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)

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.

Good, not great.

I love sci-fi. I love technical sci-fi. This story would be a very good read, but didn't translate well into an audio book. I think this was partly due to the way it was written and secondly due to the heavy accents in narration, which made it hard to understand. I kept having to go back and relisten to past chapters to follow the story, which really was a large mystery and discovery story. In the end, I was happier that it was over, more than I was to finish the story. I could have passed on this one.

Not quite Peter F Hamilton

If you like Peter F Hamilton then you most likely will like this. It's not quite as complex as PFH's work but it share similar themes. Certainly worth a credit.

Absolutely no character

I normally love epic sci-fi and so I was excited for something dense that would take its time, but I truly had to drag myself through this. It’s not fun-dense, it just doesn’t add up. Every time I thought it might be going somewhere a character does something completely out of character with no explanation, and random new facts with no plot relevance are dropped in. This happened enough that I realized I no longer cared enough about the world or the people in it to finish it, despite being nearly at the end. I wouldn’t waste a credit on this.

documentary narrator does sci fi

if you never mess with playback speed you’ll actually want to with this guy, i never touch it but it’s set to to 0.8-0.9 and i can almost tolerate the broken sentences & bad pacing

Mind Blowing Complexity and Beauty

Very complex book that will take a few reads to fully appreciate. The narrators accents can be a bit thick, but adds a nice new dimension to characters.

The best resolution of the Fermi paradox I've read in in SF so far

Three different heroes journey converging to unravel a story of extinted alien spicies. Exemplary writing from start to end.