Revelation Space

If Frank Herbert's Dune is an example of older science fiction literature of simpler narrative and shorter books, Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds is from the other end of the spectrum, being newer (though almost 24 years old too by now) and having three very disconnected (at least initially) layers. I had trouble keeping up with the fast-paced viewpoint switching early on in fact. Only around page 130 of the 700-page Finnish translation I noted myself having started to remember who's who.

Revelation Space kicks off Reynolds's eponymous series that currently includes 7 novels and numerous shorter works. Set in the 26th century, humanity has the technology to travel at near the speed of light and has started colonizing the galaxy. Some alien life has been encountered though not in forms you'd interact like with humans.

Humanity has formed factions though not every colony belongs to one. One of the factions are Ultranauts who crew interstellar spaceships, lighthuggers. They tend to practice extensive body modification with mechanical parts. The trend is common but doesn't apply to all Ultras. As such, one of the novel's viewpoints, Ilia Volyova doesn't make for as much for a typical Ultra due to lacking implants.

Ilia serves on the Nostalgia for Infinity, a lighthugger with a bare skeleton crew that seems way too small for a spacecraft so massive. Obviously most of the ship's functionality is automated but you get an impression of dark corridors and dilapidated sections whose purpose nobody knows.

The ship's captain is in a pretty pickle, being taken over by the Melding Plague, a nanotech virus that messes with human cells and machine implants. He's kept in cryosleep while the crew is trying to find someone to cure him (again).

Another viewpoint is Dan Sylveste, an archaeologist on Resurgam, a planet in the Delta Pavonis system. He's researching the disappearance of a species called Amarantin. His work gets hampered by local politics but despite being all tangled up, he eventually gets to make a breakthrough.

The third narrative strand is Ana Khouri, an assassin on the planet Yellowstone in the Epsilon Eridani system. Eventually all these seemingly unrelated storylines combine into one narrative.

Having read House of Suns and Pushing Ice, I would say Revelation Space is not Reynolds' best novel. It is his first published novel, though, so it's only natural he improved as he continued writing. Revelation Space's plot moves on too slowly and there's a complete lack of character arcs: they all remain the same as they started. Poor characterization is again, the typical fault in the science fiction genre that tends be more about the grand ideas -- just like Revelation Space.

I enjoyed the big revelation about what seems to be the foundational basis for the series: one of the possible explanations to the Fermi paradox. One of the scarier ones, I might add. I wonder if BioWare's writers were aware of this series when creating the Mass Effect games.

I didn't find any fault in the translation (by Hannu Tervaharju). Although I did find the word 'wetware' amusing. Apparently the word has no established term in Finnish.