Show Me the Space
I guess in terms of fiction I’ve been on a space opera kick because I also read Revelation Space recently. That’s a nicely layered book with multiple reveals that twist the earlier understanding of how things are and send the story shooting off in a new direction.
The starting impetus is that an archeologist excavating ruins of a non-human society finds something unexpected. Then the layers of the onion start coming off, putting the archeologist’s history in new light, the find in new light, the fundamental backdrop they operate against in new light. This book does an excellent job of making plausible each of these successive expansions of the reader’s understanding of the situation.
Things I liked about this book
- The construction of the story
- The structure of the setting, all the players and vectors of motive in play
- The assassin character
- Knowing that there are other books in this setting which I can look forward to reading, now
Things I didn’t like about this book
- There were a few red herrings which I got invested in and which didn’t pan out
- Some of the characters who weren’t of consequence got an odd degree of screen time, while others who were significant sometimes came out of nowhere
Who might like it
- Space Opera fans, unite!
- People who enjoy the kind of detective story where the author keeps expanding the scope of concern until it’s enormous
- Fans of protagonists who are utter bastards
Who might not like it
- Those who need every last thing explained in a story
- Those who prefer character driven over concept driven narratives
- People who feel like they’ve had a glut of space opera in their diet lately
Tags: novel, Review, space opera
September 30th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
[...] when I read Revelation Space and wrote a brief review? Between then and now, probably while in Denver at a reading with Vylar, I picked up Redemption [...]