Revelation Space
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Revelation Space | |
|---|---|
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| Author | Alastair Reynolds |
| Cover artist | Chris Moore |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Revelation Space |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Gollancz |
| Publication date | 2000 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover and Paperback) |
| Pages | 560 pp |
| ISBN | 1857987489 |
| OCLC Number | 51945804 |
| Preceded by | Chasm City |
| Followed by | Redemption Ark |
Revelation Space is a 2000 hard science fiction space opera novel by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds. It was the first novel set in the Revelation Space universe, although the then-unnamed universe had already been established by several published short stories.
The novel reflects Reynold's professional background: he has a PhD in Astronomy and worked for many years for the European Space Agency.[1]
Revelation Space was short listed for the 2000 BSFA and Arthur C Clarke awards.[2]
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
Revelation Space starts off with three seemingly unrelated narrative strands that eventually meet -- and merge -- as the novel progresses. This plot device is characteristic of many of Reynolds' works.
The book opens in the year 2524 on Resurgam, a planet considered a backwater on the edge of colonized human space. Dan Sylveste, an archaeologist, leader of the colony, and wealthy scion of a prominent scientific family, leads a team excavating the remains of the Amarantin, a long-dead, 900,000-year-old civilization that once existed on Resurgam. As a violent dust storm threatens to temporarily shut down the excavation, Sylveste discovers new evidence that the entire Amarantin race was wiped out in a single mysterious cataclysm, which happens to coincide with the Amarantin's advancement to a starfaring culture.
Next, the book jumps to 2540, where most of the crew of the starship Nostalgia for Infinity are frozen for the journey to Yellowstone (in the Epsilon Eridani system) in order to find Sylveste. Because information is often decades old by the time it reaches other human settlements in a universe without faster-than-light travel, the crew does not realize it has been more than 15 years since Sylveste left Yellowstone to pursue archaeological work on Resurgam.
The Nostalgia for Infinity is an ancient ship that once carried hundreds of thousands, but now its crew is comprised of only a handful of Ultras -- biomechanical humans adapted to the rigors of long interstellar spaceflight. And they're desperate to find Sylveste because their captain has been infected with the Melding Plague, a virus that attacks human cells and machine nanotechnology in equal measure, perverting them into grotesque combinations. It's believed that only the technological expertise of the Sylveste family can help cure the captain.
Meanwhile, in 2551 in Chasm City, Yellowstone, professional assassin Ana Khouri is hired by a mysterious figure known as The Madamoiselle to infiltrate the crew of the Nostalgia for Infinity as it reaches orbit around Yellowstone. Khouri's new employer knows the ship will follow Sylveste to the edge of human space in an attempt to find a cure for its captain, and gives Khouri explicit orders to kill Sylveste once the Nostalgia for Infinity's crew have found him. Using subterfuge, this new employer is able to arrange a meeting between Khouri and one of the ship's triumvirs, Ilia Volyova, making it appear as though the meeting happened by chance.
In 2566, after Khouri has successfully infiltrated the crew of the Nostalgia for Infinity as the ship's new gunnery officer, the ship arrives in orbit around Resurgam. Desperate to secure Sylveste's expertise to help cure their captain, Triumvirs Volyova, Sajaki and Hagazi demand the fledgling Resurgam civilization turn Sylveste over to them. When the government of the small human colony baulks, Volyova reminds them of the power at the disposal of her massive ship by apparently wiping out one of the planet's settlements with a single discharge of the Infinity's weapons.
Fearing the consequences of defying the Ultras for a second time, and knowing full well the starship is capable of destroying all human life on the planet, Resurgam's government hands over Sylveste, who travels to orbit accompanied by his wife, Pascale.
Once aboard, however, Sylveste turns the tables -- he informs the triumvirs that he has anti-matter bombs hidden inside the implants in his artificial eyes. A detonation from one of those anti-matter bombs would be enough to destroy the Nostalgia for Infinity. Emboldened, Sylveste makes a deal with the crew -- he will attempt to cure their captain in exchange for them using their ship to bring him closer to Cerberus, a planet near Resurgam that carried particular significance for the Amarantin civilization.
As Sylveste and the crew of the Nostalgia for Infinity approach Cerberus, Sylveste realizes the massive celestial body isn't a planet at all -- but rather, a massive technological beacon, aimed at alerting machine sentience to the appearance of new star-faring cultures. It is this beacon, Sylveste belatedly realizes, that alerted a machine intelligence known as the Inhibitors to the presence of the Amarantin, and ultimately caused the demise of that race.
Now, having tripped the same cosmic alarm that led to the destruction of the Amarantin, Sylveste, Khouri and Volyova realize too late that they've drawn the attention of the Inhibitors, and this time it's humanity that will find itself the focus of the machine intelligence's directive to wipe out emergent technological civilizations. As this realization dawns on them, Sylveste and the crew finally find the answer for why humanity has found only the remnants of once-great, long-dead civilizations in a dark, lonely galaxy.
[edit] Publication history
As this was Alastair Reynolds's first published hardback or hard cover fiction, and was published in a relatively small initial print run in the United Kingdom, it subsequently became a collectible first edition.
[edit] Reception
While some reviews noted flaws in characterization and heavy expository dialogue, a common theme echoed by many reviewers centred on the sharp descriptive writing, mood, and large-scale ideas featured in the book.
Thomas M. Wagner of SF Reviews wrote that "images and bits and pieces of the novel simply would not get out of my head. This is saying something, since, with the volume of SF and fantasy I read, I do not exactly retain an eidetic memory of everything I've read that I can call up in a second or two unless the book literally bowled me over. But in the case of Revelation Space, two and three years later I still could remember the opening scene in the archaeological dig on the lonely planet of Resurgam with remarkable clarity. The dark, eerie corridors of the vast starship Nostalgia for Infinity still brought haunting images to mind."[3]
A Dragonsworn review notes "there's plenty of beautifully scripted action sequences, and gorgeous descriptions - especially where the Nostalgia for Inifinity is concerned. Reynolds paints a vivid picture of a haunting machine in decline, and a crew that may as well be ghosts." [4]
In a Blogcritics review, Nick Barrett describes Revelation Space as "black, bleak, extremely well written, with an undercurrent of menace and increasing danger, and it's a thriller to keep you turning the pages until you lose sleep." [5]
[edit] Reviews
[edit] References
- ^ Greenstreet, Rosanna (2000-06-10). "The questionnaire, Alastair Reynolds". The Guardian (Manchester, United Kingdom). http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2000/jun/10/weekend7.weekend8. Retrieved 2009-10-03.
- ^ "Sci-fi metropolis wins award". London, United Kingdom: British Broadcasting Corporation. 2001-05-18. http://usproxy.bbc.com/2/hi/entertainment/1338019.stm. Retrieved 2009-10-03.
- ^ SF Reviews: Revelation Space http://www.sfreviews.net/revelationspace_b.html
- ^ Dragonsworn: Revelation Space review http://www.dragonsworn.com/features/alastairreynolds/revelationspace.html
- ^ Blogcritics: 'Revelation Space': Admirable intro to a tough opera http://blogcritics.org/books/article/revelation-space-admirable-intro-to-a/
