Revelation Space

Returning with another science fiction review, Duncan Lawie takes a look at Revelation Space. Written by Alastair Reynolds, this is the author's first book length effort - and it looks good. Revelation Space author Alastair Reynolds pages 470 publisher USA: To Be Published by Ace rating 8.5/10 reviewer Duncan Lawie ISBN 0575068760 summary Fiercely intelligent hard science fiction, bursting with ideas and rich with plot.

Alastair Reynolds is one of the breed of science fiction writers who is also a professional scientist. Originally from Wales, he has a PhD in astronomy from St Andrew's University in Scotland and lives in the Netherlands, where he works on scientific data analysis, primarily for the European Space Agency. He has taken the traditional route into publication through short story writing, having been published in magazines such as Interzone and Asimov's in recent years. Much of his work can be categorised as "radical hard science fiction", a style of writing which has helped revitalise the British science fiction scene. Revelation Space is his first novel.

As the book opens, Volyova is a senior officer on a lighthugger - several kilometres of malfunctioning, self-repairing starship capable of accelerating almost to the speed of light. She is experiencing a little local difficulty with her gunnery officer, who is trying to kill her. Khouri is a soldier who was frozen and shipped 20 light years away from her war and the only world she knew as a result of a clerical error. She has taken up assassination as an appropriate employment since she is "good with weapons". Sylveste is the leader of a scientific colony/expedition which has suffered rebellion and the departure of its only lighthugger. He is more interested in excavating the relics of an alien civilisation almost a million years dead.

These principal characters focus the large cast and the author's first objective is to get them all into the same time frame. This manipulation becomes apparent through the diverse range of settings and time periods in the early chapters - to the extent that it becomes a treatise on working within the boundaries that nature - or Einstein - has set. The complex machinations introduced set up the plot drivers for the book as a whole, though this does not mean that the story is simply revealed to the reader. Much of the intelligence of the novel is derived from the exposure of deeper plot motives as the book progresses. Some revelations are gently foreshadowed whilst others burst from the page. One of the central concerns of the book is the conundrum at the heart of the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence: if we are not alone, where is everybody else?

The story unfolds within a universe populated with enigmatic aliens, bizarre technology, conspiracies, death, world threatening weapons and post-human races. The definition of human has expanded away from the Homo sapiens norm, some becoming machine-human hybrids, others adapting to the new environments the galaxy has to offer. The technological background of the novel is creatively engineered and inventively described. This complex universe pervades the atmosphere of the book without Reynolds having to draw demonstrating the protagonists' limited views. Revelation Space develops as a product of interaction between characters and through increasing understanding of the external world and the history of the galaxy. Though the plot never begins to feel predictable, the central characters become increasingly well defined through development and disclosure. Reynolds' inventiveness combines with a fondness for science fiction tropes to produce a picture of a rich and true human universe five centuries hence.

Alastair Reynolds: home page