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A review by timinbc
On the Steel Breeze by Alastair Reynolds
4.0
This is a good extension of Blue Remembered Earth. It could stand alone, but I recommend reading BRE first.
This is the kind of huge-scope Reynolds that sweeps along so grandly that you can read it quickly and not get picky about details. When the author sets the scope this large, we have to be forgiving; if he's going to get every detail perfect the story will either be abandoned or never finished.
It's full of characters who make mistakes sometimes. I like that. It's full of Big Ideas, and the plot is complex and more or less believable.
I had some quibbles, but I was able to brush them aside and enjoy the story. Still:
Chiku is the only one cloned?
I suspect the relative-time issues might not stand up to close scrutiny, but as noted above we have to allow that. It did force a clumsy catch-up near the end via encrypted feed about Eunice's actions. Which reminded me that the whole chinging thing didn't feel quite plausible - even now, as VR makes huge strides.
I don't remember from BRE how Swahili became the galactic language, and I can't shake the idea that Reynolds set that up just so he could have elephants.
There are more than a few typos, and repeated use of "breaking" for "braking". Distracting.
Didn't much care for the idea that Travertine was able to invent a superdrive that is vastly beyond the previous one and resolves all those pesky plot issues. Also, while I remember the ve/ver for that character from BRE, and the reason, it's just a given here, never explained.
I found it totally implausible that EVERYONE wanted to suppress research even though
it had become obvious that they won't be able to stop at their destination. The more one defends this with "they are self-sufficient" the more we think "c'mon, no they aren't; for one thing, what are they using for fuel?"
There are, as in so many novels, far too many convenient happenings, and it's not credible that everything important somehow involves our central people.
Two unsynchronized Arachnes, powerful and dangerous and ... hmm, this sounds like Anaander from Leckie's Ancillary series. I'm not suggesting any connection, just noting a coincidence.
So, read fast and enjoy. I look forward to the next one. Will we see Tantors on parasails above Crucible?
This is the kind of huge-scope Reynolds that sweeps along so grandly that you can read it quickly and not get picky about details. When the author sets the scope this large, we have to be forgiving; if he's going to get every detail perfect the story will either be abandoned or never finished.
It's full of characters who make mistakes sometimes. I like that. It's full of Big Ideas, and the plot is complex and more or less believable.
I had some quibbles, but I was able to brush them aside and enjoy the story. Still:
Chiku is the only one cloned?
I suspect the relative-time issues might not stand up to close scrutiny, but as noted above we have to allow that. It did force a clumsy catch-up near the end via encrypted feed about Eunice's actions. Which reminded me that the whole chinging thing didn't feel quite plausible - even now, as VR makes huge strides.
I don't remember from BRE how Swahili became the galactic language, and I can't shake the idea that Reynolds set that up just so he could have elephants.
There are more than a few typos, and repeated use of "breaking" for "braking". Distracting.
Didn't much care for the idea that Travertine was able to invent a superdrive that is vastly beyond the previous one and resolves all those pesky plot issues. Also, while I remember the ve/ver for that character from BRE, and the reason, it's just a given here, never explained.
I found it totally implausible that EVERYONE wanted to suppress research even though
it had become obvious that they won't be able to stop at their destination. The more one defends this with "they are self-sufficient" the more we think "c'mon, no they aren't; for one thing, what are they using for fuel?"
There are, as in so many novels, far too many convenient happenings, and it's not credible that everything important somehow involves our central people.
Two unsynchronized Arachnes, powerful and dangerous and ... hmm, this sounds like Anaander from Leckie's Ancillary series. I'm not suggesting any connection, just noting a coincidence.
So, read fast and enjoy. I look forward to the next one. Will we see Tantors on parasails above Crucible?