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Loading... Revelation Spaceby Alastair ReynoldsLibraryThing recommendationsMember recommendations
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. I'm torn by this book. On the positive side, it's a good story and an interesting universe. On the negative side, he write as if I'm an idiot - telling us the same thing in three or four different ways in the same paragraph and seeming to expect each time to be a revelation. Hint, if you call something a "cache-weapon" I already know it's a weapon. ( )Although the science and sheer epic stage this book revolves around is very interesting and imaginative, the over-written dialogue and descriptions of technologies, bantering between characters, and drawn out plot made this book drag for me. Finally, about page 600 or so it begins to explain things. It does make you wonder though. Why aren't there more known civilizations out there? Revelation Space presents one idea. I'll probably read the other 3 in the series. Take Pohl's Gateway books. Replace the pioneer society there with a decadent one. Add a dose of epicness and substantial pacing problems (think tv miniseries). Add some persistently intriguing characters, and you have Revelation Space. Although I found the storyline and technologies in this universe quite imaginative, at some point about a third into the novel, I couldn't help but feel that the haphazardly constructed dialogue and cookie-cutter tough guy/girl characters severely reduced the pleasure I had reading it. A few passages consisting of essentially objective descriptions of locations and creative technologies left me wanting more, but instead I ended up having to drag myself through the rather muddled and cliffhanger-ridden final two thirds. Some interesting thoughts about artificial intelligence, sadly few and far between. Still, I might end up reading some more novels by this guy. I needed a second reading to reaaly enjoy this book. Well worth the effort! 0.021 seconds to build listing no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Amazon.com's Best of 2001 (ISBN 0441009425, Paperback)Alastair Reynolds's first novel is "hard" SF on an epic scale, crammed with technological marvels and immensities. Its events take place over a relatively short period, but have roots a billion years old--when the Dawn War ravaged our galaxy.Sylveste is the only man ever to return alive and sane from a Shroud, an enclave in space protected by awesome gravity-warping defenses: "a folding a billion times less severe should have required more energy than was stored in the entire rest-mass of the galaxy." Now an intuition he doesn't understand makes him explore the dead world Resurgam, whose birdlike natives long ago tripped some booby trap that made their own sun erupt in a deadly flare. Meanwhile, the vast, decaying lightship Nostalgia for Infinity is coming for Sylveste, whose dead father (in AI simulation) could perhaps help the Captain, frozen near absolute zero yet still suffering monstrous transformation by nanotech plague. Most of Infinity's tiny crew have hidden agendas--Khouri the reluctant contract assassin believes she must kill Sylveste to save humanity--and there are two bodiless stowaways, one no longer human and one never human. Shocking truths emerge from bluff, betrayal, and ingenious lies. The trail leads to a neutron star where an orbiting alien construct has defenses to challenge the Infinity's planet-wrecking superweapons. At the heart of this artifact, the final revelations detonate--most satisfyingly. Dense with information and incident, this longish novel has no surplus fat and seems almost too short. A sparkling SF debut. --David Langford, Amazon.co.uk (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:24 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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