In the early fourth millennium, humanity largely lives within the light-hour surrounding our own Sun, and a few wealthy tycoons take up galactic tourism: they clone themselves a thousand times (often with genetic variations, including gender), decanting their personality into each clone, and set out in a thousand ships to travel the galaxy at near-lightspeed, with plans to meet up later. As civilizations rise and fall across the galaxy, these “shatterlings” (with the assistance of technologies for suspended animation, life extension, and time dilation) see six million years pass, trading information and expertise to the worlds they visit.

The book has two parallel stories: a shorter one following the youth of Abigail Gentian, who grows up to spawn the thousand shatterlings called Gentian Line (or the House of Flowers, since all of them are named after flowers), and a larger one following the intertwined lives of two of her shatterlings, Campion and Purslane, who have broken the rules of their Line, fallen in love, and taken up traveling together. They arrive late at a scheduled reunion of the Line, fearing censure by their fellows, and discover that someone has attempted to wipe out the entire clan. Their challenge is to figure out who did it, and why— and to survive.

Reynolds does a good job of keeping the suspense high even as the action stretches over the decades and centuries of interstellar travel. The tale includes some reflections on recent events, including the fear of the Other and the erosion of morality in times of stress. The feel is very much in the New Space Opera style of his other works, but is not as dark as the tales in his Revelation Space universe. ( )

Six million years before the main story starts, Abigail Gentian, like other humans of the period known as the Golden Hour, duplicated her clone thousands of times and sent the 'shatterlings' out into the galaxy, at sublight speed, but preserved in slow time/stasis, to explore. One thread of the book relates Abigail's early life, as she gets involved in a fantasy game called Palatial, against an opponent of her own age, who plays her 'Dark Lord' foe.

The other thread, the main story, follows Purslane and Campion, two of Abigail's shatterlings, as they barter for knowledge and try to offload a difficult passenger, an aquatic being known as Dr Mennix, on their way to a re-union of the Gentian shatterlings, known collectively as the 'House of Flowers'. Chapter viewpoints alternate between the two clones, who are only identifiable when they name the other clone.

After an encounter with a rogue spaceship trader, Ashtega, they rescue a Machine Person (an intelligent robot), Hesperus, who has unusual memory gaps. We learn that there is a Void where the Andromeda galaxy should be, that an earlier super-race called the Priors disppeared after strewing the galaxy with incredible devices and that the Vigilance, a massive Dyson sphere inhabited by giant mutated humans who collect information, are interested by the deposit of a memory 'trove', that Campion traded with them.

The story wastes no time in kicking into high gear, as the two threads slowly combine into a complex web of crime and betrayal, based around the shadowy 'House of Suns'. The sense of of wonder never goes away, as yet more new technological wonders are unleashed, especially in the final denouement. In complete contrast, it seems as though the only thing that has not changed in six million years are people, as the adventures of Purslane and Campion are understandable in our terms. Amidst the mayhem, they are in love and have sex. While the people in it are somewhat ordinary this
novel succeeds spectacularly in being extra-ordinary in science-fictional terms. ( )

A great read, an exciting page-turner. It deals with an old and sophisticated galactic human culture -- somewhat similar to Iain M. Banks' Culture except for the interdependence on machine life. Machine life is central to the book however and like many science fiction novels, this one deals with the consequences of our attitudes to our created life. The central Machine Person character is Hesperus, who reminded me a little of Dan Simmons' John Keats cybrid in Fall of Hyperion. His friendship with the two Shatterlings who rescue him is the crux of the book. ( )

Starts brilliantly, with typical Reynolds flair - but then slows down in the middle for some (IMO) distracting whodunnit style shenanigans, and terminates in a rather unsatisfying and glib resolution, rather like Banks' "Algebraist". Still, the journey is as important as the destination, and some of the creatures and devices the author describes are typically wonderful creations that demonstrate the ingenious imagination behind this otherwise flat book. ( )

I've enjoyed Alastair Reynolds' previous novels in the universe of Revelation Space, so picked up this standalone novel out of curiosity, and I've really enjoyed it. I like the way the point of view alternates between two of the characters, with occasional interludes from their "ancestor" Abigail. I love the whole concept of the Shatterlings, a conceit to get around the limitations of slower-than-light travel. And it's interesting to see the difference between basically human viewpoints and the more alien machine intelligences. Good stuff, with a rollicking story thrown in to boot. Recommended to anyone who likes a good SF space travel yarn. ( )