Revelation Space

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Revelation Space

Author	Alastair Reynolds
Cover artist	Chris Moore
Country	Wales
Language	English
Series	Revelation Space
Genre(s)	Hard sci-fi novel
Publisher	Gollancz
Publication date	December 31, 2002
Media type	Print (Hardcover and Paperback)
Pages	560 pp
ISBN	ISBN 1857987489
Followed by	Redemption Ark

Revelation Space is a 2000 hard science fiction space opera novel by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds. It was the first novel set in the universe which became known as the Revelation Space universe, although the then-unnamed universe had already been established by several published short stories.

Revelation Space was followed in publication by Chasm City, a stand-alone novel which was set earlier in the universe's timeline but wasn't strictly a prequel. Chasm City was followed by Redemption Ark, which was a direct sequel both to Revelation Space and Chasm City.

[edit] Plot summary

On the planet Resurgam, archaeologist and scion of House Sylveste, Dan Sylveste, is engaged in an archaeological dig, researching a species known as the Amarantin and cause of their apparent mass extinction, dubbed "the Event". He has to face several political problems on the colony, including a power struggle between the archaeologists and those interested in terraforming the planet to make it more comfortable.

Meanwhile, aboard the lighthugger Nostalgia for Infinity, Triumvir Ilia Volyova — an Ultranaut — is having problems both with her new Gunnery Officer, who has just gone insane, and with the Captain John Brannigan, who is infected with the Melding Plague. Plus, the ship is carrying a cache of 40 "Hell class" weapons that the crew found in a deserted area of space, and which are capable of some very nasty things, such as possibly causing stars to go nova, or annihilating entire planets.

And on Yellowstone, in Chasm City, ex-soldier Ana Khouri from Sky's Edge, separated and sent here away from her husband thanks to a clerical error, works as an assassin for Shadowplay, an organization that lets the wealthy take out contracts on themselves, so they can brag about the experience should they survive.

On the lighthugger, Triumvir Ilia ends up killing crazed Gunnery Officer Nagorny, and disguises his death as an accident when his reefersleep casket malfunctioned. They are heading to Yellowstone to look for Dan Sylveste, who being able to channel a beta-level simulation of his dead father Calvin Sylveste, is the only person with enough medical and technological expertise to have a chance at curing the Captain. Unfortunately, they are too late, and Dan had left for Resurgam decades earlier. While they are there, they decide to look for a new Gunnery Officer.

Ana Khouri is kidnapped by the mysterious Mademoiselle and given a mission to terminate Dan Sylveste, for an as-yet unstated reason. When the crew of the Nostalgia for Infinity decide to head for Resurgam to look for Sylveste, Khouri is brought out of reefersleep and from there she manages to infiltrate the crew, who think she believes they are going to Sky's Edge.

The rest of the story revolves around the crew having to worry about the mysterious "Sun Stealer", who also shows up on Amarantin artefacts, while journeying to Resurgam; Sylveste's adventures in between the archaeological dig and the arrival of the Nostalgia for Infinity; various recollections of Sylveste's past trips to the Shrouds and the Pattern Jugglers; and the final trip to the nearby neutron star Hades and the strange camouflaged artificial planet Cerberus that orbits it.

[edit] Publication history

As this was Alastair Reynolds's first published hardback fiction, and was published in a relatively small initial print run in the United Kingdom, it subsequently became one of the most collectible first editions of the decade.