Re: Blue Remembered Earth. Alastair Reynolds.

On 9/6/24 11:26 PM, Titus G wrote:

On 7/09/24 09:19, Tony Nance wrote:

On 9/5/24 11:52 PM, Titus G wrote:

On 5/09/24 01:14, Tony Nance wrote:

On 9/4/24 1:56 AM, Titus G wrote:

Blue Remembered Earth. Alastair Reynolds. 2012

snip

>
I am so glad you liked this. I read this back in May, and didn't enjoy
it as much as you did. The setting and science were great. My main
problems were with the characters, but since the next one seems to share
very few characters (if any) with this one, I plan to give it a try.

>
I am guessing the characters were too shallow for you or maybe you did
not like Geoffrey, the simple elephant man protagonist? The cousins were
unusual

>
You have indeed guessed correctly - shallow as a contact lens case. I
think, except for Geoffrey, every major character (and many minor
characters) were some combination of self-absorbed, self-righteous,
impulsive, unsympathetic, True Believer jerks.
>
Geoffrey was fine, though he tends to accept/agree that every negative
thing in the universe is his fault.
>

 As most of the characters were powerful being politicians or highly
ranked in their organisations or ridiculously wealthy, they were all
used to getting their own way. The cousins were identical in their
thoughts.

At many points throughout the story, I thought the cousins needed to be jettisoned into the event horizon of a black hole. They were -- by far -- my least favorite characters.

I think I pitied Geoffrey which allowed me to feel superior to him.
>
Another aspect I liked was the suspense, the danger, the threats with
almost no violence and no super heroes running marathons in bare feet
with broken legs.

Yes - Reynolds does that very well when he wants to.