I’ve read the first two books in Alastair Reynolds’s space opera series: On the Steel Breeze and Blue Remembered Earth. Poseidon’s Wake follows the template of the previous books with the conflict between human and machine civilizations. A human colony on Crucible receives a message from a nearby star system. The colony sends an exploration vessel with a secret saboteur aboard. The vessel arrives to find two very different alien artifacts. And, suddenly, one of the alien artifacts turns on. If you like space opera with Big Themes, Poseidon’s Wake delivers. However, I wish Reynolds concentrated on action and less on conversations. This is a very chatty book. GRADE: B-
Chatty works well in some genres but maybe not others.
Patti, most space opera is action-oriented. Much of Alastair Reynolds older space operas featured more action. This volume dragged a bit with all the chatter.
I have one or two of his books but haven’t read any. I’m still catching up on older SF stuff I didn’t read in the past.
Me too …
Here’s my list:
REYNOLDS ALASTAIR
1REVELATION SPACE (SIGNED HARDCOVER) (INHIBITOR 1)
1REDEMPTION ARK (SIGNED HARDCOVER) (INHIBITOR 2)
1DIAMOND DOGS, TURQUOISE DAYS
1ABSOLUTION GAP (INHIBITOR 3)
1CHASM CITY
9CENTURY RAIN
9PUSHING ICE
Wolf, I really liked CHASM CITY!
For some reason Reynolds isn’t my culpa. I have liked the books in The Expanse series by Corey better.
Rick, I have some of the books in THE EXPANSE series but haven’t gotten around to reading them (the story of my Life). Bill Crider watched the TV version of THE EXPANSE and told me: “Don’t bother.”
Don’t bother watching the series, but I agree with Rick on LEVIATHAN WAKES , the first Expanse book. It moved right along.
Jeff, I have some of the books and the reviews have been positive about them. THE EXPANSE TV series is another story.
It seems an awful lot of SFF is chatty these days. Maybe that way, the authors don’t have to work as hard at world building (or space building) and they can just say everything instead of showing it.
Rick, I think part of the problem is the publishers’s demand for longer (500+ page) books. So many writers pad their novels with talk. It’s annoying.
George, indeed!
Some of these novels just seem to go on and on – without anything important happening …
I remember the good old times when a “novel” was around 200 pages – there probably was a technical limit to what a machine could produce, or a kind of standard.
However I also remember the German pulps in the 50s which were limited to 64 pages – though these pages were a bit larger …
So many novels translated from the English/American had to be shortened – sometimes the translator just left outpart of the ending because he realised he was running out of space!
many classic novels (Asimov, Heinlei, Pohl, van Vogt etc) were mutilated this way …
Wolf, publishers seem to demand 500+ page novels to justify their prices. Sometimes More is not MORE! It’s less!