Blue Remembered Earth / Alastair Reynolds

Blue Remembered Earth
by Alastair Reynolds

science fiction

copyright 2012
read in May 2013

rated 6 out of 10: read to pass the time

I've read that science fiction answers the question, "What if?" This book raises the question, "So what?"

Can you remember the first Star Trek movie? It probably had the clever name, Start Trek The Movie... It had a good 50 minute plot -- stretched out to an hour and a half of movie. Stretched using lots of SF special effects. Blue is like that, except without the good plot.

Several people chase clues across the solar system. They spend a lot of time admiring amazing scientific developments -- or possibilities, for today's reader. What a pity that so few of these developments have any bearing on the story.

Then we discover that some old lady -- believed to be dead -- had discovered the secret to travel beyond the solar system. How did she make this amazing discovery? Pure deus ex machina... Some passing aliens decided to spend some time leaving explanatory graffiti.

Not that we are given any hint of this amazing discovery. At least, not until the final pages, where the author decides that it's about time to stop writing. Eternal life? Cold fusion power? (Well, almost.) Cure for the common cold? New and improved snake oil? I know, let's make it space travel!

Then there are the holes in the plot. The elephants in the room, for example. Seriously.

Two midget elephants on the moon. Bred to size, we are told, by phyletic evolution. (I hope those words are right. I can't be bothered checking again.) Phyletic evolution is the natural process of animals -- such as elephants -- breeding smaller in an environment with limited resources. Smaller animals are better at surviving the regular food shortages, so natural selection results in a herd of smaller elephants.

So how do you do that in just one generation? We're looking at elephants the size of large dogs... More than a minor shrinkage.

And if it happened over the more reasonable several hundred generations -- where were these elephants while they were being bred for small size?!

Then there's the shell and pea trick with the buried treasure. We're expected to believe that a man can dig up a box, open it, swap the contents, close it -- then bury it again... All while being watched by three good guys, a bad guy, three intelligent drones and by whatever automated surveillance system it was that initially detected this prestidigitating digger.

Then there's that crazy old lady, believed dead. She trips over the secret of space travel. Decides to hold it for a while. Goes off on her own deep space voyage -- as far as I can tell. And suddenly -- for no reason that we are given -- decides that now is the time to release her discovery. Puts everything into a one-shot treasure trail. Makes the trail so difficult to follow that only one intended finder makes it to the end...

And if he had failed -- too bad. The trail is destroyed. No-one will every be able to follow it again. If the hero had blinked -- the discovery would have been lost for all time.

Blue Remembered Earth has entertaining science. The characters are slightly interesting. The plot is weak as water.

Easy enough to read. Hardly worth the effort.

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