The Barnes & Noble Review
It's obvious that Welsh science fiction writer Alastair Reynolds -- a former astrophysicist with the European Space Agency -- likes to think big. Pushing Ice is a mind-blowing epic across time and space in which the crew of a mining ship is given a seemingly impossible task -- to catch up with a massive alien artifact speeding out of the solar system and somehow unlock its secrets before they're forced to return home.
When Bella Lind, captain of the Rockhopper, receives news that one of Saturn's moons has inexplicably broken free from its orbit and has begun to leave the system, her ship is the only vessel close enough to investigate the anomaly before the satellite disappears forever. After Lind reluctantly agrees to head the dangerous mission, she and her crew race to catch up with the hurtling moon, only to witness it shed its layers of dirt and ice to reveal a huge alien relic underneath. But as the artifact picks up speed and heads toward a destination 260 light-years from home, the Rockhopper is caught in its slipstream, and with no choice left but to follow, the crew of the mining ship must somehow find a way to survive the journey…
Like Reynolds's previous novels (Revelation Space, Redemption Ark, Absulution Gap, et al.), Pushing Ice is an ambitious, visionary, and definitively epic hard science fiction tour de force comparable to works from genre legends like Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Frederik Pohl. This breathtakingly vast study of a microcosmic humanity faced with survival against impossible odds is both heartrending and inspiring. Paul Goat Allen
2057. Humanity has raised exploiting the solar system to an art form. Bella Lind and the crew of her nuclear-powered ship, the Rockhopper, push ice. They mine comets. And they're good at it.
The Rockhopper is nearing the end of its current mission cycle, and everyone is desperate for some much-needed R & R, when startling news arrives from Saturn: Janus, one of Saturn's ice moons, has inexplicably left its natural orbit and is now heading out of the solar system at high speed.
As layers of camouflage fall away, it becomes clear that Janus was never a moon in the first place. It's some kind of machine-and it is now headed toward a fuzzily glimpsed artifact 260 light-years away. The Rockhopper is the only ship anywhere near Janus, and Bella Lind is ordered to shadow it for the few vital days before it falls forever out of reach.
In accepting this mission, she sets her ship and her crew on a collision course with destiny-for Janus has more surprises in store, and not all of them are welcome.
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The Rockhopper is nearing the end of its current mission cycle, and everyone is desperate for some much-needed R & R, when startling news arrives from Saturn: Janus, one of Saturn's ice moons, has inexplicably left its natural orbit and is now heading out of the solar system at high speed.
As layers of camouflage fall away, it becomes clear that Janus was never a moon in the first place. It's some kind of machine-and it is now headed toward a fuzzily glimpsed artifact 260 light-years away. The Rockhopper is the only ship anywhere near Janus, and Bella Lind is ordered to shadow it for the few vital days before it falls forever out of reach.
In accepting this mission, she sets her ship and her crew on a collision course with destiny-for Janus has more surprises in store, and not all of them are welcome.
Pushing Ice
2057. Humanity has raised exploiting the solar system to an art form. Bella Lind and the crew of her nuclear-powered ship, the Rockhopper, push ice. They mine comets. And they're good at it.
The Rockhopper is nearing the end of its current mission cycle, and everyone is desperate for some much-needed R & R, when startling news arrives from Saturn: Janus, one of Saturn's ice moons, has inexplicably left its natural orbit and is now heading out of the solar system at high speed.
As layers of camouflage fall away, it becomes clear that Janus was never a moon in the first place. It's some kind of machine-and it is now headed toward a fuzzily glimpsed artifact 260 light-years away. The Rockhopper is the only ship anywhere near Janus, and Bella Lind is ordered to shadow it for the few vital days before it falls forever out of reach.
In accepting this mission, she sets her ship and her crew on a collision course with destiny-for Janus has more surprises in store, and not all of them are welcome.
The Rockhopper is nearing the end of its current mission cycle, and everyone is desperate for some much-needed R & R, when startling news arrives from Saturn: Janus, one of Saturn's ice moons, has inexplicably left its natural orbit and is now heading out of the solar system at high speed.
As layers of camouflage fall away, it becomes clear that Janus was never a moon in the first place. It's some kind of machine-and it is now headed toward a fuzzily glimpsed artifact 260 light-years away. The Rockhopper is the only ship anywhere near Janus, and Bella Lind is ordered to shadow it for the few vital days before it falls forever out of reach.
In accepting this mission, she sets her ship and her crew on a collision course with destiny-for Janus has more surprises in store, and not all of them are welcome.
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Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940171014476 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Tantor Audio |
| Publication date: | 11/02/2010 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
| Sales rank: | 933,075 |
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