Revelation Space [Paperback]

I am conflicted by this book. On the one hand, Reynolds brilliantly imagines far-future human societies (like the genetically modified space-faring Ultras), giant, intelligent spaceships (like the miles-long Nostalgia For Infinity, partially taken over by a virus that feeds on computers), ancient alien races, and all the necessary technology to make these believable. In the hands of a better writer, the components - the content - of this book would be downright incredible.
However, Reynolds is not a good writer. His characters exist merely to move the story forward. I don't think any of the main three could seriously be called "heroes". It doesn't matter to me that they're all working against each other at certain times, but none of them ever seems real enough. Sylveste is a slightly egomaniacal scientist obsessed with uncovering the mystery of the disappearance of a race of aliens thousands of years ago. Ana Khouri is a mercenary hired by a mysterious stranger to kill Sylveste. Volyova is the commander (sort of) of a giant starship (mentioned above) that is also searching for Sylveste, because she needs his help. Beyond that, they are interchangeable. Only their motivations differ - they speak in the exact same voice, and their actions are hardly distinctive. You wouldn't recognize these characters if you happened to meet them anywhere else; they're just plot devices, and that is incredibly irritating.
The book takes about 200 pages too much in getting its plot worked out. It's very long, and I'm not sure how much of that length is really essential to the whole. Reynolds spends a lot of time with flashbacks - not important ones, just brief ones to tell you what a character was doing ten minutes before he/she was doing something else. Utterly superfluous. Another problem is his consistent use of passive sentences - even when there was intense action going on, it didn't feel intense. Instead of writing "Khouri walked down the hall", Reynolds writes "Khouri WAS walking down the hall." The overuse of the passive voice robs the story of immediacy and action.
Overall, I enjoyed this book, though on an entirely conceptual level. It was a painful chore to read (you have to make it to the last few pages before he explains the specifics of his plot), and I don't think I'll bother with the sequels.

This was one of the first sci-fi books I ever read a number of years ago. I thoruougly enjoyed it and most (admittedly, not all) of the other books he wrote afterward. I then went on and experienced books by many other prominent sci-fi authors both old and new slowly filling three shelves of my book case and a page or two in my e-reader. After I felt I had a fairly well experienced palette I wanted to reread the older books to see how they held up.

The character dialogue is hugely believable, though I find that each character's vocabulary is equivilent to that of any other, which is a little odd. I would expect a little more differentiation in language usage from the captain of a ship to a student digging in the dirt. But at least it sounds like a conversation real people would have in a real world.

The characters are believable if you can accept that humanity is gradually getting darker with age. For the most part, they're all cynical bastards. The addage, "Birds of the feather, flock together" rings true here. No moralessly ambitious individual will ever find use for a not-at-all ambitious goody-two-shoes! Someone that knows how to get a job done will look for someone that can get the job done. So if it feels that the characters are flat and too similar, I disagree. They're similar in nature, but not character. If some characters appear flat it's because, I believe, they actually are but intentionally so. Half the characters spend their lives avoiding civilization, and desire little more than personal gain regardless of the consequences. They are understandably flat. Some will appear too shallow with little else worth living for because it's true. They are that way, and many people today are that way so it shouldn't be that unbelievable.

The story and the science is fun. If Alastair is accused of copying other authors' work, I challenge you to find an author with 100% original ideas. He takes the ideas he loves from author's he respects and creates his own story.

This book is a hell of a lot of fun. I enjoy it as much now as I did when I first read it many moons ago, and I've tasted many other works of science fiction literature since then to compare it to.
Thank you, Reynolds, for the sweet ride!

I was highly pleased when I finished reading 'Revelation Space' - not blown away, but very happy I took the time to read through this.

Many reviewers pointed out flat characters and a messy storyline. Maybe I've read more than my share of bad SF, but I found it was the case on neither account. The characters of Sylveste, Pascale, Khouri and Volyova can never truly be assigned a stereotype, and they sometimes acted in irrational ways that I found perfectly consistent with their backgrounds. The story does take time to evolve, but when it does, it poses a clever and interesting enigma that is satisfactorly unravelled at the end.

Storytelling-wise, this is not an earth-shattering novel; but it's a fine yarn. It reminded me of Clark's 'Rendezvous with Rama', in that much of the suspense and interest of the story lies in a mysterious alien artifact. This artifact generates a genuine sense of wonder and satisfaction at the originality of the concept.

Throughout the novel, Reynolds has sewn incredible concepts of far-future technology. These are too numerous to recount, but the descriptions of the strange life aboard the ship Nostalgia for Infinity was very satisfying in a 'Golden Age of SF' sense. Also of great interest are the (rare) aliens that populate Reynolds' universe: their evolution, motives and forms are quite refreshing and truly alien.

It might be a mistake to pick up this book hoping for a strong character-driven story. The characters are stronger than most SF novels, but they DO act in ways that further the plot instead of making absolute sense. But if you're interested in a genuinely original take on the future of mankind, as well as a thought-provoking reflection on life in the Universe, you could do much worse than pick up this book.