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. ( )

Classic Alastair Reynolds great book

Brilliant new line of characters and narrative... the Lines. Cloned dynasties. Will be interesting to see where this leads to. ( )

As ever, Reynolds excels when it comes to the big picture - great ideas thrown across a canvas the size of the universe and the depth of millions of years. This book has some very cool ideas - where it is flawed is in the pace and depth of the narrative. [Warning: Spoiler] For a book that throws around so many mind-expanding images and themes and is about a 'line' of clones that have made it their business to explore the galaxy for six million years, too much time is spent sitting around on one planet (which curiously enough for a planet chosen at random just happens to be the planet that hosts the one being able to resolve a galactic crisis.)

Good, as most Reynolds is, but not his best. ( )

Majorly let down by the ending, which is missing perhaps one more chapter.

Purslane and Campion are consorting shatterlings from the Line of the House of Flowers. Which probably tells you all you need to know about this tale. At heart it;s a romance amoung the starts as a pair of lovers are parted, and seek to rejoin each other. Of course not many love tales feature intelligent space ships some 16 million years in the future, or a peril facing the entire Milky Way, but then Reynolds is no ordinary romance writer.

In alternating chapters we follow Purslane and Campion as they interact with the other Flowers of their house, running late for a grand re-union of all their tales from them adventures in this circuit of the galaxy, they stop off to upgrade their ships and pick up Hersperus - a Machine Person. When tratgedy strikes, they realise that the oft-times aloof Machine people will be deeply involved in determining the fate of all mankind, Lines and turnover civilisations.

Reynolds is a world / universe builder of highest renoun, and this is no exception. A great idea the 'shattering' of one person into a 1000 clones and their expansion and investigation of the galaxy, and as a physics doctorate, his understadning of deep time works well too. But as a work it's not entirely without faults. The constant changing of View between Campion and Purslane is frequently distracting, especially when one fades into sleep/stasis and the other resumes the story. The other big problem he has, is introducing too many ideas, and not resolving them all. This has happened with some of his other works, and is again the major drawback of this one. Ideas which seem vitally connected to the underlying story just get left.

Overall though it is a fascinating tour through the deepest parts of the galaxy with some great concepts, ideas and characters. It just needs that little bit more work to turn it into something truly great.

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http://tamaranth.blogspot.com/2009/04... ( )

Perhaps Reynolds' least successful novel. That, however, is relative, as it is still better than most.

There are two plot strands in this novel, one showing the young Abigail and how the technology and decision to scatter thousands of clones of a particular person across the galaxy to explore and periodically reunite. Functionally immortal and able to travel at almost the speed of light these travels cover large distances and huge amounts of time, such that being 'late for a reunion' can be measured in decades.

The second and more important is far in the future, and a particular pair of Shatterlings from one particular origin - The Gentian Line. They have a big problem, as they are ambushed at their latest gathering, and need to find out why. This part is where Reynolds runs into trouble a little, and is a bit bloated - his penchant for mysteries perhaps getting away with him, drawing out an interrogation and gathering and scene setting middle section of the book too much, without the sharply delineated characters to make this a bit more interesting. They are all clones, after all.

Although this is a different milieu to Revelation Space - you get a bit of this horror feel with the sectioning interrogation.

Once you are past that, you get a space chase that gets a little bit Edmond Hamilton perhaps. Then you have the good, wild Reynolds, strange entities, enigmatic machine life, and astronomical revelations. This does redeem the draggy middle as it ups the ante.

Call this one a 3.75, a fine start, a fine end, but just a bit above average middle.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2008/09... ( )

I could not put this book down. I glutted myself on this example of high concept space opera. Alastair Reynolds is without doubt one of the top authors of this genre. ( )

New book, and lived up to my expectations! This man is so clever, I don't know how he can be so precise with his science and yet still be so lucky to have such an incredible imagination. It definitely isn't fair.

For the first time Reynolds has seriously approached the subject of AI, and has done so with his usual massive scale epic adventure. He has managed to give us an original tale which blows the mind with the references to huge timescales. This is my favourite type of sci-fi and I will always be a massive fan of Reynolds and am glad he has returned to good form after a couple of brilliant but less powerful books. ( )

http://www.fascinationplace.org/2008/... ( )

Reynolds paints on a giant canvass. One that traverses entire galaxies and spans millions of years.

In his latest book he focuses on cloned humans who live for thousands of years wandering the galaxy gathering information only coming together to share this knowledge at reunions.

Someone has tried to wipe out the Gentian line, thousands of clones that have decended from Abigail Gentian, at their reunion.

Two of the line Campion and Purslane were decades late and with an amnesiac member of the machine people in tow set out to find out who is responsible.

The big picture ideas are where Reynolds excels, the universe, the science, Dyson spheres, cloning, intelligent robots, immortality, matter replicators, damming stars etc. However, the individual aspects are less successful. Characterisations blur into each other that it is sometime difficult to tell if it is Purslane or Campion narrating (Although you could argue this is on purpose as they are clones).

There were ideas that felt under used and I hoped for more. The Vigilence in particular, although the ending felt a little abrupt and left you desperatly wanting to know what happens next. (Sequel please)

Overall though it was an interesting idea, well told that even with the small niggles I still really enjoyed it. ( )

The latest in a series of consistently outstanding SF novels from Alastair Reynolds. I enjoyed this one a lot. ( )