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On the Steel Breeze 9780575090453 Books

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On the Steel Breeze 9780575090453 Books

I've read every novel and many short stories written by Alastair Reynolds, and he's one of my favorite Sci-Fi authors. I realized while reading this one what it is that appeals to me. I like how he finds ways to deal with the incredible distances between stars, and how to could make it work with slower-than-light travel. I think we've lost the appreciation of just how far apart stars are, when most Sci-Fi makes it almost trivial. Reynolds actually makes it seem feasible to build star-faring civilizations without the quick trips in most TV shows and movies.

So in this novel, mankind is traveling to a distant star after observing evidence of an alien civilization. Millions of people in hollowed out asteroids, living in micro-societies, extending their lifetimes with age-defying medical tech, and occasional "skipovers" (long sleep). And then he adds a new wrinkle to it, by introducing the main character, Chika, who divides/clones herself into three people. One of them is traveling to the star, while one stays behind on Earth. By synching up their memories at a few points in time, they're able to share information about a conspiracy touching both areas. In effect, the novel's hero is able to jump back and forth at light speed to investigate and fight the conspiracy, without violating limits on travel speed. Nice concept, and he pulls it off well.

One more comment: this book follows after "Blue Remembered Earth", which I read over a year ago, so I forgot a lot of things. This book didn't make it easy to remember the previous book, and there were some places and people that confused me for a while, and had I remembered the first book better, I would have understood this one quicker. So I would definitely recommend reading that one first, and don't wait too long before you read this one. As for myself, I'm going to read "Poseidon's Wake" next, while I still remember this one.


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On the Steel Breeze 9780575090453 Books Reviews

I really enjoyed the second book in the series. I wasn't quite sure what it was going to begin but I was astounded by the scope of the world that he has created in the future that he imagines.
A sort of sequel to ‘Blue Remembered Earth’ the story of the Akinya family continues through the triad of clones known as Chiku. This is a complex read that distracted me a little though I pushed through my first inclination to stop reading so as not to negatively colour my view of the author. The book though rewarded my faith in that Alastair Reynolds did not disappoint. Complexity aside though, if I can get anywhere near this authors skills with my own Sci-Fi efforts I will be happy indeed. Peter Eerden.
I am fan of AR. However,this follow up was too long. I kept waiting and wanting something to happen. Yes, there are some parts that kept my interest, but the use of Ching communication, is just too easy to over use. The long pages of exposition explaining what has happened via a Ching bind were too much. I found myself skipping pages of boring description. The story seems to be about Chiku, but so many other interesting characters show up, it seemed that the story did not know on which to focus. The time shifts due to light lag were done much better in AR's previous woks.
I read a lot from A. Reynolds. The Revelation Space triology was excellent. Maybe this triology was one of his early books. While it's true that people in A. Reynolds books only serve as a background for the magnificent description of future technik, the characters in Revelation Space were interesting and their actions understandable.
In this triology we accompany several generations of the same family. In the first two books the characters - while not very complicated - still could be real people.
In the third book "Poseidons Wake" the characters are childishly opinionated and very flat. The elephants were the most mature.
Still - very interesting glimpse in a possible future.
This is the second book in a trilogy, and while I think you can enjoy it on its own, for optimal enjoyment you really should start with the first novel Blue Remembered Earth. While I love most Reynolds' work, i was not completely convinced by book 1. A story set in a colonised solar system, it felt more like a treasure hunt across the planets, lacking that cosmic awe that worked so well in his Revelation Space series. Still, it was interesting enough with a generally convincing depiction of the future - something Reynolds does so very well, much better than most writers in the genre.
In this book humanity starts with interstellar colonisation. How we tackle the transport for millions of colonists is something I leave for you to discover, it is a neat idea. Exactly like in his Revelation Space universe, there is no faster than light travel. This in contrast to most other SF books where hyperspace jumps are dead easy. This realistic (at least with current understanding of physics) approach makes these books extra interesting.
Just as with Peter Baxter's Proxima there is a logical issue with the colonisation travel it turns out that people can sleep for a long time, as to not to suffer from the long time of the travel. Ok, but then you'd expect nearly all colonists to be asleep aside from as skeleton crew. Of course then we would not have "parallel" story lines in the solar system and amongst the traveling colonists. I put the quotes there because the information between the two areas takes decades to transfer, something that Reynolds handles well in the story.
Several subtopics abound in the book, making it rich and interesting. There is the concept of altered post-humans. One of the character is a 3rd gender - something that is otherwise not further explained. There are interesting concepts about cloning, consciousness, big brother-like supervision, intellectually elevated elephants, and especially the problem of truly independent AI. This rich tapestry, and the alien situation on the colonisation target, gives the book the book that sense of remarkably believable cosmic awe, and in fact makes this novel a better, more satisfying read than the first volume. It is really a work of a contemporary master of the genre, so much deeper and more satisfying than popular B movie-like SF books like the Dire Earth Cycle.
Of note is also that Reynolds' writing style has improved over time. The big ideas were there in his early books, but these sometimes had technical info dumps interrupting the story. This new trilogy is much more character driven without sacrificing on believable world building.
So, a very good, well crafted modern SF novel. I already look forward to the concluding volume. My only wish for that book would be to have little focus on augmented elephants, it is a subplot that didn't really captivate me.
I've read every novel and many short stories written by Alastair Reynolds, and he's one of my favorite Sci-Fi authors. I realized while reading this one what it is that appeals to me. I like how he finds ways to deal with the incredible distances between stars, and how to could make it work with slower-than-light travel. I think we've lost the appreciation of just how far apart stars are, when most Sci-Fi makes it almost trivial. Reynolds actually makes it seem feasible to build star-faring civilizations without the quick trips in most TV shows and movies.

So in this novel, mankind is traveling to a distant star after observing evidence of an alien civilization. Millions of people in hollowed out asteroids, living in micro-societies, extending their lifetimes with age-defying medical tech, and occasional "skipovers" (long sleep). And then he adds a new wrinkle to it, by introducing the main character, Chika, who divides/clones herself into three people. One of them is traveling to the star, while one stays behind on Earth. By synching up their memories at a few points in time, they're able to share information about a conspiracy touching both areas. In effect, the novel's hero is able to jump back and forth at light speed to investigate and fight the conspiracy, without violating limits on travel speed. Nice concept, and he pulls it off well.

One more comment this book follows after "Blue Remembered Earth", which I read over a year ago, so I forgot a lot of things. This book didn't make it easy to remember the previous book, and there were some places and people that confused me for a while, and had I remembered the first book better, I would have understood this one quicker. So I would definitely recommend reading that one first, and don't wait too long before you read this one. As for myself, I'm going to read "Poseidon's Wake" next, while I still remember this one.