Status
Available
Call number
Series
Publication
Ace Books (New York, 2002). Ace mass-market edition, 10th printing. 592 pages. $7.99.
Description
Nine hundred thousand years ago, something annihilated the Amarantin civilization just as it was on the verge of discovering space flight. Now one scientist, Dan Sylveste, will stop at nothing to solve the Amarantin riddle before ancient history repeats itself. With no other resources at his disposal, Sylveste forges a dangerous alliance with the cyborg crew of the starship Nostalgia for Infinity. But as he closes in on the secret, a killer closes in on him because the Amarantin were destroyed for a reason. And if that reason is uncovered, the universe-and reality itself-could be irrevocably altered.
Media reviews
Alastair Reynolds is a name to watch. Mixing shades of Banks and Gibson with gigatons of originality, he has pulled off that most difficult of SF tropes, believable aliens. [...] Reynolds supplies hard-science answers that are plausible, entertaining and clever; he even manages to make different
Show More
flavours of neutrino sound interesting. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member Widsith
One day the world will be full of science fiction authors whose prose styles are as good as their imaginations. Yeah, there are a few. But on the evidence of this book, Alastair Reynolds isn't one of them.
What this novel does have going for it is a great theory of how the galaxy might look in 500
There are other good points. Thanks Christ, here is a sci-fi author who writes good, strong women characters who are not just there to have a variety of unlikely futuristic sexual encounters. (...Although actually, thinking about it, one or two of those might not have gone amiss.)
The problem is that it's just not written all that well. The dialogue never strikes you as very realistic, and often consists of characters sitting around explaining chunks of the plot to each other. The narrative is pushed along in brief third-person sections, which stop and start apparently for no other reason than to engineer some dramatic tension, and which tend to finish on portentous one-line paragraphs like "But she was not quite fast enough."
Some sentences barely hold together. We are told strange things, such as when "Volyova dredged a clucking laugh from somewhere deep inside herself". Try visualising that if you can. And when Reynolds reaches for a suitably scientific metaphor, he has a way of bludgeoning the life out of it, with unintentionally comic effect.
Sylveste examined his own state of mind and found – it was the last thing he had expected – total calm. But it was like the calm that existed on the metallic hydrogen oceans of the gas giant planets further out from Pavonis – only maintained by crushing pressures from above and below.
I think that might be the worst paragraph I've read all year. It should be entered into some kind of competition.
Anyway, I don't want to put you off too much. It's fun, it's interesting, it's just not doing much to fight for sci-fi's place in literature. Revelation Space: it's funky, but it's clunky.
What this novel does have going for it is a great theory of how the galaxy might look in 500
Show More
years' time. The picture painted here – of a lonely universe, full of space and mysteries and still limited by barriers like the speed of light – feels distinctly plausible and, presumably, owes a lot to Reynolds's day-job as a working astrophysicist.There are other good points. Thanks Christ, here is a sci-fi author who writes good, strong women characters who are not just there to have a variety of unlikely futuristic sexual encounters. (...Although actually, thinking about it, one or two of those might not have gone amiss.)
The problem is that it's just not written all that well. The dialogue never strikes you as very realistic, and often consists of characters sitting around explaining chunks of the plot to each other. The narrative is pushed along in brief third-person sections, which stop and start apparently for no other reason than to engineer some dramatic tension, and which tend to finish on portentous one-line paragraphs like "But she was not quite fast enough."
Some sentences barely hold together. We are told strange things, such as when "Volyova dredged a clucking laugh from somewhere deep inside herself". Try visualising that if you can. And when Reynolds reaches for a suitably scientific metaphor, he has a way of bludgeoning the life out of it, with unintentionally comic effect.
Sylveste examined his own state of mind and found – it was the last thing he had expected – total calm. But it was like the calm that existed on the metallic hydrogen oceans of the gas giant planets further out from Pavonis – only maintained by crushing pressures from above and below.
I think that might be the worst paragraph I've read all year. It should be entered into some kind of competition.
Anyway, I don't want to put you off too much. It's fun, it's interesting, it's just not doing much to fight for sci-fi's place in literature. Revelation Space: it's funky, but it's clunky.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Hercules40
Alastair Reynolds is a fantastic new voice in the world of speculative fiction. Although this book was first published in 2000, I did not read it until this year. And boy, was I missing a wonderful book.
But first things first: A little bit about Alastair Reynolds, born in Wales, England. He has a
Now, it is true that question has been asked before, by many Science Fiction authors in many different versions. I always enjoy reading these different "takes" (as they are called) on this theme. What's new, or refreshing in this story is neither the setting or the build-up behind it, but the originality of the characters.
You know, a long time time ago, a science fiction editor by the name of John W. Campbell, decided that characters were just as important to a Scientific speculative fiction story as the underlying science, the story itself. Without characters indeed, there is no story. Alastair Reynolds achieves this in spades. It's the characters that draw you into the story. Oh, there is enough scientific exposition to make you believe that you are 500 years in the future. But Dan Sylveste and Ilia Volyova will make you believe that you are there.
Dan Sylveste is investigating the "Amarantin puzzle", an extinct race, whose archaeological traces humanity has been investigating for years on different worlds. Yet, on this world that humans have colonized, the "Amarantin" seem to have accomplished something. They seem to have achieved a level of technological sophistication, maybe at the humanity's current level or even beyond, a completely unexpected development. WHY? All previously extinct races that humanity had come across had never reached this level, EXCEPT for humans themselves.
There are of course the "Shrouders", an unknown conglomeration of Alien entities or Alien intelligences hiding behind a physical shroud in space which is impenetrable...and then there are the "Inhibitors". Who are the "Inhibitors"? And what do they want with humanity?
I do not want to give more of the plot so as not to spoil it. Suffice it to say, that A.I.s are central to this book, as well as Light-Huggers (ships that accelerate UP TO the speed of light) -- no FTL crap in this book. Dan Sylveste's father was one of the first people capable of downloading his mind into a computer. He was also the first to make contact with the "Shrouders". Since that time, Dan Sylveste himself attempted contact with the "Shrouders". And with this set-up we're thrown into a whirlwind, action whodunit with lots of mystery. The crew of the light-hugger Nostalgia for Infinity is of course central to the plot, as well as events set in motion hundreds of years in the past.
I highly recommend this book. Although, it will leave some questions unanswered, the book reaches a satisfying conclusion -- yet it leaves you hungering for more! Good thing then, that Alastair Reynolds has written 4 more books set in the same universe as "Revelation Space":
1. Chasm City (2001)
2. Redemption Ark (2002)
3. Absolution Gap (2003)
4. The Prefect (2007)
But first things first: A little bit about Alastair Reynolds, born in Wales, England. He has a
Show More
Ph. D in Astronomy. For some reason, many scientists make good science fiction writers. I dunno why. Alastair has done a wonderful job here. This book tackles that eternal question people seem to ask in different ways: "Are we alone in the Universe?"Now, it is true that question has been asked before, by many Science Fiction authors in many different versions. I always enjoy reading these different "takes" (as they are called) on this theme. What's new, or refreshing in this story is neither the setting or the build-up behind it, but the originality of the characters.
You know, a long time time ago, a science fiction editor by the name of John W. Campbell, decided that characters were just as important to a Scientific speculative fiction story as the underlying science, the story itself. Without characters indeed, there is no story. Alastair Reynolds achieves this in spades. It's the characters that draw you into the story. Oh, there is enough scientific exposition to make you believe that you are 500 years in the future. But Dan Sylveste and Ilia Volyova will make you believe that you are there.
Dan Sylveste is investigating the "Amarantin puzzle", an extinct race, whose archaeological traces humanity has been investigating for years on different worlds. Yet, on this world that humans have colonized, the "Amarantin" seem to have accomplished something. They seem to have achieved a level of technological sophistication, maybe at the humanity's current level or even beyond, a completely unexpected development. WHY? All previously extinct races that humanity had come across had never reached this level, EXCEPT for humans themselves.
There are of course the "Shrouders", an unknown conglomeration of Alien entities or Alien intelligences hiding behind a physical shroud in space which is impenetrable...and then there are the "Inhibitors". Who are the "Inhibitors"? And what do they want with humanity?
I do not want to give more of the plot so as not to spoil it. Suffice it to say, that A.I.s are central to this book, as well as Light-Huggers (ships that accelerate UP TO the speed of light) -- no FTL crap in this book. Dan Sylveste's father was one of the first people capable of downloading his mind into a computer. He was also the first to make contact with the "Shrouders". Since that time, Dan Sylveste himself attempted contact with the "Shrouders". And with this set-up we're thrown into a whirlwind, action whodunit with lots of mystery. The crew of the light-hugger Nostalgia for Infinity is of course central to the plot, as well as events set in motion hundreds of years in the past.
I highly recommend this book. Although, it will leave some questions unanswered, the book reaches a satisfying conclusion -- yet it leaves you hungering for more! Good thing then, that Alastair Reynolds has written 4 more books set in the same universe as "Revelation Space":
1. Chasm City (2001)
2. Redemption Ark (2002)
3. Absolution Gap (2003)
4. The Prefect (2007)
Show Less
LibraryThing member reading_fox
Remains excellent even after several re-reads. Hard sf space opera. Weird aliens, gigantic space ships advanced technology cool weapons and interesting characters doing worthwhile things. What's not to love.
It is more disjointed in viewpoint than I initially remembered though. We have three main
The Spaceships are Reynolds' greatest feats - as an ex-physicist he is limited to light constant travel, but has imagined how this will work for interstellar travel. The ships work on a boosted ramjet principle to get upto significant fractions of c, while the crew sleep in suspended animation awaiting their arrival at the destination - years down the line. Society can drastically change in the time it takes them to arrive, and their calculated lifetime is vast. Other live nearly as long through artificial means. This makes chronology somewhat tricky to follow at times - we get a character's viewpoint from tens of years behind the 'now' but then they sleep for all of the intervening period. The chapter headings are date stamped, but I failed to keep track of exactly when was when.
Anyway the three very divergent people all end up in the same place and time through what seems at first to be somewhat unlikely co-incidences. Ana's ship stops at Yellowstone looking for Sylveste who had previously healed their captain when his techno-embelishments had begun to fail. Sylvests had moved on to the world of Resurgm to investigate a new set of relicts. Khouri was hired/kidnapped by Ana to become a new member of crew after her previous gunnary officer became insane. Although nominally traders Ana's ship has managed to find some truly awesome weapons of destruction, but being in control of them isn't easy. Only once Slyveste is finally aboard do we learn the 'real' reason that events have happened as they have, and then in a climatic finish what our human 'heroes' are gong to do about it.
It is vast in scope - as big as Culture - but way better written. The ending is somewhat of a Duex et Machina, literally, but it works in concept more or less. Although the series does continue, it can be readily accepted on it's own merits as a standalone novel. There are powerful women in charge of their won destiny, convincing characters all around, a detailed and strict adherence to real physics and continuity of actions and thought, massively imagined worlds and species. Just all around great SF
It is more disjointed in viewpoint than I initially remembered though. We have three main
Show More
protagonists, and rapidly swich through their viewpoints: Khouri - an ex-solider exiled by accident and now assassin of the bored rich in the Yellowstone Glitter band high tech colony; Ana Volanov - one of three nomainlly equal lieutenants of the massive lighthugger starship traders; and Dan Slyveste egotistical scientist researcher into the long extinct alien species humanity has discovered in it's expansion.The Spaceships are Reynolds' greatest feats - as an ex-physicist he is limited to light constant travel, but has imagined how this will work for interstellar travel. The ships work on a boosted ramjet principle to get upto significant fractions of c, while the crew sleep in suspended animation awaiting their arrival at the destination - years down the line. Society can drastically change in the time it takes them to arrive, and their calculated lifetime is vast. Other live nearly as long through artificial means. This makes chronology somewhat tricky to follow at times - we get a character's viewpoint from tens of years behind the 'now' but then they sleep for all of the intervening period. The chapter headings are date stamped, but I failed to keep track of exactly when was when.
Anyway the three very divergent people all end up in the same place and time through what seems at first to be somewhat unlikely co-incidences. Ana's ship stops at Yellowstone looking for Sylveste who had previously healed their captain when his techno-embelishments had begun to fail. Sylvests had moved on to the world of Resurgm to investigate a new set of relicts. Khouri was hired/kidnapped by Ana to become a new member of crew after her previous gunnary officer became insane. Although nominally traders Ana's ship has managed to find some truly awesome weapons of destruction, but being in control of them isn't easy. Only once Slyveste is finally aboard do we learn the 'real' reason that events have happened as they have, and then in a climatic finish what our human 'heroes' are gong to do about it.
It is vast in scope - as big as Culture - but way better written. The ending is somewhat of a Duex et Machina, literally, but it works in concept more or less. Although the series does continue, it can be readily accepted on it's own merits as a standalone novel. There are powerful women in charge of their won destiny, convincing characters all around, a detailed and strict adherence to real physics and continuity of actions and thought, massively imagined worlds and species. Just all around great SF
Show Less
LibraryThing member Explorations
Although I found the storyline and technologies in this universe quite imaginative, at some point about a third into the novel, I couldn't help but feel that the haphazardly constructed dialogue and cookie-cutter tough guy/girl characters severely reduced the pleasure I had reading it.
A few
A few
Show More
passages consisting of essentially objective descriptions of locations and creative technologies left me wanting more, but instead I ended up having to drag myself through the rather muddled and cliffhanger-ridden final two thirds. Some interesting thoughts about artificial intelligence, sadly few and far between. Still, I might end up reading some more novels by this guy. Show Less
LibraryThing member jolerie
An alien artifact that was unearthed from nine hundred thousand years ago sets off a chain of events that connects a sequence of seemingly unrelated events and people. Secrets that have been shrouded in a veil of secrecy, and a pre-dawn war that involved the entire universe, are now brought to
The breadth and scope of this book is breathtaking and mind boggling at the same time. The first 100 pages were rather difficult to get through as it seemed like all the people and the events had nothing to do with each other, but once you get past the introductions, the connections and relationships between the separate stories were well worth the wait. There were moments where the scientific jargon got a bit heavy, but luckily it didn't occur often enough to be a hinderance to the flow of the narrative. Overall, Revelation Space was a space opera of epic proportions with a time line that stretches from the dawn of civilization to a distant future we have yet to know. I will definitely be interested to see where the author takes the story in the subsequent books in the series.
Show More
light and that knowledge comes with a warning - our violent beginnings may not just be a forgotten footnote in the annals of our history books, but may be the very threat that will once again extinguish intelligent life in our galaxy and those beyond. The breadth and scope of this book is breathtaking and mind boggling at the same time. The first 100 pages were rather difficult to get through as it seemed like all the people and the events had nothing to do with each other, but once you get past the introductions, the connections and relationships between the separate stories were well worth the wait. There were moments where the scientific jargon got a bit heavy, but luckily it didn't occur often enough to be a hinderance to the flow of the narrative. Overall, Revelation Space was a space opera of epic proportions with a time line that stretches from the dawn of civilization to a distant future we have yet to know. I will definitely be interested to see where the author takes the story in the subsequent books in the series.
Show Less
LibraryThing member cherylthing
chain-smoking sociopathic female spaceship captains of ambiguous orientation, women that carry their heads around on their hips like a basketball, cybernetic control systems so elaborate, extensive, complex and near-biological that the software viruses that get into them evolve into symbionts, then
Show More
parasitic pervasive creatures that may or may not have agency of their own, disturbing rifts in once-human societies undergoing divergent social (and physical) evolutionary paths, then coming into conflict with one another over the light years difference -- hey! What's not to like? Show Less
LibraryThing member wfzimmerman
Gosh, I hate the ultrawide Gollancz paperback format -- 80+ characters per line. It is very hard to read!
This is a great science fiction novel. I just reread it for the first time in years, and I was impressed by the idea and action density. Every few pages, something important or interesting
Reynolds's characters are still hard to like, but the rest of it makes up for it.
This is a great science fiction novel. I just reread it for the first time in years, and I was impressed by the idea and action density. Every few pages, something important or interesting
Show More
happens. Reynolds's characters are still hard to like, but the rest of it makes up for it.
Show Less
LibraryThing member kukkurovaca
Take Pohl's Gateway books. Replace the pioneer society there with a decadent one. Add a dose of epicness and substantial pacing problems (think tv miniseries). Add some persistently intriguing characters, and you have Revelation Space.
LibraryThing member nasherr
Reynolds' first book is exceptional. It comes up with many original ideas and often invoves more in depth, complex science than the average space opera. This fact lends validity to the whole series, making you feel that all the ideas are entirely plausible. It also contains some brutal aspects
Show More
which gives it a real edge. The story is often quite dark. Show Less
LibraryThing member MikeFinn
This was a book where I could engage with the ideas and the plot but not with the characters. I'd seen Reynolds compared to Ian Banks, Ken MacLeod and Neil Asher, so I had high hopes of this book. On the plus side: the ideas are bold, plentiful and on a galaxy-spanning scale; the plot is clever and
Show More
well executed; the world/culture/technology mix is convincing and sometimes intriguing and the writing style is clear and accessible. The downside is that I couldn't bring myself to care what happened to any of the characters. The book is 567 pages and I read at least the last 100 pages just to find the answer to the riddle rather than because I cared if the characters lived or died. This book is the first in a series and, despite the impressive ideas and clearly described worlds in this one, i feel no desire to read the rest. I think I'll pick up something by Banks or Asher or Morgan instead. Show Less
LibraryThing member antao
I like SF that tells me something I don’t already know, especially about myself. I think there are some big ideas out there, but you have to be in the right place or vantage point to understand them. Sometimes you need a story like “Revelation Space” to get to that vantage point:
Q Why does
A Because if it didn't the future would not be a mystery, i.e., Already Known.
Q Would that be a bad thing?
A Yes, because you wouldn't have a life. Life is the interplay of good and bad.
I nearly took the name `DanSylveste` putting two words into one again; it was an apt choice; as a character he is a monomaniac with deficient eyes (machines), who cares nothing for others feelings or needs, an egotist par excellence. Pretty much me, bar the agoraphobia! The novels show humanity turning into different species of transhumans: the `Outers` extreme modification of body for starship voyages, the `Conjoiners` going far further into brains part machine part human, & all such minds interlinked as a `hive` mind etc.
The Revelation books feature an idea that makes me wonder: why is the Galaxy not full of Sentient lifeforms? In a few - max - million years, even with slow interstellar travel, we could colonise this Galaxy. So why has no other species done it? The inhibitors are self-replicating machines with one purpose: to stop any Species doing just that. They act as antibiotics, to stop large scale interstellar `viruses` - er, us - from spreading to far. The problem is, that it does rather explain why we seem so `alone`? The inhibitors just wait, utterly silent, for yet another bloody sentient species to evolve in the galaxy, then they wipe it out! Intersteller `weed wackers` & we are the next weeds, to invade the garden...
God is a singularity of the extremes in complete harmony, so the more you know of the extremes, the more you can know of God. Having said that, don’t test my hypothesis...“Revelation Space” stands out when it comes to arguing solid and plausible scientific concepts. The story that is narrated is also really attractive, although the characters are mere puppets of the narrative. I have also found especially remarkable those fragments in which the author rambles freely on astrophysics; you can see that he is an expert in the field and that he knows how to explain it with talent. What is the downside then? Lack of pace and excess of chaff.
Of its around 600 pages I’d say that about 200 are pure chaff. The novel’s narrative has a lot of great points, but the action between them becomes soporific; as if Reynolds was afraid that the pace would be too intense for us... I do not know if this will be the fault of the author, or if the editor has got something to do with it. The fact is that between each fast-paced and revealing moment the pages follow each other with extreme languor. Part of the fault of this lack of rhythm falls on the inner dialogues of the characters. And it is not that the characters talk to themselves, but that they debate heatedly with a series of strange stream-of-consciousness narrative. Third-person consciousness projecting is similar to a hologram, i.e., it’s directly implanted by means of a chip in the head of the protagonists, and they keep talking with people who are not in the narrative. That is, the character interacts and speaks with another character while responding to the inner voice of a brain chip. Infuriating. But this problem happens a lot in SF.
I enjoyed the ideas in the series, but I feel it's only in his more recent novels that Reynolds has managed to create characters you give a shit about - some of the early Revelation Space books like the first and second volumes are a real chore to slog through. Great at world building (giant mobile cathedrals circling a planet; that needs a Hollywood FX treatment and no mistake!) but not so good at characterisation (the opposite of Dan Simmons in that respect). That said, “Zima Blue” is one of the best SF short stories I've read in recent years.
Back in the day I did read the Mars trilogy in full (now tetralogy), which is not exactly the height of literary agility (rather it narrated a kind of Big Brother house with scientists). But “Revelation Space” was really hard in that respect and not in a good way.
SF = Speculative Fiction.
Q Why does
Show More
bad stuff happen?A Because if it didn't the future would not be a mystery, i.e., Already Known.
Q Would that be a bad thing?
A Yes, because you wouldn't have a life. Life is the interplay of good and bad.
I nearly took the name `DanSylveste` putting two words into one again; it was an apt choice; as a character he is a monomaniac with deficient eyes (machines), who cares nothing for others feelings or needs, an egotist par excellence. Pretty much me, bar the agoraphobia! The novels show humanity turning into different species of transhumans: the `Outers` extreme modification of body for starship voyages, the `Conjoiners` going far further into brains part machine part human, & all such minds interlinked as a `hive` mind etc.
The Revelation books feature an idea that makes me wonder: why is the Galaxy not full of Sentient lifeforms? In a few - max - million years, even with slow interstellar travel, we could colonise this Galaxy. So why has no other species done it? The inhibitors are self-replicating machines with one purpose: to stop any Species doing just that. They act as antibiotics, to stop large scale interstellar `viruses` - er, us - from spreading to far. The problem is, that it does rather explain why we seem so `alone`? The inhibitors just wait, utterly silent, for yet another bloody sentient species to evolve in the galaxy, then they wipe it out! Intersteller `weed wackers` & we are the next weeds, to invade the garden...
God is a singularity of the extremes in complete harmony, so the more you know of the extremes, the more you can know of God. Having said that, don’t test my hypothesis...“Revelation Space” stands out when it comes to arguing solid and plausible scientific concepts. The story that is narrated is also really attractive, although the characters are mere puppets of the narrative. I have also found especially remarkable those fragments in which the author rambles freely on astrophysics; you can see that he is an expert in the field and that he knows how to explain it with talent. What is the downside then? Lack of pace and excess of chaff.
Of its around 600 pages I’d say that about 200 are pure chaff. The novel’s narrative has a lot of great points, but the action between them becomes soporific; as if Reynolds was afraid that the pace would be too intense for us... I do not know if this will be the fault of the author, or if the editor has got something to do with it. The fact is that between each fast-paced and revealing moment the pages follow each other with extreme languor. Part of the fault of this lack of rhythm falls on the inner dialogues of the characters. And it is not that the characters talk to themselves, but that they debate heatedly with a series of strange stream-of-consciousness narrative. Third-person consciousness projecting is similar to a hologram, i.e., it’s directly implanted by means of a chip in the head of the protagonists, and they keep talking with people who are not in the narrative. That is, the character interacts and speaks with another character while responding to the inner voice of a brain chip. Infuriating. But this problem happens a lot in SF.
I enjoyed the ideas in the series, but I feel it's only in his more recent novels that Reynolds has managed to create characters you give a shit about - some of the early Revelation Space books like the first and second volumes are a real chore to slog through. Great at world building (giant mobile cathedrals circling a planet; that needs a Hollywood FX treatment and no mistake!) but not so good at characterisation (the opposite of Dan Simmons in that respect). That said, “Zima Blue” is one of the best SF short stories I've read in recent years.
Back in the day I did read the Mars trilogy in full (now tetralogy), which is not exactly the height of literary agility (rather it narrated a kind of Big Brother house with scientists). But “Revelation Space” was really hard in that respect and not in a good way.
SF = Speculative Fiction.
Show Less
LibraryThing member tcgardner
A far future space opera on relatively small scale. The story takes place in a small corner of known human space, but the feel of the story is grand.
This is a theme throughout the book. Reynolds has a knack of making the small in reality seem large and grand.
This is a theme throughout the book. Reynolds has a knack of making the small in reality seem large and grand.
LibraryThing member Homechicken
Wow, what an amazing first book is all I can say. I don't usually read "hard scifi", I prefer to stay on the lighter side with humorous scifi, or just plain fantasy novels. This book was, indeed, a revelation. Reynolds is an excellent writer, and extremely knowledgeable about what he writes. His
I'm very excited to have the next several books in this series, and expect to be reading them very soon. And I highly recommend it to anyone that likes to read science fiction.
Books in the Revelation Space series:
Revelation Space
Chasm City
Redemption Ark
Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days
Absolution Gap
Galactic North
The Prefect
Show More
excellent explanations never get too boring or in the way of the story, though. He writes of a splintered humanity in the distant future, and of its discovery of an ancient civilization and its abrupt end. Some try to understand it, others are afraid of what it might mean, and that the same thing that eradicated the Amarantin civilization will destroy humanity as well.I'm very excited to have the next several books in this series, and expect to be reading them very soon. And I highly recommend it to anyone that likes to read science fiction.
Books in the Revelation Space series:
Revelation Space
Chasm City
Redemption Ark
Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days
Absolution Gap
Galactic North
The Prefect
Show Less
LibraryThing member RobertDay
Wide-screen baroque space opera, as Brian Aldiss would have put it. The story takes a while to get going, especially as Reynolds keeps prefacing chapters with a location and and a date, some of which seem to be set out to confuse, given that spaceflight in this universe is relativistic; it also
But once things get into their stride, the story moves on pretty well. The main protagonist, Dan Sylveste, is an archaeologist but also dabbles in politics - think Indiana Jones meets Valdimir Putin. And his focus shifts from archaeology to politics very soon into the novel. He isn't exactly a sympathetic character; but then again, most of the characters in this book aren't; perhaps the exception to this is Pascale, Sylveste's wife - though she seems to be in the novel for other characters to bounce info-dumps off of.
But the novel works very well on a nuts-and-boilts level, with the tech being very believable (I particularly liked the way that most of the tech was extrapolated from identifiable present-day knowledge, and some of the tech was recognisably present-day - after all, we use some things which are recognisably the same after 100, 150 or even 200 years; Reynolds recognises that and not everything in his universe gets a snazzy renaming to brand the book as "sci-fi"). At the end of the book - which I devoured in a late-night sitting that went on longer than I intended - the plot touches on matters relating to the Singularity (though Reynolds does not describe it as such) and the Fermi Paradox, suggesting that Reynolds tends towards the view that if the cosmic telephone rings, we'd be better off not answering it.
So to sum up, a gripping read once you get into the mind-set of the writer and don't mind stumbling over occasional info-dumps, shoe-horning lots and lots and LOTS of ideas into the story, and heavyweight prose where Reynolds was perhaps trying too hard in his first novel.
Show More
does not help when he says that a chapter is set in location A and then the action moves to location B half-way through. Perhaps if I'd read the first quarter of the book in longer sittings, I wouldn't have struggled so much with it to start with.But once things get into their stride, the story moves on pretty well. The main protagonist, Dan Sylveste, is an archaeologist but also dabbles in politics - think Indiana Jones meets Valdimir Putin. And his focus shifts from archaeology to politics very soon into the novel. He isn't exactly a sympathetic character; but then again, most of the characters in this book aren't; perhaps the exception to this is Pascale, Sylveste's wife - though she seems to be in the novel for other characters to bounce info-dumps off of.
But the novel works very well on a nuts-and-boilts level, with the tech being very believable (I particularly liked the way that most of the tech was extrapolated from identifiable present-day knowledge, and some of the tech was recognisably present-day - after all, we use some things which are recognisably the same after 100, 150 or even 200 years; Reynolds recognises that and not everything in his universe gets a snazzy renaming to brand the book as "sci-fi"). At the end of the book - which I devoured in a late-night sitting that went on longer than I intended - the plot touches on matters relating to the Singularity (though Reynolds does not describe it as such) and the Fermi Paradox, suggesting that Reynolds tends towards the view that if the cosmic telephone rings, we'd be better off not answering it.
So to sum up, a gripping read once you get into the mind-set of the writer and don't mind stumbling over occasional info-dumps, shoe-horning lots and lots and LOTS of ideas into the story, and heavyweight prose where Reynolds was perhaps trying too hard in his first novel.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Vvolodymyr
This novel helped me immerse myself in the world of science fiction at large, and the writing of Alastair Reynolds in particular.
As many have mentioned (including the author himself) - the beginning was rocky and somewhat difficult, but the unique writing style, heavy with technical/scientific
I liked the wealth of characters and human subcultures/splinters/clans - both marvelously grotesque yet somehow plausible.
The scope of the story is grand at its core (as opposed to simply having the main character travel far and wide), as many reviewers have also justly noted.
And most importantly - being a professional astronomer (at the time), the author incorporated many hints at the cutting edge of research in his field, as well as kept the physics (both current and extrapolated) well within the bounds as they are understood today (a good example: no FTL).
I cannot stress enough how important it is to read this book (and others in the series) for anyone who is interested in science fiction!
As many have mentioned (including the author himself) - the beginning was rocky and somewhat difficult, but the unique writing style, heavy with technical/scientific
Show More
descriptions, sweepingly poetic science-based metaphors, yet positively smooth, urged me to read on. And I am very glad I did.I liked the wealth of characters and human subcultures/splinters/clans - both marvelously grotesque yet somehow plausible.
The scope of the story is grand at its core (as opposed to simply having the main character travel far and wide), as many reviewers have also justly noted.
And most importantly - being a professional astronomer (at the time), the author incorporated many hints at the cutting edge of research in his field, as well as kept the physics (both current and extrapolated) well within the bounds as they are understood today (a good example: no FTL).
I cannot stress enough how important it is to read this book (and others in the series) for anyone who is interested in science fiction!
Show Less
LibraryThing member being_b
This is a well-plotted book full of excellent ideas in a truly mind-blowing universe. It suffers from a pedestrian writing style, a lot of repetition, and a male/female romantic relationship straight out of the Golden Age of SF. Fortunately, there's not much romance, the redundant bits are
As I read, I kept marveling at the internal consistency of the science and how the world-building followed so logically from the scientific phenomena the author described. It seemed that the author would have to be a working physicist to hold all the necessary information in his head and work out the various implications so thoroughly. Then I finished the book, did some googling, and was pleased to be right. It's a delight to see a scientist's mind at work (the breadth and depth of knowledge, the flexibility and daring to follow an idea to its logical conclusion) outside of the strictures of academia.
Show More
skippable, and I'd rather have pedestrian writing with good ideas than lambent prose around an empty core. As I read, I kept marveling at the internal consistency of the science and how the world-building followed so logically from the scientific phenomena the author described. It seemed that the author would have to be a working physicist to hold all the necessary information in his head and work out the various implications so thoroughly. Then I finished the book, did some googling, and was pleased to be right. It's a delight to see a scientist's mind at work (the breadth and depth of knowledge, the flexibility and daring to follow an idea to its logical conclusion) outside of the strictures of academia.
Show Less
LibraryThing member CassandraT
Something about graduate school has destroyed my appreciation for descriptive prose. I could not put this book down, it was exciting. However, I skipped a lot of the lengthy aesthetic portions that most readers love. I was really disappointed in the end, because it wasn't as much of a reveal for
Show More
the characters as it was for me. Most of the characters knew what was up, but not in a Twilight Zone or Never Let Me Go kind of way. The author simply skipped all the parts where characters were educated and saved it for sharing at the end. Show Less
LibraryThing member majkia
In a distant future, where faster than light travel does not exist, habited planets are strewn throughout the galaxy and are isolated except for their nearest neighbors given the time and distances that need to be traversed to link them up.
Ultras, humans who have, er, evolved/altered themselves,
An obsessed archaeologist, who had gone to one planet where there are ruins of one of the few alien civilizations they’ve discovered existed, is haunted and driven by the disastrous consequences of his experiences there, which no one really understands. Nor, really does he seem to understand what happened to him. Still, he wants to go back there, to discover the truth about the Amarantans if he can.
Meanwhile, someone has hired an assassin to kill him, and she’s gotten herself aboard a light-hugger ship to come for him.
And, why, given how hospitable the universe seems, given what humans have learned about it, are there no other alien cultures, but only the husks of destroyed alien civilizations? What’s happened to them all? Where are they?
A very complex and rather grim universe is depicted with all the obvious failings of humans still present and affecting humanity’s civilization. Will we, can we, ever learn?
Ultras, humans who have, er, evolved/altered themselves,
Show More
to live on light-hugger ships that travel the great distances, are even more isolated, as they can have no real ties on planets where they might not return for hundreds of years. An obsessed archaeologist, who had gone to one planet where there are ruins of one of the few alien civilizations they’ve discovered existed, is haunted and driven by the disastrous consequences of his experiences there, which no one really understands. Nor, really does he seem to understand what happened to him. Still, he wants to go back there, to discover the truth about the Amarantans if he can.
Meanwhile, someone has hired an assassin to kill him, and she’s gotten herself aboard a light-hugger ship to come for him.
And, why, given how hospitable the universe seems, given what humans have learned about it, are there no other alien cultures, but only the husks of destroyed alien civilizations? What’s happened to them all? Where are they?
A very complex and rather grim universe is depicted with all the obvious failings of humans still present and affecting humanity’s civilization. Will we, can we, ever learn?
Show Less
LibraryThing member gayla.bassham
Dear Book,
It's not you, it's me. I'm just not in a space-opera kind of place right now. If only we'd met fifteen years ago, we might have been perfect for each other. But our time is past. I hope we can still be friends.
It's not you, it's me. I'm just not in a space-opera kind of place right now. If only we'd met fifteen years ago, we might have been perfect for each other. But our time is past. I hope we can still be friends.
LibraryThing member clong
I thought the first two thirds of this books was superb, and the last third was rather disappointing. At one point in the story I was thinking this is the best space-opera-with-a-hard-science-veneer I have read since A Deepness in the Sky. But in the end Revelation Space is a much less satisfying
The novel follows three main characters who start on vastly different paths but inexorably are brought together as the story builds to its climax: Dan Sylveste, the son of an infamous genetics experimenter, who is driven to unearth the remains of an ancient civilization nobody else seems to care about; Ana Khouri, one time soldier and current assassin-for-hire who finds herself serving a mysterious new master; and Ilia Volyova, cyborg weapons master to a massive interstellar ship. These characters are initially interesting and enigmatic (as are many of the supporting cast around them), but I found them to be less and less sympathetic as the story progresses. And I found the doomed romance between Pascale and Sylveste to be utterly unconvincing.
The plotting is at times clever, and offers a few nice surprises, and more than its fair share of inventive and intriguing concepts. But, as mentioned above, I felt the ending failed to deliver on the early promise of the book (indeed the ending seemed to make much of the earlier plot largely irrelevant). Despite my disappointment with some aspects of the book, there is no denying that this is pretty impressive for a first novel. I will definitely plan to read more by Reynolds.
Show More
read on several levels. The novel follows three main characters who start on vastly different paths but inexorably are brought together as the story builds to its climax: Dan Sylveste, the son of an infamous genetics experimenter, who is driven to unearth the remains of an ancient civilization nobody else seems to care about; Ana Khouri, one time soldier and current assassin-for-hire who finds herself serving a mysterious new master; and Ilia Volyova, cyborg weapons master to a massive interstellar ship. These characters are initially interesting and enigmatic (as are many of the supporting cast around them), but I found them to be less and less sympathetic as the story progresses. And I found the doomed romance between Pascale and Sylveste to be utterly unconvincing.
The plotting is at times clever, and offers a few nice surprises, and more than its fair share of inventive and intriguing concepts. But, as mentioned above, I felt the ending failed to deliver on the early promise of the book (indeed the ending seemed to make much of the earlier plot largely irrelevant). Despite my disappointment with some aspects of the book, there is no denying that this is pretty impressive for a first novel. I will definitely plan to read more by Reynolds.
Show Less
LibraryThing member jamclash
Although the science and sheer epic stage this book revolves around is very interesting and imaginative, the over-written dialogue and descriptions of technologies, bantering between characters, and drawn out plot made this book drag for me. Finally, about page 600 or so it begins to explain
Show More
things. It does make you wonder though. Why aren't there more known civilizations out there? Revelation Space presents one idea. I'll probably read the other 3 in the series. Show Less
LibraryThing member santhony
I’ve read an enormous amount of science fiction over the years, but I don’t think I have ever read a “harder” hard science fiction novel than Revelation Space. I’m somewhat shocked that this book was published in 2000, but I’d never heard of it, or its sequels.
This book is enormously
This is HARD science fiction with, at times, very detailed astrophysics minutely “explained”. In fact, the last 50 pages become so detailed and convoluted, that I doubt a fraction of 1% of the readers can possibly hope to follow. Nevertheless, the characters are good and the story engrossing at times. It did occasionally lag and coupled with the extreme technical discussion, made for something of a chore to get through. Tightening up the story and “dumbing down” the physics would have raised this to a four star effort.
This book is enormously
Show More
complicated, with numerous very challenging story arcs that ultimately converge in the last 50 pages. Set in a distant future in which humanity has colonized the universe, the main theme of the work involves a planetary archeologist named Dan Sylveste, who is excavating an alien civilization on the planet Regulam. The aliens were destroyed by a solar “event” many millennia past. Elsewhere, there are shadowy figure planning the murder of Sylveste, for reasons that gradually make themselves known.This is HARD science fiction with, at times, very detailed astrophysics minutely “explained”. In fact, the last 50 pages become so detailed and convoluted, that I doubt a fraction of 1% of the readers can possibly hope to follow. Nevertheless, the characters are good and the story engrossing at times. It did occasionally lag and coupled with the extreme technical discussion, made for something of a chore to get through. Tightening up the story and “dumbing down” the physics would have raised this to a four star effort.
Show Less
LibraryThing member isabelx
Volyova had now less than five hundred metres to go before she dragged the cache-weapon into the flames. It was putting up a fight, thrusters going haywire, but its overall thrust capacity was less than that of the spider-room. Understandable, Khouri thought. When its designers had conceived the
Well I finally finished after a couple of weeks reading on the train during my commute.
The story takes place in the mid-25th century, and starts with three separate strands which gradually come together: Dan Sylveste, is the arrogant and single-minded former ruler of the human colony on Resurgam, which began as a scientific expedition from Yellowstone. He has been in prison since a coup eight years ago, fuming about being prevented from continuing his studies of the Amarantin, the dead race who inhabited the plant 900,000 years ago. Khouri is an ex-soldier now working as an assassin on Yellowstone, where she is hired to hunt the bored and rich, whose lives are given spice by their (usually successful) attempts to survive until the end of the contract. After a successful but unusual assassination a mysterious woman blackmails her into taking on a contract off-world. And then there is Volyova, one of the triumvirate running an Ultra trading ship whose captain is dying of the melding plague. the ship is heading for Yellowstone searching for the one surgeon who helped the captain in the past and may now be able to cure him with the help of a retrovirus engineered by Volyova.
Although I prefer shorter books than this and the story didn't really get going until the protagonists got together, the plot was anything but predictable, the gradually unfolding of the central mystery kept my interest, and what the characters discovered near the end of the book was truly fascinating.
Show More
ancillary systems which would be required to move and position the device, the idea that it would also have to fend for itself in a wrestling match had probably not been uppermost in their minds.Well I finally finished after a couple of weeks reading on the train during my commute.
The story takes place in the mid-25th century, and starts with three separate strands which gradually come together: Dan Sylveste, is the arrogant and single-minded former ruler of the human colony on Resurgam, which began as a scientific expedition from Yellowstone. He has been in prison since a coup eight years ago, fuming about being prevented from continuing his studies of the Amarantin, the dead race who inhabited the plant 900,000 years ago. Khouri is an ex-soldier now working as an assassin on Yellowstone, where she is hired to hunt the bored and rich, whose lives are given spice by their (usually successful) attempts to survive until the end of the contract. After a successful but unusual assassination a mysterious woman blackmails her into taking on a contract off-world. And then there is Volyova, one of the triumvirate running an Ultra trading ship whose captain is dying of the melding plague. the ship is heading for Yellowstone searching for the one surgeon who helped the captain in the past and may now be able to cure him with the help of a retrovirus engineered by Volyova.
Although I prefer shorter books than this and the story didn't really get going until the protagonists got together, the plot was anything but predictable, the gradually unfolding of the central mystery kept my interest, and what the characters discovered near the end of the book was truly fascinating.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Paganmoon
The overall story was intriguing, but it moved too slowly, and choppy, also there was no sense of urgency about anything that happened.
The author had a tendency to go trough the events of the last chapter once again, in the next one, just in case you'd forgotten what happened two pages ago, this
The characters didn't feel real in a sense, the story takes place over a few decades for some of the characters but you get no sense of development. Most characters don't even behave the same between chapters, one in particular (Khouri), seems to cycle between acting and speaking like a five year old, and a soldier. Though that could be attributed partly to the poorly written dialog, where it simply seemed it was a characters turn to speak, to move the story along, not that the character had anything real to say in a given situation. Exposition dialog.
Simply put, the characters were so flat I felt nothing but indifference towards their predicaments, it did not matter to me if any particular lived or died.
The author had a tendency to go trough the events of the last chapter once again, in the next one, just in case you'd forgotten what happened two pages ago, this
Show More
didn't only happen between chapters but sometimes even within them.The characters didn't feel real in a sense, the story takes place over a few decades for some of the characters but you get no sense of development. Most characters don't even behave the same between chapters, one in particular (Khouri), seems to cycle between acting and speaking like a five year old, and a soldier. Though that could be attributed partly to the poorly written dialog, where it simply seemed it was a characters turn to speak, to move the story along, not that the character had anything real to say in a given situation. Exposition dialog.
Simply put, the characters were so flat I felt nothing but indifference towards their predicaments, it did not matter to me if any particular lived or died.
Show Less
LibraryThing member jeffjardine
This is the most I've enjoyed a hard sf book in a while.
I read SF for the Big Ideas, and Alistair Reynolds has the background to pull off interesting ones without obliterating known physical laws. The science in Revelation Space is solid. As for the "fiction" part of the SF equation... let’s just
Some other reviews mention cyberpunk elements. It should be mentioned that these elements go further than characters merely visiting a digital VR, as in The Matrix or Neuromancer. To me, Reynolds seems to take for granted that human consciousness is just software on biological hardware. He interprets the biological as mechanical. Contrast this to the reverse - envisioning the traditionally mechanical as the biological, i.e. P.F. Hamilton's absurd living spaceships in The Reality Dysfunction. I find Reynolds' interpretation so much more satisfying.
However, given this interpretation of mind, he refuses to overreach with it: Part of the backstory of one of the characters, Calvin Sylveste, is an attempt to become the Father of The Singularity, in which a number of volunteers have their consciousness uploaded, a la Ray Kurzweil's crackpot theories. But it doesn't work, even after 500+ years of technological advancement! By contrast, Kurzweil, who is 65 years old, believes today that The Singularity will occur in his lifetime because MOORE'S LAW. Yeah, right.
I found the characters entirely believable. This is not a black & white, good-guys vs. bad-guys story. There is plenty of grey and conflicting motivations. Although, there might be a bit too much Captain Ahab in Dan Sylveste. There are strong, convincing female characters, and they are presented without calling particular attention to themselves. I've noticed a tendency for male sf authors to overdo the "girl power" aspect of these characters, but not so much in this book, which is nice.
I'll definitely be reading more by Reynolds.
I read SF for the Big Ideas, and Alistair Reynolds has the background to pull off interesting ones without obliterating known physical laws. The science in Revelation Space is solid. As for the "fiction" part of the SF equation... let’s just
Show More
say the book will never be considered a great work of literature. Reynolds seems to have a penchant for sarcastic understatement in his dialogue, but that is a minor nitpick.Some other reviews mention cyberpunk elements. It should be mentioned that these elements go further than characters merely visiting a digital VR, as in The Matrix or Neuromancer. To me, Reynolds seems to take for granted that human consciousness is just software on biological hardware. He interprets the biological as mechanical. Contrast this to the reverse - envisioning the traditionally mechanical as the biological, i.e. P.F. Hamilton's absurd living spaceships in The Reality Dysfunction. I find Reynolds' interpretation so much more satisfying.
However, given this interpretation of mind, he refuses to overreach with it: Part of the backstory of one of the characters, Calvin Sylveste, is an attempt to become the Father of The Singularity, in which a number of volunteers have their consciousness uploaded, a la Ray Kurzweil's crackpot theories. But it doesn't work, even after 500+ years of technological advancement! By contrast, Kurzweil, who is 65 years old, believes today that The Singularity will occur in his lifetime because MOORE'S LAW. Yeah, right.
I found the characters entirely believable. This is not a black & white, good-guys vs. bad-guys story. There is plenty of grey and conflicting motivations. Although, there might be a bit too much Captain Ahab in Dan Sylveste. There are strong, convincing female characters, and they are presented without calling particular attention to themselves. I've noticed a tendency for male sf authors to overdo the "girl power" aspect of these characters, but not so much in this book, which is nice.
I'll definitely be reading more by Reynolds.
Show Less
Awards
Arthur C. Clarke Award (Shortlist — 2001)
British Science Fiction Association Award (Shortlist — Novel — 2000)
Italia Award (Finalist — 2010)
Locus Recommended Reading (First Novel — 2000)
The Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read (Science Fiction and Fantasy)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2000-03-09
Physical description
592 p.; 4.19 inches
ISBN
0441009425 / 9780441009428