On the Steel Breeze
By Alastair Reynolds
Few SF writers merge rousing adventure with advanced futuristic technology as skilfully as Alastair Reynolds. On the Steel Breeze is the sequel to Blue Remembered Earth, and readers are well advised to read that book first as Reynolds is in the middle of a very complex, multi-generational plot that zips the reader from deep beneath Earth’s oceans to even deeper space. The story picks up a few hundred years after the end of the previous book, with Chiku, yet another descendant of the formidable Akinya clan, following bread crumbs through a maze of interstellar mysteries. And of course there are elephants. Talking elephants. In space.