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3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
Least favorite of the series. Still well written, decent performance in audio version by John Lee, but story was mediocre. If I didn't have a long and loving history with this series I'd have forgotten this book easily.
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
There are several turns and twists to this detective novel in space. I got a few right, but missed most. Maybe next time...
3.5 stars rounded up. I love Reynolds' writing and stories but this wasn't my favorite. All of the cool sci-fi elements and tech seemed old and what remained was just a detective mystery. It was a good mystery but outside of the the there wasn't much exciting happening. I feel like Reynolds, along with his editing team, is coasting a bit. I know that is a callous, what have you done for me lately, reader attitude, but the books I buy cost money and I have expectations. Revenger has not gotten rave reviews and I don't know if I will pick that up. If this is the first/only review of a Reynolds book you have read, go pick up House of Suns, Pushing Ice, Chasm city or Revelation Space. They are all awesome!
Spoiler
space mine flooding thing
Another solid entry in the Revelation Space universe. While I prefer the more far flung stories in that setting to being locked to the Glitter Band, Reynolds is still one of the best scifi/space opera storytellers out there. EF could have used better editing. Lots of typos and misplaced words. This seems to be a trend in publishing lately, even with big name publishers. It's rather disheartening to have a great story marred by lackluster editing.
Reynolds leaves MANY open ends to The Prefect (Aurora Rising) and Elysium Fire. Aurora, Clockmaker, Caleb/Julius, the entire coming of the melding plague. I foresee more Dreyfus stories in the future, and I suspect, and hope, it leads to the ultimate emergency of how the melding plague originated.
To date the standalone House of Suns is still my favorite Reynolds novel, even though I love the RS universe as a whole.
Reynolds leaves MANY open ends to The Prefect (Aurora Rising) and Elysium Fire. Aurora, Clockmaker, Caleb/Julius, the entire coming of the melding plague. I foresee more Dreyfus stories in the future, and I suspect, and hope, it leads to the ultimate emergency of how the melding plague originated.
To date the standalone House of Suns is still my favorite Reynolds novel, even though I love the RS universe as a whole.
TL:DR: A reasonable sequel to [b:The Prefect|89195|The Prefect (Prefect Dreyfus Emergency, #1)|Alastair Reynolds|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327988786l/89195._SX50_.jpg|3102565], definitely worth a read if you enjoyed that, but also definitely not as good. DO NOT READ THIS BOOK, OR REVIEW BEFORE The Prefect! Spoilers abound!
TL: Elysium Fire picks up almost directly after the, now renamed, [b:Aurora Rising|35830705|Aurora Rising (Prefect Dreyfus Emergency, #1)|Alastair Reynolds|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1501066815l/35830705._SY75_.jpg|3102565] (nee The Prefect). It's slightly more just-after the short story [b:Open and Shut|37835151|Open and Shut|Alastair Reynolds|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-a91bf249278a81aabab721ef782c4a74.png|59519304] (in which we learn that Jane Aumonier is recovering nicely from her decapitation). Elysium Fire takes place in 2429, two years after the events in The Prefect, and a considerable portion of the cast have come along for the ride, specifically Dreyfus, Ng, Bancal, Aumonier and, rather bizarrely (I thought), Aurora. It continues the "< href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_procedural">police procedural in space" theme and contains very similar elements including the use of flashbacks (although they're full-on flashbacks, not just retellings of historical events) and about a millionty different characters.
The story starts from the perspective of a child in a bedroom, and the story oscillates between that child's perspective on past events and those of the "current day", which has Panoply (the Glitter Band equivalent to a federal police force, concerned mostly with ensuring that the instruments of society continue to function) dealing with several crises including a secessionist demagogue pushing habitats out of Panoply's protection and a spate of deaths involving the seemingly random inside-out cooking of Glitter Band residents! Both plots hook successfully, and the narrative is well told without the curse that often comes with this kind of narrative, the "don't swap now I need to know what's going on here" problem.
Whilst I did enjoy this book, it did feel very much like The Prefect 2.0, but with annoyances. I find this quite surprising because Reynolds had 10 years between the two books to mature, but I felt like The Prefect was better written! My major gripe with this book was that several of the characters appeared to have had personality-transplants between the two books - this was especially jarring when read back-to-back. Sparver and Thalia in particular, both individually and in terms of their relationship just seemed...wrong, based on what they went through in The Prefect. Sparver's petulance in the first half of the book just feels terribly wrong, and the justification for it that pops up half-way through very much does nothing to actually justify it. Second in line: Aurora. This is edging into spoiler territory, so I don't want to say much, but I felt that she was a very different entity to the Aurora from The Prefect, I don't care what's going on between her and the Clockmaker, it doesn't explain what we see here, and I definitely don't think that the interactions between Dreyfuss and Aurora make sense at all!
That leads in to my other main issue: the "villain" of this story is very much a capital-v stereotypical Filler Villain. A lot of work went into trying to justify things and a very (perhaps too) convoluted plot tries to make them more relatable, but it doesn't work, and with that, the ending lacks any real emotional punch and the whole filler-villain thing is emphasised as the main protagonist for the third (final?) Dreyfus book is teased at the end.
That's a lot of whining, so I feel like I should make it clear that I was quite happy with this book! It's still a 3-star "liked it" kinda deal, but it's well short of the 4-star quality of The Prefect.
TL: Elysium Fire picks up almost directly after the, now renamed, [b:Aurora Rising|35830705|Aurora Rising (Prefect Dreyfus Emergency, #1)|Alastair Reynolds|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1501066815l/35830705._SY75_.jpg|3102565] (nee The Prefect). It's slightly more just-after the short story [b:Open and Shut|37835151|Open and Shut|Alastair Reynolds|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-a91bf249278a81aabab721ef782c4a74.png|59519304] (in which we learn that Jane Aumonier is recovering nicely from her decapitation). Elysium Fire takes place in 2429, two years after the events in The Prefect, and a considerable portion of the cast have come along for the ride, specifically Dreyfus, Ng, Bancal, Aumonier and, rather bizarrely (I thought), Aurora. It continues the "< href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_procedural">police procedural in space" theme and contains very similar elements including the use of flashbacks (although they're full-on flashbacks, not just retellings of historical events) and about a millionty different characters.
The story starts from the perspective of a child in a bedroom, and the story oscillates between that child's perspective on past events and those of the "current day", which has Panoply (the Glitter Band equivalent to a federal police force, concerned mostly with ensuring that the instruments of society continue to function) dealing with several crises including a secessionist demagogue pushing habitats out of Panoply's protection and a spate of deaths involving the seemingly random inside-out cooking of Glitter Band residents! Both plots hook successfully, and the narrative is well told without the curse that often comes with this kind of narrative, the "don't swap now I need to know what's going on here" problem.
Whilst I did enjoy this book, it did feel very much like The Prefect 2.0, but with annoyances. I find this quite surprising because Reynolds had 10 years between the two books to mature, but I felt like The Prefect was better written! My major gripe with this book was that several of the characters appeared to have had personality-transplants between the two books - this was especially jarring when read back-to-back. Sparver and Thalia in particular, both individually and in terms of their relationship just seemed...wrong, based on what they went through in The Prefect. Sparver's petulance in the first half of the book just feels terribly wrong, and the justification for it that pops up half-way through very much does nothing to actually justify it. Second in line: Aurora. This is edging into spoiler territory, so I don't want to say much, but I felt that she was a very different entity to the Aurora from The Prefect, I don't care what's going on between her and the Clockmaker, it doesn't explain what we see here, and I definitely don't think that the interactions between Dreyfuss and Aurora make sense at all!
That leads in to my other main issue: the "villain" of this story is very much a capital-v stereotypical Filler Villain. A lot of work went into trying to justify things and a very (perhaps too) convoluted plot tries to make them more relatable, but it doesn't work, and with that, the ending lacks any real emotional punch and the whole filler-villain thing is emphasised as the main protagonist for the third (final?) Dreyfus book is teased at the end.
That's a lot of whining, so I feel like I should make it clear that I was quite happy with this book! It's still a 3-star "liked it" kinda deal, but it's well short of the 4-star quality of The Prefect.
My second Prefect Dreyfus novel is a detective novel set in the Revelation Space Universe of Reynold's sci-fi series and acts as standalone book. Like the first, it follows a familiar formula and we see the return of some of my favorite characters from the first, Jane Aumonier, Talia Ng, and the man/pig Sparver. Alternating timelines, one dealing with a set of twins with unusual powers and the present day unexplained deaths in the Glitter Band, eventually converge as Dreyfus and Panoply proceed through the investigation. The narration in the audiobook by John Lee is excellent and I can't imagine these characters without his interpretation.