Review of Beyond the Reach of Earth by Ken Macleod

Beyond the Reach of Earth (2023) by Ken Macloed is the second novel in a trilogy, thus I will not waste time on a clever intro. What you really want to know is: has Macleod made it worth my while to continue the series?

The short answer is, if you enjoyed Hallowed Sky, it's likely Reach will likewise engage. Macleod's prose is the same workaday. The story still jumps time and space dynamically. And the mystery of the fermi and FTL persists. At the macro level, Macleod has given readers reasons to stick around. So, how does the series evolve at the micro level?

Where Hallowed Sky was predominantly Earth-centric, Reach is predominantly extraterrestrial—many planets, in fact. Another way of putting this is, Reach is a tour of the corridors of Macleod's imagination as to how life could realistically evolve on other, life-sustaining planetary spheres. Where the Golden Age of sf had license to freely violate whatever laws of science they wanted in presenting aliens and alien worlds, Macleod tries to respect said laws. Such a volume of planetary spheres in the novel, in fact, it's likely the reader's like or dislike will hinge on how they feel Macleod handles realistic extrapolation.

The story of Beyond the Reach of Earth picks up directly after the events of Beyond the Hallowed Sky. (Reach provides a nice summary of events from Hallowed; I wish more serial novels did this.) What follows are multiple viewpoints of characters who are likewise touring the corridors of Macleod's imagination, only they have agency in trying to find information on the fermi, as well as solving more eco- and biological puzzles of life. Threading through it all is a black-ops organization at odds with Earth's codex for extraterrestrial exploration.

When I look back upon the dozen or so Macleod novels I've read and hone in on what I've enjoyed in some of his books, my mind settles on the idea of “clever plotting in a tight milieu of ideas”. It's not characters, it's not worldbuilding, and it's not abstract theory crafting. As such, books like the Engines of Light and The Corporation Wars trilogy leave me feeling meh. Hallowed and Reach are similar. Plotting is straight-forward, and in place of a tight milieu of ideas is an open-ended milieu of ideas. The question: “What are the limits of possibility in this world?” pops up to frequently. Androids, solar system exploration, AI, aliens, FTL—the story touches upon more of the standard devices of sf than not. The main draw reading Reach is the mysteries left unanswered. But with so many options in play, the answer to the mystery can be anything, and given the number of options, it won't be anything that wows. I imagine hard sf readers will find more to enjoy than me.

In the end, Beyond the Reach of Earth digs its heels in deeper into the hard sf mystery the series has created—and is solving, presumably. At times it's hard to tell given how much content is based around the ecologies of the planets discovered via FTL. Readers steeped in Arthur C. Clarke-esque techno puzzles while likely have more patience than me. Compared—rightfully or wrongfully—to sf on the market today, the novel just may be archetypal sf, and for that lose an edge.