Revelation Space, Alastair Reynolds
A talented first novel in the hard SF & space opera genre. Dave loaned this to me months ago, and i finally had the time to sit down and read it. Russell and i have been playing the generate-that-person game a lot lately; if i were to apply it to this book, i'd say it's part the best of Banks' opera, societal, and universe history combined with the characterizations from Greg Bear. There are spots where i feel like it's been written to be a radio play - you swap between perspectives a lot, and when you come back to a particular scenario, there's often a one or two sentence recap that seems a little out of place when you read through in big chunks - like the recaps in radio plays that seem out of place when you listen to the whole series on a CD, in rapid sequence. Nonetheless, compelling characters and plot twists, lyrical use of language, and biology metaphor (instars! homeobox genes) tossed in for spice makes for a good read for meriko. I'm interested in seeing how his second book turned out. Recommended.
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