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    Redemption Ark
    Redemption Ark
    Redemption Ark
    Audiobook27 hours

    Redemption Ark

    Written by Alastair Reynolds

    Narrated by John Lee

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Late in the twenty-sixth century, the human race has advanced enough to accidentally trigger the Inhibitors-alien-killing machines designed to detect intelligent life and destroy it. The only hope for humanity lies in the recovery of a secret cache of doomsday weapons-and a renegade named Clavain who is determined to find them. But other factions want the weapons for their own purposes-and the weapons themselves have another agenda altogether.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateMar 30, 2009
    ISBN9781400179572
    Redemption Ark
    Author

    Alastair Reynolds

    Alastair Reynolds was born in Barry, South Wales, in 1966. He studied at Newcastle and St. Andrews Universities and has a PhD in astronomy. He stopped working as an astrophysicist for the European Space Agency to become a full-time writer. Reynolds is a bestselling author and has been awarded the British Science Fiction award, along with being shortlisted for the Hugo Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Award, and the Locus Award.

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    Reviews for Redemption Ark

    4/5

    979 ratings29 reviews

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    • 5/5
      The third book in this series is just as extraordinary, absorbing, well written, and ingeniously plotted as the first two. It also left me hungry for the fourth, which I will listen to immediately. I've read science fiction all my life, and consider Alastair Reynolds one of the greatest science fiction writers of all time. Highly recommended!
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this book, especially since I was already familiar with Clavain from Galactic North. A story this large will always have some dangling threads, but it is also the 2nd book of the trilogy after all. Perhaps more will be explained in book 3. Reynold's theory of Inhibitors is interesting to compare with Cixin's Dark Forest theory. I appreciate the emphasis on redemption, but it would be interesting to ponder why it matters in a universe of pure materialist emergentism.
    • 3/5
      Another good book in the series. The Melding Plague still greatly interests me.
    • 5/5
      Sweeping, thoughtful and complex space opera on a vast canvas. Reynolds projects a distant future humanity splintered into rival technological sects and ideologies variously at war, detent or alliances and facing even greater external threats.

      Strong characters and well written female lead characters. Narrator for the books is spot on at manages numerous character voices without becoming cartoonish.

    • 5/5
      good book book von von cool book lined out yea
    • 4/5
      Reynolds can weave a complex story with far future imaginings. Advances in medicine, and longevity, genetic uplift of non-humans (in this case monkeys and pigs), and alien tech no one can really figure out - either how it works, or what it's for.
    • 5/5
      A space opera masterpiece, written in a way that suggests (and also occasionally clearly mentions and explains) cosmic time scales and some of the implications. Introduces a couple of fictitious technical ideas and explores them in thrilling space battles, escapes and other action. Strong characters that are guided (or manipulated) by powerfull principles and forces. Continuous the story in the first book in the Resurgam system, although after tens of years have passed. The ship transformations continued, but it is revealed that the biggest threat are alien machines with the only purpose is to cull life to prevent a catastrophic extinction far in the future. Through some unexpected heroes the situation is partially saved, but nothing is really solved while more mysteries remain.
    • 5/5
      Guilt in space (superior to angst in space) but it's the best guilt in space I have read so far. True to its title it's all about redemption of the unlikely ensemble of space mass murderers, all with a heart of gold. Despite the author's disclaimers he's done an amazing job at creating a rich and consistent universe. Even if it sometimes feels there's only 30 people in it who keep bumping into each other.
    • 5/5
      After I read the author’s Revelation Space, I was conflicted as to whether to proceed to Chasm City, which is listed a volume two of a series. Revelation Space was maybe the “hardest” science fiction work I’ve read in the last ten years (maybe some Charles Stross works approach it), and the complexity was a little over the top. However, I’d already purchased the first three volumes, so I read Chasm City and was very pleasantly surprised. While Chasm City is set in the same “universe” as Revelation Space, it was far more approachable and enjoyable, in my opinion. Part of this may have been the underlying familiarity provided by the earlier book, but it was also definitely less reliant upon an underlying knowledge of quantum mechanics. In any case, Redemption Ark is technically “book three” of the series, but actually reads much closer to a sequel of Revelation Space. Chasm City is almost a stand alone novel, with little connection to either the first or third books. You could read Redemption Ark immediately after Revelation Space, and in fact, may benefit by doing so, as there are many story lines that flow seamlessly between the two. Chasm City is a good story, but it can be read any time.As in Revelation Space, Redemption Ark is replete with “rock hard” science fiction. The author goes to great pains to explain the physics behind many of his far future technology, though not to the detriment of the story, as I felt occurred in Revelation Space. If you enjoy space opera and hard science fiction, this will be right in your wheelhouse
    • 5/5
      Third in the series, certainly in terms of publication date, and does tie in a couple of details from Chasm City, but honestly CC is so removed from the rest of the story you can just skip it completely and go from Revelation Space to this one.The story switches between the two locations previously established and picks up some 60 years after the end of RS. Illa and Khouri are in the Delta Pavonis system where the Inhibitors have arrived. They've integrated themselves into the local politics and are trying to organise an evacuation of the population, and at the same time, deploy some of the Hell weapons against the aliens. So far the aliens are ignoring them completely concentrating on their system wide engineering. Both of their self-imposed tasks require the co-operation of the Captain and his ship embodied consciousness. Illa hasn't been finding it easy to communicate though.Meanwhile the Conjoiners have mostly won their war against the Democrists, and have time to become more aware of their surroundings. They've detected the signature of the Hell weapons waking back up, and decide to retrieve them. Clavin is requested to lead the recovery operation, using their latest technology advanced ships. He has other qualms however and ends up being pursued by Skade who unbeknownst to her is carrying Mademoiselle (from RS and CC). One of Reynolds' signature writing points is his allegiance to 'hard' physics, without breaking any known laws. This is most hand-wavy and speculative offering in terms of science. There are several very dubious propositions made, and I'm sure Reynolds is mostly exploring consequences rather than actually believing they're necessarily possible. The most dubious of all of these is the 'communications from the future' delivered by the Exordium project. Not necessarily their future of course, a multi-worlds quantum explanation makes that impossible, but maybe a closely related one. What is nicely done is the practical implication of inertia suppression - again the explanation is dubious - but if you allow it, then how it would work is very well described in pleasingly short amounts of exposition. The changing characters and locations is sufficient to keep the techno-dumps to manageable proportions. Once again the ending is sufficiently conclusive to consider this a book in it's own right, even though there are more tales to tell. Many of the characters do receive a Redemption, though it's down to the reader to decide if it's the one they want/deserve.
    • 4/5
      The threat of the inhibitors reappears with all its danger in “Redemption Ark”, leading to the total extinction of humanity as it happened in the remote past with the rest of the intelligent cultures that tried to spread across the galaxy. The weapons contained in “Nostalgia for infinity, the ship of the ultras that already appeared in “Revelation Space”, continues to orbit the planet Resurgam, acquiring vital importance, to the point of provoking a bloody race in its pursuit to ensure its possession in the face of the coming war. Different factions of the divided humanity in war, will try to ensure its control, which will cause various space clashes where the author shows once again a prodigious imagination. Meanwhile the inhibitors, or the wolves, as they are known by the faction of the Combined, undertake in the solar system of Resurgam their quiet genocidal task of titanic proportions, which will lead to consider the evacuation of the planet, with scarce means and little cooperation from the government and the population.I'm not sure about the universe being indifferent. We live in it and its laws are what we have adapted to. Conditions change here on Earth as well as round the Universe but we would still have to adapt to the same laws where ever we were. If we look at science now the new frontier isn't so much the material universe,but the mathematical. The visible could be described as a tidal wave of probabilities painting across a moving canvas (to mix metaphors). At this level we can ask is that tide indifferent or is it full of intent. On a human level I would suggest that its very hard to answer that question because we cant be inhuman. In other words even our attempts at having no intent are part of our intent. I'm reminded of the orange. It just happens to be the right size to be eaten and the pips spat around. Was it intent that produced a fruit that feeds others in order the orange itself can propagate? What of the rules that produced this convenient arrangement and the unlikely events needed to bring it about? Do these speak of intent? In my view there are two masters in the Religion-in-SF field today, Gene Wolfe and China Miéville. Miéville agrees about Wolfe. I don`t know if Wolfe thinks the same about Mieville. Strikingly Mieville is an atheist and Wolfe a Catholic. What I like about both of them is their openness to the literally infinite range of possibilities for the human, post-human and alien. The sense that the universe is not just stranger than we know but stranger than we can know. Which is also why I think Tarkovsky`s “Solaris” and “Stalker” are full of mystery - in both cases we are faced with something absolutely beyond anything we can even name let alone understand. That sense of astonishment and bewilderment can bring with it an understanding that our daily mundane existence is also astonishing and bewildering and full of infinite possibilities. In “Stalker and “Solaris there are no special effects at all. But the earth and the sea are transformed into alien places simply by being closely and minutely observed. And “Stalker” ends with a tiny, un-noticed, trivial miracle, an almost imperceptible intrusion of ??? God??? the Beyond??? Real Reality??? The Akien ??? Into our world. Stalker seems to me to capture the sense of the absolute otherness which is required for a real concept of the Divine. It does this without any special effects or CGI. The film reminded me of the lines from Rilke`s Duino Elegies:“Denn das Schöne ist nichts als des Schrecklichen Anfang, den wir noch grade ertragen, und wir bewundern es so, weil es gelassen verschmäht, uns zu zerstören.” (For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror, which we are still just able to endure, and we are awed because it serenely disdains to destroy us.) The Stalker himself is a man like Jeremiah, a man broken by his encounter with something real but beyond words and names. The film shows us a postindustrial landscape literally transfigured by the fact of observation. I loved the fact that the aliens - if that is what they were - came and left and changed everything and said nothing. The final scene, the tiny un-noticed "miracle" performed by the Stalker`s child is a moment of pure perfection. Reynolds SF stands sort of between Wolfe and Miéville. Reynolds tries to create a universe full of mystery, and usually leaves it up to the reader to imagine the reality behind the veil. Religion in SF is a fun topic, and much misunderstood. Whether or not you see religion and science as at odds, SF is a fertile toolkit for exploring religious and religious-studies themes.Alastair Reynolds successfully tries to create a universe full of mystery, and usually leaves it up to the reader to imagine the reality behind the veil. Probably the best Revelation Space novel of the bunch. Last but not least, we're faced with the unfathomable "doorstopper effect" that distorts space-time and causes novels of 300 or 400 pages ending up as huge tomes that barely fit on our shelves. In this case, the "doorstopper effect" was moderately strong and the novel ended with almost 800 pages (!). A shame.
    • 4/5
      Wonderful characterization, fascinating storyline, great prose, beguiling science.............what more could you want from a Space Opera?
    • 3/5
      Traditional big ol' space opera. Reynolds is full of interesting ideas but the execution left something to be desired. Probably the biggest flaw was that his (supposedly) highly-splintered factions of humanity all seemed identical. The planet-bound Thorn thinks, talks and feels pretty much like Ilia, product of the cyborg-heavy Ultra culture, who was pretty much the same as Clavain, largely a product of the hive-mind Cojoiner culture, who was pretty much the same as Scorpio, the artificially-evolved pig in the Demarchist culture, who was the same as...you get the idea. This sameness of the character landscape robs the story of an immense amount of color.Ends with a sudden jolt and then a cliffhanger...obviously just a bridge book to the next in the series. I probably won't continue.
    • 4/5
      It was one of the earliest and most chilling lessons of space warfare: in space, the dead were often difficult to tell from the living. Page 55From some point in the distant future, a warning has been passed along. Something, someone is systematically eradicating all sentient beings, humans included. The Inhibitors, also known as the Wolves, have one mission and that includes guarding the universe from the evolution of intelligent life. Their goal is clear, their method is ruthless, but their purpose is shrouded in mystery. War is inevitable, survival is paramount, and the question of who the real enemy is continues to plague every single faction embroiled in this clash of galactic proportions. In a 600+ page book that spans billions of years with infinite space and time as the backdrop, you can expect that the story will take a bit to rev its engine. The beauty of a space opera is that it has the luxury to set the stage, to give you the context and history of the unfolding story. There is a lot of science and often times in my case, the science flies right over my head and lands somewhere beyond the realm of comprehension, but what Reynold does well is his ability to cultivate a big and complex enough story to sustain all that mumbo jumbo. All the characters, humans and machines alike have their turn in the spot light so you definitely walk away with a nothing less than a intricate, multi-layered story. Fans of space opera should definitely give the Revelation Space series a try. Recommended for science fiction junkies.
    • 5/5
      Third novel in the Revelation Space series; best of the first three. Characterization is much improved over the first, the book didn't feel too long, and the plot hummed along throughout.
    • 4/5
      its picking up ... finally, the connection to the first book. what is the thing with antoinnette bax?
    • 5/5
      Excellent book, I have read this series in order and spaced out by around a year. This is the best of the three so far. It follows on more from the 1st book rather than the second and as such continues in the great space opera tradition. The second book was enjoyable in it's own way but related only lightly to the main galactic events already underway. Even at the end of this third book there is much of the story to be told. I must admit I'm a bit hooked now and I have downloaded Absolution Gap already.
    • 4/5
      Having been misled by numerous people describing Reynolds' sequence of novels that began with 'Revelation Space' as "loosely joined", I made the mistake of reading 'Absolution Gap' (the sequel to this novel) first and found that I really did need to read the middle book in the trilogy! So I started this book knowing (sort of) how it would end. But that wasn't a problem. It made an interesting exercise to see how some of the characters in 'Absolution gap' got where they were. And there was more: there are plenty of characters in this book who don't make it through to the next (and not just by being killed off), though I suppose now I'll have to re-read 'Absolution gap' to make sure of this!Anyway: what we have here is more wide-screen space opera, set in Reynolds' ultra-realistic future universe (though he manages to invoke some good old Doc Smith-style spaceship tech to move the action on). Characters are well-drawn, though some differences are obvious: the hyperpig Scorpio is nowhere near as mellow as he is in the next book, but that's how it's supposed to be; and the Conjoiner leader Remontoire doesn't come over as a rounded character at all whereas Clavain does. But perhaps that's the point: Remontoire is a dyed-in-the-wool Conjoiner, with lots of brain implants and instant communication with his fellow Conjoiners; Clavain is an incredibly old man (through relatavistic starflight, not life-extension technology) who came late to the Conjoiners and isn't so much 100% wedded to their programme, and he's seen more of life and death than almost anyone else in the book; so perhaps Remontoire is not so well drawn precisely to bring this difference out. Reynolds also has some interesting musings on the Fermi Paradox and the ultimate motivations of the Inhibitors, the machines who aim to eliminate star-faring intelligent life in the galaxy - and it's not quite what you'd think. All in all, then, an interesting page-turner (though there are lots of pages to turn!).
    • 4/5
      A major space opera with some interesting characters. It's not always clear who the goodies and baddies are which makes it all the more fascinating. There's also some pretty hard and plausible science here which really adds to the plot. This is set in the same universe as a couple of other books, but there are many new ideas here. It's not just about ideas though as the characters are well drawn too.
    • 4/5
      Khouri broke the silence, unable to wait any longer. ‘What is it, Ilia? Good news or bad?’‘Knowing my track record, what do you think?’‘A wild stab in the dark? Bad news. Very bad news indeed.’‘Got it in one.’‘It’s the Inhibitors, isn’t it?’‘Sorry to be so predictable, but there you are.’‘They’re here?’‘I think so.’ Volyova’s voice had dropped low now. ‘Something is happening, anyway. I’ve seen it myself.’‘Tell me about it.’Volyova’s voice, if anything, became quieter still. Khouri had to strain to hear it. ‘Machines, Ana, huge black machines. They’ve entered the system. I never saw them actually arrive. They were just … here.’Khouri had tasted the minds of those machines briefly, feeling the furious predatory chill of ancient recordings. They were like the minds of pack animals, ancient and patient and drawn to the dark. Their minds were mazes of instinct and hungry intelligence, utterly unencumbered by sympathy or emotion. They howled across the silent steppes of the galaxy to each other, summoning themselves in great numbers when the bloody stench of life again troubled their wintry sleep.‘Dear God.’‘We can’t say we weren’t expecting them, Ana. From the moment Sylveste started fiddling around with things he didn’t understand, it was only a matter of when and where.’This is basically a sequel to ""Revelation Space", although there are also references to the events of "Chasm CIty". Ilia Volyova and Ana Khouri are still in the Delta Pavonis system , keeping an eye on the Inhibitors and planning how to use the hell weapons against them, while also making plans for the evacuation of Resurgam. But the Conjoiners have also found out about the Inhibitors, who they call Wolves, and want their hell weapons back to use against them, so the scene is set for conflict.Since all factions are limited to sub light speed travel, the book really gives you a feeling of just how large the distances are, and the long timescale involved in travelling between solar systems. When Clavain is chasing Skade's ship towards Resurgam, they each have years to try to destroy the other's ship, or at least damage it enough to prevent it from reaching their destination.After various angst-ridden wrongdoers gain redemption, the story ends quite abruptly, with Clavin waking from suspended animation and being given a quick recap of all the exciting things that have happened while he was asleep, giving the impression that the author got carried away by his love of car spaceship chases and didn't have time to fit everything else in. But it leaves plenty of scope for another sequel, with Khouri leading a on a mission to the neutron star to consult Dan Sylveste about how to fight the Inhibitors,while Clavian and the others land on a planet to wait for their return in twenty years' time.
    • 5/5
      A great book. I have to say though that I preferred Chasm City and Revolution space 1 slightly more. It is essentially a carry on from Revolution Space, filling in much of details but it lacks some of the action and excitement of Chasm City, and some of the originality of Revelation Space.
    • 3/5
      This continuation of the story begun in Revelation Space meets up with some familiar characters but also brings in new ones. Probably too many new ones, really. I enjoyed the story but my main complaint is that it was just too long. It was needlessly complicated by the multiple viewpoints of all the characters. The invented universe is clever and novel, and I wish more of the book was used to explore that universe.
    • 5/5
      Part of the author's Revelation Space series, this book is set approximately 600 years from now, after mankind has started to spread throughout the galaxy.Human activities have attracted the attention of the Inhibitors, alien machines whose mission seems to be the elimination of all intelligent life. They have come to the star Delta Pavonis, home to the planet Resurgam, populated by over 200,000 people. The Inhibitors start to systematically take apart the system's gas giant, plus several of its moons, in order to build an immense device of unknown capability (imagine if Jupiter and several of its moons were systematically taken apart, and a growing alien device could be seen every night in the sky). What ever it is, it's not good for the people of Resurgam.An attempt is made to evacuate the people of Resurgam, a few hundred at a time, onto a ship called Nostalgia for Infinity, to take them to another system. Years ago, the ship's captain, John Brannigan, became a victim of the Melding Plague. He was put into cryogenic sleep to try to slow the effects of the plague; it did not work for long. Now, Captain Brannigan has become the ship.The ship also contains a number of huge cache weapons, some of which can be measured in kilometers. They are the only thing which can possibly stop the Inhibitors; they are not called "hell-class weapons" for nothing. Several factions want those weapons for their own purposes, including a renegade named Clavain. The weapons themselves may have other ideas. If the Inhibitors are not stopped now, it won't take long, in cosmic terms, for them to find Earth.This is a wonderful piece of writing. Normally, I would look at a 700-page paperback book and say No Thanks; not when Alastair Reynolds is the author. He does a fine job from start to finish, writing on a grand millions-of-years scale. For those who like mind-blowing storytelling, this is very much recommended.
    • 5/5
      This was a great book if you are into space opera and high adventure between the stars. The book is long and is part of a triliogy in which each book is just as thick. definitley not lite reading but you might not notice the pages flying when the story picks. I'm ready for the next one to find out how clavins adventures end. m.a.c
    • 5/5
      Wow, where do I start? This book was an incredible journey.According to Reynolds' website, this is the second book of the Revelation Space series, with Chasm City being a separate, stand-alone novel you can read any time. However, I would strongly suggest reading it in between Revelation Space and Redemption Ark. There are people and happenings that you will understand better if you read Chasm City first.In any case, Redemption Ark is the next piece of the story. The Conjoiners are seeking the hell-class weapons that were stolen by the Ultras and placed onboard Nostalgia for Infinity, their lighthugger vessel. Much more is explained about the Conjoiners and where they came from. One of the main characters, Nevil Clavain, is a conjoiner with some special history, being one of the first. When Galiana, the founder of the Conjoiners and Clavain's lover, returns from a deep space mission as the only surviving member of the expedition, the other Conjoiners find she's been infected by "the Wolf"--an ancient race of robots that are also known as the Inhibitors. Their sole mission is to seek out and repress the emergence of intelligent, space-faring life.The Conjoiners are seeking their stolen hell-class weapons, and know that they are on board the Nostalgia for Infinity. They prepare to launch a mission to reclaim them with Clavain at the head. Clavain, after being introduced to some Conjoiner secrets and new technology, realizes that the other Conjoiners are preparing a mass exodus from human space and away from the Inhibitors, whom they know will be arriving soon. They plan on leaving without telling anyone, or even warning them of the dangers to come. Clavain immediately defects, realizing that the Conjoiners, or at least their current leadership, has evolved into something different than what they used to be. Clavain meets several other people on his way to turn himself and knowledge of the new Conjoiner technology of inertial suppression over to the authorities, but is captured by a man called 'H' (Sky Haussmann from the Chasm City story). H sends him on basically the same mission the Conjoiners would have, but to keep the weapons under the control of someone that would use them for the good of everyone.At first I thought the Inhibitors were just a clone of Saberhagen's Berserkers, machines programmed to eliminate life where ever it is found, but as the story progressed I realized there were several key differences which made them unique. Reynolds explains the Fermi paradox (without calling it that) and how the Inhibitors are responsible for culling the emerging intelligent races throughout the universe. We also find the reason behind it--the galactic collision between our galaxy and the Andromeda galaxy 13 billion years in the future.Unfortunately, the Inhibitors have already arrived at Delta Pavonis, the system where the Nostalgia for Infinity is located. They destroy several uninhabited worlds for the raw materials to build a giant gravitational laser that will cause the star to burn the remaining planets of the Delta Pavonis system. Clavain is now in a much trickier situation, between the Inhibitors, the evacuation of 200,000 people from Resurgam, and the recapturing of the of the stolen hell-class weapons.It was a fun ride, and Reynolds is a great science ficiton author. I didn't find any explanations of scientific things too far above my head nor so detailed that it wasn't fun to read. There was just enough explanation to make everything plausible. I find it hard to believe that others have rated this book anything under 3 stars.
    • 3/5
      Slow, full of symbols and second meaning, predictable, rather weak ending. It obviously sets the stage for the third novell [Absolution Gap]. The description of the Inhibitors machinery and industry is nice but not very convincing. Even Reynolds, an astrophysicist, has to ressort to fuzzy concepts to be able to explain the sheer size of the artifacts (which should normally crumble under their own gravity).The message of the title is rammed home on various levels and story arcs, too much for my taste in a sf-novel which I rather expect to be entertaining than instructive.Still good enough for me to give the third book a try.
    • 4/5
      Trangenic pigs, people with lots of little machines in side them and god alone knows what else! Masterful
    • 3/5
      The Cojoiners and Demarchists are slugging their way to the conclusion of a long war when the Cojoiners learn of a threat to all humanity. Machines called the Inhibitors are approaching from the dark reaches of space, intent on wiping out space-faring life. The Cojoiners make plans to protect themselves by launching a mission to retrieve a long-lost cache of hellish weapons. But one of their military experts, Clavain, believes that all of humanity deserves to know about the threat. Clavain launches his own operation to retrieve the weapons and is soon in a desperate race against his former allies.But it's not going to be a simple race - the weapons are being held in the Delta Pavonis system by the damaged ship Nostalgia for Infinity. The dread machines are already there and are in the process of taking apart the entire system. The much-reduced crew of the ship is working on a plan to evacuate the planet before the Inhibitors can complete their work, a plan that includes their own use of the powerful weapons.Although it's not immediately obvious, Redemption Ark is a sequel to Reynolds's first novel, Revelation Space. A dark space opera with a grand scale and realistic science, the book has an interesting film-noir feel. None of the characters are entirely sympathetic and this future is definitely not a shiny feel-good place. However, it is full of fascinating technology and interesting people. The characterization is fairly good - definitely more than one-dimensional, although sometimes the motivations seem a little off.Redemption Ark suffers a bit from middle-book malady. While it's action packed and chock full of challenging concepts, the ending is disappointing - it feels rushed, nothing is really resolved, and you?re stuck waiting for the next book. There are also several points where the book builds up to what should be frenzied action sequences and then instead of the actual action, you get a passive recap that throws a wrench into the pacing. However, I do like the universe that Reynolds has created and I'm looking forward to the sequel.3 Stars
    • 5/5
      With this complex, thoughtful sequel to his highly praised Revelation Space (2001), British author Reynolds confirms his place among the leaders of the hard-science space-opera renaissance. Spreading from star to star, humanity has split into different, competing factions. Late in the 26th century, the group-mind Conjoiners are defeating their main rivals, the Demarchists. Unfortunately, the Conjoiners' space exploration has attracted the notice of an ancient swarm of machines that calls itself the Inhibitors and that exists to destroy all biological intelligence. The Conjoiners don't believe they can fight this new foe, so they intend to run away and let the Inhibitors wipe out the other human tribes. One Conjoiner warrior, the centuries-old Clavain, rebels against this heartless tactic, but he must negotiate with a fragmented, distrustful mob of possible allies while pursued by his former cohorts. The novel forces readers to process an outrageous amount of information-but that's only fair, since the characters are challenged to do the same. As they extend themselves outward, they also have a chance to gain more understanding of themselves as human beings and more ability to interact meaningfully. It's rare to find a writer with sufficient nerve and stamina to write novels that are big enough to justify using words like "revelation" and "redemption." Reynolds pulls it off