The stories intertwine, and we are treated to a thriller where the main protagonist, aforementioned archaeologist, Verity Auger, has to complete a mission on this 1950s world as she has the knowledge of Paris at this time. The story then switches to Paris of the 1950s, but not a 1950s we recognize, some things that should have happened by 1959 haven't. The book starts off as sci-fi thriller set 200 years in the future, where an Apocalypse has rendered earth a lifeless husk, and we are following the story of an archaeologist studying the wastelands of Paris. However, it is a complete story in itself. I loved this story, and was sad to find it was a standalone as upon finishing I immediately looked for the sequel. Let's call it the Sauron factor.Enjoyable for several hundred page, but I was happy to see it end. And the villain pursued is never seen, just as in Judas Unchained. Worst of all though, the final chapters of the books, just as in Judas Unchained, is nothing more than one long chase, where it all comes down to the final few seconds. Then the relationship between Verity and Floyd becomes cliched Hollywood plotting. First comes a chapter or so of pure info-dump on the history of the future, specifically Slashers vs Threshers. Unfortunately, things kind of fall apart at about the 3/4 mark. It's not too many chapters before these two narratives merge and pretty much stay that way until the end.
It turns out the two Earths are related neither by time nor by parallel universes, but a third option that Reynolds has fun with, even it's more magic than science. The other planet is Earth in 1950's France, where we follow Wendell Floyd, a low-budget gumshoe. We follow Verity Auger, a modern archaeologist, who ends up a pawn between the political machinations of the Threshers (her side) and the Slashers (the other side). One planet is an future Earth several centuries after the Nanocaust has made it not only uninhabitable but practically unvisitable. For a while the novel alternates between two planets, as Hamilton's books often do. If less inventive in his future setting, he was much better focused on the narrative flow and much better at character development. For much of this novel, Reynolds was in the lead.
I read this right after Peter Hamilton's double door-stopper Pandora's Star/Judas Unchained - a battle of modern space opera mavens, so to speak.
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