As long time readers of the blog might remember, even though Alastair Reynolds is one of my favorite writers, I was less than enamored with his last book (Terminal World). So I approached Reynolds new book (Blue Remembered Earth) with some trepidation as to whether I would like it. And, to cut off all suspense, I did enjoy it quite a bit. Which is good, since it’s the first book in a trilogy. And this is probably the closest to current time that Reynolds has set a book (the alternate world in Century Rain notwithstanding). So, let’s check out the first volume of the Poseidon’s Children trilogy.

Eunice Akinya was a remarkable woman. Not only did she contribute to the colonization of the inner solar system, but she is the matriarch of a extremely successful family business. Of her four grandchildren, siblings Hector and Lucas are the business folks who want to protect the family’s legacy and business, while Sunday and Geoffrey are more dilettantes. Sunday has her art and Geoffrey is studying elephants. Africa has made it out of its economic doldrums and is leading the world in spacegoing technology. When Eunice dies, everyone is sad, even though no one has seen her in years. She has spent most of her last few years in a space station named Winter Palace with only the family friend, Memphis, going to interact with her. And her death kicks off a trail that will end with a huge change in the Akinya family and the world.

Hector and Lucas ask Geoffrey to go to the Moon and check on a safety deposit box that Eunice had left. They didn’t want to attract attention to it, so they asked Geoffrey since he could visit his sister Sunday. When the contents of a box lead them to Eunice’s past and a huge secret that she’s been hiding from everyone, including the family. Along the way we meet a group of transhumans (known as the Panspermian Initiative)  who are into long range space colonization plans and have their own agenda which may or may not align with Geoffrey. The book starts off with Geoffrey and Sunday against Hector and Lucas and the Reynolds does a smart thing. Near the end, he pairs off Geoffrey and Hector so that we can see both sides being forced to work together and put aside their differences. That creates an interesting dynamic in the climax of the book that changes how we viewed previous interactions.

Overall, the book was fast, fun and interesting. This book had a lot of ideas, but those were mainly in the background (until the climax brought some out) as the story was mainly a character driven story. Geoffrey and Sunday were the only well-drawn characters with Hector and Lucas being shadowy bad guys until we meet Hector near the end. I’m curious where Reynolds will go from here, though the saga title (Poseidon’s Children) points to the Panspermian Initiative being important going forward. Right now, I don’t think the book is as good as Reynold’s Revelation Space books, but it is still enjoyable. Recommended.