Order of the Golden Sprout The New Robert Rankin Fan Club

Revelation Space is first full length novel by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds. I'd put this firmly in the Space Opera bracket with some Hard SF leanings. I rather enjoyed this book on the whole, the main characters were interesting but not that likeable (maybe that's what made them interesting?) The set pieces and locations where well defined & moved the narrative on well, especially the final journey into they mysterious “moon”. Although the ending was a little disappointing ( but then the series does continue on in the next novel “Redemption Ark”).

The start of the book was excellent, with it's different characters being introduced over a variety of different places & time frames. I love stories that have several different strands alternating along, each time one section finished & the narrative changes I just want to get back to the previous one to find out more (it certainly helps you rattle through the pages). Unfortunately this did ease off a bit once everyone had met up and the story got moving though. Many of the Characters were made out to be nasty / vicious people, but whilst the violence was always bubbling under, the threats often didn't come to much. Alastair Reynolds certainly isn't afraid to kill off his creations, but I'd like to have seen a bit more mindless violence from time to time, making all the menace more believable. When people were killed of they tended to go in a sudden unexpected way, it should have been so much more brutal.

Funnily I've managed to get to the end of this review without mentioning any of the actual characters, places, ships of even much of the plot. Well if you want to find out about them I suggest you get a hold of the book & read it (or just check Wikipedia). Reynolds has just landed a 1 million pound, 10 year 10 book deal, so the guy must be doing something right...