Redemption Ark [Hardcover]

Alastair Reynolds (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 3, 2003

Late in the twenty-sixth century, the human race accidentally triggers the Inhibitors. Fifty years later, these alien killing machines-designed to detect intelligent life and destroy it-are fast approaching.

The only hope for humanity lies in the recovery of a secret cache of doomsday weapons-and a renegade named Clavain is determined to find them. But other factions want the weapons for their own devices.

And the weapons themselves have another agenda altogether...

Editorial Reviews

From 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.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Reynolds' latest is a large, sprawling tale of war, politics, ideology (including religion), and alien invasion. It starts with the return to base, after 200 years, of an exploration ship filled with corpses. Its central characters are the investigators trying to find what or who killed the ship's occupants: A human (using the term loosely) enemy? Aliens? A nanotech plague? As the investigation proceeds, Reynolds introduces a galaxy's worth of technology and politics, the latter including the faction fight that gives the book its title. Like Reynolds' previous books, this one can be considered a technothriller set in the future, with technology extrapolated from the current states of biotech and artificial intelligence. Human nature is not envisioned as having changed much at all, however, no matter how much intelligence may be augmented. Despite a quite intricate plot, skilled narrative technique and well-developed characters make this a novel most readers will find absorbing and comprehensible. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 576 pages
• Publisher: Ace Hardcover (June 3, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 044101058X
• ISBN-13: 978-0441010585
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,081,271 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Alastair Reynolds was born in Wales in 1966. He has a Ph.D. in astronomy. From 1991 until 2007, he lived in The Netherlands, where he was employed by The European Space Agency as an astrophysicist. He is now a full-time writer.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Warning-Reviews Below Contain Spoilers, September 8, 2003

By 

Lee A. McCoy (Santa Barbara, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Redemption Ark (Hardcover)

Just a warning to anyone reading the reviews below. These reviewers tell you specific facts about the ending of the book.

36 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Above average sci-fi but not better than its prequels, June 24, 2003

By 

Andrei Pankov (Ann Arbor, MI, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Redemption Ark (Hardcover)

One of the best things about Alastair Reynolds is that he is a practicing astronomer who really knows what he is talking about when it comes to space and planetary motion. If Reynolds makes up something that is not realistic by today's standards he is at least basing it on the current theories of space and time. This is why a science major like myself would appreciate reading his fiction more than most of the pop that found in the sci-fi section of today's book store.

However, there are many problems with Redemption Ark. It was far less enjoyable to read then either Chasm city or Revelation Space. The strength of Reynolds writing comes largely from his was imagination that is not too far detached from realistic outlook on scientific principles of today (such as our inability to achieve the speed of light). He presents us a whole new and exciting world of the future, the world that is based on the assumption of human race having the intelligence to propagate its survival by colonizing space. The setting Reynolds presented was so convincing and intriguing that it made Revelation Space almost like an ethnographic account of new cultures as well as a novel at the same time. Chasm city had some of the same element but Redemption Ark had almost nothing new. Once again we find ourselves in the same world but we are no longer impressed by it, but find ourselves in a familiar territory.

Writer's style also started wearing off in its ingenuity. Reading Redemption Ark felt like being supplied with tiny spoons of interesting plot points drifting amid empty conversational and narration filler. It is if we are feed the relevant information at more or less constant rate as we progressed towards the end. At times there were many lines like: It was time to do what had to be done or Now she knew what to do or Now he understood the significance. Some chapters ended as over dramatized, unfinished soap opera episodes.

Yet although the aforementioned flaws are more or less forgivable the biggest downfall of Redemption Ark is failure to introduce and develop likable characters. There are too many characters that are poorly developed that get too much attention and plot time. One of such characters was Felka, a semi-crazy side kick of Clavain who we really do not know much about except her affection for Clavain. There is Galiana, mentioned way too much and too often but without enough of concrete information for us to draw up her personality. But the old characters are back but they are no longer as intriguing as before. Volyova is back but is more irritating this time.

The hardest thing about reading Redemption Ark was the first two hundred pages. The prolonged introduction to new characters and setting up of a plot was just too long and mind-numbing. Too bad I couldn't amplify my conciseness like a true Conjoner and read those pages fifteen times faster.

Overall, I think that this is a worthy read for any Alaistair Reynolds fan. It is somewhat less satisfying then his previous works but nonetheless Redemption Ark is still entertaining. I'm looking forward to reading more from Reynolds although I truly hope that whatever else he will write will have nothing to do with Revelation Space universe. It is time he applied his creativity onto a new project, Revelation Space saga had all the development it needed. Go Reynolds!

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Almost fantastic, June 28, 2003

By 

C. "Chris" (Hvidovre, Denmark) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Redemption Ark (Hardcover)

Who wouldn't love a plot like this? 4 km-long starship, "Nostalgia for Infinity", gradually being absorbed by the super-technovirus, the Melding Plague and/or the ship's former Captain, his mind now having merged with said Plague. The way-to-cool Triumvir Ilia Volyova trying to get control of 33 mysterious Hell-Class weapons in order to direct a pre-emptive strike against the galaxy's most fearsome menace, the soulless Inhibitor-machines, bent on extinguishing 'outbreaks' of starfaring, intelligent life. Meanwhile her associate Khouri (who survived Revelation Space!)attempting to organize the evacuation of 200.000 people from Resurgam before the Inhibitors can finish the ultimate doomsday weapon of their own, made out of the Delta Parvonis system's biggest planet! And on top of this: two competing factions of the ultra-advanced, hive-minded Conjoiners, one led by the old war-hero, Nevil Clavain, the other by his adversary, the scary cyborg woman, Skade, race towards Resurgam to reclaim the weapons for their own, more or less, righteous purposes. And that's just scratchin' the surface! This book is an incredibly cool scifi-read with more than its share of incredibly cool - and even some quite sympathetic characters (like the tormented Clavain, and the unwilling trader-turned-heroine, Antoinette Bax). Not very 'deep' characters, mind you, but they never really were in 99% of all scifi I read, so I don't mind.

What I *do* mind, however, is that the story seems strangely unfinished by the end of it. Many of the sketchy interrelations between the characters (such as between Khouri and Volyova) are barely resolved, if at all. Too many interesting characters (such as Clavain's lost love, Galiana - and to a large extent: Bax) are just left in plot limbo. And the relentless exposition of Reynold's hard-to-access-for-the-less-than-well-educated astronomy and quantum physics concepts makes it a heavy read at times. And as for the pay-off: the final showdown with the Inhibitors, well ... where did it go? It seems as if Reynolds is either aiming at picking up on a lot of things in a sequel (and I haven't yet read "Diamond dogs ... " by the way) or simply discovered that he was late for lunch and then quickly patched up what he was working on at the time and shipped the novel off to publishing. A real shame ... for it is in all other respects a great scifi-book.