Alastair Reynolds writes space opera. The same could be said of Peter F Hamilton. However, whereas Hamilton's space opera has the vague hint of detergent to its aroma, Reynolds is pure Wagnerian Ring Cycle.
This is the heavy stuff. Which is unsurprising, since Reynolds' day job was as a physicist at the European Space Agency.
You start off with Revelation Space, then shift back in time for instalment two, Chasm City. Then it's Redemption Ark and then it's Absolution Gap. There's also some short stories: Diamond Dogs and Turquoise Days, Galactic North and another freestanding novel, The Prefect.
The central premise of Revelation Space is this: all across the galaxy, as human space-faring civilisation has spread, they come across remnants of ancient civilisations, all of whom have suddenly died out just as you'd expect them to have taken off completely. And, it transpires, there's a reason for this: The Inhibitors exist solely to stamp out any race that looks as though it's getting too big/too advanced. And the humans are just about to come up against that particular non-negotiable barrier.
Revelation Space is a hard, gritty universe peopled by characters who are, on the whole, not universally likeable. But they're excellent characters, with wonderfully duplicitous motivations running through almost each and every one.
The other really neat thing about Revelation Space is that Reynolds doesn't allow faster-than-light travel. And runs with the implications of this: vis, if it takes 40 years to reach a distant colony, then conditions there are going to be 80 years out of step with the latest possible news you had of your destination as you set out (the ship bearing the latest tidings arrived in port 40 years after setting out, and you, just setting off, are going to take 40 years to get there). Which means that things can change.
In particular, The Glitter Band, the high-living high-flying (literally) marker of Chasm City's belle epoch, succumbs to the Melding Plague, and becomes the Rustbelt - an orbiting collection of derelict junk, confusing passengers disembarking, expecting to be arriving at the absolute pinnacle of society.
So many things to talk about with these books, so many stories that cross the novels, and you very slowly build up a picture of the Universe that Reynolds has created. But it's mesmerising stuff.
However, they're also a long, hard slog of a read, and I maintain this suspicion that each tome (short stories aside) is about 20% over-written.
This is the heavy stuff. Which is unsurprising, since Reynolds' day job was as a physicist at the European Space Agency.
You start off with Revelation Space, then shift back in time for instalment two, Chasm City. Then it's Redemption Ark and then it's Absolution Gap. There's also some short stories: Diamond Dogs and Turquoise Days, Galactic North and another freestanding novel, The Prefect.
The central premise of Revelation Space is this: all across the galaxy, as human space-faring civilisation has spread, they come across remnants of ancient civilisations, all of whom have suddenly died out just as you'd expect them to have taken off completely. And, it transpires, there's a reason for this: The Inhibitors exist solely to stamp out any race that looks as though it's getting too big/too advanced. And the humans are just about to come up against that particular non-negotiable barrier.
Revelation Space is a hard, gritty universe peopled by characters who are, on the whole, not universally likeable. But they're excellent characters, with wonderfully duplicitous motivations running through almost each and every one.
The other really neat thing about Revelation Space is that Reynolds doesn't allow faster-than-light travel. And runs with the implications of this: vis, if it takes 40 years to reach a distant colony, then conditions there are going to be 80 years out of step with the latest possible news you had of your destination as you set out (the ship bearing the latest tidings arrived in port 40 years after setting out, and you, just setting off, are going to take 40 years to get there). Which means that things can change.
In particular, The Glitter Band, the high-living high-flying (literally) marker of Chasm City's belle epoch, succumbs to the Melding Plague, and becomes the Rustbelt - an orbiting collection of derelict junk, confusing passengers disembarking, expecting to be arriving at the absolute pinnacle of society.
So many things to talk about with these books, so many stories that cross the novels, and you very slowly build up a picture of the Universe that Reynolds has created. But it's mesmerising stuff.
However, they're also a long, hard slog of a read, and I maintain this suspicion that each tome (short stories aside) is about 20% over-written.
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