Revelation Space
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4.2 • 165 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
This highly acclaimed first novel in the Revelation Space universe has redefined the space opera with a staggering journey across vast gulfs of time and space to confront the very nature of reality itself . . .
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 . . .
"[A] tour de force... Ravishingly inventive." -- Publishers Weekly
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This distant-past/far-future, hard sci-fi tour de force probes a galaxy-wide enigma: why does spacefaring humanity encounter so few remnants of intelligent life? Excavating the 900,000-year-old Amarantin civilization on its home world, Resurgam, archaeologist Dan Sylveste discovers evidence of a splinter cult that abandoned Resurgam for the stars but returned, only to be swallowed up by a mysterious cataclysm that destroyed all the Amarantins. Aboard the Nostalgia for Infinity, a vast light-hugger ship in interstellar space, the ominous Triumvirate of cyborg starfarers seeks Sylveste to heal its captain, afflicted by the deadly Melding Plague, which turns once-humans into their own semisentient spaceships. In Chasm City on the slum-ridden world of Yellowstone, assassin Ana Khouri joins the Nostalgia's crew intent on killing Sylveste. Clearly intoxicated by cutting-edge scientific research in bioengineering, space physics, cybernetics Reynolds spins a ravishingly inventive tale of intrigue. Hard SF addicts will applaud the author's talent for creating convincing alien beings and the often uneasy merging of human and machine intelligence, depicted here as nearly too frighteningly real for comfort. Others, however, may find these human-cybernetic hybrid characters chilling, dispassionate (except for their built-in drives toward revenge and murder) and foreboding. Reynolds's vision of a future dominated by artificial intelligence trembles with the ultimate cold of the dark between the stars.
Customer Reviews
The Beginning of the Revelation Space Series
“Revelation Space” is a novel by noted author Alastair Reynolds. It was published in 2000, and begins a series of three novels known as the Inhibitor Trilogy. It is also the first work in his larger Revelation Space Series.
The book would have to be considered space opera, and is set in the far future. There are colonized star systems, in spite of humanity never having developed faster than light travel. Nanotechnology and other advanced materials are commonplace. The remains of civilizations of other alien species have been found, but only the Pattern Jugglers and Shrouders appear as extant species. Both are enigmatic, and entirely dissimilar to humanity.
This novel begins with three narratives, the first involves Dan Sylveste, who is an archaeologist studying an extinct civilization on the planet Resurgam. The second involves Ilia Volyova aboard the Nostalgia for Infinity, a starship which can accelerate to near lightspeed. The third focuses on Ana Khouri, a soldier who we encounter on the planet Yellowstone. These three stories come together in the Delta Pavonis system.
This is one of those novels where the author just throws you into the universe and allows you to discover what’s going on as the narrative progresses. I found that the beginning of the novel was interesting, but I sort of lost steam in the middle of the book. However, I powered through and found the ending to be both interesting and exciting. I’m definitely going to try out the second novel “Redemption Ark.”
Great hard-science fiction
Very reminiscent of Adrian Tchaikovsky’s work - which his why I got it, and plan to continue reading Reynolds books, this one is quite good. My only complaint is the way names are handled - for someone like me who isn’t good with names, it can be difficult to follow characters until you’re well into the book. Using sometimes first, sometimes last names, 3 main characters with the same last name, titles sometimes used alone, or group names, it can be confusing.
Great book!
Enjoyed the world building and way the author connected all the pieces together. I’ve read a lot of different science fiction books and I believe this is worth the time. Very interesting story but also a lot of good science.