Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.78 AVERAGE
3.78 AVERAGE
Ce roman conclut la trilogie de je-sais-pas-quoi avec une oeuvre étrange, au curieux goût d'inachevé.
Laissez-moi vous raconter ...
Dans ce troisième tome, on suit les aventures parallèles (mais qui se rejoignent évidement) de Goma et Kanu Akinya, des descendants des personnages des tomes précédents. Ceux-ci se retrouvent, à l'appel de leur ancêtre, dans un système spatial inconnu où il semble qu'une espèce extra-terrestre ait laissé sur une planète désormais abandonné des artefacts révélant comment ces extra-terrestres ont survécu à la révélation du nihilisme profond de l'univers.
On verra évidement passer certains des éléments typiques de ce cycle : la posthumanité, l'éveil conscient des éléphants, la longueur interminable des voyages spatiaux, ...
On verra aussi passer quelques nouveaux motifs : les IA, le fatalisme devant l'irrésistibilité de l'entropie universelle, la fin de toutes choses.
Et tous ces motifs s'entremêlent d'une façon particulièrement inhabituelle, surtout pour ce que je retiens des précédentes oeuvres de l'auteur. En effet, il n'y aura pas trop de combat, mais beaucoup plus d'introspection. Et surtout, la plupart des notions vraiment chouettes seront éludées avec soin. Ainsi, les espèces extra-terrestres ne fournissent finalement qu'un arrière plan grandiose et étrange aux gesticulations d'humains qui se révèlent, par contraste, assez pathétiquement minuscules. Et de la même manière, les Révélations sur la fin des temps sont à la fois assez simple, assez peu stupéfiantes et, pour tout dire, presque naïves.
Ca me déçoit ... un peu. Pas trop, parce qu'il faut être lucide pour supporter tout ça et continuer malgré tout à espérer, mais quand même un peu.
Cela dit, il y a dans les décors mis en place, dans les vaisseaux présentés, dans les interactions entre les personnages, tellement de raisons de se réjouir que je ne peux pas trop bouder mon plaisir devant cet honnête récit d'exploration.
Laissez-moi vous raconter ...
Dans ce troisième tome, on suit les aventures parallèles (mais qui se rejoignent évidement) de Goma et Kanu Akinya, des descendants des personnages des tomes précédents. Ceux-ci se retrouvent, à l'appel de leur ancêtre, dans un système spatial inconnu où il semble qu'une espèce extra-terrestre ait laissé sur une planète désormais abandonné des artefacts révélant comment ces extra-terrestres ont survécu à la révélation du nihilisme profond de l'univers.
On verra évidement passer certains des éléments typiques de ce cycle : la posthumanité, l'éveil conscient des éléphants, la longueur interminable des voyages spatiaux, ...
On verra aussi passer quelques nouveaux motifs : les IA, le fatalisme devant l'irrésistibilité de l'entropie universelle, la fin de toutes choses.
Et tous ces motifs s'entremêlent d'une façon particulièrement inhabituelle, surtout pour ce que je retiens des précédentes oeuvres de l'auteur. En effet, il n'y aura pas trop de combat, mais beaucoup plus d'introspection. Et surtout, la plupart des notions vraiment chouettes seront éludées avec soin. Ainsi, les espèces extra-terrestres ne fournissent finalement qu'un arrière plan grandiose et étrange aux gesticulations d'humains qui se révèlent, par contraste, assez pathétiquement minuscules. Et de la même manière, les Révélations sur la fin des temps sont à la fois assez simple, assez peu stupéfiantes et, pour tout dire, presque naïves.
Ca me déçoit ... un peu. Pas trop, parce qu'il faut être lucide pour supporter tout ça et continuer malgré tout à espérer, mais quand même un peu.
Cela dit, il y a dans les décors mis en place, dans les vaisseaux présentés, dans les interactions entre les personnages, tellement de raisons de se réjouir que je ne peux pas trop bouder mon plaisir devant cet honnête récit d'exploration.
Yikes. I mean, sometimes when you have a very ambitious trilogy, not everything uh, goes right.
Also is this even being released in the US? Oh, apparently Ace is the publisher, that explains everything.
Also is this even being released in the US? Oh, apparently Ace is the publisher, that explains everything.
Though still a good book, it's by far my least favorite of the series. It drags on forever in a few places, and it definitely overstays its welcome.
Also, the whole Terror thing?People suddenly realize that everything they do will ultimately be meaningless because the universe will just stop existing at some random point - and that terrifies whole species? I've had a few brushes with depression, and when I'm bad I call that feeling "being awake". A good therapist will give you some perspective on that, so let's hope the M-builders had developed psychiatry.
Also, the whole Terror thing?
dark
slow-paced
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Emphatically the concluding volume of a trilogy, this is the sort of geeky, cliquey SF book that will remain endlessly puzzling to non-genre fans: a lot of ‘talking head’ digressions about some rather arcane philosophical points such as vacuum fluctuations and deep time, wedded to a seemingly unhealthy obsession with scientific matters and alien creatures and objects. Not to mention such absurdities as elephants in spacesuits.
When I first read Blue Remembered Earth a few years ago, I wondered where Alastair Reynolds would take this story of the Akinyas and the Tantors. From what I gathered from a recent interview, the trilogy surprised Reynolds himself in the ultimate direction it would take.
Reynolds has always been a bit of a maverick, despite often being lumped together with the group of SF writers responsible for the so-called New Space Opera. A lot of his books differ widely in subject matter, not to mention quality, and the Poseidon’s Children trilogy is no different.
I was quite disappointed by On A Steel Breeze, which lead to some trepidation in tackling the rather hefty third book. I was soon engrossed though and quickly won over: unusually for a trilogy, this is by far the best volume.
The story comes full circle as we finally learn about the fate of the Tantors. Reynolds takes the concept of genetically enhanced elephants and brings them to magnificent life. There is more than passing homage to Mike Resnick and in particular Arthur C. Clarke here, particularly with the slow build-up of alien mystery and revelation, culminating in a conclusion that is rousing, heartfelt and quite magnificent.
When I first read Blue Remembered Earth a few years ago, I wondered where Alastair Reynolds would take this story of the Akinyas and the Tantors. From what I gathered from a recent interview, the trilogy surprised Reynolds himself in the ultimate direction it would take.
Reynolds has always been a bit of a maverick, despite often being lumped together with the group of SF writers responsible for the so-called New Space Opera. A lot of his books differ widely in subject matter, not to mention quality, and the Poseidon’s Children trilogy is no different.
I was quite disappointed by On A Steel Breeze, which lead to some trepidation in tackling the rather hefty third book. I was soon engrossed though and quickly won over: unusually for a trilogy, this is by far the best volume.
The story comes full circle as we finally learn about the fate of the Tantors. Reynolds takes the concept of genetically enhanced elephants and brings them to magnificent life. There is more than passing homage to Mike Resnick and in particular Arthur C. Clarke here, particularly with the slow build-up of alien mystery and revelation, culminating in a conclusion that is rousing, heartfelt and quite magnificent.
Book 3 of a far-reaching space opera about humans, machines, and elephants. This one focused on the next generation after book 2's main characters, as they respond to a message from galaxies away to find out what happened to Eunice et al from previous books. Took a while to get into, since I had read the previous books a little while back, but those were not so important as the book got going.
Not a ton of action for the length of the thing, but did include quite a number of ethical dilemmas touching on what it means to be human.
Not a ton of action for the length of the thing, but did include quite a number of ethical dilemmas touching on what it means to be human.
Disappointing. Veered off into philosophizing and became overweighted with dialogue by the end.
Excellent ending to Reynold's usual superior space opera. One warning, although advertised as a stand alone book, I found myself constantly having to remember what had happened in the previous books - best to read them in order.
Frankly a bit of a slog but I managed to finish it as I'd already invested in the earlier two books of the trilogy. As with the other two, Reynolds has lots of good ideas but I'm afraid his (laudable) attempts to bring more rounded characters into SF rather falls short as he simply doesn't have the chops to pull this off. You keep going because of the SF-ish ideas, but in this case there is a certain feeling of inconclusiveness at the end of it. He also introduces a group of characters whose purpose seems to be to act as a foil to the main protagonists in discussions about scientific rationalism versus faith. Although I liked the discussions per se, I kept expecting them to be instrumental in some plot point towards the end, but they really aren't.
Four stars for ambition rather than achievement. I much preferred [b:House of Suns|17763688|House of Suns|Alastair Reynolds|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1412986174s/17763688.jpg|2020929].
Four stars for ambition rather than achievement. I much preferred [b:House of Suns|17763688|House of Suns|Alastair Reynolds|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1412986174s/17763688.jpg|2020929].