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Blue Remembered Earth

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Blue Remembered Earth

By: Alastair Reynolds
Narrated by: Kobna Holdbrook-Smith
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About this listen

 One hundred and fifty years from now, in a world where Africa is the dominant technological and economic power, and where crime, war, disease and poverty have been banished to history, Geoffrey Akinya wants only one thing: to be left in peace, so that he can continue his studies into the elephants of the Amboseli basin. But Geoffrey's family, the vast Akinya business empire, has other plans. After the death of Eunice, Geoffrey's grandmother, erstwhile space explorer and entrepreneur, something awkward has come to light on the Moon, and Geoffrey is tasked - well, blackmailed, really - to go up there and make sure the family's name stays suitably unblemished. But little does Geoffrey realise - or anyone else in the family, for that matter - what he's about to unravel.

Eunice's ashes have already have been scattered in sight of Kilimanjaro. But the secrets she died with are about to come back out into the open, and they could change everything.

Or shatter this near-utopia into shards . . .

Read by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith

(p) 2012 Orion Publishing Group©2012 Alastair Reynolds Adventure Science Fiction Space Opera Fiction Africa

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All stars
Most relevant
This was the first Alastair Reynolds I've listened to (or read) and I was pleasantly surprised! Too often science fiction books are filled with endless paragraphs of exposition explaining how this or that works or can be scientifically explained; some people obviously like that kind of thing, but I prefer more nuance in writing style, prefer an author who can explain the science through the story and Reynolds has done just that in this book.

As for the narration, I thought it was brilliant. Perhaps those who have had problems with this narrator had issues because they were so used to the narrator (who has a very particular style) who has done so much of Reynolds other work? Anyway, I thought this narrator was fantastic. Could've done without the music between parts, but luckily that didn't come up often.

I'm off to buy the sequel.

Well written sci-fi

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Wonderful, and fully justified the new narrator, I have listened to 7 other of his books and am familiar with how they sound, but 'Tanzanian accent', 'Senegalese', etc could he have coped?
A new beginning, I will have to wait, but I do so in confident expectation, thank you Alastair.
P.S. Don't some people whinge? oops, guilty of it myself, mea culpa !

A small step.....

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This was my first experience of Alastair Reynolds. I found the story very intriguing, the vision of the future was well thought out and, as much as possible with Sci-fi, quite believable. I was thoroughly entertained.



Like a lot of people I can't understand the criticism of the narrator, I thought Kobna Holdbrook-Smith did a superb job - fresh and engaging throughout a very long audiobook.

Loved this audiobook

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This is a trip back to the roots of the Reynolds universe. Humans have not yet travelled further than the solar system but you can see the nascent technology of his other books here. It is a slow start to what I suspect will become a far ranging story in subsequent volumes. There isn't much edge of the seat excitement until the second half of the book and it is used sparingly; it was a good listen and I found myself going back over passages as there is a lot of plot to this story and it helps to pay attention.
I was alarmed to read a couple of the other comment here about the narration but I was relieved to find it a lot better than many other books I have listened to from Audible. The narrator has a good range of tone to separate the characters and good diction; his accents are also appropriate to the story and he reads it with expression which demonstrates and transmits understanding. Overall I would say Holdbrook-Smiths narration added to the presentation rather than being a distraction.
The only reason for not giving 5 stars is this a not quite a "can't put it down to the end" book, but it is a good story to be savored in manageable segments.

Where it all begins

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The narration is not as bad as some people think (to me anyway). The book is based around Africa and once you accept that and that all the accents are African based, then its all good.
My main problem isn't with the voice, its those stupid pan-pipes that are there inbetween a lot of chapters. I would be quite happily listening away in my own little world and then that effin noise would come along and get me all riled up.

The book itself is not as good as his other work. At this stage I have listened to pretty much all his books available on Audible and this is probably the one I liked least, but still enjoyable for all that... just loose the pan pipes.

He's written better.

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