Eversion

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The main question you have to ask yourself is how much you think you'd enjoy reading about the same cast of characters sequentially going through similar scenarios at different times and locations for most of the book. Contrary to intuition, it is possible to do this without cutting or tearing or creasing the sphere’s surface. There is something crisply precise about his writing, even when stylized along the 19th century lines with a steampunk flavoring and a set of what seem to be alternate realities, all converging into a story that makes sense despite initial touch of confusion. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around August 2, 2022. I didn't really care for any of the characters, but that's not uncommon for me when reading works by Reynolds.

Maybe I would've enjoyed it a bit more if I just went through it without thinking about it at all, or didn't know anything at all about it whatsoever. A new Alastair Reynolds novel is always a cause for celebration, even if my enjoyment of them is inconsistent.

The mystery we - and Coade - are faced with is working out what is really happening, what the vast structure is and what has happened to the crew of the Europa. And as this tale proceeds, stepping out of one echo into another, we approach what is a very fine science fiction tale indeed. I was impressed with the majority of this though and would recommend to anyone slightly interested and it has definitely made his works jump higher in my list of "to-reads".

While this adventure moves ahead across multiple times and locations, the confrontations between Coade, Ramos, Cossile, and the others probe more deeply into questions of empathy and what it means to be human. Before long, soon after the crew discover the wreck of the Europa, the ship that was supposed to have brought back news of the walled city (or whatever the structure is), the Demeter faces disaster. Ultimately Eversion might not be anything like Reynolds’ space opera, but I honestly believe that’s to its advantage.The excitement for the expedition’s leaders in finding the Edifice is shattered, in each version of the expedition, by discovery of a wrecked vessel, the Europa, and its dead crew members. Silas lives through similar-yet-subtly-different events over and over as part of an expedition to explore a curious and alien Edifice.

Because Eversion has far fewer pages than his Revelation Space novels, I thought its page count would be appropriate. The book follows Silas Coade, a medical doctor in the 1800s aboard a ship, commissioned to investigate a mysterious artifact hidden in the ice off the coast of Norway. Sailing on the Demeter, he first describes a treacherous journey through the icy narrow passages of the Norwegian straits as the expedition seeks a mysterious construct known as the Edifice. The narrative follows doctor Silas Coade, who has disturbing dreams and a habit of dying and then continuing the mission on another vessel and in another timeline.What it is, is a story told by a medical doctor aboard an exploratory sailing ship off the coast of Norway. Shaking off his nightmares, Doctor Silas Coade joins his fellow exploders on the deck of the zeppelin Demeter and realises something has already gone dangerously wrong with their mission. In Eversion, his twentieth novel, Alastair Reynolds interleaves reflections on selfhood, agency, and the possibilities of narrative within a cracking yarn of nautical adventure and a mysterious edifice. Nevertheless, at the centre of this baroque masquerade party resides a sober consideration of what it might mean to go off adventuring, what it might cost.

Thanks to NetGalley and Orbit Books for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.But even beyond that, there’s just an epicness to the difference pieces that make up this novel, from the harrowing maritime setting of the 1800s, to the steampunkish elements of adventure aboard an early twentieth century airship, and finally to the high-tech starship in the vast expanse of outer space. In fact, the first chapter of Century Rain was included after the conclusion of this novel as a teaser.