Blue Remembered Earth
By Alastair Reynolds
You don’t want to stop and think too much about how the plot of this old-school space opera gets set in motion. I mean, why does Eunice send her descendants on a solar system-spanning treasure hunt anyway? Instead, just sit back and enjoy as an accomplished storyteller with a fascinating vision of the twenty-second century (the year is 2162, to be precise) takes you for a ride through freshly imagined terrains of inner and outer space. An optimistic attitude pervades the whole, as we’ve overcome environmental catastrophe and live in a state of general peace and harmony maintained by benevolent Big Brother neural augmentations. My own taste in SF is for darker fare, but there’s no denying this is an enjoyable launch to a great new series.
Alex on SF 