with a plot conclusion, the backstory continues across subsequent generations of the same Akinya family. So, you could read this one as stand-alone, but I recommend reading in order.
The future history common to all three novels is based on an Earth that has survived “the bottleneck,” a 21st century climate-driven and war-driven dieback of humanity, from which the surviving populations have climbed back to a solar-system-wide civilization. On Earth, there is the Surveilled State, which is regulated by The Mechanism, a nanotechnology-based global system that suppresses human conflict for the good of all. It is a utopian concept, that the reader just knows is going to be trouble at some later point in the narrative.
The lead character(s) of On The Steel Breeze are the three diverse incarnations of Chiku Akinya, the daughter of characters from the previous novel. Those three have been cloned in adulthood. Chiku Red was lost trying to find her famous great-grandmother Eunice Akinya in interstellar space. Chiku Green is on board a generation ship, part of a fleet of hollowed out asteroids sent to investigate the alien planet Crucible and deliver millions of colonists. Chiku Yellow has remained on Earth, and is in periodic memory synch with the others, and the three characters frequently internalize each other’s experience as their own, which causes some jarring transitions (probably intentionally) between points of view. They are the sort of braided and post-human identities that Reynolds also used for characters in his Revelation Space novels. A majority of the action takes place on Chiku Green’s ship, and on Chiku Yellow’s Earth.
Additionally, there is a centuries-long power drama between powerful female figures from the past. Eunice Akinya is a cybernetic reincarnation of Chiku’s great -grandmother, and keeper of Geoffrey’s elephant herds. Arethusa (Lin Wei) is a woman surgically transformed into a whale’s body, who founded a race of posthuman merfolk in Earth’s seas, but who is now sequestered in one of Saturn’s moons. Arachne is a cybernetic intelligence, evolved out of the software designed to adaptively run an astronomical observation platform.
It is a setting and a strongly suspenseful plot that is drenched in technological tropes, sometimes bordering on the supernatural - making this science fantasy rather than science fiction. In particular, the emotion motes as a form of communication seemed odd and superfluous .
I will be reading the conclusion of the trilogy next.
The future history common to all three novels is based on an Earth that has survived “the bottleneck,” a 21st century climate-driven and war-driven dieback of humanity, from which the surviving populations have climbed back to a solar-system-wide civilization. On Earth, there is the Surveilled State, which is regulated by The Mechanism, a nanotechnology-based global system that suppresses human conflict for the good of all. It is a utopian concept, that the reader just knows is going to be trouble at some later point in the narrative.
The lead character(s) of On The Steel Breeze are the three diverse incarnations of Chiku Akinya, the daughter of characters from the previous novel. Those three have been cloned in adulthood. Chiku Red was lost trying to find her famous great-grandmother Eunice Akinya in interstellar space. Chiku Green is on board a generation ship, part of a fleet of hollowed out asteroids sent to investigate the alien planet Crucible and deliver millions of colonists. Chiku Yellow has remained on Earth, and is in periodic memory synch with the others, and the three characters frequently internalize each other’s experience as their own, which causes some jarring transitions (probably intentionally) between points of view. They are the sort of braided and post-human identities that Reynolds also used for characters in his Revelation Space novels. A majority of the action takes place on Chiku Green’s ship, and on Chiku Yellow’s Earth.
Additionally, there is a centuries-long power drama between powerful female figures from the past. Eunice Akinya is a cybernetic reincarnation of Chiku’s great -grandmother, and keeper of Geoffrey’s elephant herds. Arethusa (Lin Wei) is a woman surgically transformed into a whale’s body, who founded a race of posthuman merfolk in Earth’s seas, but who is now sequestered in one of Saturn’s moons. Arachne is a cybernetic intelligence, evolved out of the software designed to adaptively run an astronomical observation platform.
It is a setting and a strongly suspenseful plot that is drenched in technological tropes, sometimes bordering on the supernatural - making this science fantasy rather than science fiction. In particular, the emotion motes as a form of communication seemed odd and superfluous .
I will be reading the conclusion of the trilogy next.
May 9, 2023
Une personne, 3 corps et 3 voies : Chiku Yellow reste sur Terre, tandis que Chiku Red part à la recherche de son arrière grand-mère Eunice Akinya, et que Chiku Green voyage à travers le cosmos pour la planète Crucible, une nouvelle maison pour l’humanité où se trouve un labyrinthe étrange et alien.
J’avais beaucoup aimé le premier tome, et ce deuxième ne fait que valider la grandeur et la dimension de cette trilogie. Tout en douceur malgré des thèmes parfois forts et violents, aux personnages très bien écrits, avec autant d’action que de moments plus posés, et des thématiques et une ligne directrice hyper intéressantes à suivre. Je suis complètement rentrée dedans, et ai vraiment hâte de lire la suite !
J’avais beaucoup aimé le premier tome, et ce deuxième ne fait que valider la grandeur et la dimension de cette trilogie. Tout en douceur malgré des thèmes parfois forts et violents, aux personnages très bien écrits, avec autant d’action que de moments plus posés, et des thématiques et une ligne directrice hyper intéressantes à suivre. Je suis complètement rentrée dedans, et ai vraiment hâte de lire la suite !
November 7, 2020
3.5 really - RTC
January 12, 2023
Really gripped me. Perhaps a bit disappointed with the ending, but only because the rest of the book was so good I expected even more.
November 18, 2013
Quite disappointing - one of the few A Reynolds novels that bored me to no end except for the last 50 or so pages which were excellent and a return to form; the novelty from Blue Remembered Earth is gone, the storyline(s) are very drawn out boring almost to the end with the standard "abundant technological future" tropes where all conflict is kind of made up rather than real, the characters live very long lives that are not really reflected in the page by the author as they act like regular humans of today with aging a counting matter but not really a life-changing experience one etc.
There is very little sense of the external (again, the bland future makes it hard to go into details as i've seen this repeated in similar works like 2312) and the characters are not that interesting or engaging as that was never the author's forte anyway
Still ambitious and with enough stuff to (and a great ending) to make it passable but not among the author's best
Not sure I will bother to read the last installment - maybe will take a look when I see a copy - and I hope Mr. Reynolds goes back to writing the sense of wonder sf he showed so magnificently in the revelation Space sequence or in his short stories
There is very little sense of the external (again, the bland future makes it hard to go into details as i've seen this repeated in similar works like 2312) and the characters are not that interesting or engaging as that was never the author's forte anyway
Still ambitious and with enough stuff to (and a great ending) to make it passable but not among the author's best
Not sure I will bother to read the last installment - maybe will take a look when I see a copy - and I hope Mr. Reynolds goes back to writing the sense of wonder sf he showed so magnificently in the revelation Space sequence or in his short stories
February 16, 2014
Another solid offer from Alastair Reynolds, building upon the prequel "Blue Remembered Earth". This one feels a little more structured, and is not limited to the solar system anymore. New themes include relativistic interstellar travel, machine intelligence, and a first glimpse of alien constructs. The book also explores the manipulation of human consciousness to a greater degree than the previous one.
It sometimes reads as a likely introduction to the rest of Reynolds' universe; what is being built here, could easily develop into either Revelation Space or the setting of House of Suns, given time. But maybe that is just rationalization and wishful thinking on my part. :)
Either way, looking forward to the third book in the series. It is worth noting however that this book, like the previous one, is perfectly acceptable as a stand-alone read.
It sometimes reads as a likely introduction to the rest of Reynolds' universe; what is being built here, could easily develop into either Revelation Space or the setting of House of Suns, given time. But maybe that is just rationalization and wishful thinking on my part. :)
Either way, looking forward to the third book in the series. It is worth noting however that this book, like the previous one, is perfectly acceptable as a stand-alone read.
November 12, 2014
I liked the first book in this series, Blue Remembered Earth, very much. This one I disliked. Very much.
Ostensibly interesting space stuff can be happening, but the characters kill it by talking. And talking. And talking. This got worse as the book went along. (I feel a little guilty marking this as "read" when I skimmed the last 50 pages to get it over with.)
I also did not like the protagonist (I found her self-centered and cranky without being interesting enough to compensate for her flaws), but that's a secondary concern. The primary concern is how, with a plot that should have been awesome, the book was still so dull.
Ostensibly interesting space stuff can be happening, but the characters kill it by talking. And talking. And talking. This got worse as the book went along. (I feel a little guilty marking this as "read" when I skimmed the last 50 pages to get it over with.)
I also did not like the protagonist (I found her self-centered and cranky without being interesting enough to compensate for her flaws), but that's a secondary concern. The primary concern is how, with a plot that should have been awesome, the book was still so dull.
January 4, 2015
This is the sequel to Blue Remembered Earth. I didn't like that one much. I don't like this one much either. I mean, I didn't hate either one; I just wasn't thrilled.
Most of the characters lack any sort of agency. Things happen to them or push them into certain actions. It doesn't help that much of the story is told in flashbacks. It's an odd choice in dealing with time dilation. I don't think it was a good one.
All that said, it's well written and contains more in the way of big ideas than the first book. It feels more Reynoldsesque. It's really a 3.5 star book, but I can't bring myself to give it four.
Most of the characters lack any sort of agency. Things happen to them or push them into certain actions. It doesn't help that much of the story is told in flashbacks. It's an odd choice in dealing with time dilation. I don't think it was a good one.
All that said, it's well written and contains more in the way of big ideas than the first book. It feels more Reynoldsesque. It's really a 3.5 star book, but I can't bring myself to give it four.
December 17, 2013
I finished this last week, but didn't have internet access to tell anyone.
It's a very interesting storytelling experiment, but the ideas and concepts get in the way of pacing. Which is intentional, but don't make it any less weird to read.
Full review on my podcast, SFBRP episode #not-sure-yet.
It's a very interesting storytelling experiment, but the ideas and concepts get in the way of pacing. Which is intentional, but don't make it any less weird to read.
Full review on my podcast, SFBRP episode #not-sure-yet.
September 27, 2018
And my love/hate relationship with Alastair Reynolds continues. I love his vision of future science and technology, and I love half of his characters. I hate that his plots tend to start strong but then slow down and meander, and I hate the other half of his characters.
May 17, 2017
Der zweite Band aus Alastair Reynolds Trilogie "Poseidons Kinder" ist ein Werk, das zum Besten des Autors gehört. Der Autor läßt die Kontinuität der Trilogie einige Jahrzehnte nach den Ereignissen von Band 1 einsetzen, Sunday Akinya ist inzwischen eine alte Frau, die sich mit den Errungenschaften Ihrer Mutter, Eunice Akinya der neune Physik beschäftigt. Sundays Tochter Chiku ist die neue Trägerin der aktuellen Handlung.
Sie hat einen sehr schwierigen Weg gewählt. Sie hat ihren Geist und ihren Körper aufgespalten und führt drei unterschiedliche Leben, die sie in unregelmäßigen Abständen wieder synchronisiert, sobald sie ihre Erinnerungen an die anderen weitergeben kann. Und das ist schwierig. Denn Chiku Grün begleitet eine Flotte aus Holoschiffen mit Siedlern, die auf dem Planeten Crucible eine neue Heimat finden wollen, wobei sie sich immer wieder „Auszeiten“ nimmt, also gewissermaßen Zeit im Kälteschlaf verbringt – während das zentrale Problem der Reise, nämlich der Abbremsvorgang auf später vertagt wird. Chicu Rot hat sogar eine noch schwierigere Aufgabe. Sie soll Eunice in ihrem Schiff folgen und sie bergen. Chicu Gelb soll hingeben im Sonnensystem bleiben und die Entwicklungen auf Erde, Mond und Mars weiterverfolgen. Und das ist nötig, denn die Maschinenintelligenz Arachne, die entstand um das gewaltige Teleskop „Okular“ zu steuern, hat große Teile aller technischen Systeme unterwandert – was Maschinen plötzlich zu Gefahrenquellen macht...
Eine Geschichte, die sich mit dem Aufbruch der Menschheit zu neuen Welten und in ein neues Zeitalter beschäftigt, braucht ihre Zeit, deshalb ist auch der Umfang von 750 Seiten voll gerechtfertigt, an keiner Stelle habe ich mich gelangweilt.
Einige Dinge sind mir jedoch rätselhaft geblieben. Wenn Generationsraumschiffe zu einem 26 Lichtjahre entfernten Planeten fliegen, würde ich doch annehmen, wie genau das man bewerkstelligt. Doch die Holoschiffe fliegen, ohne zu wissen, wie man einen Abbremsvorgang hinkriegt, die Forscher, die sich mit diesem Problem beschäftigen und auch eine Lösung erarbeiten werden verfolgt und ihre Forschungen werden verheimlicht; warum ?
Ich habe diesen Roman genossen und bin gespannt, wie es endet; immerhin finden sie am Zielort eine Alien-KI die m.E. in die Zukunft der Trilogie deuten könnte...
Sie hat einen sehr schwierigen Weg gewählt. Sie hat ihren Geist und ihren Körper aufgespalten und führt drei unterschiedliche Leben, die sie in unregelmäßigen Abständen wieder synchronisiert, sobald sie ihre Erinnerungen an die anderen weitergeben kann. Und das ist schwierig. Denn Chiku Grün begleitet eine Flotte aus Holoschiffen mit Siedlern, die auf dem Planeten Crucible eine neue Heimat finden wollen, wobei sie sich immer wieder „Auszeiten“ nimmt, also gewissermaßen Zeit im Kälteschlaf verbringt – während das zentrale Problem der Reise, nämlich der Abbremsvorgang auf später vertagt wird. Chicu Rot hat sogar eine noch schwierigere Aufgabe. Sie soll Eunice in ihrem Schiff folgen und sie bergen. Chicu Gelb soll hingeben im Sonnensystem bleiben und die Entwicklungen auf Erde, Mond und Mars weiterverfolgen. Und das ist nötig, denn die Maschinenintelligenz Arachne, die entstand um das gewaltige Teleskop „Okular“ zu steuern, hat große Teile aller technischen Systeme unterwandert – was Maschinen plötzlich zu Gefahrenquellen macht...
Eine Geschichte, die sich mit dem Aufbruch der Menschheit zu neuen Welten und in ein neues Zeitalter beschäftigt, braucht ihre Zeit, deshalb ist auch der Umfang von 750 Seiten voll gerechtfertigt, an keiner Stelle habe ich mich gelangweilt.
Einige Dinge sind mir jedoch rätselhaft geblieben. Wenn Generationsraumschiffe zu einem 26 Lichtjahre entfernten Planeten fliegen, würde ich doch annehmen, wie genau das man bewerkstelligt. Doch die Holoschiffe fliegen, ohne zu wissen, wie man einen Abbremsvorgang hinkriegt, die Forscher, die sich mit diesem Problem beschäftigen und auch eine Lösung erarbeiten werden verfolgt und ihre Forschungen werden verheimlicht; warum ?
Ich habe diesen Roman genossen und bin gespannt, wie es endet; immerhin finden sie am Zielort eine Alien-KI die m.E. in die Zukunft der Trilogie deuten könnte...
February 3, 2018
On the Steel Breeze is the second in Alastair Reynolds’ Poseidon’s Children trilogy. Set a significant period of time after Blue Remembered Earth, it follows the story of Chiku Akinya, the great granddaughter of Eunice Akinya - the space-travel pioneering matriarch whose absence dominated the previous story.
Chiku is an intriguing science fiction creation - she is actually three separate individuals who are the result of the original Chiku cloning herself twice, and then interweaving the cloned and original bodies as well as her memories, so that none can be considered more “original” than the others. Each Chiku has followed a different journey - Chiku Red has pursued the ship that Eunice Akinya was aboard when she left the solar system; Chiku Green is on a colony ship - part of a convoy on its way to a nearby habitable world that contains a vast alien structure; and Chiku Yellow has remained on Earth.
One of the clever conceits of the novel is the face that each Chiku can send packets of memories that can be incorporated into the memories of the others, and this is how they can remain in touch - almost as if they are the same person.
It took me a while to get into this story, as the protagonist(s) is a new character, albeit a descendent of the characters from the first book, and so there was a sense of dislocation at the start. Soon enough, though, it finds its feet and starts progressing at pace - threats are uncovered, human, artificial and alien - and the story becomes more enthralling.
Still, it suffers from “middle-act syndrome” - it is neither the beginning of the story, nor the climax - and by the end it has only teased as opposed to satisfied.
Nevertheless, Reynolds’ writing is as fluent and enjoyable as ever, and the story is chock full of fascinating ideas. Additionally, when compared to he Revelation Space novels, the world and characters seem much more warm and full of positive life.
I’m looking forward to the next book in the series.
Chiku is an intriguing science fiction creation - she is actually three separate individuals who are the result of the original Chiku cloning herself twice, and then interweaving the cloned and original bodies as well as her memories, so that none can be considered more “original” than the others. Each Chiku has followed a different journey - Chiku Red has pursued the ship that Eunice Akinya was aboard when she left the solar system; Chiku Green is on a colony ship - part of a convoy on its way to a nearby habitable world that contains a vast alien structure; and Chiku Yellow has remained on Earth.
One of the clever conceits of the novel is the face that each Chiku can send packets of memories that can be incorporated into the memories of the others, and this is how they can remain in touch - almost as if they are the same person.
It took me a while to get into this story, as the protagonist(s) is a new character, albeit a descendent of the characters from the first book, and so there was a sense of dislocation at the start. Soon enough, though, it finds its feet and starts progressing at pace - threats are uncovered, human, artificial and alien - and the story becomes more enthralling.
Still, it suffers from “middle-act syndrome” - it is neither the beginning of the story, nor the climax - and by the end it has only teased as opposed to satisfied.
Nevertheless, Reynolds’ writing is as fluent and enjoyable as ever, and the story is chock full of fascinating ideas. Additionally, when compared to he Revelation Space novels, the world and characters seem much more warm and full of positive life.
I’m looking forward to the next book in the series.
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