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Prefect Dreyfus Emergency #2
Elysium Fire
Ten thousand city-state habitats orbit the planet Yellowstone, forming a near-perfect democratic human paradise.
But even utopia needs a police force. For the citizens of the Glitter Band that organization is Panoply, and the prefects are its operatives.
Prefect Tom Dreyfus has a new emergency on his hands. Across the habitats and their hundred million citizens, people are dying suddenly and randomly, victims of a bizarre and unprecedented malfunction of their neural implants. And these "melters" leave no clues behind as to the cause of their deaths...
As panic rises in the populace, a charismatic figure is sowing insurrection, convincing a small but growing number of habitats to break away from the Glitter Band and form their own independent colonies.
But even utopia needs a police force. For the citizens of the Glitter Band that organization is Panoply, and the prefects are its operatives.
Prefect Tom Dreyfus has a new emergency on his hands. Across the habitats and their hundred million citizens, people are dying suddenly and randomly, victims of a bizarre and unprecedented malfunction of their neural implants. And these "melters" leave no clues behind as to the cause of their deaths...
As panic rises in the populace, a charismatic figure is sowing insurrection, convincing a small but growing number of habitats to break away from the Glitter Band and form their own independent colonies.
415 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 23, 2018
About the author
Alastair Reynolds
281 books8,597 followersI'm Al, I used to be a space scientist, and now I'm a writer, although for a time the two careers ran in parallel. I started off publishing short stories in the British SF magazine Interzone in the early 90s, then eventually branched into novels. I write about a novel a year and try to write a few short stories as well. Some of my books and stories are set in a consistent future named after Revelation Space, the first novel, but I've done a lot of other things as well and I like to keep things fresh between books.
I was born in Wales, but raised in Cornwall, and then spent time in the north of England and Scotland. I moved to the Netherlands to continue my science career and stayed there for a very long time, before eventually returning to Wales.
In my spare time I am a very keen runner, and I also enjoying hill-walking, birdwatching, horse-riding, guitar and model-making. I also dabble with paints now and then. I met my wife in the Netherlands through a mutual interest in climbing and we married back in Wales. We live surrounded by hills, woods and wildlife, and not too much excitement.
I was born in Wales, but raised in Cornwall, and then spent time in the north of England and Scotland. I moved to the Netherlands to continue my science career and stayed there for a very long time, before eventually returning to Wales.
In my spare time I am a very keen runner, and I also enjoying hill-walking, birdwatching, horse-riding, guitar and model-making. I also dabble with paints now and then. I met my wife in the Netherlands through a mutual interest in climbing and we married back in Wales. We live surrounded by hills, woods and wildlife, and not too much excitement.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 499 reviews
January 8, 2018
This is my first read of an Alastair Reynold novel, and this is the second in the Prefect Tom Dreyfus series. I adored the detailed and imaginative world building of The Glitter Band, with the Panoply running the policing element, the prefects, and overseen primarily by 'Lady' Jane Aumonier. It appears to be the perfect democracy, where decision-making is achieved through everyone voting in polls via their neural implants. However, there is trouble in paradise, with several parts of The Glitter Band opting for independence by leaving, an insurrection led by the demagogue, Devon Garlin, a man with an uncanny sense of knowing what will happen and is targeting Dreyfus with the intent of goading him to overeact. Thalia Ng is promoted to Field Prefect after Sparver informs her of the rising number of disturbing deaths, where neural implants malfunction with a thermal overload and destruction of brain tissue. So far this has been kept secret to ensure people do not panic, but the threat risks instability in the entire region.
The Prefects try to find connections amidst the victims, but struggle to find any significant leads other than the possibility that they appear to be risk takers. At Shell House, Aliya and Marlon Voi bring up their non identical twin sons, Julius and Cabel. The boys are taught to use extraordinary powers that give them the ability to challenge democracy. However, the boys have dreams that question who they are and hint at horrors from the past. In the meantime, Garlin's machinations raise the stakes as his popularity soars, meaning others are on the brink of choosing to become independent. Garlin's true identity is revealed, and it seems the multiple and disparate threads are all connected, as the looming danger to the Glitter Band and the Prefects becomes transparent. Will they manage to survive and save the lives of thousands?
Reynolds spins a rattling sci-fi yarn that is compelling, fast paced, full of tension and suspense. This is a story of illicit syndicates, reprehensible wagers, and revenge. I was particularly impressed with the technologies in the tale such as the painflower, the whiphounds, and the community of the dead at the beta-level. The characters are complex and well developed, sustaining my interest throughout.I probably would have benefited from reading the first book, nevertheless I enjoyed reading this enormously. Many thanks to Orion for an ARC.
The Prefects try to find connections amidst the victims, but struggle to find any significant leads other than the possibility that they appear to be risk takers. At Shell House, Aliya and Marlon Voi bring up their non identical twin sons, Julius and Cabel. The boys are taught to use extraordinary powers that give them the ability to challenge democracy. However, the boys have dreams that question who they are and hint at horrors from the past. In the meantime, Garlin's machinations raise the stakes as his popularity soars, meaning others are on the brink of choosing to become independent. Garlin's true identity is revealed, and it seems the multiple and disparate threads are all connected, as the looming danger to the Glitter Band and the Prefects becomes transparent. Will they manage to survive and save the lives of thousands?
Reynolds spins a rattling sci-fi yarn that is compelling, fast paced, full of tension and suspense. This is a story of illicit syndicates, reprehensible wagers, and revenge. I was particularly impressed with the technologies in the tale such as the painflower, the whiphounds, and the community of the dead at the beta-level. The characters are complex and well developed, sustaining my interest throughout.I probably would have benefited from reading the first book, nevertheless I enjoyed reading this enormously. Many thanks to Orion for an ARC.
December 24, 2017
Alastair Reynolds returns to the Revelation Space universe with the strongest novel *IMHO* since The Prefect. Of course, this is a direct follow-up to The Prefect.
Look, I know that's kinda a toss out statement, but it's still true. I loved The Prefect because it went wild with tech and even wilder political imagination, glorifying the Glitter Band before it became the Rust Belt. And of course, it was a really awesome mystery that went all out to become a nightmare destroying so much of the beautiful orbiting habitats around Yellowstone. That last book was a near-utopia under siege by a dead girl who had gotten really good with neural architecture and cloud-based systems. It was damn delicious and imaginative and detailed as hell. And the characters were pretty hardcore awesome, too.
Fast forward to an even more accomplished Reynolds with even better characterization, more fluid prose, and dialogue. Add the lingering effects of failed confidence in the Prefects from the previous events, talk of secession by demagogs, and a pretty awesome string of high-tech murders that can be directly linked to the events of other RS novels, and we've got an increasingly harrowing mystery on a shoestring budget even if the high tech gadgets are way beyond anything we've got.
I mean, just look at this tiny list: Beta-level intelligence simulations allowing the dead to keep on living, quick-matter constructs that can become anything just so long as the right price is paid, personal weapons that act like Swiss Army Knives of AI snakes, and a subset of humans who just don't give a crap about what they want to upgrade themselves with.
The mystery is almost the only thing that's normal, and we're dealing with cooked brains and a list of the dead reaching the thousands and it's all being used as political gain.
Really fun novel. Really Hard-SF.
But you know what I love most about this? Reynolds is connecting ALL the Revelation Space novels together even tighter in this one. I'm picking up future events in Chasm City, regular and awesome characters from Reynold's short fiction and the events after everything goes to hell following the Melding Plague and the alien menace, and of course, there's Aurora. I love, love, love Aurora. She's been a mainstay of godlike intelligence in the series and what a personality. :)
A word to the wise: I probably should have re-read The Prefect before picking this up, but it really wasn't that bad. This book was pretty brilliant without needing to revisit the other. BUT I was reminded just how brilliant the other was, too. :)
Another thing: Most of his standalone novels are just that... even if the connections and the timelines are there. The stories are readable in any order you wish. Even this one.
And that being said, Bravo! This really was a fantastic new Reynolds! Easily one of my favorites.
Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC!
Look, I know that's kinda a toss out statement, but it's still true. I loved The Prefect because it went wild with tech and even wilder political imagination, glorifying the Glitter Band before it became the Rust Belt. And of course, it was a really awesome mystery that went all out to become a nightmare destroying so much of the beautiful orbiting habitats around Yellowstone. That last book was a near-utopia under siege by a dead girl who had gotten really good with neural architecture and cloud-based systems. It was damn delicious and imaginative and detailed as hell. And the characters were pretty hardcore awesome, too.
Fast forward to an even more accomplished Reynolds with even better characterization, more fluid prose, and dialogue. Add the lingering effects of failed confidence in the Prefects from the previous events, talk of secession by demagogs, and a pretty awesome string of high-tech murders that can be directly linked to the events of other RS novels, and we've got an increasingly harrowing mystery on a shoestring budget even if the high tech gadgets are way beyond anything we've got.
I mean, just look at this tiny list: Beta-level intelligence simulations allowing the dead to keep on living, quick-matter constructs that can become anything just so long as the right price is paid, personal weapons that act like Swiss Army Knives of AI snakes, and a subset of humans who just don't give a crap about what they want to upgrade themselves with.
The mystery is almost the only thing that's normal, and we're dealing with cooked brains and a list of the dead reaching the thousands and it's all being used as political gain.
Really fun novel. Really Hard-SF.
But you know what I love most about this? Reynolds is connecting ALL the Revelation Space novels together even tighter in this one. I'm picking up future events in Chasm City, regular and awesome characters from Reynold's short fiction and the events after everything goes to hell following the Melding Plague and the alien menace, and of course, there's Aurora. I love, love, love Aurora. She's been a mainstay of godlike intelligence in the series and what a personality. :)
A word to the wise: I probably should have re-read The Prefect before picking this up, but it really wasn't that bad. This book was pretty brilliant without needing to revisit the other. BUT I was reminded just how brilliant the other was, too. :)
Another thing: Most of his standalone novels are just that... even if the connections and the timelines are there. The stories are readable in any order you wish. Even this one.
And that being said, Bravo! This really was a fantastic new Reynolds! Easily one of my favorites.
Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC!
December 12, 2017
If it's been more than a year since you've read The Prefect (2007), you might enjoy reading it again before starting this one. It's not an absolute requirement, but it would make Elysium Fire more enjoyable.
I very much enjoyed this return to the Glitter Band, before the melding plague turns it into The Rust Belt. Tom Dreyfus is much as he was before, a bit more worn, a bit more careful. Sparver and Ng and Aumonier and others reappear, and have grown as well.
The plot starts out at a great pace, with two interwoven story threads: The current emergency, and a tale of two teens from 30 years or so before the current action. Perhaps you might think you have solved the central mystery at some point in the book (but you haven't), and the pieces of the puzzle are presented well in succession, gradually building a picture of the crime and it's origins.
By 3/4 of the way through the book, you realise that the ending is going to be more complex in it's origins than you might have first thought. The ending itself is a bit flat, a bit rushed, with an info-dump a la Agatha Christie summations - not my favourite way to come to a solution in a mystery.
As always, Reynolds' prose and plotting are good, his technology is wonderful, and the characters are interesting and sympathetic.
This is a grand addition to the Revelation Space we all love from Reynolds. 4.5-stars, minus 0.5 for the somewhat flat ending.
Notes and quotes:
Yet there was something different about it today –a kind of pearly glimmer to its details, an inherent lack of focus, as if he saw it through tear-stained eyes. Fine, glinting threads seemed to bind its elements, as if a spider had been crawling around it overnight, trying to fix a web to its endlessly shifting geometry.
A tale of hereditary power, of arrogance in the face of the inevitability of human flaws, of the hubris of kings, of the futile denial of entropy itself.
That was the trouble with having a gift, though –however fairly or unfairly it had been acquired. Sooner or later one felt obliged to use it.
Thank you, NetGalley, for this ARC.
.
I very much enjoyed this return to the Glitter Band, before the melding plague turns it into The Rust Belt. Tom Dreyfus is much as he was before, a bit more worn, a bit more careful. Sparver and Ng and Aumonier and others reappear, and have grown as well.
The plot starts out at a great pace, with two interwoven story threads: The current emergency, and a tale of two teens from 30 years or so before the current action. Perhaps you might think you have solved the central mystery at some point in the book (but you haven't), and the pieces of the puzzle are presented well in succession, gradually building a picture of the crime and it's origins.
By 3/4 of the way through the book, you realise that the ending is going to be more complex in it's origins than you might have first thought. The ending itself is a bit flat, a bit rushed, with an info-dump a la Agatha Christie summations - not my favourite way to come to a solution in a mystery.
As always, Reynolds' prose and plotting are good, his technology is wonderful, and the characters are interesting and sympathetic.
This is a grand addition to the Revelation Space we all love from Reynolds. 4.5-stars, minus 0.5 for the somewhat flat ending.
Notes and quotes:
Yet there was something different about it today –a kind of pearly glimmer to its details, an inherent lack of focus, as if he saw it through tear-stained eyes. Fine, glinting threads seemed to bind its elements, as if a spider had been crawling around it overnight, trying to fix a web to its endlessly shifting geometry.
A tale of hereditary power, of arrogance in the face of the inevitability of human flaws, of the hubris of kings, of the futile denial of entropy itself.
That was the trouble with having a gift, though –however fairly or unfairly it had been acquired. Sooner or later one felt obliged to use it.
Thank you, NetGalley, for this ARC.
.
January 16, 2024
The premise of this science fiction series is that humans have colonized thousands of different habitats in a region called the Glitter Band, and - to maintain democratic governance in these habitats - everybody 'votes' via a neural implant in their head.
A police force called the Panoply, with agents called prefects, maintain law and order in the Glitter Band.
Now, random people in the Glitter Band are dying from malfunctioning neural implants. The Panoply calls this phenomenon 'wildfire', and the prefects want to know what's going on.
When a suspicious death is detected, a prefect is immediately sent to retrieve the victim's head, which can then be questioned for information. (Some dead people live on in a sort of other dimension in this book.)
The main prefects in the series are Supreme Prefect Jane Aumonier (the big boss);
Senior Prefect Tom Dreyfus;
Field Prefect Thalia Ng;
and Prefect Sparver Bancal (a hyperpig).
At the beginning of the story, Field Prefect Thalia Ng is dispatched to scoop up a dead head, and this and other evidence reveals that the mysteriously dying people all seem to be risk takers of some kind, such as gamblers, fraudsters, or serial adulterers. The death rate is increasing day by day, and the prefects become VERY alarmed, and are determined to stop the carnage.
Meanwhile, a troublemaker called Devon Garlin is going around making speeches, encouraging habitats to 'secede' from the Glitter Band, and to reject the authority of the Panoply. Eight habitats have seceded so far and Garlin is gaining traction. Thus the prefects want to stop Garlin, preferably by arresting him and shutting him up.
The efforts of the Panoply to stop the escalating deaths, and to detain Garlin, are interspersed with a narrative involving two brothers named Julius and Caleb Voi. The boys live with their wealthy parents on a vast estate in Chasm City, but the siblings are isolated from the outside world.
Caleb and Julius have 'supernatural' abilities that allow them to create any kind of thing out of a substance called quickmatter. For example, the lads make themselves deadly crossbows and hunt holographic animals for fun. It's clear Julius and Caleb are being groomed for some higher calling, which is revealed little by little.
As the story progresses, the universal voting system is threatened; the baffling deaths keep escalating; and nasty chicanery is revealed. To keep the Glitter Band safe, Dreyfus, Ng, Bancal and other law enforcement officers must embark on dangerous missions that challenge their formidable abilities, even though they have cutting edge 'whip-hound' weapons.
I like this kind of science fiction and I found the story to be fast-moving and compelling. Recommended to fans of the genre.
You can follow my reviews at https://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot.com
March 22, 2018
Elysium Fire is good. Damned good.
Reynolds at his best is so much fun that reading him feels like it should be a guilty pleasure, something to greedily gorge on in the shadowy recesses of one's home or from behind the camouflage of some worthy literary magazine on the train.
His work is no pulpy-SF deep-fried chocolate bar though, no Aliens-Lasers-and-Boobs tub of home-brand icecream in front of the TV.
Elysium Fire is the SF equivalent of a hearty three course meal with a dessert of home made apple pie topped with fresh whipped cream - satisfying, well rounded, but with enough of a sugar hit to fire you up. It's pure pleasure, but pleasure with solid writing, sharp narrative and a powerful imagination.
Like The Prefect before it Elysium Fire is a police story set in an awe inspiring future - Reynold's Revelation Space universe.
The Revelation Space universe a sometimes dark one, but it's powerfully alluring, and I can't help but wistfully imagine living there, with nano-tech films you can step through that coat you in a custom made space-suit in a society founded on universal, direct democracy where every citizen votes on every issue in real time via their brain implants.
In Elysium Fire We return to the Glitter Band- the sparkling necklace of habitats and satellites that orbits the planet Yellowstone, in the Epsilon Eridani system, home to Chasm City, the most advanced and successful human city in the galaxy. If you've read Chasm City - Reynold's best novel, and one of the best SF novels this century - you've been to Chasm City, and seen it in ruins after a nano-plague has swept through and devastated the place. This time, we see it as it once was- a technological utopia in the middle of a golden age.
Just like in The Prefect we are again following the operatives of Panoply - the police force who ensure that the democracy of the Glitter Band is uncorrupted, enforcers in a society with few rules and little fondness for government oversight. Tom Dreyfuss, Thalia Ng, Jane Aumonier and Sparver Bancal (a Hyperpig- a pig raised to human intelligence and bipedalism) return from the first novel, along with Aurora, the homicidal AI from The Prefect that now exists in the distributed networks of the Glitter Band, fighting a long, slow war against the psychotic and equally distributed Clockmaker.
People all over the Glitter Band are dying, their cerebral implants overloading and cooking their brains from the inside. Simultaneously a demagogue arises - Devon Garlin -whipping up sentiment against panoply and encouraging habitats to secede from under police jurisdiction.
Desperate to discover what is causing the deaths, and terrified of the panic that could ensue if the Glitter Band discovers a potential plague within itself, Dreyfus and his colleagues race to find the source of the deaths, finding themselves allying with old enemies and questioning the foundations of their democratic utopia.
Of course, this results in a journey through the strange and wonderful realms of the Glitter Band and Yellowstone - a journey that is tightly plotted and scintillatingly told, with plenty of tension, drama and wow moments.
Reynolds is on form with this one, and it's a pacey, fun read. The ending doesn't quite match the quality of the rest of the book, but it sets things up nicely for another story in the series and comes to a fairly satisfying resolution.
It's a rare book where I start feeling sad when I draw near the tale's end, so unwilling am I to leave the world the writer has created. Elysium Fire is one of those books, and Reynolds is at the top of his storytelling game here. I can't wait to see what he cooks up next.
4.5 glittering stars.
Reynolds at his best is so much fun that reading him feels like it should be a guilty pleasure, something to greedily gorge on in the shadowy recesses of one's home or from behind the camouflage of some worthy literary magazine on the train.
His work is no pulpy-SF deep-fried chocolate bar though, no Aliens-Lasers-and-Boobs tub of home-brand icecream in front of the TV.
Elysium Fire is the SF equivalent of a hearty three course meal with a dessert of home made apple pie topped with fresh whipped cream - satisfying, well rounded, but with enough of a sugar hit to fire you up. It's pure pleasure, but pleasure with solid writing, sharp narrative and a powerful imagination.
Like The Prefect before it Elysium Fire is a police story set in an awe inspiring future - Reynold's Revelation Space universe.
The Revelation Space universe a sometimes dark one, but it's powerfully alluring, and I can't help but wistfully imagine living there, with nano-tech films you can step through that coat you in a custom made space-suit in a society founded on universal, direct democracy where every citizen votes on every issue in real time via their brain implants.
In Elysium Fire We return to the Glitter Band- the sparkling necklace of habitats and satellites that orbits the planet Yellowstone, in the Epsilon Eridani system, home to Chasm City, the most advanced and successful human city in the galaxy. If you've read Chasm City - Reynold's best novel, and one of the best SF novels this century - you've been to Chasm City, and seen it in ruins after a nano-plague has swept through and devastated the place. This time, we see it as it once was- a technological utopia in the middle of a golden age.
Just like in The Prefect we are again following the operatives of Panoply - the police force who ensure that the democracy of the Glitter Band is uncorrupted, enforcers in a society with few rules and little fondness for government oversight. Tom Dreyfuss, Thalia Ng, Jane Aumonier and Sparver Bancal (a Hyperpig- a pig raised to human intelligence and bipedalism) return from the first novel, along with Aurora, the homicidal AI from The Prefect that now exists in the distributed networks of the Glitter Band, fighting a long, slow war against the psychotic and equally distributed Clockmaker.
People all over the Glitter Band are dying, their cerebral implants overloading and cooking their brains from the inside. Simultaneously a demagogue arises - Devon Garlin -whipping up sentiment against panoply and encouraging habitats to secede from under police jurisdiction.
Desperate to discover what is causing the deaths, and terrified of the panic that could ensue if the Glitter Band discovers a potential plague within itself, Dreyfus and his colleagues race to find the source of the deaths, finding themselves allying with old enemies and questioning the foundations of their democratic utopia.
Of course, this results in a journey through the strange and wonderful realms of the Glitter Band and Yellowstone - a journey that is tightly plotted and scintillatingly told, with plenty of tension, drama and wow moments.
Reynolds is on form with this one, and it's a pacey, fun read. The ending doesn't quite match the quality of the rest of the book, but it sets things up nicely for another story in the series and comes to a fairly satisfying resolution.
It's a rare book where I start feeling sad when I draw near the tale's end, so unwilling am I to leave the world the writer has created. Elysium Fire is one of those books, and Reynolds is at the top of his storytelling game here. I can't wait to see what he cooks up next.
4.5 glittering stars.
February 28, 2018
Reynolds’ sequel to The Prefect (now called Aurora Rising) picks up not long after the events of that novel. Panoply has taken a big hit to its reputation after the cataclysmic events of the Aurora emergency, and an emerging populist movement has led a few of the habitats of the Glitter Band to abandon their ties with the protective service, with more threatening to follow. It’s no surprise when Dreyfus’ investigation of a new and deadly threat leads him straight to the leader of the anti-Panoply movement, a man who knows more about the inner workings of Panoply (and of Dreyfus himself) than any outsider rightly should. Reynolds’ mash-up of police procedural and space opera sputters a bit in this second go round. Some of the character arcs (especially Thalia’s) are nearly identical to those in the previous novel, and many of the plot turns are easy to see coming long before the novel reveals them, and the final “twist” is not so much predictable as it is irrelevant to how the story shakes out. Additionally, the problematic aspects of Dreyfus as a protagonist are more evident in this sequel; his hunches are always right, and even when he makes questionable decisions there are few lasting consequences and at most he is criticized with qualified praise. The Glitter Band is still a fascinating depiction of a futuristic democratic utopia, and there is plenty of techno-wizardry and intense action in the pages of Elysium Fire. The plotting and characterization are, however, stuck in neutral.
February 1, 2018
Eagerly awaited this one, because I run out of Al Reynolds’ novels. As I expected, it was a blast. If you loved The Prefect (or Aurora Rising, its new name), you’ll love this one too.
Although it can be read as a standalone, as it's a new twisted case involving Prefect Dreyfus & his team, you’ll miss some key details regarding the characters from previous part. Therefore, my advice is to read them in order, for a full understanding of the big picture.
The plot is masterfully woven, bits and pieces coming together in a perfect ending. Not everything is black and white, some threads are being left unanswered (AR’ unmistakable signature), feature which I love, because days after, those parts are still lingering in my head, making me think further. I easily see a third volume in the future, as Aurora has a lot of unfinished business. And if I’m not mistaken, some other characters too.
I wasn’t sure until the end that I would go for five stars, despite the enjoyment it brought - because only one event took me by surprise - after that the rest I could foresee. But having read all his novels, maybe now I get to see more easily the pattern, I guess. However, after I finished it and ruminated upon, I concluded that the novel undoubtedly deserves all five stars: it is perfectly constructed, has a flawless plot, all of it one great and tough puzzle coming toward full completion. Not to mention that is a really page turner - as always, AR knows how to glue his readers' eyes to the book.
So, there you have it, full recommendation from my part. Now I’m back to waiting for the next one…
Although it can be read as a standalone, as it's a new twisted case involving Prefect Dreyfus & his team, you’ll miss some key details regarding the characters from previous part. Therefore, my advice is to read them in order, for a full understanding of the big picture.
The plot is masterfully woven, bits and pieces coming together in a perfect ending. Not everything is black and white, some threads are being left unanswered (AR’ unmistakable signature), feature which I love, because days after, those parts are still lingering in my head, making me think further. I easily see a third volume in the future, as Aurora has a lot of unfinished business. And if I’m not mistaken, some other characters too.
I wasn’t sure until the end that I would go for five stars, despite the enjoyment it brought - because only one event took me by surprise - after that the rest I could foresee. But having read all his novels, maybe now I get to see more easily the pattern, I guess. However, after I finished it and ruminated upon, I concluded that the novel undoubtedly deserves all five stars: it is perfectly constructed, has a flawless plot, all of it one great and tough puzzle coming toward full completion. Not to mention that is a really page turner - as always, AR knows how to glue his readers' eyes to the book.
So, there you have it, full recommendation from my part. Now I’m back to waiting for the next one…
Read
May 8, 20233.5 Stars
This is a good follow up to the first book, Aurora Rising. In terms of writing and plotting it felt quite consistent with the first book. I liked again, but, once again, felt the characters to be less interesting than the mystery.
As far as sci fi thrillers go, this one is good, but not as good as this author's space opera. I think I preferred the mystery in book one, but this one was fairly compelling.
Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.
This is a good follow up to the first book, Aurora Rising. In terms of writing and plotting it felt quite consistent with the first book. I liked again, but, once again, felt the characters to be less interesting than the mystery.
As far as sci fi thrillers go, this one is good, but not as good as this author's space opera. I think I preferred the mystery in book one, but this one was fairly compelling.
Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.
February 17, 2024
”You seem a very troubled man – more than usual, if that was possible.”
“It comes with the times.”
It’s been a good long while since I read a Revelation Space novel. It’s good to see Reynolds revisiting this universe, it’s by far one of my favourite settings.
“Are you superstitious, Prefect?”
“Not at all.”
“Then you haven’t been around long enough.”
This is a sequel to The Prefect, which has subsequently been renamed to Aurora Rising. A lot happened in that book. A lot. So, while Elysium Fire can (apparently) be read as a stand-alone, it does reference its predecessor quite a bit, especially regarding The Clockmaker, the Scarab, and Aurora. I would recommend reading them in sequence, it just seems to make more sense, especially with Machine Vendetta also coming out soon.
“I told you he had a story,” she whispered.
Elysium Fire deals with many of the same subjects as Chasm City, such as memory, identity, morality and redemption, although I don’t think it is quite as dark as the latter. Having said that, this is still the Revelation Space universe….
“What do you think we’re dealing with here, Prefect?”
“Ghosts. Bad memories. Some seriously bad history. That’d be my wild stab in the dark.”
In the end Elysium Fire is a fantastic Science Fiction novel with all the elements of intrigue and drama we have come to expect. It does feel to me as if the horror elements were dialed down a bit for this specific entry, but nevertheless it is still highly recommended. And, of course, a devilish twist or two.
Bonus points for whiphounds and hyperpigs, as always.
5 Stars.
“It comes with the times.”
It’s been a good long while since I read a Revelation Space novel. It’s good to see Reynolds revisiting this universe, it’s by far one of my favourite settings.
“Are you superstitious, Prefect?”
“Not at all.”
“Then you haven’t been around long enough.”
This is a sequel to The Prefect, which has subsequently been renamed to Aurora Rising. A lot happened in that book. A lot. So, while Elysium Fire can (apparently) be read as a stand-alone, it does reference its predecessor quite a bit, especially regarding The Clockmaker, the Scarab, and Aurora. I would recommend reading them in sequence, it just seems to make more sense, especially with Machine Vendetta also coming out soon.
“I told you he had a story,” she whispered.
Elysium Fire deals with many of the same subjects as Chasm City, such as memory, identity, morality and redemption, although I don’t think it is quite as dark as the latter. Having said that, this is still the Revelation Space universe….
“What do you think we’re dealing with here, Prefect?”
“Ghosts. Bad memories. Some seriously bad history. That’d be my wild stab in the dark.”
In the end Elysium Fire is a fantastic Science Fiction novel with all the elements of intrigue and drama we have come to expect. It does feel to me as if the horror elements were dialed down a bit for this specific entry, but nevertheless it is still highly recommended. And, of course, a devilish twist or two.
Bonus points for whiphounds and hyperpigs, as always.
5 Stars.
February 25, 2018
Ten thousand orbiting artificial worlds comprise the Glitter Band with its one hundred million inhabitants. They are democracies and their citizens are constantly voting and responding to polls via neural implants. There is a very low crime rate so a small independent body of prefects was created to police the Glitter Band. The prefects, who reside on Panoply, are currently facing several problems. Confidence in the prefects is waning, a few habitats are seceding from the Glitter Band (encouraged by the rabble rouser Julius Devin Garlin Voi) and some citizens are dying due to neural implant failure. Prefect Tom Dreyfus is trying to solve the problem of the mysterious deaths while keeping the population from finding out about what may be an epidemic.
I haven't read either the first book in this science fiction detective series featuring Dreyfus or anything else by this author, so I'm sure I missed some details of the world and history of Yellowstone and its orbiting Glitter Band, but I still managed to follow the story in this book (until the ending which I found very confusing and had to read twice). I really liked the worldbuilding in this book, although I didn't get much of an idea of what life is like in the Glitter Band for most of the citizens. Some people can conjure objects, animals and even elaborate locales from quickmatter. One of the prefects is a hyperpig. The prefects are armed with whiphounds, autonomous robot whips that can be used to enforce, detain and gather evidence. People are dressed by clotheswalls : "...she stepped through a clotheswall , the wall forming her uniform around her...". One of the characters is a godlike artificial intelligence named Aurora who keeps out-maneuvering Dreyfus.
I enjoyed this book for its worIdbuilding and complex plot and some of the characters were interesting, although Dreyfus was probably the least interesting one. I did find the book was too long. There is a vote tampering side story that didn't really go anywhere. The author also has a habit of explaining things three or four times. However, I will probably read more by this author.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
I haven't read either the first book in this science fiction detective series featuring Dreyfus or anything else by this author, so I'm sure I missed some details of the world and history of Yellowstone and its orbiting Glitter Band, but I still managed to follow the story in this book (until the ending which I found very confusing and had to read twice). I really liked the worldbuilding in this book, although I didn't get much of an idea of what life is like in the Glitter Band for most of the citizens. Some people can conjure objects, animals and even elaborate locales from quickmatter. One of the prefects is a hyperpig. The prefects are armed with whiphounds, autonomous robot whips that can be used to enforce, detain and gather evidence. People are dressed by clotheswalls : "...she stepped through a clotheswall , the wall forming her uniform around her...". One of the characters is a godlike artificial intelligence named Aurora who keeps out-maneuvering Dreyfus.
I enjoyed this book for its worIdbuilding and complex plot and some of the characters were interesting, although Dreyfus was probably the least interesting one. I did find the book was too long. There is a vote tampering side story that didn't really go anywhere. The author also has a habit of explaining things three or four times. However, I will probably read more by this author.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
June 3, 2019
Another cosy mystery with Dreyfus and co. ‘Cosy’ here is a relative term because heads are literary exploding or getting carried away in a suitcases. Not as intense and full of mindblowing creatures/ technology/weird habitats as the first book. Still a good mystery and a fun read.
I know I’ll miss these characters.
At least I get to come back to this world. Chasm City 's next.
I know I’ll miss these characters.
At least I get to come back to this world. Chasm City 's next.
December 4, 2018
I found this disappointing, despite generally being a fan of Alastair Reynolds' work. For most of the book, I found it reasonably engaging if a bit laden with Captain Obvious writing and very obvious allusions to current politics (in the audiobook, a certain character really does sound like Space Nigel Farage). Unfortunately, the finale dragged the whole thing down with a silly "final battle" seemingly lifted from a bad video game, a "mwahaha, let me explain my evil plan and give you a sadistic choice" villain, and plot points literally being explained twice to two different POV characters.
I feel like Reynolds has moved too far away from the cosmic horror and/or intense noir-y feel of his earlier books, into drier and more prosaic stories driven by characters that tend to be a bit bland. Notably, some of the plot points/twists involving memory in this book are reminiscent of his earlier Chasm City, one of my favourite of his books, but nowhere near as effective. Even the predecessor to this book felt much darker and more baroque, with the strange twisted AIs, messages from the future and legions of killer robots. The most obviously horrific element of this book, people's brains cooking from their cybernetics going haywire, was mostly kept "offscreen", which I think was a mistake.
I feel like Reynolds has moved too far away from the cosmic horror and/or intense noir-y feel of his earlier books, into drier and more prosaic stories driven by characters that tend to be a bit bland. Notably, some of the plot points/twists involving memory in this book are reminiscent of his earlier Chasm City, one of my favourite of his books, but nowhere near as effective. Even the predecessor to this book felt much darker and more baroque, with the strange twisted AIs, messages from the future and legions of killer robots. The most obviously horrific element of this book, people's brains cooking from their cybernetics going haywire, was mostly kept "offscreen", which I think was a mistake.
July 1, 2019
I think I was so disappointed in this follow-up to The Prefect because the last Alastair Reynolds I read (written with Stephen Baxter), The Medusa Chronicles, is one of my all-time favourite SF books.
The Glitter Band is one of the most intriguing High Concepts in contemporary SF. Together with the Panoply, it reminds me of the Special Circumstances unit in the Culture sequence by Iain Banks – and the associated moral ambiguity and socio-political complexity.
I just felt that the rather humdrum murder mystery at the heart of Elysium Fire, while tangentially linked to one of the founding families of the Glitter Belt, does not delve deeply enough into this wonderfully strange universe (especially considering companion novels like Chasm City.)
Having said that, this is quite an easy read. The tension does ratchet up somewhat towards the end, though curiously the Prefects’ instruments of law and order, the whiphounds, tend to take centre stage moreso than any of the human (or hyperpig) characters, and also elicit more reader sympathy. I wonder if this is a side-effect of us readers always being more interested in the robots in SF.
Will there be another instalment? We’re still no closer to resolving the standoff between Aurora and the Clockmaker, while the Panoply is in a much more precarious position than ever before. So the answer is probably, make that definitely, yes.
The Glitter Band is one of the most intriguing High Concepts in contemporary SF. Together with the Panoply, it reminds me of the Special Circumstances unit in the Culture sequence by Iain Banks – and the associated moral ambiguity and socio-political complexity.
I just felt that the rather humdrum murder mystery at the heart of Elysium Fire, while tangentially linked to one of the founding families of the Glitter Belt, does not delve deeply enough into this wonderfully strange universe (especially considering companion novels like Chasm City.)
Having said that, this is quite an easy read. The tension does ratchet up somewhat towards the end, though curiously the Prefects’ instruments of law and order, the whiphounds, tend to take centre stage moreso than any of the human (or hyperpig) characters, and also elicit more reader sympathy. I wonder if this is a side-effect of us readers always being more interested in the robots in SF.
Will there be another instalment? We’re still no closer to resolving the standoff between Aurora and the Clockmaker, while the Panoply is in a much more precarious position than ever before. So the answer is probably, make that definitely, yes.
April 4, 2020
Elysium Fire is a chronological sequel to The Prefect, picking up where its predecessor left off. Dreyfus, Jane, Thalia, and Sparver return as main characters alongside some new faces. Our story begins with Panoply investigating a series of mysterious deaths in the Glitter Band and goes in a lot of unexpected directions from there.
In addition to a fantastic mystery, Al treats readers to his usual genre buffet of horror, detective noir, speculative fiction, dry humor, and even some fantasy for dessert. The story twists, turns, shocks, and surprises en route to a very satisfying ending.
The excellent main characters carried from The Prefect are further explored, with more of a focus on Thalia and Sparver than the previous book. The new characters are also very interesting and well done. This is really a master class in keeping main characters fresh from book to book and left me wanting more of their adventures. It appears the next book, Chasm City, is going to focus on Tanner Mirabel (who has been mentioned repeatedly in previous books), but I'm hoping the "intelligence sharing" backdrop will pull in Panoply as well. Hopefully, this is not the end of Dreyfus and company.
If you've read this far in the Revelation Space series, don't miss Elysium Fire. The books are gaining momentum as the series progresses, and this is my favorite of the lot.
In addition to a fantastic mystery, Al treats readers to his usual genre buffet of horror, detective noir, speculative fiction, dry humor, and even some fantasy for dessert. The story twists, turns, shocks, and surprises en route to a very satisfying ending.
The excellent main characters carried from The Prefect are further explored, with more of a focus on Thalia and Sparver than the previous book. The new characters are also very interesting and well done. This is really a master class in keeping main characters fresh from book to book and left me wanting more of their adventures. It appears the next book, Chasm City, is going to focus on Tanner Mirabel (who has been mentioned repeatedly in previous books), but I'm hoping the "intelligence sharing" backdrop will pull in Panoply as well. Hopefully, this is not the end of Dreyfus and company.
If you've read this far in the Revelation Space series, don't miss Elysium Fire. The books are gaining momentum as the series progresses, and this is my favorite of the lot.
February 1, 2018
5 Stars
Alastair Reynolds is my very favorite authors and Elysium Fire is the sequel to one of my all time favorite science fiction novels. Well let me sum this one by saying I was surprised at just how much I loved this book. It plays to all my favorite things...high tech, cool mystery, strong lead detective, hard science, great world building, gadgets, monsters, and gobbley goo like magic. This book has it all.
If you read the first book then this is a book that should not be missed. If you haven't read Alastair Reynolds, well, you have really been missing out.
Amazing and fun read which happens to be a sequel...
Alastair Reynolds is my very favorite authors and Elysium Fire is the sequel to one of my all time favorite science fiction novels. Well let me sum this one by saying I was surprised at just how much I loved this book. It plays to all my favorite things...high tech, cool mystery, strong lead detective, hard science, great world building, gadgets, monsters, and gobbley goo like magic. This book has it all.
If you read the first book then this is a book that should not be missed. If you haven't read Alastair Reynolds, well, you have really been missing out.
Amazing and fun read which happens to be a sequel...
April 18, 2018
3.5 Stars. A little disappointing as I had just reread The Prefect and this sequel was more predictable and not as inventive.
November 20, 2021
(Again: spoilers may include spoilers for other books for this ‘verse.)
Two years since the events of the previous Prefect book, a mysterious thing is happening around the Glitter Band, here and there: implants in people’s heads malfunctioning, killing them. Dreyfus is (also) keeping an eye on a charismatic dissent-sower – Devon Garlin, who actually is a great-grandson of a figure very important to the system, Sandra Voi. Garlin seems to be increasingly connected to the implants case, but which thing will be more destructive for the system, and the Panoply? Once again, past secrets and pasts sins won’t stay uncovered…
At first I though this would be the threat (Wildfire, that is, implants exploding) Aurora was warned about in the previous book (it’s not). The start of the story tells us of the beginnings of the Glitter band; the mystery of the other story going alongside the main plot soon becomes clearer, if you realise why it’s essential to be there (it is how ).
A few themes rise up: like in some other books with the trope about great families and
And the white tree pops up a lot, in places, in people’s memories, in a shape of some candlesticks, in suit art of a worker working on dismantling a place on one of the planets (with crucial information treasure hidden within). Such an important place for .
There’s a question also rising: do the Glitter Band planets want safety or freedom more? Although some planets do detach from the control-safety of the Panoply, does the detachment stop after the end of this book? And what will the status of the polls be from here, now that we can see how the ?
I am glad to see how Thalia Ng continues to grow in her Prefect role, though once again she doesn’t escape some knocking-around. Sparver also continues to impress me, including with some ethical dilemma or two towards the end. Love also how the story loops at the end towards Chapter 1, which one might then want to reread a little. Spoiling yourself a little during reading might make things even more entertaining, and once again the final-confrontation makes the end rush-read quite awesome an experience.
I wonder what the conversations that Dreyfus occasionally has with . And the truth about Wildfire
Of course, the problems won’t stop happening, though they might be different next time. Aurora and and there is still at least one Prefect novel ahead, at some point, at least that I’m guessing. This books themes were interesting, the plot more thought-provoking and a bit less action-heavy as the previous book. But humanity still has many troubles, discoveries, and moments of hard choices ahead...
Two years since the events of the previous Prefect book, a mysterious thing is happening around the Glitter Band, here and there: implants in people’s heads malfunctioning, killing them. Dreyfus is (also) keeping an eye on a charismatic dissent-sower – Devon Garlin, who actually is a great-grandson of a figure very important to the system, Sandra Voi. Garlin seems to be increasingly connected to the implants case, but which thing will be more destructive for the system, and the Panoply? Once again, past secrets and pasts sins won’t stay uncovered…
At first I though this would be the threat (Wildfire, that is, implants exploding) Aurora was warned about in the previous book (it’s not). The start of the story tells us of the beginnings of the Glitter band; the mystery of the other story going alongside the main plot soon becomes clearer, if you realise why it’s essential to be there (it is how ).
A few themes rise up: like in some other books with the trope about great families and
And the white tree pops up a lot, in places, in people’s memories, in a shape of some candlesticks, in suit art of a worker working on dismantling a place on one of the planets (with crucial information treasure hidden within). Such an important place for .
There’s a question also rising: do the Glitter Band planets want safety or freedom more? Although some planets do detach from the control-safety of the Panoply, does the detachment stop after the end of this book? And what will the status of the polls be from here, now that we can see how the ?
I am glad to see how Thalia Ng continues to grow in her Prefect role, though once again she doesn’t escape some knocking-around. Sparver also continues to impress me, including with some ethical dilemma or two towards the end. Love also how the story loops at the end towards Chapter 1, which one might then want to reread a little. Spoiling yourself a little during reading might make things even more entertaining, and once again the final-confrontation makes the end rush-read quite awesome an experience.
I wonder what the conversations that Dreyfus occasionally has with . And the truth about Wildfire
Of course, the problems won’t stop happening, though they might be different next time. Aurora and and there is still at least one Prefect novel ahead, at some point, at least that I’m guessing. This books themes were interesting, the plot more thought-provoking and a bit less action-heavy as the previous book. But humanity still has many troubles, discoveries, and moments of hard choices ahead...
July 22, 2018
Elysium Fire: Solid Sequel to The Prefect
Elysium Fire (2018) is the sequel to Alastair Reynolds’ The Prefect (now renamed Aurora Rising to designate it as part of the PREFECT DREYFUS series), a complex and detailed police procedural set in the Glitter Band of his REVELATION SPACE series, set before the Melding Plague that destroyed the 10,000 orbitals that sported every conceivable political system, all run by real-time neurally-based electronic democratic voting systems that allow citizens to weigh in on each issue and decision on how to run their societies. This democratic utopia features few formalized rules among the orbital other than keeping the voting systems inviolate and this is enforced by a police force of Prefects based on the world of Panoply, armed with versatile “whip-hounds” in place of an armed military.
Many of the characters from the first book reappear, including Deputy Tom Dreyfus, fellow Prefect Thalia Ng, hyper-pig Sparver, their boss Supreme Prefect Jane Aumonier, and Aurora, the AI that goes psychotic in the first book. You can read this book as a stand-alone, but it makes much more sense to have read Aurora Rising first, and you’ll get even more if you have read the much later books in the REVELATION SPACE series, such as the main trilogy and Chasm City in particular.
This time around there is a mysterious plague appearing at random among citizens in the orbitals that overloads their cerebral implants and fries their brains. There appears to be no connections among the victims, as they are scattered throughout different parts of society and worlds. As Dreyfus and his colleagues investigate case after case, they struggle to find any meaningful leads to understand the source of the “Wildfire” virus.
Meanwhile, there is a new voice of discontent arising, a critic of Panoply named Devon Garlin, essentially a demagogue who claims that the Glitter Band orbitals have no need of the Prefects and encouraging to secede from the group and go independent. So Dreyfus and his fellow Prefects are racing against time to contain the Wildfire virus while also fending off the growing criticism of Garlin, who sows discontent everywhere he goes among the habitats, making the investigation that much harder.
There is also an important subplot in Elysium Fire about two twins, Caleb and Julius, who grow up in a strange family environment and appear to have telekinetic abilities to manipulate quick matter and, later on, polling stations, that most fundamental tool that underpins the Glitter Band’s democratic system. It is not clear what their connection is with the Wildfire or even the timeline they are operating in, so Reynolds keeps their significance to the main story wrapped in mystery even as he fills in their stories and it is only much later in the book that we start to understand who they are and the connection to the Wildfire plague, the AI Aurora, and the demagogue Devlin.
All the complex storylines do get tied up eventually, and the Caleb and Julius relationship gets a surprise reveal that I didn’t see coming. Like all Reynolds books, the storyline is complex and the overall tone is dark, and the characters are far more like real people with flaws and hang-ups and personal issues. Elysium Fire is narrated by John Lee, like all of Reynolds’ books, and his dignified British gravitas is a good fit for the tone of the books.
Elysium Fire (2018) is the sequel to Alastair Reynolds’ The Prefect (now renamed Aurora Rising to designate it as part of the PREFECT DREYFUS series), a complex and detailed police procedural set in the Glitter Band of his REVELATION SPACE series, set before the Melding Plague that destroyed the 10,000 orbitals that sported every conceivable political system, all run by real-time neurally-based electronic democratic voting systems that allow citizens to weigh in on each issue and decision on how to run their societies. This democratic utopia features few formalized rules among the orbital other than keeping the voting systems inviolate and this is enforced by a police force of Prefects based on the world of Panoply, armed with versatile “whip-hounds” in place of an armed military.
Many of the characters from the first book reappear, including Deputy Tom Dreyfus, fellow Prefect Thalia Ng, hyper-pig Sparver, their boss Supreme Prefect Jane Aumonier, and Aurora, the AI that goes psychotic in the first book. You can read this book as a stand-alone, but it makes much more sense to have read Aurora Rising first, and you’ll get even more if you have read the much later books in the REVELATION SPACE series, such as the main trilogy and Chasm City in particular.
This time around there is a mysterious plague appearing at random among citizens in the orbitals that overloads their cerebral implants and fries their brains. There appears to be no connections among the victims, as they are scattered throughout different parts of society and worlds. As Dreyfus and his colleagues investigate case after case, they struggle to find any meaningful leads to understand the source of the “Wildfire” virus.
Meanwhile, there is a new voice of discontent arising, a critic of Panoply named Devon Garlin, essentially a demagogue who claims that the Glitter Band orbitals have no need of the Prefects and encouraging to secede from the group and go independent. So Dreyfus and his fellow Prefects are racing against time to contain the Wildfire virus while also fending off the growing criticism of Garlin, who sows discontent everywhere he goes among the habitats, making the investigation that much harder.
There is also an important subplot in Elysium Fire about two twins, Caleb and Julius, who grow up in a strange family environment and appear to have telekinetic abilities to manipulate quick matter and, later on, polling stations, that most fundamental tool that underpins the Glitter Band’s democratic system. It is not clear what their connection is with the Wildfire or even the timeline they are operating in, so Reynolds keeps their significance to the main story wrapped in mystery even as he fills in their stories and it is only much later in the book that we start to understand who they are and the connection to the Wildfire plague, the AI Aurora, and the demagogue Devlin.
All the complex storylines do get tied up eventually, and the Caleb and Julius relationship gets a surprise reveal that I didn’t see coming. Like all Reynolds books, the storyline is complex and the overall tone is dark, and the characters are far more like real people with flaws and hang-ups and personal issues. Elysium Fire is narrated by John Lee, like all of Reynolds’ books, and his dignified British gravitas is a good fit for the tone of the books.
April 25, 2023
Alastair Reynolds, Revelation Space universe and John Lee narrating - Perfect Bliss
The second Dreyfuss novel takes off more or less immediately after the first and even though there are 10 years between the publication and my reading of them, i felt very instantly at home in the revelation space universe, the few important references to the first novel was quickly recapped as part of the narrative.
As usual it's a mixture of grand scale Space Opera and a small cast detective noir storyline, it's a wild ride with a lot of action, but unfortunately also with some obviously plot holes in a story that could have been a 5 star experience.
The second Dreyfuss novel takes off more or less immediately after the first and even though there are 10 years between the publication and my reading of them, i felt very instantly at home in the revelation space universe, the few important references to the first novel was quickly recapped as part of the narrative.
As usual it's a mixture of grand scale Space Opera and a small cast detective noir storyline, it's a wild ride with a lot of action, but unfortunately also with some obviously plot holes in a story that could have been a 5 star experience.
Want to read
February 10, 2018This hardcover is the first British edition.
January 21, 2018
This one’s an unexpected surprise. Back in 2007 I reviewed The Prefect (now renamed Aurora Rising) with the hope that I would read more from the same setting. Over ten years later we return to the worlds of the Glitter Band, patrolled by the Panoply police force. It’s a magnificent humdinger of a sequel.
For many readers the good news is that these novels fit into Alastair’s grand scheme of Revelation Space, a Future History of rise and fall, ambition and decay, in the finest traditions of Iain M Banks’ Culture or even Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series. In Alastair’s setting, these novels are prequels, happening before the events that are in his novels like Chasm City. The Melding Plague catastrophe that will befall the thousands of orbital habitats grouped together as The Glitter Band has not yet happened, although there are intriguing little snippets throughout these books that things are not going to end well.
In Elysium Fire it is now two years after the Aurora Event (told in Aurora Rising). The characters we met in the first book return, older and wiser and still defending law and order when needs be. Deputy Tom Dreyfus is back as a Chief Prefect (detective), his boss, Supreme Prefect Jane Aumonier, and Dreyfus’s fellow officers to whom he is a mentor, Thalia Ng & a genetically enhanced ‘hyper pig’ Sparver Bancal.
Elysium Fire begins with a series of sudden deaths amongst the Glitter Band citizens. There seems to be no pattern and no motive. None of the victims seem to be connected and they are all from different walks of life and different habitats. Dreyfus and his team are brought into this situation when Thalia is asked to retrieve one of the victim’s bodies. Dreyfus is told that this is not the first and there has been nearly fifty deaths so far. Worryingly, the incidents, referred to as “Wildfire”, are on the increase, with the time between each death shortening. Panoply has to try and determine cause and motive before the problem spreads across the Glitter Band and also stop it happening further.
As you can see, things have moved on since The Prefect, and not entirely for the better. The ‘Aurora Event’, and the way it was handled by Panoply, has led to a growing unease between the citizens and the law enforcement agency. We are seeing unrest across the Band, which Dreyfus and his team struggle to maintain control over. One of the most outspoken critics of Panoply is Devon Garlin, an evangelistic orator whose path keeps crossing with Dreyfus as he travels to different habitats. Dreyfus is convinced that Devon has something to do with Wildfire but cannot pin him down to anything specific.
Much of the novel is about this but there are subplots. One is about two twins, Caleb and Julius, whose mysterious upbringing has implications for the old families of the Band and will no doubt be connected to future events. We also have the return of Aurora, whose involvement in events is never simple.
This is being touted as a stand-alone novel. I am sure that it can be, but I appreciated re-reading Aurora Rising first. (In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I did something I rarely do these days and read two books in a series back-to-back.) This rereading showed me that with Elysium Fire how much Alastair has grown as a writer in the last decade. The characters here have grown in depth and complexity since The Prefect, and consequently our need to ‘see them right’ has grown with it. They are more fleshed out, more conflicted…. more human. As before, the setting is a wonderful conceit, all the more so when long-time readers know that eventually things will not be what they are here.
Elysium Fire hits the ground running and slowly and cleverly connects what seem to be disparate aspects of the novel. By the end the issues of the book resolve themselves and set things up nicely for future stories.
When I reviewed The Prefect I did say I would hope that there would be more in this series. Elysium Fire shows that it was right to return to this universe and that there is potential for more stories in Revelation Space. I hope that it’ll not be ten years.
For many readers the good news is that these novels fit into Alastair’s grand scheme of Revelation Space, a Future History of rise and fall, ambition and decay, in the finest traditions of Iain M Banks’ Culture or even Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series. In Alastair’s setting, these novels are prequels, happening before the events that are in his novels like Chasm City. The Melding Plague catastrophe that will befall the thousands of orbital habitats grouped together as The Glitter Band has not yet happened, although there are intriguing little snippets throughout these books that things are not going to end well.
In Elysium Fire it is now two years after the Aurora Event (told in Aurora Rising). The characters we met in the first book return, older and wiser and still defending law and order when needs be. Deputy Tom Dreyfus is back as a Chief Prefect (detective), his boss, Supreme Prefect Jane Aumonier, and Dreyfus’s fellow officers to whom he is a mentor, Thalia Ng & a genetically enhanced ‘hyper pig’ Sparver Bancal.
Elysium Fire begins with a series of sudden deaths amongst the Glitter Band citizens. There seems to be no pattern and no motive. None of the victims seem to be connected and they are all from different walks of life and different habitats. Dreyfus and his team are brought into this situation when Thalia is asked to retrieve one of the victim’s bodies. Dreyfus is told that this is not the first and there has been nearly fifty deaths so far. Worryingly, the incidents, referred to as “Wildfire”, are on the increase, with the time between each death shortening. Panoply has to try and determine cause and motive before the problem spreads across the Glitter Band and also stop it happening further.
As you can see, things have moved on since The Prefect, and not entirely for the better. The ‘Aurora Event’, and the way it was handled by Panoply, has led to a growing unease between the citizens and the law enforcement agency. We are seeing unrest across the Band, which Dreyfus and his team struggle to maintain control over. One of the most outspoken critics of Panoply is Devon Garlin, an evangelistic orator whose path keeps crossing with Dreyfus as he travels to different habitats. Dreyfus is convinced that Devon has something to do with Wildfire but cannot pin him down to anything specific.
Much of the novel is about this but there are subplots. One is about two twins, Caleb and Julius, whose mysterious upbringing has implications for the old families of the Band and will no doubt be connected to future events. We also have the return of Aurora, whose involvement in events is never simple.
This is being touted as a stand-alone novel. I am sure that it can be, but I appreciated re-reading Aurora Rising first. (In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I did something I rarely do these days and read two books in a series back-to-back.) This rereading showed me that with Elysium Fire how much Alastair has grown as a writer in the last decade. The characters here have grown in depth and complexity since The Prefect, and consequently our need to ‘see them right’ has grown with it. They are more fleshed out, more conflicted…. more human. As before, the setting is a wonderful conceit, all the more so when long-time readers know that eventually things will not be what they are here.
Elysium Fire hits the ground running and slowly and cleverly connects what seem to be disparate aspects of the novel. By the end the issues of the book resolve themselves and set things up nicely for future stories.
When I reviewed The Prefect I did say I would hope that there would be more in this series. Elysium Fire shows that it was right to return to this universe and that there is potential for more stories in Revelation Space. I hope that it’ll not be ten years.
March 30, 2018
Here now is Reynolds newest 'attempt' to be who he once was, this may sound like a Review of this Writer's life! Perhaps it is since Reynolds output is a far lesser one than when he was much younger. This cultural 'Split' happens to fine writers. Look at Stephenson, Gibson, King, Barker the list goes on and on....
Here however is Reynolds return to his Proctor series of the 'Rust Belt' also once known as the Glitter Band. Rust Never Sleeps, you see, but Man and Woman sure do!
At any rate this book is far from scintillating Dreyfus sounds more like a 'little old lady' as he tramps around attempting to find whose blowing up heads, essentially. The book goes from the leader of the Proctors, a self governing police force, whose name is Jane and Dreyfus and other Proctors as they uncover who is using APPS, Brain Apps to explode, which they call Wildfire.
Problem is that Reynolds never does account what that means to a so called "Victim' of the 'Species'...
He doesn't show it happening in other words the view is entirely of the Proctors, their movements, thoughts and 'Actions'... which deems the book rather dull and somewhat hollow. If you're looking for any Danger, get on over to Reynold's Revelation Space, etc. The Hell Class Weapons are far, far away in Reynolds Old Age here...
Fact is Reynolds sounds and writes like a perfect Democrat. His world is full of Whining little men and women, worried about things that go bump in the night.
Look to Neal Asher these days... He actually still has what REAL SCIENCE FICTION is supposed to be.
Here however is Reynolds return to his Proctor series of the 'Rust Belt' also once known as the Glitter Band. Rust Never Sleeps, you see, but Man and Woman sure do!
At any rate this book is far from scintillating Dreyfus sounds more like a 'little old lady' as he tramps around attempting to find whose blowing up heads, essentially. The book goes from the leader of the Proctors, a self governing police force, whose name is Jane and Dreyfus and other Proctors as they uncover who is using APPS, Brain Apps to explode, which they call Wildfire.
Problem is that Reynolds never does account what that means to a so called "Victim' of the 'Species'...
He doesn't show it happening in other words the view is entirely of the Proctors, their movements, thoughts and 'Actions'... which deems the book rather dull and somewhat hollow. If you're looking for any Danger, get on over to Reynold's Revelation Space, etc. The Hell Class Weapons are far, far away in Reynolds Old Age here...
Fact is Reynolds sounds and writes like a perfect Democrat. His world is full of Whining little men and women, worried about things that go bump in the night.
Look to Neal Asher these days... He actually still has what REAL SCIENCE FICTION is supposed to be.
February 25, 2021
Alastair Reynolds is probably my favorite author. I love the Revelations Space novels, his standalone novels that I have read, and his short stories. Because I have such a high regard for Reynolds, Elysium Fire was a disappointment for me.
Elysium Fire is set in the Revelation Space universe and is a sequel to The Prefect/Aurora Rising. It centers around Prefect Dreyfus and his colleagues in Panoply. Panoply is sort of a police force for the thousands of orbital habitats known as the Glitter Band. In this novel a series of unexplained deaths occur throughout the Glitter Band, and it is up to the prefects of Panoply to solve them.
The main issue I had with this novel is that it simply was not as creative as the rest of the Revelation Space novels. The plot focused around a simple mystery with a couple predictable “twists” and a rather bland setting. It felt as if Reynolds had to rush through writing this story compared to his other novels. It did not have any new or otherwise creative ideas or feel.
Overall, the Elysium Fire was just fine as a novel. It wasn’t necessarily good nor bad. I am giving it 2 stars out of 5 because I hold Alastair Reynolds to a higher standard based on his other work. With all that said, I am still very much looking forward to his next novel Inhibitor Phase that is coming out in July.
Elysium Fire is set in the Revelation Space universe and is a sequel to The Prefect/Aurora Rising. It centers around Prefect Dreyfus and his colleagues in Panoply. Panoply is sort of a police force for the thousands of orbital habitats known as the Glitter Band. In this novel a series of unexplained deaths occur throughout the Glitter Band, and it is up to the prefects of Panoply to solve them.
The main issue I had with this novel is that it simply was not as creative as the rest of the Revelation Space novels. The plot focused around a simple mystery with a couple predictable “twists” and a rather bland setting. It felt as if Reynolds had to rush through writing this story compared to his other novels. It did not have any new or otherwise creative ideas or feel.
Overall, the Elysium Fire was just fine as a novel. It wasn’t necessarily good nor bad. I am giving it 2 stars out of 5 because I hold Alastair Reynolds to a higher standard based on his other work. With all that said, I am still very much looking forward to his next novel Inhibitor Phase that is coming out in July.
October 28, 2020
Interestingly, I DNF-ed the first book in the series because I couldn't follow it for shit. But this one, somehow, pulled me into its chaos and didn't let me go until the end. Not that I found my way out of it, though. I'm still not sure what exactly happened, but it's one damn good book and this man can write, that's for sure.
His style of writing is a clear reminder what you're missing by reading majority of so called indie writers. This is kind of mainstream that reminds you why it's sometimes desirable way to go.
I'd say it's classical hard boiled SF mixed with modern transhumanist currents, peppered with philosophical easter eggs here and there. In other words, tailored to my scrawny ass.
Maybe it's time to try the first book again.
His style of writing is a clear reminder what you're missing by reading majority of so called indie writers. This is kind of mainstream that reminds you why it's sometimes desirable way to go.
I'd say it's classical hard boiled SF mixed with modern transhumanist currents, peppered with philosophical easter eggs here and there. In other words, tailored to my scrawny ass.
Maybe it's time to try the first book again.
February 28, 2018
Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review. After further reflection, I had to lower this to three stars from my initial four. The story and pacing was tight, as is almost always the case with Reynolds, but there were too many issues and missed opportunities for me to give this four stars. Slight spoilers ahead.
Elysium Fire is the sequel a prequel (The Prefect) in the Revelation Space universe, taking place roughly 200 years before the events of Revelation Space. Like The Prefect, Reynolds smashes together a cool police procedural with some wild science fiction ideas, and even a small dash of political theory. The plot centers around a terrifying wave of mysterious deaths that seem to be coming from the neurological implants that most of the population in the Glitter Band wear. The Glitter Band is not an irrelevant subgenre of British glam rock, but is instead a collection of human habitats orbiting a planet around a distant star where citizens participate in the ultimate form of direct democracy. It's really a much more interesting setting than that which I've just described, but you should already know what I'm talking about since you have already done your homework and read The Prefect before you attempt to read this. But remember all the cool ideas about how people lived in those habitats that you read in that installment? There's not much of that present here in Elysium Fire. It was a wasted opportunity in my opinion.
Another misfire was that this story would lead you to believe that it is about the beginning of the Melding Plague - one of the seminal events in the Revelation Space universe, but it really wasn't. As soon as that fact settled in, I felt my enjoyment of the book start to slightly drop.
What did Reynold do right? There were some temporal twists I didn't see coming that I enjoyed and the story did move briskly. There isn't much irrelevant padding or characters in Reynold's works and I really respect him and appreciate him for not wasting his readers' time. I give him credit for never really letting my interest wane too much as I really wanted to find out what happened next.
So I know this is slightly unfair criticism, as we shouldn't review books for what they didn't have, but for what they do contain and how that story is executed. Paradoxically, I would've enjoyed this book more, had I not known anything about the Melding Plague or The Prefect, but reading the Prefect is definitely a prerequisite for reading Elysium Fire. Therefore the three star rating - not a bad rating in my book at all, but not really a book I would highly endorse or reread.
Elysium Fire is the sequel a prequel (The Prefect) in the Revelation Space universe, taking place roughly 200 years before the events of Revelation Space. Like The Prefect, Reynolds smashes together a cool police procedural with some wild science fiction ideas, and even a small dash of political theory. The plot centers around a terrifying wave of mysterious deaths that seem to be coming from the neurological implants that most of the population in the Glitter Band wear. The Glitter Band is not an irrelevant subgenre of British glam rock, but is instead a collection of human habitats orbiting a planet around a distant star where citizens participate in the ultimate form of direct democracy. It's really a much more interesting setting than that which I've just described, but you should already know what I'm talking about since you have already done your homework and read The Prefect before you attempt to read this. But remember all the cool ideas about how people lived in those habitats that you read in that installment? There's not much of that present here in Elysium Fire. It was a wasted opportunity in my opinion.
Another misfire was that this story would lead you to believe that it is about the beginning of the Melding Plague - one of the seminal events in the Revelation Space universe, but it really wasn't. As soon as that fact settled in, I felt my enjoyment of the book start to slightly drop.
What did Reynold do right? There were some temporal twists I didn't see coming that I enjoyed and the story did move briskly. There isn't much irrelevant padding or characters in Reynold's works and I really respect him and appreciate him for not wasting his readers' time. I give him credit for never really letting my interest wane too much as I really wanted to find out what happened next.
So I know this is slightly unfair criticism, as we shouldn't review books for what they didn't have, but for what they do contain and how that story is executed. Paradoxically, I would've enjoyed this book more, had I not known anything about the Melding Plague or The Prefect, but reading the Prefect is definitely a prerequisite for reading Elysium Fire. Therefore the three star rating - not a bad rating in my book at all, but not really a book I would highly endorse or reread.
June 19, 2018
2.5 stars. I still love the setting, but I didn’t like this story as well as the first one.
Random citizens of the Glitter Band are dying of a mysterious malfunction of their cranial implants, which are nearly ubiquitous. Panoply, the only law enforcement entity which spans the Band, is scrambling to find the cause and determine who will be stricken next.
I was enjoying the book pretty well until the end, where I think there’s just too much talking. Reynolds’s dialog is terrible, and the flood of confessions and revelations just sucked the life out of the story.
I have to admit that Reynolds’s awkward writing style is growing on me. I’m becoming amused by his wooden dialog, kind of like the way I have become amused, rather than frustrated, by C.J. Cherryh’s repetitiveness.
Random citizens of the Glitter Band are dying of a mysterious malfunction of their cranial implants, which are nearly ubiquitous. Panoply, the only law enforcement entity which spans the Band, is scrambling to find the cause and determine who will be stricken next.
I was enjoying the book pretty well until the end, where I think there’s just too much talking. Reynolds’s dialog is terrible, and the flood of confessions and revelations just sucked the life out of the story.
I have to admit that Reynolds’s awkward writing style is growing on me. I’m becoming amused by his wooden dialog, kind of like the way I have become amused, rather than frustrated, by C.J. Cherryh’s repetitiveness.
November 25, 2018
This was okay, nothing more. Very clearly Brexit-influenced in its politics it just sort of trundled along at a sedate pace until it was done. Not up to his usual high standards.
September 16, 2019
Reading this was like putting on comfy slippers. So much so, it made me start the whole Revelation Space series again.
March 10, 2019
3.5 stars rounded up. I love Reynolds' writing and stories but this wasn't my favorite. All of the cool sci-fi elements and tech seemed old and what remained was just a detective mystery. It was a good mystery but outside of the the there wasn't much exciting happening. I feel like Reynolds, along with his editing team, is coasting a bit. I know that is a callous, what have you done for me lately, reader attitude, but the books I buy cost money and I have expectations. Revenger has not gotten rave reviews and I don't know if I will pick that up. If this is the first/only review of a Reynolds book you have read, go pick up House of Suns, Pushing Ice, Chasm city or Revelation Space. They are all awesome!
February 7, 2018
I loved every page. It was a perfect combination of drama, mystery, world-building and classic noir detective story.
I do very much hope there will be a third.
I do very much hope there will be a third.
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