- Hardcover: 480 pages
- Publisher: Ace Books (Jun 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0441008356
- ISBN-13: 978-0441008353
- Product Dimensions: 22.6 x 16.3 x 3.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (100 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 290,195 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Revelation Space
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
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 defences: "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 defences to challenge the Infinity's planet-wrecking superweapons.
At the heart of this artefact, 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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Amazon.co.uk Review
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 defences: "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 defences to challenge the Infinity's planet-wrecking superweapons.
At the heart of this artefact, 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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
41 of 43 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I'd heard this debut novel was similar to both Iain Banks' and Dan Simmons' universes, and I was pleased to note that this was true - though only on a surface level. There's a very strong sense that the author sees the novel form as a vehicle for exploring science fact. It isn't hard to accept that this man is a hard scientist in his actual life, and even easier to accept that he's a passionate man in his imagined one. I don't think I have ever read science fiction that marries 'hard' sci-fi with a convincing narrative quite so assuredly. I was initially gripped by the solidity of his universe, but as the manifold plot lines began to unfold that all seemed to take a background role to the lives and motivations of his characters. I was never less than completely engrossed, and I put this down to Reynolds' keen eye for what is actually interesting in the sci-fi form. The primary 'revelation' for this reader was Reynolds' ability to create a dystopian future that is, intrinsically new. From Lighthugger ships and their nauseatingly intimidating weapons, through to the stupendous alien artefact we come to see a central to the story, there is always an underlying sense of purpose and symmetry. If you've read Banks, Simmons, Hamilton or even Sagan (and were impressed) then buy this book. It is that rare thing: an original science fiction universe; one you recognise but have never visited. Hard science fiction for non-'hard' sci-fi fans.
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Alastair Reynolds has produced an amazing masterpiece (an incredible debut!) blending the extrapolations of hard science with unforgettable characters set in a possible and disturbing future five centuries from now. This is a thinking person's novel, not light reading to be finished overnight. The conceptions from nanotechnology, astrophysics, genetic engineering, and computer science will stimulate you and keep you thinking long after finishing the book. It is so well written, that despite its length I was left wishing it would continue for a few hundred pages more. The vast panorama of intergalactic history and conflict, spanning billions of years, and the original ideas the author presents establish him as one of the most powerful voices of modern science fiction, in the tradition of Arthur Clarke, A.E. van Vogt, Jack Williamson, and a very few others. Although the power of this novel emerges primarily from the dizzying vistas of the future and the alien artifacts and civilizations it paints in cataclysmic brush strokes, it also features outstanding characters not easily forgotten: Khouri, the soldier assassin, and Ilia Volyova, the dynamic Triumvir on the starship Infinity, are easily two of the strongest female characters in sf literature, and the pathos of Dan Sylveste will long linger in memory as well. This novel is a first rate masterpiece of the calibre of Clarke's CHILDHOOD'S END, Williamson & Gunn's STAR BRIDGE, and A.E. van Vogt's VOYAGE OF THE SPACE BEAGLE. Highly recommended!
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a fabulous and epic book that will keep you gripped to the excellent finale. The scope is impressive and Reynolds constantly keeps you on a cliffhanger, so every page is easy to turn. Despite it being a long novel, by the end I was wishing it to carry on as the history surrounding the world that Reynolds creates is never fully explained. The characters are perhaps a little uninspiring, with Sylveste being particularly obnoxious, arrogant and unlikeable, but it is the mystery of the universe created by Reynolds, and the fantastic scope that make this a great read.
Overall, although I'd say this was a very different book from Ian M Bank's first sci-fi novel, Consider Phlebas, I enjoyed it just as much, if not more and would recommend it despite a slow start-the book just gets better and more interesting the further you read.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
RS
Revelation Space takes a while to absorb (it's big), but it was well worth it. Mr Reynolds' writing can feel somewhat densely-packed - you have to absorb adjective after adjective... Read more
Published 8 days ago by CallumP
Clumsy Revelation
Revelation Space tells the story of several characters whose paths converge in a distant solar system at the site of a mysterious alien phenomenon. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Kublai Dom
Fantastic Sci-Fi universe
The thing I'm loving most about Alastair Reynolds books is the universe he sets them in, the sheer incredible scale of everything that he ties together both in terms of time and... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Daniel
An interesting insight into a possible future
Where to start?
This is a book of some complexity and enormous scale. It ranges from the sub-atomic to unbelievably large rents in space-time. Read more
This is a book of some complexity and enormous scale. It ranges from the sub-atomic to unbelievably large rents in space-time. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Susan
Currently my All Time Favourite Sci Fi Book
I wrote a Bad Review for Terminal World (the only book by Alastair that I haven't liked), so I thought I'd better say that if you enjoy Sci Fi, then this is a book not to miss. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Mr. A. Hirons
Awfully complex for the sake of it. Hard going Hard Sci-FI
If I had not been on holiday with all my other books read, I would have thrown this out and not finished it. I wish I had. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Fellwalker
Epic hard sci-fi
This book starts slow, but improves as the story progresses.
I found it quite difficult to read, and I needed to reference my dictionary of astronomy a few times for an... Read more
I found it quite difficult to read, and I needed to reference my dictionary of astronomy a few times for an... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Rob Allen
A revelation
I have a slightly strange relationship with this book. I originally got it in about 2001, when I was 15. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Rich McG
Excellent debut novel
Excellent debut from Reynolds. Very well written: info-dumping isn't too intrusive and episodes are short, keeping it extremely pacey. Read more
Published 16 months ago by jayemkay
Difficult start but really amazing read
I found this book quite hard going at first, a number of intertwined stories and lots of characters had me a little lost at first which is surprising as I never usually experience... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Deano
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