Aurora Rising
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4.3 • 115 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Award-winning author Alastair Reynolds creates "a fascinating hybrid of space opera, police procedural and character study" (Publishers Weekly) with this novel set in the Revelation Space universe.
Tom Dreyfus is a Prefect, a law enforcement officer with the Panoply. His beat is the Glitter Band, that vast swirl of space habitats orbiting the planet Yellowstone, the teeming hub of a human interstellar empire spanning many worlds.
His current case: investigating a murderous attack against one of the habitats that leaves nine hundred people dead. But his investigation uncovers something far more serious than mass slaughter -- a covert plot by an enigmatic entity who seeks nothing less than total control of the Glitter Band.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The seventh novel set in Reynolds's Revelation Space milieu (most recently encountered in his 2007 collection Galactic North) is a fascinating hybrid of space opera, police procedural and character study. One of the 10,000 colony habitats of the utopian Glitter Band has been destroyed, and title character Tom Dreyfus, a cop who patrols the Glitter Band beat, is assigned to learn whodunit and why. Meanwhile, his prot g , Thalia Ng, shepherds a supposedly minor series of software upgrades on several other habitats, while Dreyfus's superiors oust their leader, ostensibly for her own good. Reynolds unfolds revelations layer by onionskin layer, supplying enough detail to imply a novel's worth of unwritten backstory without ever obscuring the stakes and personalities. The high-quality characterization more than compensates for the slightly too shadowy villains. This is solid British SF adventure, evoking echoes of le Carr and Sayers with a liberal dash of Doctor Who.
Customer Reviews
A sleuthy who-dunnit in space
In a future where justice is swift and cruel, you’ll find a thick plot of demi-godlike Artificial Intelligence, the sinister Clockmaker and a deadly Scarab. Within it all, the very human Prefect Dreyfus, the classic detective too good for his own good.
In this future, humans practice a level of abstraction, disassociating themselves from reality and self, in sick, but playful habitats. Each habitat looks down on the other with judgement, their version of abstraction apparently wrong to the point of being immoral. For the heaviness of its social commentary, the book keeps a light playful tone. A woman who has had her legs replaced with a tail, keeps them around as a roving waitress with nothing but a cocktail tray above the hips. Some abstractions are surgical, others merely an advanced form of augmented reality. Bandwidth is a most precious commodity, who cares if you need to lob off a few limbs to save on resources.
While some of the absurdities humanity and the human-like go to can become a little over the top, for the most part, the author does a good job of dancing the line between keeping a smile on your face and dipping his toe into the dark waters of detective noir.
I think my only major criticism of the book is a very long — and ambitious — climax. By just halfway through the book, all the plot lines have arrived at the big reveal. The rest of the book includes a lot of handwringing and stoic grandstanding. It is almost over-explained. However, compared to the abundance of awesome, it seems like a small criticism.
What I like most about the book, is that the density of subterfuge and fun eccentricities keeps you on your toes as a reader and involves a very satisfying conclusion. The rigid stoicism toward the end, begins to get tiresome. I’d give the first half of the book 5 stars, the second half 3.5 stars. But no matter what, the book is a very good read and a remarkable accomplishment.
Another great one!
Outstanding as always.
Excellent
Excellent