Revelation Space

By: Alastair Reynolds

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 22 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

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 starship Nostalgia for Infinity. But as he closes in on the secret, a killer closes in on him because the Amarantin were destroyed for a reason. And if that reason is uncovered, the universe - and reality itself - could be irrevocably altered.

©2008 Alastair Reynolds (P)2008 Tantor

Critic reviews

"One of the best books of the year." ( Science Fiction Chronicle)
"Ferociously intelligent and imbued with a chilling logic - it may really be like this Out There." (Stephen Baxter, co-author of The Light of Other Days)

Science more interesting than the story

The science is more interesting than the story. Riddled with cliches. Mr. Reynolds should condense his novels into futurism pamphlets that predict technology six centuries from now. That make a more interesting read.

Narator ruined the whole book

Impossible story to follow. Thougt the narator was being sarcastic with the voices... terrible for the book

Moose and Squirrel

Very good overall but I found the narrator somewhat hard to hear while driving, I really had to raise the volume, and his "moose and squirrel" impersonation of foreign accents wore thin after not long. It's the kind of book where you have to listen carefully to everything to follow well, so I would have preferred an American accent.

amazing narration. Story is great as well.

heard the last 12 hours in 2 days. amazing story. great characters. they feel really real, and the story is not predictable at all. great science also.

Stunning, if you can get past the few hours

This is the best sci fi book I've come across in several years. It starts out a little slow, but all comes together at the end. The characters are interesting and well developed. And the ideas in the book are pretty fascinating. The end somewhat blew my mind. If you're a scifi buff, this is a must read. Note, my least favorite part of the experience was the reader. There's something about the way he annunciates that bothers me. But I came to like him in time and think he did a fine job. Just took some getting bused to.

This book is the good stuff

Amazingly captivating story. Good balance of original ideas sci fi trends. Nice space saga. One of the most interesting fiction books I have read in few past years.

A space load of fun, with slight narration hyperdrive.

Great fun, slightly complicated bordering on convoluted, but I may be mistaken as I was listening to the audiobook.

The narrator was excellent. The only problem was the multiple mid chapter character/perspective shifts, with no pause or noticeable transitions. It seems like it would take relatively little effort to go back and fix this by adding just a few seconds between shifts, but that may be easier said than done.

I will still be buying other audiobooks by this author.

Better in hard copy

I bought this after reading another of Reynold's books in hard copy and really enjoying it, but I am about to return Revelation Space unfinished for several reasons.

The first is that I am finding that the world in which it takes place (the universe in the 2600s) is too dystopian for my liking when I have to 'experience' it at spoken speed. I don't think it's any worse than the world in the other Reynold's book I read, but when reading myself, I can move through the more dystopian bits much more quickly, so they are less disturbing and uncomfortable and the narrative is compelling enough for me to want to find out what happens. When listening, I am forced to dwell on the uncomforable bits for too long.

The second is that I don't like John Lee's narration. His voice is pleasant and his characterisation is good, but I listen to books while driving long distances in the country and through headphones when out walking and the variation in volume in Lee's narration means I am unable to find a playback volume that allows me to hear the soft bits well enough to understand them without finding the loud bits uncomfortably loud. In addition, this is a book that has several different sub-plots running at once with (so far) no obvious connection between them. There is absolutely no gap between the end of one 'scene' and the beginning of the next, which I find disorienting.

I certainly plan to read more of Reynold's work, but not in audiobook form.

The book was good but narration needs work.

the book was a bit slow but got better as it went on but my main problem was the narration. As a narrator, there has to be some kind of notification when switching characters. I know the boom probably doesn't have anything signaling it other than probably paragraph breaks but we can't see that through the audio book. I caused a lot of confusion when the narrator would switch characters and I wouldn't know for a couple minutes then have to backtrack. This was especially problematic because the narrator used almost the same voice for every character. Overall it was decent.

Exceptional Experience

I read this book on paper several years ago, and recently decided to listen to it while I conduct fieldwork (Geology). The narration serves to highlight the books already exceptional storytelling, bringing characters to life and drag the listener deeper into Alastair Reynolds Universe.

if you haven't read this series and enjoy sci-fi, go for it. it's remiscinent of Frank Herbert's extensive Dune universe, and brings an imagination unlike any other to its full potential.

100% recommend, for those starting sci-fi, or those experienced. Anyone who enjoys a good story will enjoy this book