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3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
[b:Prefekti|10029222|Prefekti|Alastair Reynolds|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1293376242s/10029222.jpg|3102565] tuli luettua lähes kymmenen vuotta sitten, joten aikaisemmista tapahtumista ei ollut oikein minkäänlaista mielikuvaa. Prefekti Dreyfusin nimi sentään kuulosti tutulta... Eipä se kuitenkaan haitannut. Aikaisempien muistikuvien puutteesta huolimatta Elysionin tuli oli kiinnostavaa luettavaa.
Tapahtumat sijoittuvat Timanttivyölle, demokraattiseen anarkiaan, jossa kaikki päätökset tehdään kyselemällä kaikkien kansalaisten neuraali-implanteilta mielipiteitä asioihin. Äänestysytimet laskevat äänet ja päätökset tehdään sen mukaan. Kaikkea valvovat prefektit. Järjestelmässä vaikuttaa kuitenkin intomielinen demagogi, joka ajaa habitaatteja irti prefektien valvonnasta. Samalla maailmoista kuolee ihmisiä sattumanvaraisesti, mutta yhä kiihtyvällä tahdilla, mikä on omiaan edistämään käsitystä prefekteistä kyvyttöminä auttaa.
Elysionin tuli on villi sekoitus teknologiaa, politiikkaa ja hyviä kysymyksiä siitä, miten pitäisi suhtautua demokratiaa sen omin keinoin horjuttaviin tahoihin ja siitä, miten vallanpitäjien tulisi vastata populisteihin, jotka vapaina lietsovat epäsopua ja torjuttuina keräävät marttyyripisteet. Kiinnostavaa pohdiskelua ja vauhdikkaita juonenkäänteitä – siis varsin mainio kirja.
Tapahtumat sijoittuvat Timanttivyölle, demokraattiseen anarkiaan, jossa kaikki päätökset tehdään kyselemällä kaikkien kansalaisten neuraali-implanteilta mielipiteitä asioihin. Äänestysytimet laskevat äänet ja päätökset tehdään sen mukaan. Kaikkea valvovat prefektit. Järjestelmässä vaikuttaa kuitenkin intomielinen demagogi, joka ajaa habitaatteja irti prefektien valvonnasta. Samalla maailmoista kuolee ihmisiä sattumanvaraisesti, mutta yhä kiihtyvällä tahdilla, mikä on omiaan edistämään käsitystä prefekteistä kyvyttöminä auttaa.
Elysionin tuli on villi sekoitus teknologiaa, politiikkaa ja hyviä kysymyksiä siitä, miten pitäisi suhtautua demokratiaa sen omin keinoin horjuttaviin tahoihin ja siitä, miten vallanpitäjien tulisi vastata populisteihin, jotka vapaina lietsovat epäsopua ja torjuttuina keräävät marttyyripisteet. Kiinnostavaa pohdiskelua ja vauhdikkaita juonenkäänteitä – siis varsin mainio kirja.
What can I say? The Prefect is by far my favourite amongst Alastair Reynolds's book (although many of the others are also brilliant) and Elysium Fire is more of the same. The same sweeping scale of the Glitter Band and Yellowstone, the same building sense of crisis and the same utter believability and humanity from all of the characters. Above all, it takes all of those elements and creates a police procedural with mystery and doubt at every turn. I can't recommend this series highly enough.
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This one’s an unexpected surprise. Back in 2007 I reviewed The Prefect (now renamed Aurora Rising) with the hope that I would read more from the same setting. Over ten years later we return to the worlds of the Glitter Band, patrolled by the Panoply police force. It’s a magnificent humdinger of a sequel.
For many readers the good news is that these novels fit into Alastair’s grand scheme of Revelation Space, a Future History of rise and fall, ambition and decay, in the finest traditions of Iain M Banks’ Culture or even Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series. In Alastair’s setting, these novels are prequels, happening before the events that are in his novels like Chasm City. The Melding Plague catastrophe that will befall the thousands of orbital habitats grouped together as The Glitter Band has not yet happened, although there are intriguing little snippets throughout these books that things are not going to end well.
In Elysium Fire it is now two years after the Aurora Event (told in Aurora Rising). The characters we met in the first book return, older and wiser and still defending law and order when needs be. Deputy Tom Dreyfus is back as a Chief Prefect (detective), his boss, Supreme Prefect Jane Aumonier, and Dreyfus’s fellow officers to whom he is a mentor, Thalia Ng & a genetically enhanced ‘hyper pig’ Sparver Bancal.
Elysium Fire begins with a series of sudden deaths amongst the Glitter Band citizens. There seems to be no pattern and no motive. None of the victims seem to be connected and they are all from different walks of life and different habitats. Dreyfus and his team are brought into this situation when Thalia is asked to retrieve one of the victim’s bodies. Dreyfus is told that this is not the first and there has been nearly fifty deaths so far. Worryingly, the incidents, referred to as “Wildfire”, are on the increase, with the time between each death shortening. Panoply has to try and determine cause and motive before the problem spreads across the Glitter Band and also stop it happening further.
As you can see, things have moved on since The Prefect, and not entirely for the better. The ‘Aurora Event’, and the way it was handled by Panoply, has led to a growing unease between the citizens and the law enforcement agency. We are seeing unrest across the Band, which Dreyfus and his team struggle to maintain control over. One of the most outspoken critics of Panoply is Devon Garlin, an evangelistic orator whose path keeps crossing with Dreyfus as he travels to different habitats. Dreyfus is convinced that Devon has something to do with Wildfire but cannot pin him down to anything specific.
Much of the novel is about this but there are subplots. One is about two twins, Caleb and Julius, whose mysterious upbringing has implications for the old families of the Band and will no doubt be connected to future events. We also have the return of Aurora, whose involvement in events is never simple.
This is being touted as a stand-alone novel. I am sure that it can be, but I appreciated re-reading Aurora Rising first. (In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I did something I rarely do these days and read two books in a series back-to-back.) This rereading showed me that with Elysium Fire how much Alastair has grown as a writer in the last decade. The characters here have grown in depth and complexity since The Prefect, and consequently our need to ‘see them right’ has grown with it. They are more fleshed out, more conflicted…. more human. As before, the setting is a wonderful conceit, all the more so when long-time readers know that eventually things will not be what they are here.
Elysium Fire hits the ground running and slowly and cleverly connects what seem to be disparate aspects of the novel. By the end the issues of the book resolve themselves and set things up nicely for future stories.
When I reviewed The Prefect I did say I would hope that there would be more in this series. Elysium Fire shows that it was right to return to this universe and that there is potential for more stories in Revelation Space. I hope that it’ll not be ten years.
For many readers the good news is that these novels fit into Alastair’s grand scheme of Revelation Space, a Future History of rise and fall, ambition and decay, in the finest traditions of Iain M Banks’ Culture or even Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series. In Alastair’s setting, these novels are prequels, happening before the events that are in his novels like Chasm City. The Melding Plague catastrophe that will befall the thousands of orbital habitats grouped together as The Glitter Band has not yet happened, although there are intriguing little snippets throughout these books that things are not going to end well.
In Elysium Fire it is now two years after the Aurora Event (told in Aurora Rising). The characters we met in the first book return, older and wiser and still defending law and order when needs be. Deputy Tom Dreyfus is back as a Chief Prefect (detective), his boss, Supreme Prefect Jane Aumonier, and Dreyfus’s fellow officers to whom he is a mentor, Thalia Ng & a genetically enhanced ‘hyper pig’ Sparver Bancal.
Elysium Fire begins with a series of sudden deaths amongst the Glitter Band citizens. There seems to be no pattern and no motive. None of the victims seem to be connected and they are all from different walks of life and different habitats. Dreyfus and his team are brought into this situation when Thalia is asked to retrieve one of the victim’s bodies. Dreyfus is told that this is not the first and there has been nearly fifty deaths so far. Worryingly, the incidents, referred to as “Wildfire”, are on the increase, with the time between each death shortening. Panoply has to try and determine cause and motive before the problem spreads across the Glitter Band and also stop it happening further.
As you can see, things have moved on since The Prefect, and not entirely for the better. The ‘Aurora Event’, and the way it was handled by Panoply, has led to a growing unease between the citizens and the law enforcement agency. We are seeing unrest across the Band, which Dreyfus and his team struggle to maintain control over. One of the most outspoken critics of Panoply is Devon Garlin, an evangelistic orator whose path keeps crossing with Dreyfus as he travels to different habitats. Dreyfus is convinced that Devon has something to do with Wildfire but cannot pin him down to anything specific.
Much of the novel is about this but there are subplots. One is about two twins, Caleb and Julius, whose mysterious upbringing has implications for the old families of the Band and will no doubt be connected to future events. We also have the return of Aurora, whose involvement in events is never simple.
This is being touted as a stand-alone novel. I am sure that it can be, but I appreciated re-reading Aurora Rising first. (In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I did something I rarely do these days and read two books in a series back-to-back.) This rereading showed me that with Elysium Fire how much Alastair has grown as a writer in the last decade. The characters here have grown in depth and complexity since The Prefect, and consequently our need to ‘see them right’ has grown with it. They are more fleshed out, more conflicted…. more human. As before, the setting is a wonderful conceit, all the more so when long-time readers know that eventually things will not be what they are here.
Elysium Fire hits the ground running and slowly and cleverly connects what seem to be disparate aspects of the novel. By the end the issues of the book resolve themselves and set things up nicely for future stories.
When I reviewed The Prefect I did say I would hope that there would be more in this series. Elysium Fire shows that it was right to return to this universe and that there is potential for more stories in Revelation Space. I hope that it’ll not be ten years.
This was okay, nothing more. Very clearly Brexit-influenced in its politics it just sort of trundled along at a sedate pace until it was done. Not up to his usual high standards.
Good script. Be warned he shifts perspectives without putting asterisks between Paragraphs. Interesting.
3.5 I didn't realise when I started this that it is the second book in a series but I still enjoyed reading it. Although I would have benefited from reading the first book, it isn't absolutely necessary. The plot is compelling, the writing is good and the characters are well written. Reynold's does a great job at creating tension and suspense throughout this book. Overall I enjoyed this book and am interested to read more from this author.
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes