Century Rain
by Alastair Reynolds
science fiction
copyright 2004
read in March 2016
rated 7/10: well worth reading
Paris (sort of) in 1959... Funny, I get a grey and gloomy feeling from this book. Yet a final view -- as in, final, near the end of the book -- is of a glorious, golden green and bright blue Earth... Hmmm, the back cover does say, "part noir romance". Okay, I was feeling that "noir" -- even when the author says that the Paris sun is shining :-)
So we have Paris in 1959. Paris several hundred years later. No time travel involved. Very clever idea -- inexplicable ... and never explained. No explanation is needed. Which is interesting: the book takes the situation and builds a great story. It is not a book about the reason for the two versions of Paris. The setting is a given, the story is more human.
I do like the faster-than-light space travel ! Not your standard flash of light and you're there !
There's an old fashioned feel to the science... Or, more correctly, there's an old fashioned feel to the technology. Rough and ready, pistons and large metal parts, hands-on control... At the start of the book I believed that it must have been written 30 or 40 years ago !
Perhaps that's all part of the author's intent: Start in 1959 Paris and give the technology -- the futuristic technology -- a 1950s feel... Or not :-)
Perhaps the aim is to distinguish the initial technology from the "Polity" technology, which only appears later in the book. Does that sound more reasonable ? Good, I'll go with that explanation !
The story itself is great fun. Human interest with a whole world to be saved. The heroes have no super powers -- but they keep on trying. Not quite a fairytale ending, but satisfying.
I read the book and enjoyed it. I would enjoy a follow-up... but will not be disappointed if the one book is all there is.
But I still don't understand the name... "Century Rain" ?!
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