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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Problems ? Solved

House of Suns / Alastair Reynolds

House of Suns

category: science fiction, author:

Alastair Reynolds

published by Gollancz, original copyright 2008, read in June 2010

Agamedes' opinion: 7 out of 10

Big picture stuff! Or, as the cover says, "A genius for big-concept SF." What's so "big" about this book? Well...

The main characters have been around for six million years. They have circumnavigated the galaxy more than thirty times. Their spaceships are big enough to have a few dozen more normal spaceships stacked in the hold... The scope is more than big, it's gigantic! Yet we still have sympathy for the lives and worries of the heroes.

Sort of.

Sure, they're meant to be immortal, so potential death is a bit of a bummer. But they're clones. And 800 of the 1000 clones of one character are killed off by the time the plot gets serious. So why don't they clone another 800? No explanation.

The characters are okay... but the technology is the real star of this book. You name it, the technology makes it possible. Except for FTL travel: the characters think nothing of being frozen for the 6,000 years that it takes for the final "car" chase.
It's a lot of fun, over the top, super-science science fiction.

But is it "Space Opera"?

The back cover of the book indicates that this is "space opera". I'm not too sure... I may have to use my own definitions here:

I see space opera as being larger-than-life characters, super-duper science, galactic scale and evil aliens. Yes, House of Suns has super-duper science. The scale is definitely galactic -- and more. But...

The characters are not large enough. Sure, they are millions of years old, but that is due to technology which exists from the start of the story. I prefer my space opera heroes to invent the technology for themselves, or to find it in new civilisations -- which are discovered by the heroes. House of Suns is like the Star Wars movies -- the technology is always there, an accepted part of the background.

The characters themselves, have just a bit too much depth for my views of space opera. They are almost two-dimensional but not quite. Flat enough for SF but not flat enough for space opera.

The aliens are even worse...

What aliens?

House of Suns is a human universe. Every civilisation is human, though possibly extremely mutated. Without a tentacled and slimy alien, this is just SF. Sure, there's a secret and galaxy-wide organisation -- but it's human. Worse yet, the secret enemy has apparently good reasons for its evil deeds... In a proper space opera, the secret organisation is unspeakably evil -- and they know it.

So House of Suns is large scale science fiction. But it is not space opera.

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.

Pushing Ice / Alastair Reynolds

Pushing Ice

(category: science fiction)
by

Alastair Reynolds

published by Gollancz in 2005
read in August 2009

Agamedes' rating: 6 out of 10

Agamedes' opinion:

A great book, great scope, great characters... potentially... Sure, it starts with an everyday spaceship, limited to the Solar System, and ends with a super-ship with Galactic drive -- way, way... way... in the future. But then there’s the deus ex machina device which saves the day... Okay, it fits in with the prologue and epilogue. Except... How did it get into the sealed area of space with the good guys? Then there’s the hint that there are millions of the things, just waiting to save the hero, millions of times. Yet the hero ends up still stuck inside the sealed space! Will the devices ever find her again? Who knows! Who cares? Well, it was a good enough book to care. As long as you skim quickly through the boring bit in the middle, where the two main characters spend all their time and effort not speaking to each other. Great idea, could be a tighter plot.