Redemption Ark: 6

"Redemption Ark" is billed as a sequel to Mr. Reynolds's intriguing "Revelation Space, and in some sense it is; but it's much more than that. It brings back a few of the characters--and settings--of its predecessor, but it veers off in a totally unexpected direction. The author introduces plenty of new characters--human, machine, and combinations of the two--and new puzzles. The conflicted warrior Nevil Clavain assumes the hero's role and Skade (of the detachable head) serves as his bizarre opponent. Clavain is intriguing: like the lonely private eyes of the hardboiled detective tradition, he doesn't always quite know what's going on; and his plans don't always work quite as designed. He battles the life-destroying Inhibitors (machine intelligences that want to "inhibit" intelligent life), the forces unleashed by Skade, and a few others as well. Spaceship captain Antoinette Bax and her mechanic and more than friend Xavier Liu, who are enlisted in Clavain's pickup army, supply the human factor. Their heads aren't detachable, and they don't deal in cosmic issues; they just want to survive. And then there's Scorpio--he's a . . . err, never mind. Best if you see for yourself. There's plenty of great science here, too. The author, an astronomer by trade, instructs his readers on how to destroy a star, and how a starship might gain sentience of its own. And the author's technique is unorthodox, he writes as though he's saying to his audience, "look--we've all read space operas--we all know how battles go." So he pretty much shows you more of the befores and afters, and less of the action than do many authors. Some may be put off. I thought it was clever.

Picking up 50 years after where Revelation Space left, this fantastic hard science fiction novel (second of a trilogy) once again brings a cast of characters - some new and some from the first book - from light years apart (in time and space) and builds their story arcs until the collide and the climax of the book. In the 26th century, humans have split into factions: the Conjoiners, with their augmented mental abilities and group mind capabilities; the Demarchists, who hate human augmentation of any kind and losing their war with the Conjoiners over control of the Yellowstone system (which they don't realize the Conjoiners may not want anymore); Ultras - cyborgs, that started out human - who pilot trade ships between the stars; and everyone else, who are mostly out for their own gain, survival, or both. When centuries old Clavain learns that the Conjoiners have learned of the Inhibitors - semi-intelligent machines charged the suppression of intelligent life in the galaxy - is the source of all of the extinct civilizations on the brink of space travel for the last few hundred million years and that they plan to run and leave the rest of humanity to suffer the same fate, he defects from the Conjoiners and travels into the heart of the enemy looking for allies to help him recover a cache of Hell Weapons, stolen from the Conjoiners decades before, that are in the Delta Pavonis system on an Ultra lighthugger; weapons that the Conjoiners want back as well. Meanwhile, 50 years after Revelation Space, in the Delta Pavonis system, the survivors of that same lighthugger are struggling to guide the colony of 200,000 living on Resurgam under a brutal authoritarian government towards their salvation from the Inhibitors, who have arrived in system after being alerted by the activities that brought Revelation Space to conclusion (I will leave out the details for those a book behind). The Inhibitors have begun to dismantle some moons in the system with the goal of building an extinction weapon. Clavain's rag-tag army and the Conjoiners giving chase are heading to Resurgam unaware of the system's fate and their role in it. I am so looking forward to reading the conclusion in Absolution Gap (update: see my review for Absolution Gap to learn why my excitement became disappointment)! >>>>>>><<<<<<< <br /> <br />A Guide to my Book Rating System: <br /> <br />1 star = The wood pulp would have been better utilized as toilet paper. <br />2 stars = Don't bother, clean your bathroom instead. <br />3 stars = Wasn't a waste of time, but it was time wasted. <br />4 stars = Good book, but not life altering. <br />5 stars = This book changed my world in at least some small way.

I've read all the real sci-fi greats from Asimov to Clarke to Pohl but I have a limited appetite for the fantasy end of sci-fi like LeGuin. If you also prefer imagination sparked by hard science and are looking for a new author in the mold of Simak and Poul Anderson with the texture of Herbert, Zelazny and Niven, you will be thoroughly impressed. Starts a bit slow but Reynolds soon weaves a complex story with intricate charactors and compelling science. It's good enough to 'have' to replace my half-finished copy I accidentally left on a recent flight!

Alastair Reynolds has it, and he is running with it. Somehow out of a genre that hasn't had much interesting things happen to it in recent history (I think) Alastair has created a unique and highly colorful landscape of technology, characters, motivations, and catastrophes that is simply incredible. I usually read fantasy, but I picked up Revelation Space and couldn't just stop with that one and continued on with Chasm city and now, Redemption Ark the newest book in his science fiction futuristic series. The complexity of this book alone should win awards within literary circles, the sheer number of plots, subplots and threads of storyline is staggering, but somehow, surprisingly, Reynolds weaves it all together and the reader is completely in the story for the entire length of the book. I think that this is probably one of the best books out today for science fiction or for fantasy, and I highly recommend reading this book to whoever has a rainy Sunday to read good literature (good luck putting it down once you start.). I highly anticipate the new book in the series and hope it is as good as the last 2. Thank you Alastair for bringing some excellent literature to this genre of writing.

Just a warning to anyone reading the reviews below. These reviewers tell you specific facts about the ending of the book.