September 22nd, 2008
books, reviews, scifi
Reviews are spoilerfree but beware of comments.
Revelation Space tells the story of Dan Sylveste, an archaeologist in the far future who uncovers a startling find on a desolate planet called Resurgam. The find points way back in the past and warns of dangerous world-changing events that have already happened and might happen again.
Being the first book in a series of 5, Alistair Reynolds sets up his Revelation Space sets up a universe with the same name. It’s a universe populated by intricate characters who lead very long lives; be it through medicines, nanotechnology or machine consciousness. Super-high technology and multiple identities permeates the entire series, of which I’ve also read Chasm City — book 2. While other authors, both Arthur C. Clarke, Greg Bear and Larry Niven have explored these areas of science fiction, Reynolds details it in a depth I haven’t seen before. Which works really well.
Revelation Space is an alright book. It’s fairly easily digestible, and the cover of the book has a space-ship on it. It’s the kind of book that you’d buy prior to a long flight or train ride. That earns it 3 hearts. For the potential this holds for subsequent books (a potential I sneakingly know will be fulfilled already in book 2), it’s very much worth reading, more so than the three hearts suggest.