Pushing Ice

2057. Humanity has raised exploiting the solar system to an art form. Bella Lind and the crew of her nuclear-powered ship, the Rockhopper, push ice. They mine comets. And they're good at it.

The Rockhopper is nearing the end of its current mission cycle, and everyone is desperate for some much-needed R & R, when startling news arrives from Saturn: Janus, one of Saturn's ice moons, has inexplicably left its natural orbit and is now heading out of the solar system at high speed. As layers of camouflage fall away, it becomes clear that Janus was never a moon in the first place. It's some kind of machine - and it is now headed toward a fuzzily glimpsed artifact 260 light-years away. The Rockhopper is the only ship anywhere near Janus, and Bella Lind is ordered to shadow it for the few vital days before it falls forever out of reach. In accepting this mission, she sets her ship and her crew on a collision course with destiny - for Janus has more surprises in store, and not all of them are welcome.

©2008 Alastair Reynolds (P)2010 Tantor

Reseñas de la Crítica

"[Reynolds is] a genius for big-concept SF and fans of Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama and Larry Niven's Ringworld will love this novel." ( Publishers Weekly

Hard Science Space Adventure

Pushing Ice is really a mind-expanding view of the universe on a scale of time that goes beyond my ability to imagine. There are some interesting aliens and some vague secondary characters, but the two primary characters are both women and the plot boils down to a battle of wits and wills between these two. Both characters have dimension, but neither quite hit the mark for me on the believability scale. Bella Lind, captain of the Rockhopper, is more magnanimous and long-suffering than any one I've known. Svetlana Barseghian is more egocentric and openly vindictive than most people I know, but I might accept that if there was some explanation for it. It is almost impossible to feel much empathy for Svetlana because there is no backstory on her to help the listener understand why she is so completely inflexible. And because of that, it is difficult to comprehend the relationship between Svetlana and her kind-hearted husband (he wants to have children with that mean girl??), how Bella Lind and Svetlana ever became friends, or why any group of reasonable people would accept Svetlana's leadership. In the end, the Lindblad artifact created such a fun, clever twist in the plot, I enjoyed the story even if the characters weren't quite up to par.

Not as good as House of Suns, but a fun space adventure with some good hard science. I am now listening to my fourth Alistair Reynolds book and loving his writing, but I have learned that getting a good plot summary in advance (the publishers' summaries are usually useless) is a great idea to keep you from getting lost at the beginning. I kind of think a woman narrator might have been a better choice on this book since the two central characters and an important secondary character are women, but John Lee was, as always, quite good.

Liking Reynolds more with each book

I have come to like Alastair Reynolds more with each book I finish, and Reynolds' in-depth stories and characters are complimented very nicely by John Lee!

"Pushing Ice" is kind of a "Stand Alone" book, which is a little surprising since I've gotten used to Reynolds' books being part of a LONG series. It's not his best book in my opinion, but every one of his books so far have been good enough that me saying, "It wasn't his best book" is like saying, "That wasn't Babe Ruth's best home run"... if it's over the fence, everything else is just details ;)

I didn't think Mr. Reynolds would be able to tie in the beginning of the book, and then pull off how the characters were "saved" toward the end of the book once I figured out what was about to happen, but like the true master story-teller he is, he did it!

As usual, Reynolds made me care about his characters and become emotionally invested in them. Mr. Reynolds has the gift of allowing you to know the characters so well that you can pretty much tell how each character will react to any given situation. Several times I found myself smiling and thinking "Oh man! She is NOT going to like this!" When you find that you've reached that kind of connection with the characters in a book, you've gotten your money's worth!

I also found it very easy to reach that illusive "Story Trance" state each time I started the book again after having to take a brief pause from it (Haven't figured out how to listen and still pay total attention while in the shower yet ;)

While I'm at it, I'd like to mention that I am amazed how similar I find Alastair Reynold's books, and Peter F. Hamilton's books! Maybe it's because John Lee typically does the narration for both authors, but I actually looked online to see if maybe they were the same author using two different names to write similar, yet distinctly different, stories. I was kind of relieved to find they were very different authors, since that means we have twice the amount of great books to listen to!

An enjoyable read

Any additional comments?

I especially enjoyed that this book spanned not one year or two, but multiple life-times. It gave it a scope that most books don't have.

felt lacking

It was a good story but I felt a little let down by the ending.

Fantastic Reynolds

This and Chasm City were both quick paced and full of nail biting moments and plot twists. Although I've enjoyed many of Reynolds books this one had a distinct human quality with relatable struggles yet did not lose the charm and attention to detail he provides of the universe they occur in. John Lee provided another quality narration. I'm a fan of his reading and found this book to be similarly read and edited to his other Reynolds books.