Revelation Space

By: Alastair Reynolds

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 22 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

Nine hundred thousand years ago, something annihilated the Amarantin civilization just as it was on the verge of discovering space flight. Now one scientist, Dan Sylveste, will stop at nothing to solve the Amarantin riddle before ancient history repeats itself.

With no other resources at his disposal, Sylveste forges a dangerous alliance with the cyborg crew of the starship Nostalgia for Infinity. But as he closes in on the secret, a killer closes in on him because the Amarantin were destroyed for a reason. And if that reason is uncovered, the universe - and reality itself - could be irrevocably altered.

©2008 Alastair Reynolds (P)2008 Tantor

Critic reviews

"One of the best books of the year." ( Science Fiction Chronicle)
"Ferociously intelligent and imbued with a chilling logic - it may really be like this Out There." (Stephen Baxter, co-author of The Light of Other Days)

Enjoyed the story but difficult to listen

Any additional comments?

I see others like John Lee's performance but I found it to be the most annoying I've ever experienced. I must follow up that he does improve with the subsequent books. I suspect that he read Redemption Ark after Revelation Space and made Chasm City his third reading. This is because I noticed a great improvement in Chasm City, which I read second and then noticed Redemption Ark was as poor as the first. I'm speaking of his tendency to drop off at the end of every sentence. I listen primarily on the road and found it nearly impossible to follow the story. I'd turn the volume to maximum and have the first of every line blast out but still the end of the sentences were mostly unintelligible. And I've heard much better voice diversity in most other performances. He started the series with only three or four voices and I have yet to hear gender differences. Plus, the lack of pause between sections. He was one or two paragraphs into a section before I realized difference characters were speaking in a completely different environment.
BUT, I do notice great improvement with each subsequent book. I hate criticizing someone who has a talent that I don't have. I am amazed at anyone of the narrators of all audio books as they are mostly gifted speakers. But I've grown used to much better performances.

Nastalgia for Infinity

What did you love best about Revelation Space?

The world building. Reynolds gives a good feel for the Revelation Space universe while not diverting from an entertaining plot.

What did you like best about this story?

I like the convergence of the characters' stories. They initially seemed quite unconnected.

Which scene was your favorite?

The little skirmish on the surface of Resurgam with Khouri and Volyova

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Reynolds is yet to make me cry, but this book has a lot of suspense and excitement.

Not bad

The reader isnt bad, not realy good but he's consistent, amagantive and the he makes the time go past quickly. Wich is usefull as its SO LONG! Good ideas but could do with about 30% being edited out.

Enjoyed it but editing was difficult

Great story in a very interesting universe, but the performance suffered because the producer left no space between sections.

Good story. Too many similies...

I enjoyed this book and I even like John Lee(his best work is Three Muskateers, AWESOME BOOK). Everyone rags on him for not pausing, but HELLO maybe it was the editor. Ever think of that all you retards that complain. The only thing that got irritating was whenever something was described, it was "like a..." AHHH too many similies in this book. Also the use of "futuristic" terms and ideas was a little much sometimes. Other than that it was OK. Don't know if I'm gonna download next book though.

Eventually Just Had to Read the Rest

The ideas in this book are grand. They are awesome and worth buying the book. However, I can't fully recommend the audiobook. Not only is it hard to follow and demanding of one's full attention, but John Lee's voice work makes it even tougher to get through. I read another review that summed it up perfectly: John Lee does accents, not voices. Most of the characters in this book have French, Russian, or Japanese sounding names, which Lee took as an invitation to give the characters stereotypical accents that sound like what we think they should sound like. Unfortunately, he just can't pull it off and all the characters end up sounding like a bad Dracula impression and the voices tend to run together. It gets distracting. His normal narrating voice is great, but, alas, he ends up not using it that much given how much dialogue is in this book.

Just read it. And you should read it.

mental crack for a science enthusiast

loved the complex way science and theory were messed with solid storyline and interesting characters

Yawn/confused

It’s well written and I’m sure there are many out there who enjoy this sort of thing. I just couldn’t get into it, the story takes forever to get moving and the narrative jumps between storylines in a jarring manner that frequently left me wondering who we were talking about.
John Lee is always a joy to listen to but this one wasn’t his finest work.

Hard Sci-Fi Space Opera w/ terrible audio editing

The author exercises a strong imagination in creating an interesting universe within which a hard sci-fi space opera unfolds. While it took a while to become fully immersed in the story, I found it ultimately worthwhile.

Unfortunately the audio edition of this book is not well edited. As noted by other reviewers, there are scene changes with no audio queues to accompany them. These are manageable but certainly detract from the listening experience. In general they can be identified by which characters are present, but occasionally a scene change occurs without even initial narrative queues to recognise it by. In these situations I found I had to mentally replay the last 20 seconds and re-process them in a new context. This was quite aggravating, as it meant I couldn't just relax and enjoy the story.

I will listen to the next book in the series.

A slow ride to a quick end.

I found my self confused about who was who and where they were. The plot it's self was good. I was invested and wanted to see the end.