Revelation Space

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It's a hit!

Revelation Space was fantastic. It has been a long time since I've read a sci-fi novel that felt original and I truly enjoyed. Reynolds creates a v... (show more)

Revelation Space was fantastic. It has been a long time since I've read a sci-fi novel that felt original and I truly enjoyed. Reynolds creates a very in depth and believable mythology in which to tell the story.

Reynolds is able to explain many of the finer points in the story adequately. In this he is able to successfully avoid the all to common pitfall of science fiction to ask the reader to take too many things on faith. Though at times the description of gadgets, concepts, etc, can become a little tedious and seems almost repetitive, yet does not detract too much from the novel.

The story can feel a little slow at times, but never enough to put the reader off. On a few occasions I felt frustrated because it seemed that certain facts or events were being awkwardly withheld to try and create suspense. Yet, the novel never truly creates a sense of nail-biting suspense.

Despite a few minor drawbacks, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and would recommend it to any fan of science fiction with patience and a taste for more "technical" fiction. (show less)

 

 

by Lars

No, it's a flop!

My first instinct is to call this a grand, sweeping attempt at a saga, but then I thought about it more carefully, and realized that there are only... (show more)

My first instinct is to call this a grand, sweeping attempt at a saga, but then I thought about it more carefully, and realized that there are only a dozen or so important characters and fewer important settings. So what made it seem "sweeping?"

Perhaps I should have said "interminable." The damned thing just never stops. It feels like all setup and no payoff. And then, by the time we're reaching point-climax, Reynolds fills page after page with - get this - not action, not intrigue, suspense or danger. He gives us exposition. Reams and reams of it. IN THE MIDDLE OF THE MOUNTING BLOODY CLIMAX! He's had 500 pages to tell me what I need to know, but instead of doing that and getting it out of the way, he chooses instead to hold it all back - to maintain the suspense, I suspect. But then he sees the end of the book coming and says to himself, "Oops. Better dump all this unrevealed backstory or people will be confused."

Note to budding authors: backstory is useless if it isn't given until the end of the book.

This is the only book I can ever remember reading in which I got within 50 pages of the end and then decided to bail. I just don't give a damn how it ends.

And what about the science? I mean, where is it? Yes, there are space-ships, and yes there are gadgets, but just about everything in here is so completely unfathomable as to how it functions that it might just as well be magic. And to this reader, that old Asimov quote is a bad thing when it applies to the science in an SF story. I think I'd have rather had the captain spill goat entrails and invoke Cthulu to get the hyperdrive working than to leave it as vague and unbelievable as it currently is.

I'll give Reynolds another crack at holding my interest (with another book, not this one) but that's about all he's gonna get. Stay tuned. (show less)

 

 

by Jeff Smith

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  I like this new world that Alastair Reynolds has created in Revelation Space. He does a fantastic job of describing its details, and as far as I know from my mediocre K-12 science education, he makes it sound pretty plausible. His world spans a vast distance and time, and the possibilities are intriguing. I suspect this will be a fun series.

  I had a hard time embracing the characters of this story as much as its setting, though. It was difficult to figure out exactly who the protagonist wa... (show more)

  I like this new world that Alastair Reynolds has created in Revelation Space. He does a fantastic job of describing its details, and as far as I know from my mediocre K-12 science education, he makes it sound pretty plausible. His world spans a vast distance and time, and the possibilities are intriguing. I suspect this will be a fun series.

  I had a hard time embracing the characters of this story as much as its setting, though. It was difficult to figure out exactly who the protagonist was, and who the "good guys" were; while that may have been intentional by the author, it left me feeling alienated as a reader. Adding to this alienation was Reynolds' tendency to jump around chronologically with the events in Sylveste's life. This was indeed intentional; in fact, just when I started getting very annoyed, Reynolds provided a justification for this method. The justification wasn't enough. This time shuffle abruptly dropped off in the second half of the book, making the "justification" insulting and, frankly, pissing me off a little.

  Still, the plot was interesting, and the characters were at least plausible, if not entirely developed or consistent. I look forward to Chasm City, and hope there will be better characters. (show less)

   

   

  by Suzanne McKinley on Jan 29, 2010 at 10:38PM

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  I thought the first two thirds of this books was superb, and the last third was rather disappointing. At one point in the story I was thinking this is the best space-opera-with-a-hard-science-veneer I have read since A Deepness in the Sky. But in the end Revelation Space is a much less satisfying read on several levels.

  The novel follows three main characters who start on vastly different paths but inexorably are brought together as the story builds to its climax: Dan Sylveste, the son of... (show more)

  I thought the first two thirds of this books was superb, and the last third was rather disappointing. At one point in the story I was thinking this is the best space-opera-with-a-hard-science-veneer I have read since A Deepness in the Sky. But in the end Revelation Space is a much less satisfying read on several levels.

  The novel follows three main characters who start on vastly different paths but inexorably are brought together as the story builds to its climax: Dan Sylveste, the son of an infamous genetics experimenter, who is driven to unearth the remains of an ancient civilization nobody else seems to care about; Ana Khouri, one time soldier and current assassin-for-hire who finds herself serving a mysterious new master; and Ilia Volyova, cyborg weapons master to a massive interstellar ship. These characters are initially interesting and enigmatic (as are many of the supporting cast around them), but I found them to be less and less sympathetic as the story progresses. And I found the doomed romance between Pascale and Sylveste to be utterly unconvincing.

  The plotting is at times clever, and offers a few nice surprises, and more than its fair share of inventive and intriguing concepts. But, as mentioned above, I felt the ending failed to deliver on the early promise of the book (indeed the ending seemed to make much of the earlier plot largely irrelevant). Despite my disappointment with some aspects of the book, there is no denying that this is pretty impressive for a first novel. I will definitely plan to read more by Reynolds (show less)

   

   

  by Curt Long on Jan 06, 2010 at 01:41PM

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