• Revelation Space

  • By: Alastair Reynolds
  • Narrated by: John Lee
  • Length: 22 hrs and 12 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (5,475 ratings)

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Revelation Space

By: Alastair Reynolds
Narrated by: John Lee
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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)

What listeners say about Revelation Space

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  • 4 out of 5 stars
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  • 4 out of 5 stars
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  • 4 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

well-plotted but emotionally unsatisfying

As hard SF goes, Revelation Space is definitely on the “harder” end of the spectrum. It's a got a complex, ambitious plot, with all sorts of far future tech casually treated as normal fixtures of reality. The novel's vision of dark, mysterious alien powers, which are behind the disappearance of civilizations whose ruins are found throughout the galaxy, is intriguing. The protagonists are the "gritty, complex" sort, driven by their own personal agendas, and not unwilling to manipulate or even betray the others. Reynolds does a good job of writing clearly, conveying a sense of the underlying science without over-examining it. He also deserves credit for writing some convincingly tough female characters, without making a big deal about it. The plot wasn’t uninteresting.

On the minus side, Revelation Space suffers (in my opinion) from a flaw common to other hard sci-fi, namingly that its intricate plot machinations and cerebral focus don't leave much breathing space for the emotional aspects of the story. Though the main characters are credible enough, it’s hard to care about them, and I found myself wishing that Reynolds would slow down on the intrigues, shipboard politics, and space battles, and offer a little more of the awe and wonder that I read science fiction for in the first place. For example, there's a scene towards the end of the book in which a character penetrates a vast alien artifact, but Reynolds barely gives any attention to what it looks like, or the character's reactions. Talk about a wasted moment. Though it’s been years since I’ve read Dan Simmon’s Hyperion, *he* made such scenes into page-turner material.

Unfortunately, the audiobook experience adds another flaw: the reader doesn’t leave any space between scene switches! This led to numerous rewinds on my part, whenever I wasn't paying close attention. The character backstories get a little confusing.

In sum, your opinion of this book will probably depend heavily on whether or not your tastes already include a lot of hard SF (Vernor Vinge, Peter Hamilton). If so, there’s plenty of smart stuff in Revelation Space. However, for other readers, the lack of much emotional resonance might override the other selling points.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Good but slow slower-than-light space opera

Alastair Reynolds is one of the leading lights writing this generation's space opera, and his perspective (European, a PhD in Astronomy) gives his stories a very contemporary feel. I like the hard SF setting, with slower-than-light starships and ancient, dead civilizations instead of living aliens, and parts of this book were quite spooky and sinister. When the crew is prowling the corridors of the huge spaceship Infinity avoiding "rats" and other creatures controlled by a hostile intelligence, it felt like one of those old sci-fi horror movies.

Revelation Space is full of great ideas, especially in the conclusion, where it turns out that the small and large intrigues of the main characters have all been leading them to a confrontation on a much larger scale than they imagined: a threat that could end the human race. I like high-stakes stories like this. So this book was basically a recipe for everything I should love in a sci-fi novel.

So why only 3 stars? Because another crucial ingredient for me (and this is very much my own preference, which is why other people may love this book) is characters who feel real and who I like at least a little. Reynolds's characters aren't as wooden as those of some other hard SF writers, and he gives them plenty of background and motivation and personality, but after describing all those things, he doesn't spend much time letting them live and breathe and reminding you why they are interesting. They just go about their business executing the plot. As soon as the book ended, I was thinking about the story and the technology, but the characters were mostly forgettable.

Unfortunately, there were also parts of the book that just plain bored me; listening to the audio, sometimes my mind drifted and I didn't catch (or care about) all the details. Also, I just did not like John Lee's narration. He gave everyone an accent, not always distinct ones, and I didn't like all the voices.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Cryptic; Hard to follow story - Didn't finish...

Had high hopes for this one. If you liked Anathem you would probably think this one is a masterpiece. <smile> I just found it strained too hard to try to be creative, between the technology and the complicated aliens and such. The beginning captured my imagination but from there it just went bizarre and required way too much work to visualize the creatures, places, and story. I dropped out after about 5 hours. Couldn't take it anymore ... paying for another download and wasting this credit was better than the pain of continuing to listen and scratch my head. Use a credit on this one at your own risk.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent Read (Listen)

Mr. Reynolds is an excellent story teller and, in particular, a great SF author. He is able to weave a delightful tale mixing extraordinary scientific developments with an intriguing account incorporating mystery, adventure, and beguiling characters. Mr. Lee is well suited to tell the tale. His slight accent and intonations add to the suspense. This book is a must listen for anyone who likes SF.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Performance sub par

I found this audio book hard to follow. The reader had great accents, but his volume often trailed off at the end of sentenses to the point where I couldn't make out words. The audio might have benefitted from an audio compressor to make the low/quiet parts easier to hear. The story also would have benefitted by adding music between the scene changes. The reader would often change between scenes and characters, and I wouldn't realize it for at least a minute. I'm going to try to read this one because I hear it's a good book. I've listened to a lot of audio books, and I would not recommend this unless you are very patient and plan to listen in a quiet environment.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Probably the most annoying narration ever

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Anybody who really gets a kick out of being thoroughly confused.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

I really couldn't tell. The narrator decided that since everybody had foreign sounding names, that they should all have accents which made deciphering their speech give me a headache.

Would you be willing to try another one of John Lee’s performances?

I'd sooner cut off my toes with a boltcutter. His fake French accent for everyone with a French last name was horrendous. His fake Russian accent was worse. Then when a French character spoke to a Russian character he lost all distinction between them and it sounded like an insane person with a speech impediment arguing with himself.
If they ever re-do this book with a different narrator, I'd get it again. As it stands, I had to turn it off after 2 hours.
I might as well have thrown my money in a toilet, because that's the same amount of enjoyment I got out of his performance.

What character would you cut from Revelation Space?

I wouldn't cut any. I need 15 words. 15 words.

Any additional comments?

In addition to the horrifying accents, there was no pause or break between scenes. A scene on a spaceship blended seamlessly into a scene on a planet leaving the listener completely lost. Mr. Lee's uninflected deadpan narration moved so hurriedly from scene to scene that it was like trying to read a technical manual with pages removed and replaced with pages from The Joy Of Sex. Both instructional, both manuals, but you'll never get the whole picture from either.
Tell Mr.Lee to go back to waiting tables.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Hard to understand.

The reader's voice trails off at the end of many sentences making it hard to hear sometimes. Also the French accent also makes it hard to understand at times as well. The story has multiple plots going at once so missing parts because you cannot hear is very damaging to the story. I've not finished this one yet, I'm not sure I will.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Narrator makes a mediocre book bad

What would have made Revelation Space better?

I generally like Alastair Reynolds, but there is zero character development in this book. I could care less about any of them.

Would you recommend Revelation Space to your friends? Why or why not?

No. Weak book and a worse audiobook. Drags on, repeats itself, broken sequencing just for the sake of it.

How could the performance have been better?

The reader is too quiet too much of the time. I listen in the car and had to constantly adjust the volume because he moves from mumbling to speaking normally every other sentence. His natural speaking voice isn't bad...but every accent he has sounds like a soft-spoken vampire being forced to speak in a French accent at gunpoint.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

One of My Four Favorite Complex Space Operas

If you like really broad, complex space-opera (meant in the very best way) this series is worth the investment of the time and attention it demands. It is on my list of the best SF ever. (Along with: Simmons' 4 Hyperion books, Peter F. Hamilton's Pandora's Star/Void Series and some other really long stuff.)

This is one book in a complex and dark series (see below) -- a good place to start. 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 subsequent books go further and further.

Here is a thought that I totally agree with: 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. . .with remarkable clarity. The. . .corridors of the vast starship Nostalgia for Infinity still brought haunting images to mind."

That's it -- it just ticks with you just like the Hyperion and Pandora's Star/Void books do.

As I said in another review, I once got hooked on the biography of Alexander Hamilton which led to biographies on all of the Founding Fathers and then the history of the Civil War. . .this was the same thing. You can get so far into it that by the time you end, at least a seaon has passed. Darkly Hypnotic.

The Revelation Space series includes five novels, two novellas, and eight short stories set over a span of several centuries, spanning approximately 2200 to 40 000, although the novels are all set in a 300 year period spanning from 2427 to 2727. In this universe, extraterrestrial sentience exists but is elusive, and interstellar travel is primarily undertaken by a class of vessel called a lighthugger which only approaches the speed of light (faster than light travel is possible, but it is so dangerous that no race uses it). The trilogy consists of Revelation Space, Redemption Ark and Absolution Gap.

Fun in a challenging and broad way.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

In desperate need of a editing

The book had many fascinating ideas but the characterizations were, frankly, uninteresting at best and confusing at worst. These "characters"--whether human, virtual, cyborg, or whatever flavor, all spoke as though he, she or it were standing before a lectern. In no way would their conversations plausibly occur in any real or imagined world. I wish someone like Clark or Niven could have run with the author's ideas; that could have been some book.

To make matters worse, the reader droned on and on in an almost unintelligible brogue which would be very difficult for most American listeners. Please sample this first if you are still inclined to buy it.

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