Revelation Space is my first time being exposed to Alastair Reynolds and his full-length novel debut. As such, it comes with the flaws or characteristics we would normally associate with a first novel. What is not as common, as we SF fans can attest, is that within the pages of Revelation Space there is enough sign of efficacious and compelling writing and ideas to warrant looking into subsequent works by the author (reading Chasm City now).
In the beginning portions of Revelation Space, the theme is one of alternation. Reynolds starts off with 3 POV’s, all in different locales, and within these POV’s we also experience shifts in time which the reader will do well to note in the headers of the chapters, to avoid getting the where and when mixed up. Due to these elements at the novel’s start, I have seen some describe the novel in a negative sense as disjointed, a notion I disagree with it – it is, however, annoying. I didn’t find it difficult in the least to comprehend what was going on, nor was I in the least bit in danger of getting “lost”. In fact, I truly appreciated this portion of the novel as later in the storyline the 3 POV characters share essentially the same setting. Thus the beginning of the novel affords the reader more diversity, in both description and character development, as the later central-shared experience, which although is interesting, at times doesn’t justify or warrant such attention – it just felt a little excessive at that point.
The 3 POV characters are Dan Sylveste, Ana Khouri, and Ilya Volyova. Sylveste has dedicated his life work as an archaeologist to the study of the Amarantin, a mysterious avarian species who once inhabited the planet, Resurgam, that he and a community of humans currently populate. Sylveste’s specific interest in the Amarantin is the study of the species’ last days, brought on by what is termed Even”. Even with the other aforementioned POV’s who get ample time, Sylveste is the chief character of the novel, and it would be a drastic understatement to describe Sylveste as merely passionate about his goals; it would still be such to say he was relentlessly tenacious, and resolute in his adamant, monomaniacal quest to unravel the mystery.
Meanwhile, Ana Khouri, a former soldier with a rising reputation as an assassin, receives a Brando-like offer. The early chapters with Khouri are among the ones I enjoyed the most, as through her we get a glimpse of the backdrop of Chasm City. Although Reynolds shows a habit of untimely overloads with information concerning significant plot points that affected the novel’s pacing – just as many times, however, Reynolds exhibited admirable descriptive ability:
Once those skyscrapers had looked linear and symmetrical, until the plague made them grow madly, sprouting bulbous protrusions and tangled, leprous appendages. The buildings were all dead now, frozen into the shapes which seemed calculated to induce disquiet. Slums adhered to their sides, lower levels lost in a scaffolded maze of shanty towns and ramshackle bazaars, aglow with naked fires.
Admittedly, nobody is going to mistake the passage for a description of some segment of New Crobuzon, but it’s not dilettantish, either. Albeit too brief, the look into a part of the society of Chasm City was also enjoyable. Khouri is an assassin in a city where it’s none too uncommon to get contracted by the proposed victim themselves, and where a large number of the wealthy continually sleep in cryocrypts, waiting for a more fashionably appealing time to wake and continue their life. I was quite pleased to find out another work by Reynolds was called Chasm City , as the city’s description peaked my interest. Khouri infiltrates a lighthugger (spaceship), the Infinity, under the guise of someone looking for potential work to fulfill a mission, and in doing so hopes to restore a lost love and her past.
The third character is Volyova, an ultra, who along with being one of the three ranking members of a ship, is essentially the Infinity’s weaponsmaster – which is nothing to scoff at as the Infinity’s armaments include thousands of weapons, many of which are more than capable of wiping out entire planets. That said, some of the more powerful ones have not even been tested. Ultras are humans who revel in self-enhancements, whether blatant or unseen; ultras have become quite a bit more then what other humans have ascended to. The Infinity’s command crew (including Volyova) is called the Triumvir, currently being led by Sajaki, one of the most maddening characters in Revelation Space, because there are moments one would think this is the character who will give the story the extra edge, by either direct action or offering some revelation, but we have to settle for what in reality can be described as a series of wonderful cameo appearances.
A figure stood there, majestically silhouetted in the glare. The man was garbed in a black anklelength cloak and a vaguely defined helmet, the light making it resemble a halo cast around his head. His profile was split diagonally by a long smooth stick which he gripped two-handedly.
The Komuso stepped into the darkness. What looked like a kendo stick was only his shakuhachi; a traditional music instrument. With well-rehearsed rapidity he slid the thing into a sheath concealed behind the folds of his cloak. Then with imperial slowness, he removed the wicker helmet. The Komuso’s face was difficult to make out. His hair was brillaintined, slickly tied back in a scythe-shaped tail. His eyes were lost behind sleek assassin’s goggles, infared sensitive facets dully catching the room’s tinted light.
Sajaki is in command due to the Captain of the ship being infected with a particularly nasty virus that is actively melding him with the ship, a terminal process slowed down by freezing, yet not stopped. The Triumvir are searching the galaxy for the man who helped their captain before, the only man who has the means to do so…Sylveste.
It’s really not a lacking premise, and Reynolds ties plotlines together between the POVs quite well, though the hint of being contrived in some cases is present. After reading Revelation Space, I came away mindful of a lot of flaws: an abundance of peripheral characters who truly served no viable, story-enhancing purpose; the dialogue at times leaves something to be desired, often used as the vehicle for the aforementioned info dumps; and lastly, something that is usually a death blow, not only to any chance of me not condemning an author and my ability to enjoy a novel, or more aptly future novels by an author, Reynolds has a irritating and recurring habit of gifting his characters with “revelations’ regarding plot circumstances that he doesn’t feel inclined to privy the reader with simultaneously, forcing the reader to wait until the character announces it (often in one of the mentioned info dumps). Used sparingly, it is an effective literary tool – but in Revelation Space it is too standard. All that notwithstanding, I still came away with an overall positive opinion of the novel, and more than a mild interest to read Reynolds’ other work.
Reading the cover flap will reveal that Alastair Reynolds has a Ph.D in Astronomy, and although Reynolds goes into wonderful detail about the history of civilization in the universe, and has just enough technical language and invention to please fans of hard science fiction, Revelation Space is still accessible by most readers, not swaying from its Space Opera basis, yet at the same time offering characters that are not polarized in their nature and reduced to archetypes. That said, the characterization isn’t ideal, but it is more than adequate. Reynolds has some ideas which are just truly imaginative, populating the universe with concepts like Lascaille’s Shroud, an impenetrable boundary of unknown origin and purpose that drives intruders mad if it doesn’t simply kill them, named after the one man who had returned alive. Another example are the Pattern Jugglers, an aquatic species (literally), whose planets have oceans that are mind-modifying, in some cases amplifying a swimmer’s abilities. Reynolds also gives us a provocative answer to why intelligent civilizations aren’t as numerous as perhaps they should be. One of the aspects that makes Sylveste interesting is his “beta copy” of his father he has access to, and calls upon for advice at times, which in itself provides for some engaging conversation as, although there is a level of mutual respect between them, the father and son relationship is not always the most civil. Another mystery, the sentient intruder aboard the Infinity, whose named was found both from archeological studies of Sylveste and scribed amongst the possessions of a possessed madman Volyova was forced to kill.
Revelation Space, despite its flaws, offered more than enough evidence of competency as a debut novel, and in some instances of an intriguing imagination, to extend my reading of Mr. Reynolds’ work to at least one more book. An opinion that has proven to be a correct one, as I wrap up my reading of his next work Chasm City , a novel that improves upon, at least to some degree, all of the elements that I felt were lacking or needed tuning in Revelation Space.
Definitely a recommendable effort into a sometimes unjustly (certainly not all the time, however) much-maligned sub-genre; Reynolds’ work, along with a few other relatively current works by authors like John C. Wright, Peter F. Hamilton, Charles Stross, David Brinn, Brian Aldiss, and Ian Banks, are not only already bringing irrefutable respectability to Space Opera again, but also threaten in some cases (Banks) to set benchmarks of their own.
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Originally posted at the Bodhisattva in 2005
