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)

Enjoyed this book

This book exceeded my expectations. When I picked this audiobook, I was looking for a science fiction novel leaning more towards hard science fiction and less Star Trek (though I do like Star Trek). I thought it might be somewhat dry with details but it wasn't. I want more... :)

For someone looking for a science fiction novel that combines a good amount of detail scientific (lots of detail in some areas) with futuristic fantasy and suspense, this is a good audiobook to get. The audience of this book should be mature as the book is graphic and dark in some areas but nothing too extreme, would make a good R rated movie as it has lots of oportunity for great space scenes and CGI.

The author does a good job of revealing just enough details and forshadowing to keep up the suspense without being predictable, puts you on the edge of your seat. The story is very emmersive and I look forward to continuing on in the world with Revelation Ark.

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.

Compendium of Technological Marvels

This is book one in the main sequence of the Revelation Space series. Based on listener recommendations I postponed listening until after first hearing CHASM CITY. And it was a good thing I did or I would have never gotten around to Chasm City. This book has many of the same elements, many of the same political machinations, the same level of fantastic technology, but none of the spark of genius, none of the psychological surprises of Chasm City that make it so fantastic. Sure there are glimpses of what Reynolds is capable of but, on its own, this book does not inspire. What this book does offer is an extensive compendium of advanced technological marvels. It hearkens me back to some of the Science Fiction of old where the gadget was the thing. I would compare this to Herman Melville’s MOBY DICK. But before you think this is a glowing recommendation, please read on. My assessment of Moby Dick is this: It is an exciting 70 page revenge novella imbedded in a tedious 400 page Maritime encyclopedia. Revelation space is a seventy megabyte (70 MB) short story encased in a one gigabyte (1GB) speculative fiction catalog of ideas. It has the scant characterization one would expect from a short story, and also like a short story, has great ideas that make it worthwhile. One thing I can say in its defense: This book, like any Hard Science Fiction stripped of story and characters, is still a fascinating exploration into scientific speculation, while Epic Fantasy stripped of the same is just so much double double toil and trouble. All in all it is a interesting book, but more for the ideas than for the characterization or for the story.

John Lee, who is much better reading Chasm City, is here less engaging. His smooth voice never seems to impart any sense of urgency to the experience, and this book does need some inspired help. He does have a wonderful sonorous voice that is never tiring, so he makes it pleasant to plod through the litany of technological wonders hour after hour. My chief complaint for him is that some of his women sound more masculine than his men. Maybe I am being too critical of the novel REVELATION SPACE because I see enough potential here to hear the series out to the end, and Chasm City shows how good this series can be. I guess that I am just a sucker for a gadget story.

Boring!

Well, thats just my opinion. It felt like I was watching(Listening) a foreign movie. Felt like the writer wanted to make sure that you know that he was a well read and intelligent individual and he probably is but it made for a trying story that was easy to get confused with.

Great Listen!

It is not an easy listen. You have to really pay attention but it's worth it. Once you get the flow of the story it really is an awesome listen. John Lee is a great narrator, his voices are great. I plan to get rest of the story.

I lost interest.

I'm halfway thru the book. There are numerous story strands reaching out, but I've lost interest. The story is long winded and overly complicated. I may try again one day when I can give it my undivided attention, but I usually listen to these audio books in the background at work, and this story is just not doing it for me.

You'll keep listening, even with the bad narration

Where does Revelation Space rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

A good book, up there with some of the best story wise, but almost the worst narration I have heard. There are many, many books that have much better narration and it would be nice if they would ditch this guy...

What other book might you compare Revelation Space to and why?

Revelation Space has a grand scheme in mind, like an Asimov series, but also gives you characters with some depth, and leaves you wanting to know more of their back-story, like some Heinlein novels.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of John Lee?

John Lee starts every sentence with an exclamation and trails off to an almost inaudbile wisper at the end of every sentence. This makes it very difficult to listen to, especially if you are in a car, as you have to put up with a very loud first word just so you can here the next six.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

You'll want to hear how the story pans out, but this bit hear and bit there story telling style gets tiresome after the second book in the series.

Interwoven story telling at its best

The first book I read in this series was "The Prefect." It was a tough listen in the beginning. Not because it wasn't any good. Quite the opposite, the problem was that I had grown accustomed to performing some other task at the same time that I was listening. I simply could not do that with this series.

Like "The Prefect", "Revelation Space" provides and expensive series of character sketches and plot movements that are so detailed that you have to pay attention. Alastair Reynolds rewards you for that attention, with a well crafted trip through time and space where you slowly learn all of the players and don't truly understand all of their motivations until a climatic explosion at the end.

John Lee's narration complemented the story. But there was a problem which I believe is actually a hold over from the writing of the book. The books are an ensemble of characters all moving towards some event or mystery. So unlike (for example) Charlene Harris's Sookie Stackhouse novels where there is a central character whose point of view you follow, there are multiple characters whose point of view you follow when they are the central character. This happens sometimes within the same chapter. In a book the change can be noted by some kind of break. When you are just listening, if you don't notice the shift in voice (and yes the shifts are there in content and speech patterns) you tend to get confused and misinterpret what is happening.

This is a great book if you want to think and have something that actually grabs your attention. If you are just looking for action through Science Fiction, you won't make it through the first five chapters.

epic tale

awesome sapce opera. john lee makes a great story epic as usual. definitely reading the whole series

It's a long haul, but worth it for the ending

I have read 2 of Reynold's books now and they can be a little difficult to get through, but not in a bad way. You get so many different view points it can be a little hard to keep track of where, or when, you are in the story. This book is in no way formulaic, which is always a relief, but you need to accept that not all your questions will be answered right away. I haven't re-read either book, but I bet they are really worth reading twice.