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Revelation Space (Revelation Space #1)

3.95 of 5 stars 3.95 · rating details · 13,007 ratings · 642 reviews

Nine hundred thousand years ago, something annihilated the Amarantin civilization just as it was on the verge of discovering space flight. Now one scientist, Dan Sylveste, will stop at nothing to solve the Amarantin riddle before ancient history repeats itself. With no other resources at his disposal, Sylveste forges a dangerous alliance with the cyborg crew of the starshi...more

Mass Market Paperback, 585 pages

Published May 28th 2002 by Ace Books (first published 2000)

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Sep 07, 2011 mark monday rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: futuristik

i suppose you could call Alastair Reynolds the Bad Twin of Peter Hamilton. both write space operas that come complete with mind-boggling concepts, galaxy-spanning adventures, bizarre aliens, space politics, love stories, and eons-old mysteries. but Hamilton writes about a future that despite having its ups, downs, and various inequities, is mainly Bright & Shiny, full of possibility. on the other hand, Reynolds' interests arise from the basic idea that the universe is a cold, scary place, fu...more i suppose you could call Alastair Reynolds the Bad Twin of Peter Hamilton. both write space operas that come complete with mind-boggling concepts, galaxy-spanning adventures, bizarre aliens, space politics, love stories, and eons-old mysteries. but Hamilton writes about a future that despite having its ups, downs, and various inequities, is mainly Bright & Shiny, full of possibility. on the other hand, Reynolds' interests arise from the basic idea that the universe is a cold, scary place, full of dead things and barely-understood terrors. Hamilton's characters run the gamut of loveable to outright villainous; Reynolds prefers to write mainly about self-absorbed killers and assholes. one writes about factions of humanity trying to come together to fight off threats; the other depicts humans turning on each other and how things fall apart. so i guess it depends on your perspective: do you want your space opera glass to be half-full or half-empty?

overall, i think this is a pretty good first novel. it is certainly an elephantine one; fortunately, the size didn't seem unecessary and i was aborbed by the ideas and narrative from beginning to end. Reynolds' background as a scientist is evident in spades, and i'm happy to report that my right-brained self didn't suffer at all when reading this - concepts were explained carefully and clearly, in a way that didn't make me feel particularly stupid and never felt didactic or condescending. characterization is certainly striking - if you are looking for characters that are charming or sympathetic or likeable, look away! you will not find that here. instead prepare to read about insanely arrogant scientists, vicious politicians, cold-blooded killers, and even more cold-blooded spaceship crews. it can get a bit oppresive at times.

there is an interesting theme that slowly rises up through the narrative: the obsessive-compulsive nature of humanity. this is depicted within a military mind-set that views all outsiders as potential threats and a scientific mind-set that views exploring even the most awful and potentially threatening of things as the only option. characters in this novel don't just live with their obsessions, they are defined by them. characters don't make decisions based on anything resembling empathy or humanism - they are compelled to continually repeat and expand upon their compulsions, no matter what the cost. it is certainly a dark perspective on the nature of mankind.

but that darkness, that oppressiveness, is really at the heart of this novel's appeal. the back cover quaintly describes this novel as "CyberGoth", which of course is a pretty stupid moniker... but it also makes some sense. imagine a gigantic spaceship crewed by five misanthropes, haunted by voices from outside of time, full of enslaved rats and unimaginably deadly weapons, captained by an unconscious individual whose plague symptoms include the transformation of all materials around him into a vaguely disgusting, tendril-y mess. imagine two planets: one whose decadent citizens while away the time playing assassination games and another whose berserk citizens seem to be engaging in relentlessly bloody revolution every couple years. imagine a culture where marriage includes a "wedding gun" that shoots dna of your spouse directly into your forehead. imagine a horrific version of the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey, one where the unknowable enigma wants to kill you and all of your stupid little species. imagine Lovecraft in Space. there, now put that all together and you've imagined Revelation Space.(less)

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Oct 12, 2012 Seak (Bryce L.) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi, 2012, top-10-scifi

My preferred genre is fantasy and the more epic the better for me. Shoot, the more volumes the better (okay, I draw the line at some point). But at the same time, I like variety. I'm the type of person who tries everything on the menu at a restaurant (not at the same time of course).

This doesn't change when it comes to my reading preferences. I don't stray too far from genre, but there's lots of variation from fantasy to science fiction, steampunk to urban fantasy, elfpunk, space opera, scifi-f...more

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Jul 23, 2012 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Three and a half stars, rounded up for the excellent final stretch and the fertile imagination exhibited throughout. Reynolds also proves himself a quality penman. However, the characterization—as so often seems to be the case in this genre—has room for improvement, to say the least, while the selectiveness and inconsistency of those character's morality and actions, untethered as they may become within a subluminal civilizational archipelago amidst an unbounded cosmic ocean, nagged and nibbled...more Three and a half stars, rounded up for the excellent final stretch and the fertile imagination exhibited throughout. Reynolds also proves himself a quality penman. However, the characterization—as so often seems to be the case in this genre—has room for improvement, to say the least, while the selectiveness and inconsistency of those character's morality and actions, untethered as they may become within a subluminal civilizational archipelago amidst an unbounded cosmic ocean, nagged and nibbled away at my enjoyment; and a more diligent editor trimming away at the fat would have been appreciated. Still, as far as space opera goes, this is about as good as it gets: Reynolds delivers entertainment, speculation, dark mystery, high tech savvy, and downright satisfaction in ingenious fashion.

As an addendum—and one which contains spoilage—the more I think about this novel, the more I am simultaneously impressed by Reynolds' cosmic creativity and writing skill and irritated by the character and story inconsistencies, particularly those annoying plot bubbles that were inflated for dramatic effect and then left pinned to the textual corkboard, receding to invisibility as events propelled the reader forward; plus, the Amarantin bifurcation doesn't make any sense. As for the ending, in the rapid crush of trying to wind it all down I neither sufficiently appreciated how cleverly Reynolds brought things to a head, nor how silly that whole Walkin' on the Moon...Da do do coda was. If only Reynolds had cut that final cropping of picnic basket dunciad, Revelation Space would have ended on a high note—well, after I learned what happened to Khouri and Ilia. Notwithstanding that Reynolds failed to establish any coherence to their actions, outlook, or purposes, I have to admit that I was pretty fond of those two ladies by the time Sylveste makes his big play for stardom—indeed, Ilia Volyova continuously reminded me, for reasons I cannot readily concretize, of GRer-on-sabbatical Knig-o-lass. It turns out that I guess I am fine with the fate Reynolds determined for that saucy, plucky, and resourceful pair; it's the remainder that just slightly curdled.(less)

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Dec 14, 2011 Ben Babcock rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: own, 2011-read, artificial-intelligence, posthuman, science-fiction, space-opera

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. In case you haven’t heard yet, I love hard science fiction, particularly in space opera form. I could digress into some hefty analysis of how designations like hard are loaded terms that only exacerbate science fiction’s precarious position in the genre ghetto—but I won’t. Suffice it to say, I’m referring to stories that use advanced but plausible technology for technology’s sake, stories whose events span millions, if not billions, of years and can affect the lives of countless planets througho...more

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Apr 15, 2012 Zach rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, horror

A very dark space opera featuring some very cool scenes, ideas, and set pieces, mostly revolving around the Nostalgia for Infinity: an ancient and decrepit space ship the size of a small city, decaying, infected with a plague that messily blends the organic and the mechanic, and generally just a gothic haunted house transposed hundreds of years into the future. The ship’s captain has fallen prey to said disease and is frozen at the bottom of the ship in order to slow the amalgamation, while what...more A very dark space opera featuring some very cool scenes, ideas, and set pieces, mostly revolving around the Nostalgia for Infinity: an ancient and decrepit space ship the size of a small city, decaying, infected with a plague that messily blends the organic and the mechanic, and generally just a gothic haunted house transposed hundreds of years into the future. The ship’s captain has fallen prey to said disease and is frozen at the bottom of the ship in order to slow the amalgamation, while what’s left of his crew try to track down an archaeologist who for no good reason is the only one who can save the captain. Then there’s a mystery about some extinct aliens. It doesn’t matter because none of the plot makes any damn sense, especially if you expend any effort trying to poke holes in it at all.

A lot of this book is kind of charmingly messy and amateurish. The prose, while not exactly good, is not exactly bad either, although the dialogue is... painful. Either expository or action-hero-sarcastic - whereas some of us might answer the question “Do you ___?” with “no,” Reynolds’ characters are more likely to say something like “Do I exactly seem like I ___ at the moment right now?” Can’t you just feel the bad-ass sarcasm? Speaking of which, there is one character that all the other characters always refer to as a scary badass kind of guy, but he never does anything and is kind of a chump, actually. Reynolds is not good at showing instead of telling. It is also worth mentioning, though, that two of the three main characters are women, who are just as strong/resourceful/intelligent (uh... bad-ass) as the men, and who never suffer any sort of humiliation or indignity predicated on the fact that they are women.

I’m running out of things to say despite the fact that this book was like 600 pages long and seemed to move along a mile a minute, but not all that much really happened. This review is coming across more negatively than I intended, but it’s really the haunted-house-spaceship that saved it. Hopefully Reynolds gets better in later books.(less)

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Jul 25, 2012 Ian rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, didn-t-expect-to-love-it, fits-like-a-glove, love-strong-women, must-read-again, space-opera, unique-theories, all-time-favorites, revelation-space

I debated whether to write a review of Revelation Space on its own or wait until I finished the Revelation Space trilogy and write a single review of the whole story. This is a debate that goes on in my head any time I read a multi-book series and I haven't established a blanket policy one way or the other. For me, it depends.

Take, for example, Dan Simmons' Ilium and Olympos . They are really one book that was split arbitrarily because it was too long to publish in a single volume. Think LotR o...more

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Dec 16, 2011 Apatt rated it 4 of 5 stars

There is no getting away from Alastair Reynolds. In the sf book discussion forums I participate in (Reddit) his name is always cropping up. I keep putting him off as I have too many books on my list but the relentless mentions he gets is like he is tapping on my shoulder saying "When are you gonna read my stuff?"

Like a lot of space opera this one is epic in scale, races and planets live and die at the drop of a hat. What makes Revelation Space special is the author's vast imagination, the scient...more There is no getting away from Alastair Reynolds. In the sf book discussion forums I participate in (Reddit) his name is always cropping up. I keep putting him off as I have too many books on my list but the relentless mentions he gets is like he is tapping on my shoulder saying "When are you gonna read my stuff?"

Like a lot of space opera this one is epic in scale, races and planets live and die at the drop of a hat. What makes Revelation Space special is the author's vast imagination, the scientific details and story telling skills. What let him down a little bit is the somewhat flat characters. Initially I felt like the characters are pancake shaped things pushing the story towards its conclusion. A few of them do develop into fairly interesting people later on, but the female protagonists tend to be of the tough as nails Ellen Riply type. Generally characters development is not a strong point of this book.

More successful is the depiction of AI and aliens. I love the fascinating speculation on the nature of consciousness, and what constitute sentience. The concept of Alpha, Beta, Gamma classes of AI is ingenious. In fact the AI characters tend to be more interesting than the human ones for me. The aliens make more of a cameo appearance but their strange history and mystery surrounding them (kind of Cthulhu-esque) is very interesting. The aliens are satisfyingly alien, so damn alien that people need to have their brains modified just to communicate meaningfully with them, and I also love it when zones of reality, space and time get all bendy and weird.

The prose style is functional and readable if a little prosaic, for a story of this scope there is surprisingly few characters points of view, which makes the complex story easier to follow. Initially I was concerned about the absence of humor, moments of levity is always good to balance the mood of the novel, fortunately Mr. Reynolds sneaked some humorous moments in later, especially with some snarky AI comments.

This is a worthwhile read and I am interested to read more of Alastair Reynolds in the near future (within this epoch).(less)

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May 07, 2012 Robert rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: scifi

Does Reynolds get a lot of inspiration from films? Chasm City's Mulch is reminiscent of Blade Runner. John Brannigan's Nostalgia for Infinity ends up looking like the Alien queen did the decor. Eraserheads delete back-ups (of your mind). Reynolds openly admits that much of the inspiration for his finest work, Diamond Dogs, comes from gorno movies.

Some writers slowly develop into good novelists over a span of several, even a dozen, books. Others burst into print with a debut novel that shows a fu...more

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Mar 20, 2012 Princessjay rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi-fantasy

2.5 STARS that I cannot round up to 3.

I like long books. After a while, there's a sense of familiarity that comes from having been immersed in a world, a situation, a set of characters, that is very soothing. However, I do need decent characters to latch on-to for maximum enjoyment.

At 600-plus pages, Revelation Space is a comfortably long first novel in a trilogy. It is set in a dark, entropic universe, where the human race has populated or at least surveyed much of the galaxy, but seems to have...more 2.5 STARS that I cannot round up to 3.

I like long books. After a while, there's a sense of familiarity that comes from having been immersed in a world, a situation, a set of characters, that is very soothing. However, I do need decent characters to latch on-to for maximum enjoyment.

At 600-plus pages, Revelation Space is a comfortably long first novel in a trilogy. It is set in a dark, entropic universe, where the human race has populated or at least surveyed much of the galaxy, but seems to have past its prime, and everything is slowly falling apart -- political factions & civil unrest, a plague that infects technology itself, the trials of being stranded on a planet with no way out... A well-constructed, gloomy universe, with much room for exploration.

Unfortunately, the characters themselves leave much to be desired. I could not, for the life of me, get a grasp on their degree of humanity. The main problem is this: there is not a clear and consistent moral outlook in this universe. Characters are described schizophrenically as bad-ass future space-farers who, in their centuries of life, have seen and participated in much routine violence & destruction, yet in the next paragraph experience horror and remorse at comparatively minor atrocities they must do by logic or circumstances -- without any kind of justification for merging these two facets together to form cohesive human beings.

For example, one main character spends decades traveling through the cosmos seeking to cure her Captain from a disgusting plague, yet barely cares whether her fellow space-crew -- along whose side she had worked and lived for decades -- are alive or dead. A few words to explain why she can be so loyal to a Captain who has been cryogenically frozen for years yet sociopathic to her co-workers would do much to make her into a living, breathing, contradictory human being. As it were, she is a collection of traits & obsessions that does not come together to form a whole.

And this is the case for most of the characters. This, and the frantic, unnecessary shifts of perspective to create artificial cliff-hangers, killed much of my enjoyment.

Finally, I wouldn't really call this space opera -- it lacks the sweep of destiny, the giant emotionality, the sheer number of people and time that is implicit in the genre. This is a story about a couple of people, often trapped inside their own heads, over a couple decades & a few light years, converging into a single incident that may, theoretically, impact humanity...

A good first novel, but I am hoping the next books in the series will be much improved.(less)

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Jun 26, 2011 Åsmund rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ebook, english

I heard Dr. Karl was talking about Alastair Reynolds on BBC. He recommended Reynolds books due to how science is described and used in the story.

I really liked this book, and Dr. Karl is right about the science. Especially I liked the time scale of the story.

For proper use of science and technology I would give this book 5 stars if everything else was ok. However, the story was developing a bit too slow for my taste. It took about 2-300 pages before it was getting really interesting. Further, s...more

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Mar 17, 2013 Dirk Grobbelaar rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, science-fiction, books-i-own

Delayed Review

OK. I read Revelation Space back when the Rust Belt was still the Glitter Band (ho ho) so, again, I have to reserve some judgement regarding the literary aspects of the novel. Although, if memory serves, I seem to recall that it was actually written quite well.

I’m sticking to the five star rating I gave it at the time. In fact, this book is also on my Favourites shelf, and there it shall remain.

I really enjoyed the dark and gothic vibe of Revelation Space, which, by the way, is ex...more

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Aug 27, 2007 Adam rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fans of intelligent horror and scifi

If your fan of the wing of scifi represented in the mainstream by movies like Ridley Scott's Alien and John Carpenter's The Thing(or more recently Danny Boyles'Sunshine)than this book will be endless entertainment for for you. Barely human nightmare show characters you wouldn't want to be in a dark alley with, discovering a universe filled with lovecraftian horror. Similiar to Delany's Nova and Swanwick's Vacuum Flowers with identity confusion straight out of Gene Wolfe land plus aliens as weird...more

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Mar 13, 2011 Peter added it · review of another edition

A gigantic space opera: This is the book that places Reynolds on a similar level with Clarke and Baxter.

Having done a Physics major at university, I'm naturally drawn towards science fiction as opposed to fantasy books, and prefer the typical "hard" sci-fi to many other competitors in it's genre. Reynolds' advanced background in the field of astrophysics and his scientific logic allows him a superior element of control as to how things should behave, he attempts to rationlize and determine what...more

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Feb 10, 2009 T rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is fantastic. It has depth, it believable science, it has uncomfortable moments, and it has a truly excellent ending. What captured me the most, was the way time and space were given the correct "theory of relativity" treatment. If you traveled from one planet to the next, and then back again, literally hundreds of years have passed on your home planet... and all the social implications of what a hundred years means to society. Chasm City is such a cool concept for a human setting in s...more

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Dec 28, 2008 Lightreads rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, science-fiction

Humans of the twenty-sixth century live in a galaxy more empty than it really should be, haunted by the ghosts of species long extinct. There's 550 pages of intricate plotting here, so I'll just say it's a hard SF novel that jumps from an archaeological expedition to an alien plague to quantum mechanics to neuroprogramming.

The good: Women! who are cool! and who do very cool things! Shiny hard SF ideas. A scattering of really disturbing and effective images that will stick with me. Excellent and...more

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Apr 16, 2013 Globalt38 rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: scifi

Overall I liked it! A very broad sweeping epic of a first novel. Lots of mystery around ancient starfaring artifacts - which I like. I think it's got some typical first novel issues though. Could've used a bit more/stronger editing (e.g. he tends to bog down in the details/flowery descriptions sometimes; very detailed on some techincal details but glosses over others; people and civilizations that can do God like things technology wise yet at the same time can't seem to do things that we (21st c...more

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Feb 13, 2013 Joel Berry rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

Imaginative SF on an Epic Scale

I give Revelation Space a 9/10, as vividly intelligent, scientifically plausible SF that successfully grapples with the universe on an epic scale. It's also simply a fun read.

Khouri's "revelation," pages 248-252, gave me chills. Reynolds gives us an awe-inspiring and plausible treatment of the galaxy's deep past, from the vantage point of the late 26th century. The revelations at the book's end are equally fascinating.

The depiction of a few humans alone on a vast 4...more

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Outis Your assessment of the technology is correct. The author is often misunderstood. Being a physicist doesn't make everyting you write hard SF. Here's fr...more
Feb 13, 2013 06:22am

Joel Berry Outis wrote: "Your assessment of the technology is correct. The author is often misunderstood. Being a physicist doesn't make everyting you write hard...more
Feb 13, 2013 06:33am

Outis I didn't read the third yet, mainly because I find most huge books ponderous reads (and because there are so many other books of course).
That said, I...more
Feb 13, 2013 07:17am

Jan 28, 2013 Henry rated it 3 of 5 stars

A riproaring if gargantuan space opera that takes place mostly aboard the creepy spaceship Nostalgia for Infinity. Reynolds can't corner good names for spaceships, because Iain M. Banks is already there (his refitted and rearmed merchantman No More Mister Nice Guy is my favourite) and really the Nostalgia is no more than a flying haunted castle. It should have been called Gormenghast or even (given the number of rats) Exham Priory. The story? The story! Utterly labryrithine plots and counterplot...more

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Jan 13, 2013 Sebastian rated it 4 of 5 stars

The first 120 pages, you have little clue on what the heck actually happens. There is some space archeology, some ancient ships with some kind of techno disease, an assassin in a dilapidated city... then, slowly, the pieces begin to fall into place.

There seem to be an aweful lot of alien races, living and dead, that try to make life hard for the characters, a lot of shadow play and mystery. The tension holds up to the end, but Reynolds gives you enough clues to begin guessing for yourself: Who a...more

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Dec 22, 2012 Beau rated it 2 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I liked it okay. I sometimes get put off by the Brit use of "orientated" as opposed to "oriented" but I realize that it's my cross to bear and not an error by the author. Still, I'm not always ready to believe a shaky character or a thin plot when I get off balance like that.

I like books where they throw you in the middle of their world and the the reader gradually establishes the meanings. This book is like that, and kudos to Reynolds for that.

But it still felt like there was too much deus ex m...more

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Dec 20, 2012 Warwick rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, sci-fi

One day the world will be full of science fiction authors whose prose styles are as good as their imaginations. Yeah, there are a few. But on the evidence of this book, Alastair Reynolds isn't one of them.

What this novel does have going for it is a great theory of how the galaxy might look in 500 years' time. The picture painted here – of a lonely universe, full of space and mysteries and still limited by barriers like the speed of light – feels distinctly plausible and, presumably, owes a lot t...more One day the world will be full of science fiction authors whose prose styles are as good as their imaginations. Yeah, there are a few. But on the evidence of this book, Alastair Reynolds isn't one of them.

What this novel does have going for it is a great theory of how the galaxy might look in 500 years' time. The picture painted here – of a lonely universe, full of space and mysteries and still limited by barriers like the speed of light – feels distinctly plausible and, presumably, owes a lot to Reynolds's day-job as a working astrophysicist.

There are other good points. Thanks Christ, here is a sci-fi author who writes good, strong women characters who are not just there to have a variety of unlikely futuristic sexual encounters. (...Although actually, thinking about it, one or two of those might not have gone amiss.)

The problem is that it's just not written all that well. The dialogue never strikes you as very realistic, and often consists of characters sitting around explaining chunks of the plot to each other. The narrative is pushed along in brief third-person sections, which stop and start apparently for no other reason than to engineer some dramatic tension, and which tend to finish on portentous one-line paragraphs like "But she was not quite fast enough."

Some sentences barely hold together. We are told strange things, such as when "Volyova dredged a clucking laugh from somewhere deep inside herself". Try visualising that if you can. And when Reynolds reaches for a suitably scientific metaphor, he has a way of bludgeoning the life out of it, with unintentionally comic effect.

Sylveste examined his own state of mind and found – it was the last thing he had expected – total calm. But it was like the calm that existed on the metallic hydrogen oceans of the gas giant planets further out from Pavonis – only maintained by crushing pressures from above and below.

I think that might be the worst paragraph I've read all year. It should be entered into some kind of competition.

Anyway, I don't want to put you off too much. It's fun, it's interesting, it's just not doing much to fight for sci-fi's place in literature. Revelation Space: it's funky, but it's clunky.(less)

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Dec 13, 2012 Jefferson rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

In the year 2551 as Revelation Space (2000) begins, Dan Sylveste, the 215-year-old, famous science family scion, colony leader, and archeologist, is pushing his team to excavate an obelisk made by the extinct Amarantin, despite the approach of a terrible "razorstorm," because he wants to learn why "the Event" (apparently a stellar flare) suddenly ended the alien civilization some 900,000 years earlier on the planet Resurgam. Meanwhile (in 2543), the small "Ultranaut" crew of Nostalgia for Infini...more In the year 2551 as Revelation Space (2000) begins, Dan Sylveste, the 215-year-old, famous science family scion, colony leader, and archeologist, is pushing his team to excavate an obelisk made by the extinct Amarantin, despite the approach of a terrible "razorstorm," because he wants to learn why "the Event" (apparently a stellar flare) suddenly ended the alien civilization some 900,000 years earlier on the planet Resurgam. Meanwhile (in 2543), the small "Ultranaut" crew of Nostalgia for Infinity, a city-sized, ancient and decaying "lighthugger" starship, including Ilia Volyova, the only crew member currently awake, is on its way to Sylveste to make him cure their captain of the Melding Plague (which merges human cells and machine nanotechnology into cancerous hybrid shapes). Meanwhile again (in 2524), Ana Khouri is a successful assassin hired by the idol rich of Chasm City on planet Yellowstone to relieve them from ennui, when the mysterious Mademoiselle has her infiltrate the crew of Nostalgia for Infinity as their new Gunnery Officer to communicate with the starship's apocalyptic weapons) so that she may hitch a ride to Resurgam and assassinate Sylveste.

Reynolds interweaves the three story lines as he brings Sylveste, Volyova, and Khouri ever closer together in time and space. The three point of view characters might at first seem to be unsympathetic: an arrogant and obsessive scientist, a shanghaiing and loner starship weapons expert, and a coolly efficient assassin. Yet Reynolds forces us to care for them in their various difficult situations by gradually revealing the humanity lurking inside them.

With its varied humans (conjoiners, ultranauts, chimerics, hermetics, etc.) modified in various ways (longevity techniques, prosthetics, implants, neural transformations, software simulations, etc.) and its enigmatic aliens (Shrouders, Jugglers, Inhibitors, etc.), Revelation Space pushes the boundaries of the human (physically, culturally, mentally), revels in the sublime wonders of the universe (space, time, stars), and unfolds an exciting story.

Reynolds' imagination is impressive: he conjures up numerous scientific developments, technological devices, alien species, galactic histories, and cultural extrapolations, ranging from the cool to the sublime. And he's good at evoking creepy and fascinating phenomena, like the malevolent Sun Stealer, the vast starship Nostalgia for Infinity, the fate of the alien Amarantin, and the "world" Cerberus orbiting a "neutron star."

There are occasional corny lines in the novel like this exchange: Khouri: "I'm not sure I like this." Volyova: "Join the club." And sometimes I suspect that Reynolds could have told his story with less dialogue. And I'm still trying to decide whether the climax and resolution of the novel are satisfyingly transcendent or disappointingly explanatory. And I think his House of Suns is a better book. But there are plenty of neat descriptions in this book, like, "Volyova was silent until they reached the human nebula that was the Captain. Glittering and uncomfortably muscoid, he less resembled a human being than an angel which had dropped from the sky onto a hard, splattering surface." And plenty of memorably sublime or horrible scenes that make Revelation Space worth listening to for fans of the dark and sublime space opera of the likes of Iain Banks.
(less)

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Nov 20, 2012 Eric rated it 5 of 5 stars

Well, it's a gnarly ball of yarn, but it's a good yarn. There were some things I guess earlier than the author probably wanted, which spoiled it a bit for me, but the good thing is there's a load of other things that kept me guessing right til the end.

Reynolds also has one thing I find rare among hard SF authors - he actually knows his biology. Most SF authors dealing with space operas and hard SF are engineers and physicists (and I think Reynolds is actually one), and as such, they often make...more

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Oct 08, 2012 Abigail Grayson rated it 3 of 5 stars

Revelation Space is in a single word, large. The setting, the amount of pages, the amount of information, they all are in vast quantities, and in general of very good quality. The environment, and Reynold's description of it, is gorgeous. From Resurgam to the Nostalgia for Infinity, there is not a single item not filled with wonder. The plot is quick and dangerously intelligent. Perhaps this is not an 'on the beach' read but it is a refreshing example of a superbly created story.

The main issue...more

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Oct 06, 2012 Ruleofstupid rated it 4 of 5 stars

I don't need too much encouragement to read another book, but I do still need good writing in order to keep reading. Alastair Reynolds happily is not only a man of ideas, but a good writer.
I first encountered him with Century Rain - a story which I won't spoil by synopsising. It is enough to say that Century Rain is set in the future, yet is written with noirish touches and is as close to detective fiction as it is science fiction. In both novels Reynolds manages to introduce some great ideas, o...more

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Aug 22, 2012 Danica Hagen rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Action packed with a deep plot and a little romance is my normal type of book I read. When a friend suggested reading Revelation Space, a science fiction novella set in outer space in the year 2551, I thought he had lost his head. When I started the book, I never thought I would enjoy a science fiction book with alien warfare fights and big fancy sci-fi guns. Yes, the book did contain wars and guns. However, Revelation Space contained actual chemistry, physics, and biology terms, which fascinate...more

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Aug 08, 2012 Patrick rated it 3 of 5 stars

The book is billed as a space opera, but really it's a mystery novel. (A space mystery?) The whole story revolves around a quest to solve a deep mystery with cosmic implications.

There is no particular protagonist, and none of the characters are very sympathetic. The closest we get on both counts is the manipulative and obsessive xeno-archaeologist Dan Sylveste, whose quest for answers becomes our own. The conniving starship lieutenant and the desperate ex-soldier assassin are considerably harder...more The book is billed as a space opera, but really it's a mystery novel. (A space mystery?) The whole story revolves around a quest to solve a deep mystery with cosmic implications.

There is no particular protagonist, and none of the characters are very sympathetic. The closest we get on both counts is the manipulative and obsessive xeno-archaeologist Dan Sylveste, whose quest for answers becomes our own. The conniving starship lieutenant and the desperate ex-soldier assassin are considerably harder to like, but we get to know them so well that we come to care about them anyway. Conversely there's no villain---the closest are the Inhibitors (and Sun Stealer), about which I should say no more for spoilers' sake: suffice to say to that even they have somewhat comprehensible motives in the end.

The writing is definitely competent, but not particularly exceptional. Reynolds sometimes uses weird obscure vocabulary for no apparent reason (he's apparently a fan of the word "eruction"). The layers upon layers of convoluted mystery get a bit annoying at time, especially in the early chapters when none of the questions have been answered. By the end, most of the big questions have been resolved, but in a way that isn't entirely satisfying.

Where the book really shines is in its world-building. The world Reynolds creates is alien and bizarre, terrifying in a cosmic Lovecraftian way---and yet it is probably the most scientifically realistic account of the future I have ever read. He doesn't try to write about the peak of human civilization, just eludes to it---the Transenlightenment, what we might know as the Singularity. Instead he spins a tail of after the peak has fallen, when humanity has fractured into a wide variety of factions all composed of bigoted, conniving bastards: Ultras, Demarchists, hermetics, Inundationists, True Path. (Personally I think I'd be a Conjoiner---I think most scientists would agree.) The world he paints for us is vivid, complex, and rich. Much of it is based on taking seriously how the limitations of relativistic travel would make it hard to hold a civilization together: For example, Ultras are so weird because they spend all their time on starships flying back and forth on time-dilated journeys.

Reynold's world has no FTL, and the only deviations from known science come from bizarre far-future alien technologies. Human augmentation is commonplace, but only among certain subcultures. Alien life has been discovered, but it is mostly dead and the rest is so bizarre we can't really relate to it. (The Pattern Jugglers are my favorite.)

Finally, the book offers us a really bizarre and terrifying answer to Fermi's Paradox, which I won't give away. It's probably not true, but given how horrific it is, it's all too plausible.(less)

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Jul 31, 2012 Danja rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

This is an excellent story. It's absolutely epic with events that span galaxies and human plots that play out over long periods of time due to extended lifespans, relativistic space travel, etc. Some of his terms are a little goofy (reefer-sleep, ha ha) but that's okay. His characters are not very appealing. I didn't feel particularly attached to anybody and I think that's the one thing that was missing. But still, his pace and writing is so great that you feel the tension and care about the sto...more

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Jul 23, 2012 Scott Rhee rated it 5 of 5 stars

British sci-fi author Alastair Reynold's first novel "Revelation Space" is a terrific read; an amazing blend of space opera, hard SF, and gothic horror that reads like a cross between Frank Herbert's "Dune" and Ridley Scott's film "Alien". The story is set in a rather dreary far future in which mankind is split into so many warring factions that no one knows who or they are fighting. On planet Resurgam, architect Dan Sylveste has discovered the artifacts of an ancient alien civilization which se...more

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Jun 29, 2012 Alex rated it 1 of 5 stars

This is a bad book. It is hard to find a single good thing about it. I'm struggling to find anything that is original in the slightest about it. Other than the absence of FTL travel, nothing really comes to mind. Cyborgs, lost civilizations, weird artifacts, strange environments - we've seen it all before.

Characters fall in love and get married off-screen. Instrumental characters, that exist simply to bring the main characters from point A to point B, abound. Even some of the main characters do,...more

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About Alastair Reynolds

Alastair Reynolds, former scientist and now full-time writer. Most of what he writes is science fiction, with a strong concern for scientific verisimilitude (although he is prepared to break the rules for the sake of a good story). He has lived in England, Scotland and the Netherlands where he worked as an astrophysicist for the European Space Agency until 2004, but now makes his home back in his...more

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Quotes from Revelation Space

“It looked like a biology lesson for gods, or a snapshot of the kind of pornography which might be enjoyed by sentient planets.” — 5 people liked it

“I don't know." That was typical Sajaki; like all the genuinely clever people Sylveste had met he knew better than to feign understanding where none existed.” — 3 people liked it

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