The Prefect [Hardcover]

"Combines space-roaming adventure with a solid detective story. Fast-paced and inventive, this may be Reynolds' best yet." (Lisa Tuttle THE TIMES )

"THE PREFECT is hugely entertaining and inventive, a compelling fusion of the detective novel and a brilliantly constructed vision of the future. Cracking stuff." (DEATHRAY )

"An enjoyable novel which shows Reynolds growth as a writer. Though good before, I think this is one his best novels to date." (Mark Yon SFFWORLD.COM )

"Politics, ambition and betrayal against the backdrop of Reynolds' Revelation Space universe." (Anthony Browne STARBURST )

"There's enough inventiveness here to keep you entertained for a good while." (SANDSTORM REVIEWS )

"In The Prefect Alastair Reynolds executes an enjoyable and extremely fast-paced return to the universe that made his name. The story develops nicely and explodes into a furious page-turning pace in its second half that barely lets up. The Prefect is Reynolds' best novel since at least Redemption Ark, and is an engrossing read." (THE WERTZONE )

"This is a book about freedom, its limits and how much liberty we should sacrifice in the name of safety - pertinent themes suggesting a new political edge to Reynolds' work." (Jonathan Wright SFX )

"A welcome return to his Revelation Space universe." (EDGE )

"Politics, ambition and betrayal against the backdrop of Reynolds' Revelation Space universe."

"There's enough inventiveness here to keep you entertained for a good while."

"In The Prefect Alastair Reynolds executes an enjoyable and extremely fast-paced return to the universe that made his name. The story develops nicely and explodes into a furious page-turning pace in its second half that barely lets up. The Prefect is Reynolds' best novel since at least Redemption Ark, and is an engrossing read."

"Combines space-roaming adventure with a solid detective story. Fast-paced and inventive, this may be Reynolds' best yet."

"This is a book about freedom, its limits and how much liberty we should sacrifice in the name of safety - pertinent themes suggesting a new political edge to Reynolds' work."

"THE PREFECT is hugely entertaining and inventive, a compelling fusion of the detective novel and a brilliantly constructed vision of the future. Cracking stuff."

"A welcome return to his Revelation Space universe."

Tom Dreyfus is a Prefect, a policeman of sorts, and one of the best. His force is Panoply, and his beat is the multi-faceted utopian society of the Glitter Band, that vast swirl of space habitats orbiting the planet Yellowstone. These days, his job is his life. A murderous attack against a Glitter Band habitat is nasty, but it looks to be an open-and-shut case - until Dreyfus starts looking under some stones that some very powerful people would really rather stayed unturned. What he uncovers is far more serious than mere gruesome murder: a covert takeover bid by a shadowy figure, Aurora (who may once have been human but certainly isn't now), who believes the people of the Glitter Band should no longer be in charge of their own destiny. Dreyfus discovers that to save something precious, you may have to destroy part of it.

Alastair Reynolds was born in Barry, South Wales, in 1966. He studied at Newcastle and St Andrews Universities and has a Ph.D. in astronomy. Since 1991 he has lived in the Netherlands, near Leiden, where he works part-time as an astrophysicist for the European Space Agency. Revelation Space was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke and the British Science Fiction awards and Chasm City, won the British Science Fiction Award.