The whole smorgasbord of science fiction topics comes along, making this a satisfyingly rich stew for SF aficionados. It’s not a terribly complex setup, but it allows Reynolds to explore many facets of his future universe, from space travel to robots, terraforming, AI, aliens and much more. How did the aliens die, and what significance has it for the human race? Despite, or because, of the lack of faster-than-light speed, the novel covers huge timescales and is not at all held back in its scope. The plot revolves around the discoveries of Sylveste. There’s a cybernetic crew of an enormous space ship named Nostalgia for Infinity, which is coming Sylveste’s way, and a hired killer named Khouri who is recruited to be part of the ship’s crew. There’s the prickly archeologist Sylveste who’s digging up 900,000-year-old alien ruins, like in Jack McDevitt’s The Engines of God (1994). The novel starts out with three storylines that quickly converge. Some of the low-tech situations and locales also remind one of Peter F. The snappy assassin character Khouri and her dialogues with mysterious contractors seem lifted straight from Banks, as seem the names of the space ships. It resembles most the Culture series by Iain M. So, Revelation Space did not appear in a vacuum. Notably, his universe does not feature faster-than-light travel. Reynold’s series is grimmer in tone and harder on the science than his predecessors’. Banks in the 90s and was continued by Peter F.
It’s canon, if you will, and a key series of the great space opera revival that started with Iain M. So, the Revelation Space series shows the author growing into his craft, and it is part of recent science fiction history. It was Reynolds’ break-out series in which he achieved early fame, before embarking on a couple of stand-alones and newer series. I was a bit hesitant to start with Revelation Space because in effect it means that I have to do the large undertaking of reading another handful of books to get the complete experience of this series.
It’s astonishing that this is someone’s first novel, because it reads like the work of a veteran author. A fully formed space opera, overflowing with imagination. Revelation Space entered the scene with a splash. It is no surprise that Alastair Reynolds turned into one of the most successful science fiction writers of our time, when you experience the quality of his first novel.
Series: Revelation Space series, part 1.
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