Alastair Reynolds: Inhibitor Phase (2021, Orion Publishing Group, Limited)
English language
Published Nov. 19, 2021 by Orion Publishing Group, Limited.
Overly long, convoluted and populated by characters best left dead.
I was quite intrigued to revisit the Revelation Space universe. This rambling, largely pointless story felt tired. The characterisation was thin throughout. The ending was disappointing for its lack of resolution. A real shame.
Content warning Spoiler warning
Reynolds always seems to incorporate new concepts in each new books. This time it involves identity again, just like Chasm City but in a different perspective.
Set some tens of years after the event of Hela in Absolution Gap, it begins in a somber tone when the Inhibitors have managed to reduce humanity to the fringe of space where threat of extinction loomed wide.
The journey of Clavain and Glass through space in search of a fabled weapon able to beat the Inhibitors back will took them to several worlds.
The story pace is actually quite slow (discounting the interstellar journey which took decades), compared to the previous books. It is easier to digest than the three separate stories as seen in Absolution Gap. A good spot in my opinion, though honestly i'm not picky with my taste of good books.
Highly recommended if you have been through the whole series. Surprisingly, i will still recommend them to new readers, since it is not heavy on reference from previous books.
I really do like the continuation of Revelation Space! There is some of that grand scale of things still in there. But the dialogue, and the way the characters interact (and forgive?!) each other just feels off. Like canny valley. And that’s by an already lower threshold I set for sci-fi. My memories of previous instalments is far more favourable than my experience with this book. A bit of a let down. Ro summarise: it’s good, just not really good.
Read this if you are already invested in Revelation Space series.
Good:
Familiar characters & locations show up.
Ties to the war on Mars, which is one of my favorite parts of the lore.
Story beats reminded me of a Culture series novel.
Bad:
Drawn-out midsection, rushed & unnecessarily complicated ending.
Aliens end up feeling mundane.
Not a viable entry point into the series, despite being advertised as standalone.
As one of Alastair Reynolds's more sarcastic characters, such as Scorpio the Hyperpig - or Triumvir Ilia Volyova - might say, 'you don't read Alastair Reynolds for the breakneck, frenetic pacing.' His dialogue also tends towards the wordy. But you do read Alastair Reynolds for the jaw-dropping concepts.
In the case of Inhibitor Phase, the title promises to bring some kind of significant event - or maybe even a denouement - to this cosmic scourge, which is a huge drawcard. The Inhibitors emerged as the main protagonists of Reynolds's Revelation Space Trilogy, sort of like souped-up versions of Fred Saberhagen's Berserkers or the Doomsday Machine from the Star Trek TOS episode of the same name.
The story starts promisingly enough with an unexpected visitor to a colony in hiding from the Inhibitor machines and a tense negotiation for one of the colonists to take a trip to find a …
As one of Alastair Reynolds's more sarcastic characters, such as Scorpio the Hyperpig - or Triumvir Ilia Volyova - might say, 'you don't read Alastair Reynolds for the breakneck, frenetic pacing.' His dialogue also tends towards the wordy. But you do read Alastair Reynolds for the jaw-dropping concepts.
In the case of Inhibitor Phase, the title promises to bring some kind of significant event - or maybe even a denouement - to this cosmic scourge, which is a huge drawcard. The Inhibitors emerged as the main protagonists of Reynolds's Revelation Space Trilogy, sort of like souped-up versions of Fred Saberhagen's Berserkers or the Doomsday Machine from the Star Trek TOS episode of the same name.
The story starts promisingly enough with an unexpected visitor to a colony in hiding from the Inhibitor machines and a tense negotiation for one of the colonists to take a trip to find a possible weapon against them. There's also a nice 'memory story' that is returned to frequently by one of the characters when they enter hypersleep, which is very entertaining (and more action-packed).
The main story then settles into a sort of 'greatest hits' tour where the ship visits places and people familiar to readers of the original trilogy and has a bit of a run in with the Inhibitors on the way. But after that, the assembled group of travellers moves to another familiar planet and the clear and present threat from the Inhibitors falls to zero, which - coupled with the aforementioned lack of pace - means the story is robbed of all tension. There are also a hell of a lot of coincidences that multiply to the point where you'd think the galaxy was no larger that a small English village. The main characters can't cough without running into an old acquaintance or a vital piece of information to help them find the maguffin that will - possibly - stop the Inhibitors.
They reach their destination and the descriptive passages get more and more detailed, slowing the plot even further until - finally - it's over. But if you thought it would deliver something definitive about the Inhibitor Phase, you'd be mistaken. This is not the end. It's not even the beginning of the end, but it may be etc. etc. There are some really fantastic ideas here. You just need to put up with the prose.
