This is the second book in a trilogy, and while I think you can enjoy it on its own, for optimal enjoyment you really should start with the first novel Blue Remembered Earth. While I love most Reynolds' work, i was not completely convinced by book 1. A story set in a colonised solar system, it felt more like a treasure hunt across the planets, lacking that cosmic awe that worked so well in his Revelation Space series. Still, it was interesting enough with a generally convincing depiction of the future - something Reynolds does so very well, much better than most writers in the genre.
In this book humanity starts with interstellar colonisation. How we tackle the transport for millions of colonists is something I leave for you to discover, it is a neat idea. Exactly like in his Revelation Space universe, there is no faster than light travel. This in contrast to most other SF books where hyperspace jumps are dead easy. This realistic (at least with current understanding of physics) approach makes these books extra interesting.
Just as with Peter Baxter's Proxima there is a logical issue with the colonisation travel: it turns out that people can sleep for a long time, as to not to suffer from the long time of the travel. Ok, but then you'd expect nearly all colonists to be asleep aside from as skeleton crew. Of course then we would not have "parallel" story lines in the solar system and amongst the traveling colonists. I put the quotes there because the information between the two areas takes decades to transfer, something that Reynolds handles well in the story.
Several subtopics abound in the book, making it rich and interesting. There is the concept of altered post-humans. One of the character is a 3rd gender - something that is otherwise not further explained. There are interesting concepts about cloning, consciousness, big brother-like supervision, intellectually elevated elephants, and especially the problem of truly independent AI. This rich tapestry, and the alien situation on the colonisation target, gives the book the book that sense of remarkably believable cosmic awe, and in fact makes this novel a better, more satisfying read than the first volume. It is really a work of a contemporary master of the genre, so much deeper and more satisfying than popular B movie-like SF books like the Dire Earth Cycle.
Of note is also that Reynolds' writing style has improved over time. The big ideas were there in his early books, but these sometimes had technical info dumps interrupting the story. This new trilogy is much more character driven without sacrificing on believable world building.
So, a very good, well crafted modern SF novel. I already look forward to the concluding volume. My only wish for that book would be to have little focus on augmented elephants, it is a subplot that didn't really captivate me.
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Top reviews from other countries
Dr. C. K.
Endlich mal wieder Qualität von Reynolds
Reviewed in Germany on October 28, 2014Mr. Paul J. Grenyer
Fantastic! I loved this book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 16, 2014
