Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by athena21
Elysium Fire by Alastair Reynolds
5.0
Elysium Fire was a brilliantly creeping and engaging space opera. I'm not sure how creepy it's meant to be, but I have a (genuine) fear of abandoned space stations and they visit about 4 over the course of this novel. It's nice to see the characters from Aurora Rising fleshed out a little more, especially Sparver, although I wish we'd seen a bit more of Thalia. The story it tells is complicated, told across two different timeframes, with many different POVs. Somehow, it still doesn't feel crazy fast-paced, which is both a blessing and a curse. It did take me forever to finish, but it's also impressive that 400 pages that were jam-packed with plot didn't feel hurried. The twists & turns of the story are great - some are guessable, some will have you kicking yourself, and others come totally out of the blue. I really was still guessing right up until the end - and I mean the end as the book ends on a slightly ambiguous note. Honestly, I wish the ending had been a little clearer, as my understanding is there isn't a direct sequel to Elysium Fire meaning we'll be left with some of these loose threads forever. That being said, the main storyline itself is wrapped up well, and it can be nice to really have the impression of this just being a small snapshot of the life in the Glitter Band. Where the last book had a lot of interesting exploration of democracy, this one had a number of moral/ethical quandaries that I also found really fascinating. All in all, I thought this was a really great complex story, and I'm so glad I finally read it.
(Also: I must give kudos to Reynolds for the diversity of this novel. You'd think that would be kind of obvious in a sci-fi novel - they're in the future AND in space - but it can actually be really rare. I was so goddamn excited to see a non-binary character in sci-fi - good work Alistair)
Spoiler
Aurora and the Clockmaker are still out there and they're not sure who is inhabiting a body at the end?? (it's complicated to explain)(Also: I must give kudos to Reynolds for the diversity of this novel. You'd think that would be kind of obvious in a sci-fi novel - they're in the future AND in space - but it can actually be really rare. I was so goddamn excited to see a non-binary character in sci-fi - good work Alistair)