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)

Technically brilliant, but hollow

Intrigued by this book, as I'd read Chasm City not too long ago and liked it. However this story's characters seemed so wooden that they almost lacked any relatable humanity. It's as though we got a robot's retelling of events, missing out on key points of emotion and doubt. The events in the story are so preordained that any choices the characters make don't matter or were never really their choices to begin with.
On a directing note, I don't understand why they didn't put pauses between characters' narratives, unless the intention was to deliberately disoriented the listeners.

Story idea excellect, voice acting terrible.

I thought the story concepts where great and want to read the balance of the series. The characters arcs are moderate to say the least, they need work, but a lot of time is spent on concept and science so I can forgive that. Dialogue is also not great.
John Lee needs to work on his voice work. His transitions are not well done, this french accent is tiresomely boring. I honestly almost did not finish this book because of it and have not listened to others because he is the reader! Not a fan, but I am adjusting because he reads a lot of sci-fi.

Hard to get into

it took 3 restarts for me to get into this book. overall it was good, and I will continue with the series. this is not an idle listen, pay attention or you will get lost fast.

Not Great but not Bad

What did you like best about Revelation Space? What did you like least?

Found this book difficult to follow at first, (well almost to the end). It was difficult to tell who was who, when characters were changing or if the location changed. Had to keep replaying portions of the book to keep track.
The ending was ok but not as epic as hoped for.
If book two is like one I'll read the paperback.

Ok

Didn't like the narrator, no feeling in the voice.
The story was compelling enough for me.

The standard by which I judge all others...

Roughly eight years ago I revolutionized my life by beginning to listen to books 8 to 12 hours a day while I work. I started with a couple childhood favorites and then I went in search of my first epic space opera. This book and the subsequent series are my all time favorites. Mr Reynolds holds a very dear place in my heart as does the incomparable Mr. John Lee. I have read almost all of Mr Reynolds’ works multiple times and the Revelation Space series gets about two visits a year from me. We get ever closer to the mysteries of the dark forest around us. What happens when the forest notices us?

More than I expected!

This was…a very ambitious opening to this universe. I found the characters compelling and the pace deliberate, where the necessary information was doled out as things went on.

And, more importantly, the book actually ends with a satisfying conclusion to the main story. I’ve seen too many “series” where the first book ends in a cliffhanger to drive sales of the next one.

But I’m in for the ride now - next book on deck!

Good story, bad recording

Bad recording dynamics. Phrases tend to get too loud in the middle and then very quiet towards the end. this is worse at some points than others. sometimes the audio is not understandable.

ignoring technical problems, the narrator does a good job of acting and voicing characters; displaying a talent for multiple accents.

I appreciate that the author has a background in actual science, and endeavors to keep at least one foot planted in the plausible while the other roams widely the world of speculation. Plenty of intriguing sci-fi ideas in the imagined world..

The story is good. enough mysteries developed along the way and nicely resolved in a not too obvious conclusion.

I find the interactions of the characters slightly less plausible. Extraneous sarcastic dialogue in the heat of battle. Arch villains waxing eloquent as they explain every detail of their nefarious plans to their victim...

Tough Listen, story hard to follow

Narration was very hard for me. Had to slow it down but the transition from the different contexts of the story was very hard to follow in an audio book. I only got a few hours in an gave up.

Decent story; sometimes hard to follow

I read/listened to the Prefect Dreyfus Emergencies before I got to this book and started the series; so it was interesting reading about Ultra[naut]s as they seemed mysterious and out of touch before this. I'm a little put out by the overall premise, don't we have enough civilization destroying entities in other fiction? On the other hand the threads eventually coming together is what gives this four stars. I do have a twofold critique of story that also ties directly into performance. Starting with the story; Sajaki, Hazaki, Sujik - whether written or audio the characters' names blended into each other at times and sometimes I couldn't figure out who was who - then add one of the plot points and it got a little worse so the story "twists" weren't as impactful as they may have been. Adding to this is Mr. Lee. He's a measured and easy listening narrator; but I sometimes had difficulty determining characters, particularly after a break - the accents attributed are too similar. Volyova and Sajaki in particular.