I Read Books: Redemption Ark

Redemption Ark

A sequel to Revelation Space, this again takes place mostly in two star systems divided by the speed of light which (probably) can’t be broken in this universe. Clavain is a 400 year old Conjoiner, a member of a human faction which is caricatured by its enemies as a hive mind. Reynolds doesn’t quite delve into exactly what this means, both the viewpoint Conjoiner characters in this novel are unusual in their independence, but it seems like he’s hinting that a hive mind is more an emergent property of linked human minds. Skade, the closest to a villain here, keeps trying to act as a queen to the hive and it's not quite working.

Anyway the Conjoiners have encountered the Inhibitors out in space and are planning an escape but there are complications. Their weapons cache has gone missing, and has now been detected around Resurgam, the site of the climax of Revelation Space. The deep history of the Conjoiners is revealed, including the Exordium project that allows access to alternate futures.

This gets quite complex, as does the manouvering, with Clavain defecting and accidently falling in with a motley crew of pirates and criminals, some of whom were in Chasm City. Heading out to claim the weapons there are several deep-space, relativistic attempts to destroy each other. Meanwhile back around Resurgam the Inhibitors have begun a work to exterminate life from the system. The ship Nostalgia For Infinity and the survivors of Revelation Space have a plan to save the inhabitants of the planet but they’re officially war criminals and the ship itself has been transformed by the melding plague infecting the captain.

Reynolds is not short of ideas, and manages to harness them to a handful of cool characters, all of whom find themselves in conflict at one point or another. In fact the mystery is how and why they ever manage to co-operate.

Read This: Big Ideas Science Fiction with plenty of conflict and fighting
Don’t Read This: If complex politics dominating the story for a couple hundred pages then being shunted away to make room for next BIG SCIENCE FICTION IDEA will aggravate you