Aurora Rising

by Alastair Reynolds

Overview

Award-winning author Alastair Reynolds creates "a fascinating hybrid of space opera, police procedural and character study" (Publishers Weekly) with this novel set in the Revelation Space universe.


Tom Dreyfus is a Prefect, a law enforcement officer with the Panoply. His beat is the Glitter Band, that vast swirl of space habitats orbiting the planet Yellowstone, the teeming hub of a human interstellar empire spanning many worlds.



His current case: investigating a murderous attack against one of the habitats that leaves nine hundred people dead. But his investigation uncovers something far more serious than mass slaughter — a covert plot by an enigmatic entity who seeks nothing less than total control of the Glitter Band.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316462587
Publisher:	Orbit
Publication date:	10/06/2020
Series:	The Prefect Dreyfus Emergencies , #1
Pages:	512
Sales rank:	195,856
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Alastair Reynolds was born in Barry, South Wales, in 1966. He studied at Newcastle and St. Andrews Universities and has a Ph.D. in astronomy. he stopped working as an astrophysicist for the European Space Agency to become a full-time writer. Revelation Space and Pushing Ice were shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award; Revelation Space, Absolution Gap, Diamond Dogs, and Century Rain were shortlisted for the British Science Fiction Award, and Chasm City won the British Science Fiction Award.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"A fascinating hybrid of space opera, police procedural and character study.... This is solid British SF adventure, evoking echoes of le Carre and Sayers with a liberal dash of Doctor Who." —-Publishers Weekly

Editorial Reviews

"This is solid British SF adventure, evoking echoes of le Carre and Sayers with a liberal dash of Doctor Who."—Publishers Weekly on The Prefect

"Absorbing...gripping in the extreme...A fine provocative portrait of utopia on the brink. The relentless narrative momentum it employs simply underscores the pertinent urgency of that topic. The resulting mixture of space opera and police procedure is sublime entertainment."—Locus on The Prefect

"[A] magnificently imagined world."—Booklist on The Prefect

"Alastair Reynolds has developed real skill in mixing a detective investigation mystery with a background that is as thoroughly hard science as anybody's...Eminently satisfying."—SF Site on The Prefect

"An adroit and fast-paced blend of space opera and police procedural, original and exciting."—George R. R. Martin

From the Publisher

An exciting high-tech tale.

Fascination Place

An entertaining tale.

SFFWorld

[The Prefect] would serve as a good introduction to the entire genre for those who have never tried science fiction. Highly recommended.

darkermatter

Absorbing...A fine provocative portrait of utopia on the brink.

Locus

The seventh novel set in Reynolds's Revelation Space milieu (most recently encountered in his 2007 collection Galactic North) is a fascinating hybrid of space opera, police procedural and character study. One of the 10,000 colony habitats of the utopian Glitter Band has been destroyed, and title character Tom Dreyfus, a cop who patrols the Glitter Band beat, is assigned to learn whodunit and why. Meanwhile, his protégé, Thalia Ng, shepherds a supposedly minor series of software upgrades on several other habitats, while Dreyfus's superiors oust their leader, ostensibly for her own good. Reynolds unfolds revelations layer by onionskin layer, supplying enough detail to imply a novel's worth of unwritten backstory without ever obscuring the stakes and personalities. The high-quality characterization more than compensates for the slightly too shadowy villains. This is solid British SF adventure, evoking echoes of le Carré and Sayers with a liberal dash of Doctor Who. (June)

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Publishers Weekly

As a prefect working for the Panoply, Tom Dreyfus enforces the law in the utopian society of the Glitter Band, a collection of space habitats that orbit the planet Yellowstone. When an attack on one of the habitats leaves nearly 1000 people dead, Dreyfus uncovers a plot that threatens the freedom of the entire Glitter Band. Reynolds (Redemption Ark; Pushing Ice) returns to the universe of Revelation Space as he demonstrates his powerful ability to blend futuristic suspense/intrigue with personal drama in a tale of one man's search for truth, however unpleasant or demanding it may be. With appeal to fans who enjoy action-packed hard sf, this belongs in most libraries.

—Jackie Cassada

Library Journal