Redemption Ark

"Redemption Ark", the third novel by Alastair Reynolds, is the professional astronomer's best work yet. It is an intricate and richly imagined space opera that hits a sci-fi sweet spot with its intriguing characters, fast-moving plot, detailed vision of humanity's future, and hard science. The story picks up some years after the end of Reynolds' debut novel, "Revelation Space". It also shares some locales and minor characters with his second book, "Chasm City". It is helpful but not necessary to have read those books before this one. The basic plotline revolves around the discovery that humanity has attracted the interest of the Inhibitors, a swarm of deadly, self-replicating machines whose genocidal wrath is triggered when an intelligent species adopts advanced star-faring technology on a broad scale. Several groups of people realize that the best hope for survival lies with a super-secret cache of weapons now stowed on a distant ship. A race for control of the cache ensues. But that is a vastly simplified summary. There are too many wrinkles and twists in the plot to go into in a review like this, but the reader is never left feeling confused or disoriented. As usual, Reynolds' material also stands out for its excellent scientific imaginings. New acceleration technologies and methods for destroying planets and stars are described in thought-provoking detail. Woven into all this is the theme of redemption. Nearly every character in the book, whether a legendary general with augmented mental powers, a murderous half-pig freak, a diseased ship captain who has melded with his vessel, or a disguised digital copy of a long-dead smuggler, has to come to terms with grievous past crimes. These individual conflicts are so convincingly portrayed that they evoke genuine empathy with even the most vile characters in the book. Reynolds really hit one out of the park with this book. Highly recommended for those who have enjoyed his previous works. And if you haven't read him before, this may very well be the best place to start.

I Generally love Alistair Reynolds, and I want to love this, but I can't quite do it. To give him credit, Redemption Ark is still better than a lot of sci-fi, but the writing itself feels a little bit under-thought. The good: Interesting plot, the Inhibitors are a strong idea and Reynolds universe of conjoiners, spiders, the lost Amarantin and giant computers in dwarf stars - is imaginative and convincingly portrayed. The characters are strongly defined and change actions as they change moods. Equally, long-term character development is well handled. Reynolds does do a little science, but never too much, and he keeps the plot moving rather than lose page after page to explaining some point of physics. The bad: There are two points, one I can define, the other is a little harder. First, the writing has a horrible habit of repeating itself. For example, five or six sentences will start 'She..'. - She went outside. She saw the ship. She knew it was bad. She hadn't slept for days. While not an actual extract, this gives a sense of the problem, which smacks of laziness and the repetition started to jar with me. Others are 'it neared the nuclear burning core', and then the phrase 'nuclear burning core' is used repeatedly in descriptions and in dialogue. Just 'the core' would suffice, but again, while it may sound pedantic the over-use of phrases really pulled me out of the book and began to annoy me - especially as dialogue because it sounds artificial. The second flaw is harder to define. Maybe it's a consequence of the first flaw stopping me from becoming really immersed in the book. Whatever the cause, I found myself less gripped than I was by the first novel in this series 'Revelation Space'. I was less convinced by some characters, who's actions felt more like something useful to the plot than something the character would really do. Overall, I still enjoyed large section of the book and will certainly read the next instalment. My gripes are minor and I would recommend this, and much of Reynolds work, to anyone who enjoys 'grand-scale' sci-fi.

Engaging characters with real depth, intelligent plot and real science. Highly recommended.

After I read the author’s Revelation Space, I was conflicted as to whether to proceed to Chasm City, which is listed a volume two of a series. Revelation Space was maybe the “hardest” science fiction work I’ve read in the last ten years (maybe some Charles Stross works approach it), and the complexity was a little over the top. However, I’d already purchased the first three volumes, so I read Chasm City and was very pleasantly surprised. While Chasm City is set in the same “universe” as Revelation Space, it was far more approachable and enjoyable, in my opinion. Part of this may have been the underlying familiarity provided by the earlier book, but it was also definitely less reliant upon an underlying knowledge of quantum mechanics. In any case, Redemption Ark is technically “book three” of the series, but actually reads much closer to a sequel of Revelation Space. Chasm City is almost a stand alone novel, with little connection to either the first or third books. You could read Redemption Ark immediately after Revelation Space, and in fact, may benefit by doing so, as there are many story lines that flow seamlessly between the two. Chasm City is a good story, but it can be read any time. As in Revelation Space, Redemption Ark is replete with “rock hard” science fiction. The author goes to great pains to explain the physics behind many of his far future technology, though not to the detriment of the story, as I felt occurred in Revelation Space. If you enjoy space opera and hard science fiction, this will be right in your wheelhouse

Reynolds writes exciting and mind-blowing stories. It has opened a new world to me.