Blue Remembered Earth

In Blue Remembered Earth, Alastair Reynolds has written a novel combining hard SF and excellent story-telling. The first part in a sequence chronicling the life of one African family over many generations, BRE is set in a world where Africa has become a superpower, and humanity has expanded into space, and colonized the Moon and Mars.

The book zeroes in on two characters, Geoffrey and Sunday Akiyma. The brother and sister have just been told their grandmother, Eunice has died. Eunice was something of a pioneer in the space frontier, and nearly single-handedly brought their family riches.

Now she's dead, and the two are dragged into a mystery revolving around her ultimate legacy.

I'll admit, I had a tough time getting into this book initially. Part of the problem stemmed from Geoffrey and Sunday being somewhat unlikable. The two don't want anything to do with their family's fortune, preferring instead to follow their dreams involving art and elephant mind mapping (seriously). Though I'm sure they were meant to be heroic in their familial defiance, they kind of came off as brats.

Sort of like space hipsters. And if there's one place hipsters don't belong (besides anywhere) it's in space.

But what good are characters if they don't change? Sunday and Geoffrey rise to their respective challenges, and once they get going, the book gets really interesting, really fast.

One thing people may have a problem with is the hard SF aspect. Unless you're used to it, the technical details of space travel and colonization Reynolds explores can seem dense and detracting from the story. There are some places where I wonder if the stuff he threw in there actually needed to be there.

If you enjoying reading that kind of thing, then this book is sure to delight. It's well done and interesting, with good characters and an engaging story. Definitely recommended.