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A review by nataliya_x
Inhibitor Phase by Alastair Reynolds
4.0
I kept coming across Alastair Reynolds’ name in the reviews of a few trusted SF-reading friends for a while, and eventually gave him a try myself — and yeah, I found his hard-ish SF books fascinating but honestly difficult, a read you have to work for. So maybe it’s why up until now I’ve only read one book in his Inhibitor universe - just the first one, [b:Revelation Space|89187|Revelation Space (Revelation Space, #1)|Alastair Reynolds|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1405532042l/89187._SY75_.jpg|219037], and my memory of it is beyond murky since I neglected to review it (see, that’s why I write reviews - so that there’s a more permanent account of my memory of the book rather than my apparently unreliable brain).
When approaching an established series from an almost-newbie vantage point, you risk being hopelessly lost. Lucky for me, Reynolds kindly provides a brief orientation for the newbies on this universe set-up (and if you flip to the back, there are quite a few details filled in in the glossary - although it’s spoilers galore for the rest of the series), and eventually my vague memory of [b:Revelation Space|89187|Revelation Space (Revelation Space, #1)|Alastair Reynolds|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1405532042l/89187._SY75_.jpg|219037] did resurface in bits and pieces, helping me along (that uber-weird John the Revelator, for instance). Plus Reynolds showed things just well enough for the reader to be able to piece things together nicely — and yet it is done without any obvious handholding. Yes, I missed a few Easter eggs there (as I’ve learned from Revelation Space wiki later), but it did not affect the understanding and enjoyment of the story, and that says quite a bit about Reynolds’ skill as a storyteller.
It’s a tight book, despite its respectable size and the action taking place across lightyears and centuries. It steadily builds up and expands its scale in the ever-growing crescendo. It’s full of ideas that are smart, sharp and very strange — just wrap your mind around hyperpigs or Pattern Jugglers and ocean intelligences (was that a nod to [b:Solaris|95558|Solaris|Stanisław Lem|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1498631519l/95558._SX50_.jpg|3333881], perhaps?) or John the Revelator or whatever Glass actually is.
It is the tried and true narrative form - a quest for relics (McGuffin, yes — but who cares?) to save the world, carried out by a ragtag band of survivors, but it’s done on a vast scale and with the entirety of whatever’s left of formerly spacefaring humanity at stake, and against a seemingly unbeatable foe for which millions of years might as well be eyeblinks. It’s rooting for ultimate underdog on cosmic scale — but scientifically enhanced underdogs in possession of lighthuggers and near-invincible spacesuits and implanted neural networks. And the world’s creepiest and most revolting interrupted space barbecue (yeah, I’m using levity here to distance myself from the horror).
It’s a cruel and bleak world that Reynolds depicts. And it’s populated by characters who are cold, cruel and unlikable — until you realize that despite all that you have formed connections with them and that you learned to see through gruff and offputting exterior to shreds of decency underneath.
It was a slow read for me, but overall quite enjoyable. Reynolds avoids the omnipresent elsewhere excitement of humor or sex or space battles, instead focusing on doggedly determined pursuit of the goal, friendship and alliance bonds and grim seriousness — and it all works very well for the atmosphere here.
And yes, I will have to return to this universe starting with the reread of [b:Revelation Space|89187|Revelation Space (Revelation Space, #1)|Alastair Reynolds|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1405532042l/89187._SY75_.jpg|219037] and going on to actually meet all those people present here in tantalizing glimpses.
4 stars.
————
Thanks to NetGalley and Orbit Books for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.
——————
Also posted on my blog.
“All our human adventuring was no more than a scuff on the final page; unwarranted, barely noticed.”
When approaching an established series from an almost-newbie vantage point, you risk being hopelessly lost. Lucky for me, Reynolds kindly provides a brief orientation for the newbies on this universe set-up (and if you flip to the back, there are quite a few details filled in in the glossary - although it’s spoilers galore for the rest of the series), and eventually my vague memory of [b:Revelation Space|89187|Revelation Space (Revelation Space, #1)|Alastair Reynolds|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1405532042l/89187._SY75_.jpg|219037] did resurface in bits and pieces, helping me along (that uber-weird John the Revelator, for instance). Plus Reynolds showed things just well enough for the reader to be able to piece things together nicely — and yet it is done without any obvious handholding. Yes, I missed a few Easter eggs there (as I’ve learned from Revelation Space wiki later), but it did not affect the understanding and enjoyment of the story, and that says quite a bit about Reynolds’ skill as a storyteller.
After reading this, I ended up perusing Revelation Space wiki, which in addition to spoilers for the rest of the series (and before you gasp, I could not care less about spoilers; it’s my reading quirk) also gave me an insight into what happens after the events covered in this book, as it apparently fits somewhere in the last half of the timeline of that world — and all in an say is - okay then. Alastair Reynolds has a definition of optimism that’s different from standard.
About eight centuries in the future the human society, after briefly flourishing interstellarly and surviving the Melding Plague, has fallen prey to the Inhibitors (a.k.a. “the wolves”) - ancient entities working on eliminating spacefaring civilizations. Humanity now survives in tiny hidden pockets as the former hubs of life have been destroyed and ruins of former space habitats drift lifelessly, looking at eventual full extinction. Of course, there are those who find ways to fight back, and given far far future, there are enough ultra-augmented humans (and bioengineered sentient pig descendants, actually) to come up with a way to resist.
“We saw the lights go out, you and I. We have seen the ships stop flying and the worlds fall into silence. One by one we have watched the beacons of civilisation gutter into darkness. We have stood vigil in the twilight. There is no future for us now except a few squalid centuries, and only then if we are very lucky. But the Incantor buys us possibility. It hinges our history onto another track. It may be better, it may even be worse, but the one thing we can be sure of is that it will be different. And if after a few centuries we begin to understand that there have been consequences to our use of the Incantor, we shall meet them. We shall pay for our actions. But we shall have lived, and that is better than the alternative.”
It’s a tight book, despite its respectable size and the action taking place across lightyears and centuries. It steadily builds up and expands its scale in the ever-growing crescendo. It’s full of ideas that are smart, sharp and very strange — just wrap your mind around hyperpigs or Pattern Jugglers and ocean intelligences (was that a nod to [b:Solaris|95558|Solaris|Stanisław Lem|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1498631519l/95558._SX50_.jpg|3333881], perhaps?) or John the Revelator or whatever Glass actually is.
It is the tried and true narrative form - a quest for relics (McGuffin, yes — but who cares?) to save the world, carried out by a ragtag band of survivors, but it’s done on a vast scale and with the entirety of whatever’s left of formerly spacefaring humanity at stake, and against a seemingly unbeatable foe for which millions of years might as well be eyeblinks. It’s rooting for ultimate underdog on cosmic scale — but scientifically enhanced underdogs in possession of lighthuggers and near-invincible spacesuits and implanted neural networks. And the world’s creepiest and most revolting interrupted space barbecue (yeah, I’m using levity here to distance myself from the horror).
It’s a cruel and bleak world that Reynolds depicts. And it’s populated by characters who are cold, cruel and unlikable — until you realize that despite all that you have formed connections with them and that you learned to see through gruff and offputting exterior to shreds of decency underneath.
“We’re fighting monsters. We don’t have to become monsters ourselves.”
It was a slow read for me, but overall quite enjoyable. Reynolds avoids the omnipresent elsewhere excitement of humor or sex or space battles, instead focusing on doggedly determined pursuit of the goal, friendship and alliance bonds and grim seriousness — and it all works very well for the atmosphere here.
And yes, I will have to return to this universe starting with the reread of [b:Revelation Space|89187|Revelation Space (Revelation Space, #1)|Alastair Reynolds|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1405532042l/89187._SY75_.jpg|219037] and going on to actually meet all those people present here in tantalizing glimpses.
“Presumably none of their previous funeral ceremonies had had to contend with an overly loquacious pig, and they had no contingency in place.”
4 stars.
————
Thanks to NetGalley and Orbit Books for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.
——————
Also posted on my blog.