Revelation Space

I really wanted to like this book much more than I do - I've read much praise for the author and the series. It has all the right elements to be a good book in theory - an intriguing and well thought out plot, interesting characters, a great pace etc. But in practice it just didn't work for me for a variety of reasons.

The biggest problem I had was with the exposition - the author deliberately withheld key information, privy to the characters we were following, for the vast majority of the book just for a final reveal at the end. It was an annoying trick and he did it not once but twice - it was blatantly obvious, jarring and very frustrating. Other completely obvious plot elements were also held back and revealed as if they should be some kind of surprise - these were not and they just added to the sense of frustration.

Add to that some dodgy characterisation - the characters have interesting histories and motivations but some of them were surprisingly bland. The narrative told us that certain characters were perceived in certain ways but this just didn't come across well in the actual story - a supposedly dangerous villain, an egomaniac and a complex soldier character all came across as surprisingly one dimensional and uninteresting. The narratives purported perception of them by other characters seemed at odds with my understanding of them as a reader.

Finally the ending felt very rushed; surprisingly for a long book which had been doing a good job of building to a big climax despite its other flaws. The author even threw in a huge deus ex machina plot element in the final few chapters which really undermined the hard work put in. The excellent back story and clever overall plot were sadly let down by this - the crux of the ending was actually superb but it was let down by these unnecessary elements and the afore mentioned deliberate omissions of plot details. The deus ex machina could have been completely omitted and the ending would actually have had more impact.

Overall its far from a bad book, but it could have been so much better and it is this that has left a slightly bitter after taste. I actually bought the whole series as it was on offer - I will read the next book and don't regret buying the lot, but my expectations have been lowered somewhat. Its a shame - its a clever book with good pace and decent prose, but its faults don't allow those achievements to shine as they should. Worth reading but don't expect a great book.

GoodReads recommendation engine has been suggesting Alastair Reynold's Revelation Space to me for a couple of years now and it's not hard to see why, after all it's epic scaled science fiction written by a British author, and that is kind of my thing. Well it finally made it to the top of my to read pile and I'm glad it did. While it starts slow by the end it's gripping stuff.

So What's It All About?

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 irrecoverably altered…

Slow and Confusing Start

Revelation Space didn't get off to the best of starts. The early chapters were quite slow moving and the disparate characters and timelines made it hard to keep track of exactly who was where and why.

To make matters worse Dan Sylveste spends the first half of the book essentially reacting to things and in many cases the major events happen off-stage and are simply related to us.

There's a reason for that as it turns out, which is that those major events maybe aren't so major in the end, but we don't know that while we're reading so it's a bit off-putting that all the action seems to be happening elsewhere.

A Slowly Tightening Noose

Once the threads of the story come together though things change. The pace gradually increases, the number of characters and locations shrink and as this happens there's a palpable change in the level of tension and paranoia as this group of manipulative and frequently unlikable people find their options ever more limited.

It becomes clear that someone, or something is directing their actions and it seems that no matter what steps they take it always ends up in the best interests of the alien entity. The final sections of the book are a strange mix of Alien and 2001 as the group find themselves simultaneously hunted and exposed to alien artifacts beyond their understanding.

They're Not Very Nice Are They?

In truth they aren't a particularly nice bunch. The most compassionate of the viewpoint characters is after all a hired assassin and the point is made that some of them have developed themselves to the extent they are barely human, even the ordinary humans are strangely muted in their empathy.

One of the many topics that Reynolds touches on in the book is the notion of body augmentation and what that might do to people. In some cases it is relatively minor tweaks like Sylveste's electronic eyes, but at the extreme end there is the Captain who is slowly succumbing to a virus that has mutated his largely mechanical body.

What is Human?

Although he does not flat out ask the question, Reynolds certainly poses it. We are presented with body augmentation, artificial intelligence, the imposing of mind patterns on another's brain and even cloning is mentioned.

This is a society where certain fundamental understandings about what a human being is really no longer apply and that affects how people behave.

But What About?

There are a lot of dangling plot elements in Revelation Space. A lot of the stuff and some of the people we are focused on early in the book essentially fade into the background as the true scope of the peril becomes clear. Normally I might find that quite frustrating, but Reynolds handles it cleverly.

The tradeoff is that some of those early chapters are a bit of a slog, but if you can hang in there until you see the larger picture, it will pay off. And those dangling plots suddenly don't seem that important, not when you're dealing with something this grandiose and immediately life threatening.

Did You Like It?

Yes I really enjoyed it once the scope narrowed down to the ship and its small crew. From about half way on the tension just kept ratcheting up.

Buy, Borrow or Skip?

This one gets a buy from me.