Book 26: "Redemption Ark" by Alastair Reynolds
Thursday, July 1st, 2010 21:31![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kittiwakeKhouri broke the silence, unable to wait any longer. ‘What is it, Ilia? Good news or bad?’
‘Knowing my track record, what do you think?’
‘A wild stab in the dark? Bad news. Very bad news indeed.’
‘Got it in one.’
‘It’s the Inhibitors, isn’t it?’
‘Sorry to be so predictable, but there you are.’
‘They’re here?’
‘I think so.’ Volyova’s voice had dropped low now. ‘Something is happening, anyway. I’ve seen it myself.’
‘Tell me about it.’
Volyova’s voice, if anything, became quieter still. Khouri had to strain to hear it. ‘Machines, Ana, huge black machines. They’ve entered the system. I never saw them actually arrive. They were just … here.’
Khouri had tasted the minds of those machines briefly, feeling the furious predatory chill of ancient recordings. They were like the minds of pack animals, ancient and patient and drawn to the dark. Their minds were mazes of instinct and hungry intelligence, utterly unencumbered by sympathy or emotion. They howled across the silent steppes of the galaxy to each other, summoning themselves in great numbers when the bloody stench of life again troubled their wintry sleep.
‘Dear God.’
‘We can’t say we weren’t expecting them, Ana. From the moment Sylveste started fiddling around with things he didn’t understand, it was only a matter of when and where.’
This is basically a sequel to ""Revelation Space", although there are also references to the events of "Chasm CIty". Ilia Volyova and Ana Khouri are still in the Delta Pavonis system , keeping an eye on the Inhibitors and planning how to use the hell weapons against them, while also making plans for the evacuation of Resurgam. But the Conjoiners have also found out about the Inhibitors, who they call Wolves, and want their hell weapons back to use against them, so the scene is set for conflict.
Since all factions are limited to sub light speed travel, the book really gives you a feeling of just how large the distances are, and the long timescale involved in travelling between solar systems. When Clavain is chasing Skade's ship towards Resurgam, they each have years to try to destroy the other's ship, or at least damage it enough to prevent it from reaching their destination.
After various angst-ridden wrongdoers gain redemption, the story ends quite abruptly, with Clavin waking from suspended animation and being given a quick recap of all the exciting things that have happened while he was asleep, giving the impression that the author got carried away by his love ofcar spaceship chases and didn't have time to fit everything else in. But it leaves plenty of scope for another sequel, with Khouri leading a on a mission to the neutron star to consult Dan Sylveste about how to fight the Inhibitors,while Clavain and the others land on a planet to wait for their return in twenty years' time.
‘Knowing my track record, what do you think?’
‘A wild stab in the dark? Bad news. Very bad news indeed.’
‘Got it in one.’
‘It’s the Inhibitors, isn’t it?’
‘Sorry to be so predictable, but there you are.’
‘They’re here?’
‘I think so.’ Volyova’s voice had dropped low now. ‘Something is happening, anyway. I’ve seen it myself.’
‘Tell me about it.’
Volyova’s voice, if anything, became quieter still. Khouri had to strain to hear it. ‘Machines, Ana, huge black machines. They’ve entered the system. I never saw them actually arrive. They were just … here.’
Khouri had tasted the minds of those machines briefly, feeling the furious predatory chill of ancient recordings. They were like the minds of pack animals, ancient and patient and drawn to the dark. Their minds were mazes of instinct and hungry intelligence, utterly unencumbered by sympathy or emotion. They howled across the silent steppes of the galaxy to each other, summoning themselves in great numbers when the bloody stench of life again troubled their wintry sleep.
‘Dear God.’
‘We can’t say we weren’t expecting them, Ana. From the moment Sylveste started fiddling around with things he didn’t understand, it was only a matter of when and where.’
This is basically a sequel to ""Revelation Space", although there are also references to the events of "Chasm CIty". Ilia Volyova and Ana Khouri are still in the Delta Pavonis system , keeping an eye on the Inhibitors and planning how to use the hell weapons against them, while also making plans for the evacuation of Resurgam. But the Conjoiners have also found out about the Inhibitors, who they call Wolves, and want their hell weapons back to use against them, so the scene is set for conflict.
Since all factions are limited to sub light speed travel, the book really gives you a feeling of just how large the distances are, and the long timescale involved in travelling between solar systems. When Clavain is chasing Skade's ship towards Resurgam, they each have years to try to destroy the other's ship, or at least damage it enough to prevent it from reaching their destination.
After various angst-ridden wrongdoers gain redemption, the story ends quite abruptly, with Clavin waking from suspended animation and being given a quick recap of all the exciting things that have happened while he was asleep, giving the impression that the author got carried away by his love of
