Redemption Ark

By: Alastair Reynolds

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 27 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

Late in the 26th century, the human race has advanced enough to accidentally trigger the Inhibitors---alien-killing machines designed to detect intelligent life and destroy it. The only hope for humanity lies in the recovery of a secret cache of doomsday weapons---and a renegade named Clavain who is determined to find them. But other factions want the weapons for their own purposes---and the weapons themselves have another agenda altogether.

©2008 Alastair Reynolds (P)2009 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Reynolds confirms his place among the leaders of the hard-science space-opera renaissance." ( Publishers Weekly Starred Review)
"The best of the new breed of space opera. Wild action on a grand scale spans well-imagined and developed worlds." ( The Denver Post)

Absolutely Perfect Hard Sci Fi

If you love hard Sci fi with an emphasis on the "hard" (I. E., nearly everything that happens is scientifically possible) then you will love this series. Over the years since I first discovered Revelation Space I've read and re read and then listened and re listened to this entire series more times than I can count. John Lee's amazing narration just soaks the already incredibly rich cake of this series with even more Greatness Frosting.

Be warned this series will kind of spoil you...no other series (even including Reynolds' later work) has ever reached the bar this one sets.

Slow Start but worth it

I really enjoy this author. I find his books to be a bit of a work to get into but then the story really takes off and you never want it to end. I highly reccommend.

Finally getting to the good stuff

Any additional comments?

This book finally gets to the really interesting part of the Revelation Space series, the real bad guys. While i appreciated the buildup Reynolds delivered in the first two entries, the third is, by far, the best yet. Even though the 'long plot' is being developed rather slowly, the writing and solid narration keeps me listening to find out what happens to the main characters and hoping the end of the series delivers what I've been anticipating. If you made it through the first two books of the series, you won't be disappointed by the third book!

Smart Sci Fi

This edition brings the Revelation Space story further. If you want haunting space craft in the desolate emptiness between stars this is for you.

fun story

very entertaining. not quite as good as chasm city but overall a good story. enough so that I will start the next book.

A surprise at every turn...

This was epic. A journey of space and time, G forces and Wolves. A life and death struggle in personal and civilization scales. wish We could see this adventure unfold on the big screen. Characters are compelling, complicated, thought provoking. I didn't want it to end..

B

narrator voice

the narrator was a little hard to focus on at first, won't keep you awake driving. but he differentiated the voices well

Amazing story, sub par production

I highly enjoy the concept and layout of this series. John Lee does his trademark excellent performance. However, the production quality is shockingly low. Not in the sense than you can hear pages turning or breathing on the part of the narrator, but that there is literally zero pause between different sections of a chapter. One second you are listing to one character from one story line, and the very next second a different character in a different story line in a different section of the galaxy is talking as if they never stopped from their previous section. I found myself skipping back frequently, sometimes a minute or four, because I realized the character I thought was speaking was actually someone else and in my confusion I had missed a chunk of the story. I feel most people listen to audio books while engaging in less mentally demanding activities (driving, cleaning, etc.), but this book almost requires you to sit and stare at a wall while listening so you don’t miss anything. I will continue to purchase and listen to this series, I just hope the producer sees this and fixes the flaw for future books.

a middle book of filler

If you could sum up Redemption Ark in three words, what would they be?

Slow being to end -

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Am I wake or....

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

No snoring please

Any additional comments?

Jon Lee needed to add some acting

Great Science Fiction

I read Revelation Space in print, and really enjoyed it, so I started the rest of the series in audio. It's awesome science fiction, akin to Ian M Banks' books, such as 'surface detail'.

The narrator has grown on me during the series. He's doing a fine job.

I'm certainly going to finish the series.