Middle of the way for Alastair Reynolds

Read all of AR's books barring this Poseidon trilogy. Loved revelation space and the standalone novels.

The first in this trilogy, blue remembered earth - is excellent. But this second instalment takes his 'shatterling' idea from House of Suns, and tried to add to an A.I versus humans concept but never quite delivers. For me, it's a bit confused, mixing the primary plot lines with concepts and ideas more clearly realised in his other books. Really liked the idea of the emergent Africa however! Would be nice to know more about the other superpowers and how they played a hand.

Good narrator too! Great use of African dialects!!

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1 person found this helpful

Brilliant and absorbing

Is this the perfect sci fi novel, with the best ever narration? If it isn't, then it is pretty close.

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The least of his work

Would you try another book written by Alastair Reynolds or narrated by Adjoa Andoh?

This latest story by Alastair Reynolds disappointed this reader. The narration was proficient although some of the accents jarred.

Would you ever listen to anything by Alastair Reynolds again?

I hope Alastair will get back on track for the next story. More science and speculation please. I can do without the continuing saga of the Akinya dynasty if the characters are as uninteresting as the identical triplets in this story.

Have you listened to any of Adjoa Andoh’s other performances? How does this one compare?

This is the first narration by Ms Andoh I have heard. She is clearly talented.

Did On the Steel Breeze inspire you to do anything?

Nope

Any additional comments?

The title of the story is great. It comes from a line in Crazy Diamond from Pink Floyd's album, Wish You Were Here.

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2 people found this helpful

Excellent - engrossing, compelling, satisfying

What made the experience of listening to On the Steel Breeze the most enjoyable?

Even though I landed in this trilogy on Book 2, the story was self-contained and highly compelling. The back-story was handled expertly, so not having read Book 1 was no disadvantage. And oh--the narration! Adjoa Andoh's narration was just sublime, making the characters come alive.

Alastair Reynolds is a late discovery for me, but what a talented author. He combines story, poignacy, deftly drawn characters and hard SF in an utterly compelling way. I'm off to get Book 1 and Book 3 right now.

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Elephants in Space!

In this sequel to Blue Remembered Earth the progeny of the Akinya line attempt a 200 year journey beyond our solar system to an earth-like planet called Crucible, where an ancient alien mystery awaits them. Reynolds takes us from the main setting of the holoships, a caravan of hollowed out asteroids hurtling through space, back to earth and beyond to Mars and Jupiter. Reynolds delves more into the theme of artificial intelligence that was touched upon in the first novel, whilst painting us a grand picture of this world with some amazing imagery. Unfortunately, the story moves along in a stop-start motion, with far too much internal politicking between the holoships. The "African Renaissance" setting, which I really enjoyed in Blue Remembered Earth, is gone and all that is left of Africa are the augmented Elephants and the remains of the Akinya Family. Though admittedly, augmented elephants in space are pretty cool!

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Poseidon's Children

Any additional comments?

It should be noted that this is the second part of 'the Poseidon's Children trilogy, following his 2012 novel Blue Remembered Earth.

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25 people found this helpful

Excellent

Well written and well read. Very good. The story was good, the characters were interesting and the narrator swept me along with them

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What the eye has not the heart hopes for.

Loved this novel of a possible future that may not be as dark as past human endeavors portend.

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Really good

Really good, wow the first book in the series had been a pretty slow starter. In my opinion this one jumped right into it and I really enjoyed it. I definitely felt this was an approved first book. Looking forward to last one.

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As good as book 1

I put off listening to this second installment because a number of the reviews suggested that the change of narrator spoiled the story's arc.
It's over a year since I finished Blue Remembered Earth, enough time for this not to be an issue, and I must say that I'm so glad I came back to this series. This second book was fabulous and I really liked the narrator and all the different voices she gave to the characters. Looking forward to listening to book 3 now!

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