Blue Remembered Earth - Alastair Reynolds

Alastair Reynolds' epic generational and universe spanning new trilogy, Poseidon's Children, is undoubtedly an ambitious one, but like the elephants that form such a part of Blue Remembered Earth, the first book in the trilogy is slow and ponderous as it sets about establishing a background for the far reaches to be explored later. There are some great ideas that make the journey worthwhile - as there often is with Reynolds - but the long-drawn out trail for answers makes it something of a slog to get through.

Blue Remembered Earth introduces the Akinuya family, a wealthy family who in 2161 run a successful technology business, one that the mysterious adventurer Eunice has done much to establish. Two of the youngest members of the family have chosen a different direction however, Geoffrey in Tanzania working on research into elephant behaviour using mind-link technology, Sunday - his sister - an artist living on the Moon. Following the death of the matriarch Eunice, the business side of the family send Geoffrey to check out a safe deposit box belonging to Eunice, with the promise of extra funding for his research. What Geoffrey finds in the box sets him off an a trail that seems to point to a terribly important secret.

The clues are extraordinarily elaborate and scattered improbably across the solar system at a time when such travel is possible, but still not an easy commute. (So far - ah-ha!). In fact, without the help of a replica of Eunice that Sunday has developed and filled with her grandmother's memories, it's hard to imagine anyone ever getting to the bottom of the mystery. There would need to be a good reason for the clues to be so cryptic and the dangers so great that there's a high probability that mystery might easily never be uncovered, and of course there is; evidently it needs to be difficult so that it will confirm that that the finder will have "the necessary insight and determination" to deal with the important revelation.

Quite a large portion of the book is dedicated to Geoffrey and Sunday following different paths. trying to keep one step ahead of their cousins, but there are other interested parties with bigger agendas look for Eunice's legacy and secrets. Those agendas and the mean of technology employed by all the participants make for interesting reading. In the 22nd century, 'voking' is a popular way of "visiting" and speaking to others, throwing yourself into a proxy body or golem that can be 'controlled' by a 'ching' binding, or programmed with enough personality to make its own decisions and actions. 'Augs' are also common, enhancing abilities. Other constructs - such as Cognition Police and a system, the Mechanism. that intervenes to prevent violent attacks on others - are less well thought-out to be a convincing part of the world.

The political make-up of this world of augs, enhancements and proxy bodies however is interesting, and it contributes to the larger scope of the book. There's a powerful East-African Federation in the 22nd century, a United Aquatic Nations and a United Surface Nations following the rise in sea levels. And that's just on Earth. The Chinese control and strictly prohibit access to a substantial part of the Moon (where unfortunately Eunice has left a clue for whoever to find), but there are others nations, groups and agencies with their own agendas, notably the Panspermians who are looking beyond to a Green Efflorescence, hoping to take humanity out of the solar system and make other planets habitable.

While all this speculative extrapolation of where humans and technology might go provides a strong background setting for Blue Remembered Earth, and establishes a good jumping off point for where the trilogy might go, the main part of the narrative is much too long drawn out. Despite the enormity of the revelation at the conclusion - and we really have to go a long roundabout way to get there - it hardly feels proportionate to the amount of secrecy, checks and countermeasures put in place to keep it hidden until it is ready to be used wisely by humanity. But, well, we'll see how that goes in the next book, On The Steel Breeze.