Blue Remembered Earth

[Finn]

Just finished it. Fantastic.

Say what you will about the likeliness of the setting or the tech, but this was one of the most optimistic and inspiring sci-fi novels I've ever read. It made me look into a future where things turn out okay, and still presented a gripping and ultimately touching narrative. The genre needs more stories like it.

Anyone else read it?

 

[zoomar]

Nope. Haven't read or even heard of it. Who's the author and what are the basic premises (avoiding any specific plot elements so as to not spoil anything if I want to read it)? Does it have an AH tie-in or is it straight SF.

 

[Turquoise Blue]

Um... Earth... That planet that we humans used to live on... Had burgers, seas, volcanoes and the lot... Natural, not like the spaceships we live on now...

p)

 

[Marius]

I've read it.

I thought it was pretty good.

Was also nice to have Africans as the main characters, that is also not very common. In any fiction, never mind science or speculative fiction.

Inspired me to go buy Reynolds's Revelation Space - which I haven't read yet.

 

[Finn]

Nope. Haven't read or even heard of it. Who's the author and what are the basic premises (avoiding any specific plot elements so as to not spoil anything if I want to read it)? Does it have an AH tie-in or is it straight SF.

It's about a prominent East African family, specifically two black-sheep siblings of the family, in the 2160s, and the plot is kicked off by an old family mystery. Goes throughout the solar system, with the primary theme being a reflection on what are the exact reasons humanity should go to the stars, and how.

Straight sci-fi, not AH elements. There is one obscure mention of the Russian flag on an old Mars base being a hammer and sickle, but that strikes me more as a mistake from someone raised during the Cold War that somehow escaped the editor rather than a purposeful AH element. And who knows? Maybe Russia tried that whole Soviet shtick again sometime between 2011-2012 (when it was written) and the 2060s construction date of the Mars base.