Unlike most of his space opera novels, Pushing Ice is set in a different universe than the one of the Inhibitors. This gives Reynolds the freedom of a new history and new ideas, but he keeps the high speed but not FTL travel that is a hallmark of much of his space opera.

The story begins as a frame story set some thousands of years in the future, on a distant planet. The polity gathered there have done so to honor the person they consider responsible for the existence of their civilization and progress, and a debate is to be had on just what is to be done to honor her.

The story then cuts back to that founder's story, in the 21st century solar system. Bella Lind operates the Rockhopper, a ship designed to mine comets for ice in the outer solar system. Its not the easiest work and job out there. And when the Saturnian moon Janus suddenly starts acting more like a high speed alien spacecraft than a moon, the Rockhopper is dispatched to try and rendevous with it before the moon leaves the solar system. However, events conspire so that the Rockhopper is caught and trapped in the moon's wake, for a long journey in store to the star Spica...

Interesting and plausible factions aboard the rockhopper. Neat use of technology of medium-term human, far-future human, and alien technology. There are even multiple BDO (Big Dumb Objects), with Janus, and the strange complex at Spica that the moon speeds toward. It's a classic space opera part with 21st century sensibilities, and Reynolds works hard to make it work.

Sure, his characterization skills aren't as strong as some authors, but Reynolds doesn't make them into complete cardboard cutouts--characters simply aren't his forte. (I can sympathize, believe me!) Reynolds does much better when he is playing with technology and ideas than with the faction leaders Bella and Svetlana, but one must admit that if this novel was written 20 or 30 years ago, its dead certain that these two characters would have been unavoidably male. I don't think that, even then, the characterization would have improved. The female characters never feel like they are "men in drag".

Still, sometimes for a F&SF reader, nothing less than space opera will do, and despite its relatively shallow faults, I was thoroughly and completely entertained and satisfied with the journey of the Rockhopper and its crew in Pushing Ice. Fans of Reynolds will enjoy this novel. If you haven't tried any of his Inhibitor novels, Pushing Ice works very well as a standalone introduction to Reynolds work and style. ( )

I really liked this one. One of those big idea books which I tend to like. ( )

This books was ALMOST good in so many different ways, but there seemed to be to much going on and to many different ideas that none of them ever received the time to be finished. Sometimes the author seemed to be setting things up for a big surprise or try misleading you down a wrong path but they always felt like half hearted attempts, like "Ignore the man behind the curtain".

The book also had 3 different possible plots it could have followed and made a decent story of any of them but all three were kind of messed together to get the story where he wanted it to be. There was plenty of cool ideas and it was a fun read.

Janus, one of the duel moons of Saturn, one day leaves it's orbit and starts moving itself out of the solar system. After a little bit it is obvious that is it moving under it's own power and is actually an alien spacecraft. A working ship mining ice asteroids is asked to go check it out as much as possible before it leaves the solar system. The ships crew gets more than they ever imagined. ( )

In the middle of the 21st century, one of Saturn's moons leaves its orbit and starts heading out of the Solar System in the direction of Spica, obviously under power. Only one ship full of comet-herders has any chance of making rendezvous with the "moon" now revealed as an alien spacecraft. But not all of the ice-pushers want to trade in their reliable jobs for an encounter with the unknown... and then things get even more complicated.

This one was a page-turner that kept me up late at night; normally, when a story goes into fast forward and a decade passes between chapters, I get detached, but Reynolds kept me wondering "what happens next?" ( )

I've wanted to try Alastair Reynolds for a while, but was a little turned off by the 'space opera' tag that his Revelation Space work is often saddled with. I was happy then to read the synopsis for Pushing Ice. A stand alone book set in the near future? An encounter with an alien artifact? Sign me up! I went into the book expecting something along the lines of The Abyss in space. What I got was something totally different. Grander and much, much better than I was expecting.

I do have to say, Pushing Ice took me nearly a month to read. At first I think I was slightly put off by the style of the book. I wasn't too sure what to make of Alastair Reynold's writing. I was used to hard sci-fi in the vein of Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter. Periodic info-dumps and somewhat bland characters. Mr. Reynolds' style is much different than that, though I can't say I like it more. I happen to enjoy the info dumps and since the 'stars' of hard sci-fi tend to be scientists and astronauts, bland characters seem very true to life. It must be said though that he is a better writer. The information and science was much more naturally blended into the story and the lead characters were fleshed out three dimensional people that you could cheer for and even grow frustrated with. The group dynamics of the main characters were complicated and messy and realistic.

On the downside, sometimes his description was lacking. I was never quite sure what Rockhopper looked like and had to keep checking the illustration on the cover. Also, as I mentioned, the info dumps are more woven into the narrative, but there were times when it felt like it was given a little too late. The forge vat for instance is introduced and made such a big deal of, yet he took quite a while to explain what it actually did (and how it did it).

I usually give a general summary of the book in my reviews, but here I feel that doing that may ruin some of the mind boggling sense of discovery that was such a big part of my enjoyment of the book. I will say that the synopsis on the back of the book is really only the beginning of the story. Bella and the Rockhopper crew are chasing after the rogue ice moon within the first couple of hundred pages. What happens after that... you'll have to read it to find out. I would recommend this book. It does what I want my sci-fi to do, making a playground of science and blowing your mind with the possibilities while showing you a world unlike any you could imagine. I am going to have to try Alastair Reynold's Revelation Space series. ( )