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Poseidon's Wake Paperback – January 1, 2016

by Alastair Reynolds (Author)

4.1 1,844 ratings

Book 3 of 3: Poseidon's Children

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“Few SF writers merge rousing adventure with advanced futuristic technology as skillfully as Alastair Reynolds” (Toronto Star), the award-winning author of On the Steel Breeze. In the conclusion of his Poseidon’s Children saga, the Akinya family receives an invitation from across the stars—and a last opportunity to redeem their name...

Send Ndege…

The cryptic message originated seventy light-years away from the planet Crucible, where Ndege Akinya lives under permanent house arrest for her role in the catastrophe that killed 417,000 people. Could it be from her mother, Chiku, who vanished during a space expedition decades earlier?

Ndege’s daughter Goma, a biologist, joins the crew of the Travertine dispatched to Gliese 163 to uncover the source behind the enigmatic message.

Goma’s odyssey will take her not only into the farthest reaches of space, but centuries into her family’s past where the answers to the universe’s greatest mysteries await...

Book 3 of 3

Poseidon's Children
Print length

598 pages
Language

English
Publisher

GOLLANCZ
Publication date

January 1, 2016
Dimensions

6.81 x 1.46 x 8.07 inches
ISBN-10

0575090510
ISBN-13

978-0575090514
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ GOLLANCZ (January 1, 2016)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 598 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0575090510
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0575090514
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.7 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.81 x 1.46 x 8.07 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,156,581 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,534 in Christian Science Fiction (Books)
- #31,912 in Science Fiction Adventures

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Alastair Reynolds

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Alastair Reynolds was born in Wales in 1966. He has a Ph.D. in astronomy. From 1991 until 2007, he lived in The Netherlands, where he was employed by The European Space Agency as an astrophysicist. He is now a full-time writer.

Photo by Robert Day [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

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Greg Polansky

Thoughtful Science-Fiction

Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2017

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Poseidon's wake is the last book in the Poseidon's Children trilogy. The trilogy began with Blue Remembered Earth (set in the 2160s) and continuing in On The Steel Breeze (set in the 24th century) and is now culminating in Poseidon's Wake (set in the 27th century). At the end of the previous book it appeared that the holoship Zanzibar had exploded over the planet Crucible and that the Watchkeepers had taken Chiku Green, Dakota the Tantor, and Eunice the construct with them. Meanwhile back on Earth the Mechanism had fallen leaving Chiku Yellow and Chiku Red together in Portugal. Suddenly a communication arrives on Crucible. From deep out in Space where no humans should have gone yet.

Now we follow two different generations of the Akinya family. Follow them to Earth, Mars, Europa, Crucible and much farther out in space. And what will be revealed in this book concerns all of humanity and even concerns the fate of the universe. On Mars we follow Kanu Akinya, son of Chiku Yellow, where he tries to maintain peace between humans and the AI who now control Mars. Light years away on Crucible we follow Ndege Akinya, daughter of Chiku Yellow and, blamed for causing the destruction of Zanzibar and all those aboard it. When a signal from Deep Space arrives, stating Send Ndedge, it will be her daughter Goma who must take up the burdens of the Akinya family to try to discover who sent the signal.

This is thoughtful science-fiction. The set up what is to come has been introduced in the previous two books. Now the reader will discover what it all means. And the author will extrapolate from this his own ideas about the nature of reality. In general, I liked the story a great deal and thought that the conclusion was a good one. But I do recommend rereading the first two books before reading this one. Each setting is centuries apart from the previous book and introduces new characters in the Akinya family. This can be quite jarring. Still, if you are reading this review then I hope you have enjoyed/will have enjoyed the trilogy as much as I am.

Kwaheri Akinya (Goodbye, Akinya in Swahili).

p.s. The thought that English is not one of the main languages in the future is ludicrous given demographic data that can be extrapolated centuries out.

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Skiffyboy

Good but not great conclusion of the Poseidon trilogy

Reviewed in the United States on October 19, 2015

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The resolution of the "Poseidon" trilogy (the setting most "near future" of Mr. Reynolds'). An old Akinya sets out from Earth while his younger relative is onboard a stellar ship departing Crucible, both Akinyas looking for the robot construct of their great grandmother Eunice (from the previous books). All three will unbeknownst to each other reunite in the orbit of an alien planet, and tantors (uplifted elephants) will also feature. That's the basics of it, without any spoilers.

I'll have to say that I find the pace really slow for most of the book, especially the part that follows the younger Akinya woman onboard the stellar ship. Of course, in the final chapters, when the stage is set, the action is relentless.

Furthermore, Reynolds would normally bombard you with futuristic concepts, but in this book they're not as prevalent as in many of his previous works. The notable exception is of course the AI; here running on a neuro-biological partition of a human brain rather than on the staple digital processor / mechanical implant of less imaginative sci-fi.

To sum it up, it's a satisfying ending, and some scenes are marvelously colourful (especially those involving the flesh-AI). It's not one of his best books, though, and I now look forward to him taking on a different setting altogether.

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phxcoastie

Great conclusion

Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2022

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Riveting conclusion to one of Reynolds' non-Revelation Space universe series. I held out on this series for a while as the premise didn't sound too intriguing: elephants, climate change, the fall of empires... it seemed less sci-fi and more dystopian. But, in traditional Reynolds fashion, the story unravels from near-future earth to 1000 years into the future. Interstellar travel, time dilation, and ancient aliens are several familiar themes in the Reynoldsverse. I did find this story to be a bit more 'human' than some of his other ones, and I don't mean that in a bad way. These three novels reminded me a lot of the Three Body Problem trilogy. Not the story, but the pacing and setting across hundreds of years while involving multiple generations of protagonists.
Poseidon's Wake wraps up the trilogy nicely. It's also the most grandiose of the three books and an excellent, hard sci-fi thriller. As usual, Reynolds doesn't disappoint.

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P. G. Harris

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 4, 2015

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Is there any point to life if we know, as individuals and as a species, that not only is there no long term future, but the universe could end at any moment wiping out us and all of our works? No memories, no legacy, no descendants, nothing. That is the central theme of what is apparently the final book of Alastair Reynolds' Poseidon's Children trilogy. In it a cast of characters who hark back in part to Greek mythology, a merman, giants (in the form of elephants) and a god-like woman, as well as machine intelligences and ordinary humans, confront technology left behind by a vastly advanced alien civilisation.

Just as with Blue Remembered Earth and On a Steel Breeze, there is a gap of many years between the end of the second book in the trilogy and the start of this. Once again we are introduced to a new generation of the Akinye family, this time in the person of Goma, granddaughter of Chiku, who was the centre of the second work at the end of which, Chiku, the machine intelligence based on her great grandmother Eunice and the elephant/Tantor Dakota left the new world of Crucible with the mysterious alien machines, the Watchkeepers. Now with a functioning city on Crucible, a message is received asking specifically for Ndege, Goma's mother, an old woman under house arrest following an horrendous but unspecified crime.

A mission is put together, but it is one crewed by a politically expedient group including the quasi-religious second chancers, who oppose the very journey on which they are embarking.

Meanwhile, back in earth's solar system, Kanu, from another branch of the Akinyes, acting as an ambassador to the autonomous machine intelligences of Mars, also hears of the message and sets his sights on the distant world of Gliese 163.

In his earlier works, in particular the Revelation Space novels, Reynolds wrote space operas, but the were very much inflected with the language of cyberpunk. They portrayed a universe in the grips of a dark technological nightmare, where different strands of humanity fought for supremacy over diseased technology, while in the background there was the threat of the malevolent Inhbitors.

Poseidon's Children as a whole comes across as the more optimistic cousin of the earlier works. It has its dark sides, but overall the tone is fundamentally positive. Different characters vie for supremacy, certainly, but in the end, everyone turns out to be basically decent, and even a seemingly horrendous war crime turns out to be less than it appears. If anything this harks back to the golden age of science fiction and the classic space opera of Asimov, Heinlein Clarke. If Revelation Space was Metallica, this is the Mamas and the Papas.

It is in its darker moments that Poseidon's Wake is at its most interesting. When it asks questions about the nature of trust and betrayal, about when a pragmatic evil is justified in the interests of long term good and about whether suicide is self-sacrificial, or simply an easier way out than some. At times the indecisive Kanu seems to resemble a Danish prince.

That is not to say that this is a contemplative slow moving work. It is rip roaring hard SF, with all out action sequences,including space battles fought with unconventional weapons, and a thrilling rescue sequence played out on a massive alien artefact.

So, summarising the positives, this is a fast moving science fiction novel which evokes some of the writers of the 50s and 60s. Within that it raises some interesting existential questions. It is also a pleasant change to read a work which is eventually positive and hopeful.

On the downside, I didn't find this as ultimately satisfying as I wanted to. It is big scale SF, but in the end the huge alien machines just felt a bit gratuitous. They were huge for the sake of it, for the sake of appearing awesome, not for any really coherent reason. Also Reynolds raises some interesting questions about the meaning of existence, but then doesn't really seem to attempt to answer them in any depth. Thirdly there are plot threads that peter out to nothing. The Second Chancers exist simply for one plot device, and to allow Goma to espouse rationalism. They felt like a wasted opportunity, or an unnecessary extra.

Overall, I would say good but not great. I enjoyed these three novels,but I am far more likely to re-read Reynolds' earlier work.

Finally, these have been marketed as a trilogy, but there are enough untied ends left at the end that I wouldn't be surprised to see a return to this universe.

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Mr. Paul J. Grenyer

With TV series like Babylon 5 or Game of Thrones it’s easy to ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 3, 2016

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I have this problem with collections of things (trilogies, all the albums by a band, TV series, etc), I have to own and consume them in their entirety. Another problem I have is remembering what happened in early parts of a collection when consuming the later parts. With TV series like Babylon 5 or Game of Thrones it’s easy to sit down and rewatch them in anticipation of the next part coming out. Not so, for me, with books. My reading time is limited and I don’t want to waste it by rereading books I’ve already read when there are so many other books I haven’t read. The exceptions to this were Revelation Space, Redemption Ark and all of the Chronicles of Narnia which I have read twice. So you’d think that the Poseidon’s Children series would be perfect for me as each one is intended to be read as part of the trilogy or as a stand alone book. Not so. In my ignorance I read Redemption Ark before Revelation Space and spent the whole book wondering about the previous events, which turned out to be from Revelation Space. It was the similar with Poseidon's Children, but I still loved it.

Since departing from the Revelation Space series Alastair Reynolds has written a lot of very good books which feel like just the start of the story. For example Terminal World and House of Suns. While the entire Poseidon’s trilogy presents unanswered questions which may be answered in the next part, the trilogy as a whole suggests no answers to many of the fundamental questions posed by the series. This is fantastic because it keeps me wanting more. However, I suspect Alistair will keep me waiting for the rest of my life with many of the stories he has started.

All three of the books in the trilogy are very different. I feel that On The Steel Breeze is the best one, but Poseidon’s wake is excellent. It’s well thought out and there are twists and turns I didn’t see coming. What really made it so good were the characters, especially Kanu with his convictions and view of humanity and the Tantors.

If I could change one thing it would be for the trilogy to be one book I could have just consumed in one go. Of course I could just have the discipline to wait for them all to be published and read them myself in one go.

I’m already looking forward to Slow Bullets (desperately trying to find the Kindle edition) and The Medusa Chronicles (out later this year). When Stephen Baxter wrote with Arthur C. Clarke it transformed Clarke’s stories. I wonder what the effect on Alastair Reynolds will be.

In the meantime I’ll be reading Brave New World.

David A. Grill

Future days

Reviewed in Germany on February 7, 2016

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third in a trilogy, from an author who I've recently discovered. Crafted with an eye towards hardish science fiction, complain characters and interesting tech.

Patrick Borer

Schwach - für Reynolds

Reviewed in Germany on July 19, 2015

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Alastair Reynolds ist ohne Zweifel einer der interessantesten und talentiertesten lebenden SF-Autoren. Ich habe fast alles von ihm gelesen und war meist begeistert von seinem Ideenreichtum und den weitausgreifenden, episch-visionären Schilderungen kühner Konzepte. Von seiner Trilogie "Poseidon's Children" bin ich nun aber etwas weniger überzeugt. Auch hier sind die Grundideen fesselnd und in den ersten beiden Bänden auch noch schwungvoll umgesetzt - wenn auch diese nicht mehr ganz dem SF-Füllhorn der "Revelation Space"-Bände oder auch von "House of Suns" gleichkommen. Bei der Lektüre des dritten Bandes habe ich mich aber nun wirklich gefragt, ob der Autor beim Schreiben irgendwie abgelenkt war, ob er die Fortsetzung als eine lästige Pflicht empfand, und auch der Verlag scheint nicht so viel Sorgfalt darauf verwendet zu haben.

Es ist nur ein Detail, aber irgendwie bezeichnend: Auf dem Klappentext wird die Botschaft genannt, die als Ausgangspunkt der Geschichte dieses Bandes dient - in Grossbuchstaben heisst es da: "SEND NEDGI". Nun, die Botschaft lautet nicht "Send Nedgi", sondern "Send Ndege" - eine der Figuren des Romans. Nicht Nedgi, auch nicht Ndegi, sondern Ndege. Wie kann so ein eklatanter Tippfehler an so prominenter Stelle bei der Produktion durchrutschen? Das ist schon mal ein schlechtes Zeichen. Bei der Lektüre irritieren dann viele uninspirierte Dialoge in teilweise klischeehafter Sprache. Das Buch wirkt mit seinen fast 600 Seiten aufgebläht; mir scheint, man hätte es ohne Verluste um ein Drittel kürzen können. Drei Sterne vergebe ich trotzdem noch, auch im Hinblick auf die gesamte Trilogie, und auch dieser dritte Band hat seine packenden Stellen.

Noch eine Randbemerkung: Im Buch, wie überhaupt in der ganzen Trilogie, ist häufig von Swahili als einer neuen Weltsprache oder jedenfalls wichtigen Sprache der Zukunft die Rede - die Hauptfiguren aus der Familia Akinya stammen aus Ostafrika und haben ihre Sprache bei der Expansion der Menschheit ins All mitgebracht. Gleichwohl kann ich mich nicht erinnern, in einem der Bände - und jedenfalls nicht in diesem - auch nur einen Brocken echtes Swahili gelesen zu haben. Man könnte doch wenigstens ein paar wichtige Zitate im "Original" bringen? So soll auch die Botschaft "Send Ndege" auf Swahili gesandt worden sein; wäre es nicht passend, diese dann auch so zu bringen? Nicht nur ihre Sprache, überhaupt der ganze ostafrikanische Hintergrund von Reynolds' Figuren kommt etwas zu kurz - m.E. sollte das doch etwas mehr als ein interessantes Mäntelchen sein, da wurde Potential verschenkt.

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Mike

A marathon

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 25, 2023

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I feel exhausted. There is so much to this book and the other two in the trilogy. What does so well is to shape the main characters and then build a great story around them. At times I hit the wall and ran out of the energy to keep at it but the perseverance was well worth it. Love to seed a follow up but so many strands to choose from.

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