MARCH 2018 - AudioFile
In this sequel to THE PREFECT, narrator John Lee draws listeners back to the 25th century just in time for a new crisis. In clipped, authoritative tones, Lee brings the Panoply police force prefects to life as they investigate malfunctions in brain implants that are causing unexpected deaths across multiple worlds. Lee’s steady pacing and autocratic inflection enhance this galactic police procedural, particularly the magnitude of the moral decisions that must be made to save as many lives as possible. Unexpected plot revelations and the possible future repercussions of current events will have listeners eagerly awaiting the next installment in the series. J.M. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
★ 01/01/2018
Reynolds has been building his Revelation Space universe for decades in a series of stories and novels; this one is a direct sequel to 2007’s The Prefect, reprinted in 2017 as Aurora Rising, and it’s even fresher and smarter than its predecessors. Chasm City’s 10,000 habitats have existed in relative harmony for years, but an accelerating series of brain-frying deaths cast doubt on the ability of Panoply, the city’s law enforcement agency, to keep citizens safe. Panoply prefect Tom Dreyfus; his protégé, Thalia Ng; and a sardonic hyperpig, Sparver Bancal, attempt to stop the murders while shutting down a rabble-rousing provocateur. This novel’s ideas are mind-stretching, including a limbo where copies of the dead can be kept and interrogated, and a chillingly mischievous AI that tempts and mocks Dreyfus. Familiarity with the earlier novel might help readers sort out the multiple plot threads. The big concepts and complex story effectively pull readers into intriguing speculation about human identity and potential. (Feb.)
From the Publisher
"This novel's ideas are mind-stretching, including a limbo where copies of the dead can be kept and interrogated, and a chillingly mischievous AI that tempts and mocks Dreyfus. The big concepts and complex story effectively pull readers into intriguing speculation about human identity and potential."—Publishers Weekly
"Reynolds combines depth in characterization and dazzling hard-science applications to keep the reader turning pages."—Booklist
"Elysium Fire is a tremendously assured read, a fast-paced page-turner that delivers a well thought out story and characters you'll come to care about."—The Guardian (UK)
"A swashbuckling thriller—Pirates of the Caribbean meets Firefly—that nevertheless combines the author's trademark hard SF with effective, coming-of-age characterization."—The Guardian on Revenger
"Revenger is classic Reynolds-that is to say, top of the line science fiction, where characters are matched beautifully with ideas and have to find their place in a complex future. More!"—Greg Bear on Revenger
"A leading light of the new British space opera."
—Los Angeles Review of Books on Alastair Reynolds
"One of the giants of the new British space opera."
—io9 on Alastair Reynolds
"[Reynolds is] a mastersinger of the space opera."
—The Times (UK) on Blue Remembered Earth
"Heir to writers like Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke, Reynolds keeps up the tradition of forward thinking... An immensely thrilling, mind-bending piece of work."
—AV Club on House of Suns
"[Reynolds] is the most gifted hard SF writers working today."
—Publishers Weekly on Beyond the Aquila Rift
MARCH 2018 - AudioFile
In this sequel to THE PREFECT, narrator John Lee draws listeners back to the 25th century just in time for a new crisis. In clipped, authoritative tones, Lee brings the Panoply police force prefects to life as they investigate malfunctions in brain implants that are causing unexpected deaths across multiple worlds. Lee’s steady pacing and autocratic inflection enhance this galactic police procedural, particularly the magnitude of the moral decisions that must be made to save as many lives as possible. Unexpected plot revelations and the possible future repercussions of current events will have listeners eagerly awaiting the next installment in the series. J.M. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
