Pushing Ice

By: Alastair Reynolds

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 19 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

2057. Humanity has raised exploiting the solar system to an art form. Bella Lind and the crew of her nuclear-powered ship, the Rockhopper, push ice. They mine comets. And they're good at it.

The Rockhopper is nearing the end of its current mission cycle, and everyone is desperate for some much-needed R & R, when startling news arrives from Saturn: Janus, one of Saturn's ice moons, has inexplicably left its natural orbit and is now heading out of the solar system at high speed. As layers of camouflage fall away, it becomes clear that Janus was never a moon in the first place. It's some kind of machine - and it is now headed toward a fuzzily glimpsed artifact 260 light-years away. The Rockhopper is the only ship anywhere near Janus, and Bella Lind is ordered to shadow it for the few vital days before it falls forever out of reach. In accepting this mission, she sets her ship and her crew on a collision course with destiny - for Janus has more surprises in store, and not all of them are welcome.

©2008 Alastair Reynolds (P)2010 Tantor

Critic reviews

"[Reynolds is] a genius for big-concept SF and fans of Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama and Larry Niven's Ringworld will love this novel." ( Publishers Weekly

New Spin on Extraterrestrial Contact

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

If you are into sci-fi and its role as a philosophical exploration of quantum physics and the human and possible 'will to power', this book is insightful and interesting regarding the impact of unknown alien intentions, contact and impact upon human nature and certain fundamental paradoxes regarding the paradox of ftp travel and time dilation.
The characters are richly described and the performance is superb.

What other book might you compare Pushing Ice to and why?

I think there is a strong connection to the work of Stephen Baxter, particularly some of his concepts in his renowned Xeelee Sequence.

What about John Lee’s performance did you like?

Well spoken, great imagery and consistent in his engagement of the listener's interest.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

It's definitely a three day event if you can manage it....I didn't want to stop listening once the premise rolled out.

Any additional comments?

Get it...you'll love it

Great science, incomplete fiction.

The laws of physics are repected making this a great listen for that alone. But beware the characters and plot aren't fleshed out in a sympathetic way. There are two female protagonists who lead the story line but they are very one demensional props set against each other like bookends. There's no growth or discovery and consequently it's a little aggrivating to listen to them go at it, considering the very future of humanity is supposedly hanging in the balance. As for the plot, maybe I'm a little slow, but I wish Mr Reynolds had wrapped things a little tighter at the end - I went back and listened to the first chapter to try and make sense of what had happened - but I still couldn't connect the dots. Still, a good read overall.

Kept my interest by switching gears

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Maybe. I liked how the story kept switching gears at regular intervals, but the narrator's style got quite tiresome by the end.

Did John Lee do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

I found John Lee's performance quite old-fashioned and lacking any sort of humor.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Into the unknown...

Any additional comments?

It was worth a credit, but not a "WOW".

Good story but too long

This was my first Alastair Reynolds book and i was impressed with the quality of his writing. The story is interesting and well put together with lots of unique ideas. The book was long and probably would benefit by shedding a few hours. I struggled through the last third.
The performance was very good and the presenter does a great job with both the genders and accents.
The character development was good but i could not understand the lead engineer Svetlana’s treatment of Bella (her former boss) as it seemed way too extreme. Also, Bella’s ability to keep forgiving her also seemed excessive. Their whole relationship was a bit irritating.
Overall i struggled to finish this book. I don’t think there was enough meat on the bone for me to give it a high recommendation.

Up and down good and bad

I almost returned this book. Very slow in the beginning then picks up to be a good story, until it all comes crashing down. The idea of the story is awesome and if it had a differentending would have be a 5 star. 1 character (Svetlana) ruined this book for me. I can't understand why the author wrote her this way. She never got it, how aweful she screwed up and in the end she gets away ugh. This will not be a repeat listen for me

Good story, meh characters.

I wanted this to be interesting, so continued to listen. Story hints at being interesting and that kept me going. I'm pretty patient with long build ups, but this was very long and the characters couldn't really keep me interested along the way. At best I felt mildly sympathetic to one character(Bella) and either had no respect for or felt totally indifferent to the rest. The ending is fun. Took me like a month on and off to finally get there though. Like I said, very long build up with meh in-between.

pretty good sci-fi yarn

Interesting story components but the two main characters have a baffling and irrational set of conflicts and interactions that really make them both unlikable and annoyingly predictable once the pattern or irrationality is established. Otherwise, there is the nugget of an interesting story concept.

A race of a book

My 1st Alastair Reynolds book and wow is his writing style a race.

Fast paced and jumps from timeline to timeline like a screenplay for an epic movie. Took some getting used to follow his writing with the big jumps in story with no transitions.

The story itself has you on your edge of the seat whilst reading with continuous plot twists and changes that you end up having to go wow but the ending is totally flat and boring as if it an opening for another book that was not written.

Great Concept, decent execution

Great Concept, Decent Execution. The world building is fantastic but character work isn't always the best

Bad narration; great story

The narrator… phew. All his voices sound the same, his pace and tone are identical throughout, no matter what’s happening in the text. I almost quit listening and returned the book.

But the story was awesome! Something totally different. I wish there was a sequel.