The Prefect (Aurora Rising)

And back to the Revelation Space again...

The Prefect is not a continuation to the Inhibitor Sequence, however, instead taking its reader back in time -- assuming they've been going through the series in publication order -- to Yellowstone in its golden age, before the Melding Plague. The novel's name was later changed to Aurora Rising but that didn't make it to the translated print I read.

The titular prefect is Tom Dreyfus, a field prefect who has passed a promotion to a senior prefect more than once. He and his fellow prefects form the police force for the Glitter Band which is a collection of thousands of huge habitats that orbit Yellowstone. The habitats police themselves in most matters: the only things the prefects will step in to enforce are citizens' right to vote and their access to the abstraction, a cyberspace network present everywhere.

I had only seen the translated name of the Glitter Band before just now checking this novel's Wikipedia article: I had expected it to be 'diamond belt' like it's been translated into Finnish (by Hannu Tervaharju). Also: the prefects' base is called 'Sotisopa' in Finnish and I couldn't figure out what it would be in English -- evidently it's Panoply. The translated name matches panoply in its 'complete suit of armor' meaning.

Having just read Blue Remembered Earth with its surprisingly well characterized protagonists, it was a bit disappointing to again see the typical scifi literature cast of characters of little depth. The Prefect is 5 years older than BRE, though, so maybe that's a thing Alastair Reynolds starts improving after some point in his bibliography.

Dreyfus is a cool character, though: highly professional and composed. In fact, he's so composed, that after he solves a pretty big mystery about himself towards the end, there isn't any kind of discernible change to this persona. The rest of the cast is shallow. For instance, the only thing one of Dreyfus's deputies, Thalia Ng, has going for her is the distrust about everyone else in the Panoply has towards her due to her late father and how she deals with it. Then there is one of the antagonists whose simplicity borders implausibility.

I feel the now much developed setting carries The Prefect. I would say the plot is engaging but you sure meet all the familiar features of the Revelation Space: Conjoiners, Ultras, hyperpigs etc. They're all as expected. The main plot stems from the Eighty -- who were mentioned already in the first book of the series -- unfortunate volunteers in Calvin Sylveste's attempt to create an alpha-level simulation of a human mind.

There are some new concepts visited, too. Thalia travels to four of the Glitter Band's habitats to upload a security patch to their local abstractions. Each of the habitats has their own society and way of life. The most interesting concept is probably the last one: House Aubusson's (I think it was) people live off from casting votes in matters that concern the Band. If one's vote turns to have been for a beneficial decision, the citizen's future votes gain weight, becoming more than 1 vote's worth. House Aubusson's citizens are all well above 1.0 value: I think they had a minimum requirement of 1.5 for citizenship.

Because their votes are more valuable than average Band citizen's, they are primary targets for lobbying. However, House Aubusson's folks can't just take every offer: if a vote ends up being detrimental, their vote's value goes down. I thought the idea was really interesting. It would probably take a pretty complex system to execute in real life: how to determine what was a good decision and what wasn't.

Of all the Revelation Space novels so far, The Prefect has been the one that felt most written with a sequel in mind. The Aurora issue was not truly solved and the Melding Plague probably meant to be visited at its first appearance later. Funnily enough, it took 11 years until Reynolds returned to Dreyfus in 2018 with Elysium Fire.

Edited 2024-11-23: Fixed typos and language.