Elysium Fire

De: Alastair Reynolds

Narrado por: John Lee

Elysium Fire is a smoldering tale of murderers, secret cultists, tampered memories, and unthinkable power, of bottomless corruption and overpowering idealism from the king of modern space opera.

Ten thousand city-state habitats orbit the planet Yellowstone, forming a near-perfect democratic human paradise.

But even utopia needs a police force. For the citizens of the Glitter Band that organization is Panoply, and the prefects are its operatives.

Prefect Tom Dreyfus has a new emergency on his hands. Across the habitats and their hundred million citizens, people are dying suddenly and randomly, victims of a bizarre and unprecedented malfunction of their neural implants. And these "melters" leave no clues behind as to the cause of their deaths. . .

As panic rises in the populace, a charismatic figure is sowing insurrection, convincing a small but growing number of habitats to break away from the Glitter Band and form their own independent colonies.

Reseñas de la Crítica

"This novel's ideas are mind-stretching, including a limbo where copies of the dead can be kept and interrogated, and a chillingly mischievous AI that tempts and mocks Dreyfus. The big concepts and complex story effectively pull readers into intriguing speculation about human identity and potential."—Publishers Weekly

"Reynolds combines depth in characterization and dazzling hard-science applications to keep the reader turning pages."—Booklist

"Elysium Fire is a tremendously assured read, a fast-paced page-turner that delivers a well thought out story and characters you'll come to care about."—The Guardian (UK)

"A swashbuckling thriller--Pirates of the Caribbean meets Firefly--that nevertheless combines the author's trademark hard SF with effective, coming-of-age characterization."—The Guardian on Revenger

"Revenger is classic Reynolds-that is to say, top of the line science fiction, where characters are matched beautifully with ideas and have to find their place in a complex future. More!"—Greg Bear on Revenger

"A leading light of the new British space opera."
—Los Angeles Review of Books on Alastair Reynolds

"One of the giants of the new British space opera."
—io9 on Alastair Reynolds

"[Reynolds is] a mastersinger of the space opera."
—The Times (UK) on Blue Remembered Earth

"Heir to writers like Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke, Reynolds keeps up the tradition of forward thinking... An immensely thrilling, mind-bending piece of work."
—AV Club on House of Suns

"[Reynolds] is the most gifted hard SF writers working today."
—Publishers Weekly on Beyond the Aquila Rift

Good story, narrator hurts it.

If you could sum up Elysium Fire in three words, what would they be?

Hot Headed Children

What was one of the most memorable moments of Elysium Fire?

When the children realized what they were

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The narrator, John Lee, has a very bad habit of modulating the volume of his voice- he consistently reduces the volume through a sentence- starting loud and getting quieter almost always. If listening in a noisy environment, (like a car) this can mean missing content. This is definitely not the only book where he has done this- It was *FAR* worse in 'Pandora's Star' - it is enough that If I see the book is narrated by Mr. Lee, I hesitate a little.

In every other respect Mr. Lee's performance is exemplary- the characters are performed distinctly and consistently. I make the mention only so that he can improve future performances.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Forgetting isn't perfect

Strong story in the Glitterband

Some things remain unclear to me after this listen, but that's usually the case with Glitterband stories. John Lee's voicings are sometimes inadequately differentiated, but his unique, crisp elocution is strong compensation for that. As usual with Reynolds, the story is intelligent, though I remain skeptical of the pure democracy notion.

Terrific

I am a big fan of Alastair Reynolds work and Elysium Fire is no exception.
As with his other works, the author slowly teases out the threads from a densely woven narrative, allowing your anticipation and imagination to become engaged and consumed by the breadcrumbs he has so deftly placed in your mind.
As usual, the performance of John Lee can not be overstated as being tremendously rich and thoroughly complimentary to the work.
While this book (as with all AR books I've read to date) possesses the essential ingredients for a good sci-fi story, it is with the addition of self consistency, though provoking world building, and the underpinnings of strong storytelling that separate the good from the great in this genre, and Elysium Fire delivers on all counts.

Another awesome story from Mr. Reynolds

I really loved and enjoyed the story, and the narration from Mr. Lee was excellent.

Loved it!

I really like this deep dive into the height of the Glitter Band. The rest of RS shows us the fallen and rotten future, but the tech in this story is fantastic 😍