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hillairy's review
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
zelaxi's review against another edition
4.0
As always, a solid Alastair Reynolds title. Felt a bit rushed towards the end, but still another great title in the Revelation Space series.
dan_at's review against another edition
3.0
2.5/5 stars
I don't know. It's just as meaningless as RA and AG.
Read Revelation Space, skip the other books.
I don't know. It's just as meaningless as RA and AG.
Read Revelation Space, skip the other books.
zolama's review against another edition
4.0
More of a 3.5 than a 4, but it's Reynolds, so eeh. We don't get enough of this type of sci-fi. The universe still rocks, the tech is interesting (even if a bit mc-guffin-y) and the antagonists are dread-inspiring. I really enjoyed the start and the end of the novel, and was not too enthused about the middle parts.
The main issue are the dialogues and characters. It's all a bit stilted and having sociopaths as leads doesn't exactly help.
The main issue are the dialogues and characters. It's all a bit stilted and having sociopaths as leads doesn't exactly help.
jjjreads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Pandemic/Epidemic, Gun violence, Hate crime, Torture, War, Drug use, Gore, Genocide, Grief, Xenophobia, Ableism, Cancer, Cannibalism, Abandonment, Blood, Classism, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Body horror, Confinement, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Trafficking, Violence, and Vomit
sarsaparillo's review against another edition
3.0
I read the earlier books in this series many years ago (and really liked them!) and so perhaps I'd lost the prerequisite emotional investment in the characters and world, but I found it surprisngly hard to stay engaged in the story. There seemed to be too-frequent moments of inappropriate earnestness and sentimentality, and I felt the overall plot was often laid out in advance and so the major turning points were unsurprising and the surprises were relatively inconsequential.
nukehavoc's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
arlan's review against another edition
2.0
Did Alastair Reynolds start farming his work out to Ghostwriters or something? Has he completely lost his muse?
It was weird and somewhat disappointing when the Revenger trilogy took a turn for the worse in the second book, and by the third felt like little more than a hollow imitation of AR's literary style. Shallow characters lacking in any distinguishable voice, re-used set pieces, and a reliance on several Deus Ex Machina moments to move the plot along only to be closed out by a chapter of rushed lore-dumping to (poorly) tie up loose ends.
Unfortunately these same structural issues apply here in his newest work, but with the added insult of digging up characters who had previously enjoyed a fitting denouement to their arcs - only to act out some shallow fanservice before being shoved off scene again. Depressingly, as we are dealing with characters who have appeared in multiple prior works going back almost two decades, the complete lack of independent voice or characterization is much more pronounced here. The reduction of formerly complex and fascinating characters to comic relief - is a tragedy.
Stilted, cringeworthy dialogue abounds. His trademark slow moving cosmic horror and mystery has been swapped out for marvel-esque narrative filled with magical trinkets, and formerly physics-aligned plot elements have similar to the treatment given to characters trotted out and re-imagined as stage dressings requiring a belief in magic to understand them.
Indeed, when you put this novel and Bone Silence side by side, the plot points reused from one to the other become striking and hard to ignore. They are effectively the same book, in many plot respects, which is inexcusable.
I'm not sure what is guiding AR's pen these days, I find it hard to believe he is actually writing these books anymore because aside from the setting itself (which could be draped over any narrative framework by any contract author) there is little remaining in common with his earlier - spectacular - writing.
It was weird and somewhat disappointing when the Revenger trilogy took a turn for the worse in the second book, and by the third felt like little more than a hollow imitation of AR's literary style. Shallow characters lacking in any distinguishable voice, re-used set pieces, and a reliance on several Deus Ex Machina moments to move the plot along only to be closed out by a chapter of rushed lore-dumping to (poorly) tie up loose ends.
Unfortunately these same structural issues apply here in his newest work, but with the added insult of digging up characters who had previously enjoyed a fitting denouement to their arcs - only to act out some shallow fanservice before being shoved off scene again. Depressingly, as we are dealing with characters who have appeared in multiple prior works going back almost two decades, the complete lack of independent voice or characterization is much more pronounced here. The reduction of formerly complex and fascinating characters to comic relief - is a tragedy.
Stilted, cringeworthy dialogue abounds. His trademark slow moving cosmic horror and mystery has been swapped out for marvel-esque narrative filled with magical trinkets, and formerly physics-aligned plot elements have similar to the treatment given to characters trotted out and re-imagined as stage dressings requiring a belief in magic to understand them.
Indeed, when you put this novel and Bone Silence side by side, the plot points reused from one to the other become striking and hard to ignore. They are effectively the same book, in many plot respects, which is inexcusable.
I'm not sure what is guiding AR's pen these days, I find it hard to believe he is actually writing these books anymore because aside from the setting itself (which could be draped over any narrative framework by any contract author) there is little remaining in common with his earlier - spectacular - writing.