Inhibitor Phase

Had I read Absolution Gap right when it came out in 2003, it would have been a long 18-year-wait to see if Nevil Clavain's last wish would lead to anything like I suspected. But because I read Gap just last year, I only had to wait until now that I got to reading Inhibitor Phase (which was published in 2021).

In the foreword, Alastair Reynolds tries to sell the novel as a standalone, it allegedly providing enough background information to be legible by itself. I say that the book is definitely a lot more meaningful if you've read the previous novels in the Inhibitor Sequence of the Revelation Space series and the short story Great Wall of Mars and maybe even Galactic North too. There are so many references to the earlier books.

Inhibitor Phase begins with a seemingly-new character Miguel de Ruyter. I found him highly suspicious from the start -- who is he really? Miguel is also a first person protagonist, which is new for the series that has had few different third person viewpoints per novel. Reynolds actually does a little twist with the perspective later. I think it could have been slightly more effective if Miguel hadn't been the sole protagonist.

Miguel is a member, and the de facto leader, of a human community hiding from the Inhibitor machines -- or the wolves as they are colloquially called. (The title of the novel's Finnish translation, Susien aika, means "time of the wolves".) The community has dug into an asteroid in a desolate system dubbed Michaelmas where they try to avoid sending out any signs of advanced technology for the wolves to detect. Unfortunately a lighthugger called Eulogy arrives into the system for whatever reason and Miguel alone is sent to destroy the ship before it starts causing problems by drawing attention. The Eulogy blows up but someone survives. And that someone has come for Miguel.

I guess it wouldn't've been a Reynolds novel if the cast didn't hate each other. What is it with the author and contempt-dripping character relationships? Glass is the person come to fetch Miguel and she sure does not like him nor Miguel her in turn. Glass's a Conjoiner, although an independent individual like Nevil Clavain. She also has a highly advanced Conjoiner ship named Scythe. I don't remember if it the ship's size was ever mentioned but I got the impression that it was stealthy, like corvette-sized, not kilometers long.

There's also a familiar hyperpig who goes by the name Pinky now -- and he doesn't like Miguel either, nicknaming him Stinky (or whatever it's in English). Lady Arek initially comes off hostile as well but her new name wasn't fooling me. At one point, Reynolds tries to trick the reader to believe Lady Arek perishes but I still remembered how she was present in the prologue and epilogue of Gap. In them, she observes stars shifting to shine greenish due to the greenflies, which are not yet a thing in this novel. Thus it was rather unlikely for her to die yet.

It's kind of futile how humanity is so desperately trying to survive the Inhibitors here yet the wolves are not even the ultimate threat that Reynolds outlined for the setting already back in the '90s, in Galactic North. I don't remember the details of that story anymore but I think the plan Glass has in this one will ultimately work -- for what it's worth.

Inhibitor Phase is an amalgamation of throwbacks to the whole series, featuring the same story elements and beats, same locations -- hello, Mars, Chasm City, and Ararat. One repeating element I always find bothersome is a ship carrying people in cryosleep. What should be done with them? Wake them up and leave them on some backwater planet or keep them aboard even though the ship's destination is anything but safe?

Reynolds's seemingly favorite imaginary people, the merfolk, returned as well, giving the novel its probably most unnecessary and dullest sequence on the side of the important part of dumping Miguel into the waters of Ararat so that he would remember what he needed to remember.

The book was enjoyable, largely due to the familiarity of the setting. I feel Revelation Space is pretty much explored enough, though, at least when it comes to the Inhibitors.

I have now read almost all of Reynolds books available here in libraries. There's still there a trio of novels in his Revenger universe. Wikipedia lists them as young adult fiction, though Reynolds himself doesn't seem to have outright intended them as such. I suppose it's not too much effort to check out at least the first one.