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The Barnes & Noble Review
You want space opera? You got it! Alastair Reynolds's Redemption Ark, the shelf-bending sequel to his debut novel Revelation Space, can only be described as colossal. Taking place approximately half a century after the events in Revelation Space, this ambitious epic pits the Demarchists (normal humans) against the Conjoiners -- Borg-like, genetically enhanced humans who have experimented with cybernetically assisted direct mind-to-mind communications. After a nano-disease called the Melding Plague knocked humanity back into a near dark age decades earlier, the war between human factions has become the focus of humanity all over the galaxy. But when the Inhibitors, ( a seemingly unstoppable alien race of self-replicating black machines that could wipe out humanity once and for all) reappears, the war is suddenly not such a priority for the few who know about the invaders.
Humanity's last hope may lay in the hands of Neil Clavain, a legendary military leader whose mission is to recover a stolen cache of hell-class weapons, doomsday devices that were built in the earliest days of the Conjoiners and were judged to be so dangerous that the knowledge of how to construct them was suppressed. The cache is traced to the Resurgam system, but Clavain isn't the only one looking for the weapons…
Reynolds's series, which also includes the related novel Chasm City, is reminiscent of Frederik Pohl's Hugo- and Nebula-winning Heechee saga in both scope and quality. Fans who like their science fiction hard and on a grandiose scale will delight in Reynolds's high-tech, ultra-complex universe.
Paul Goat Allen
Publishers Weekly
With this complex, thoughtful sequel to his highly praised Revelation Space (2001), British author Reynolds confirms his place among the leaders of the hard-science space-opera renaissance. Spreading from star to star, humanity has split into different, competing factions. Late in the 26th century, the group-mind Conjoiners are defeating their main rivals, the Demarchists. Unfortunately, the Conjoiners' space exploration has attracted the notice of an ancient swarm of machines that calls itself the Inhibitors and that exists to destroy all biological intelligence. The Conjoiners don't believe they can fight this new foe, so they intend to run away and let the Inhibitors wipe out the other human tribes. One Conjoiner warrior, the centuries-old Clavain, rebels against this heartless tactic, but he must negotiate with a fragmented, distrustful mob of possible allies while pursued by his former cohorts. The novel forces readers to process an outrageous amount of information-but that's only fair, since the characters are challenged to do the same. As they extend themselves outward, they also have a chance to gain more understanding of themselves as human beings and more ability to interact meaningfully. It's rare to find a writer with sufficient nerve and stamina to write novels that are big enough to justify using words like "revelation" and "redemption." Reynolds pulls it off. (June 3) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
In the 27th century, the expansion of the human race as well as its capacity for intelligence has exceeded its boundaries and has triggered the approach of the Inhibitors, intelligent machines with one directive-to find and destroy sentient life. The only hope of averting the end of intelligent life in the universe lies in the recovery of a hidden cache of weapons of mass destruction. Set against a background of interstellar warfare between two factions of humans, the Conjoiners and the Demarchists, Reynolds's sequel to Chasm City features intense personal drama and large-scale scenes of space warfare. Told with skill and an attention to detail, this space opera series belongs in most sf collections. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
From the Publisher
"Clearly one of the year's major science fiction novels...The book Reynolds's readers have been waiting for."—Locus on Redemption Ark
"If you like hard SF...with fast-paced action and hard-boiled characters...you're in for a great ride."—SF Site on Redemption Ark
"The best of the new breed of space opera. Wild action on a grand scale spans well-imagined and developed worlds-bold and new with sharply defined differences in both characters and the changed definitions of humanity."—The Denver Post on Redemption Ark
"A large, sprawling tale of war, politics, ideology and alien invasion. Skilled narrative technique and well-developed characters make this a novel most readers will find absorbing."—Booklist on Redemption Ark
"With this complex, thoughtful sequel to his highly praised Revelation Space, British author Reynolds confirms his place among the leaders of the hard-science space-opera renaissance.... It's rare to find a writer with sufficient nerve and stamina to write novels that are big enough to justify using words like "revelation" and "redemption." Reynolds pulls it off."—Publisher Weekly on Redemption Ark
