Absolution Gap (Revelation Space)

This is definitely the most poorly written of the series (the only one I've felt is poorly written). Half of the book, the story of Ramshackle [sic, on purpose] Els, can be safely *ignored*, left completely unread, until about page 450. You'll figure it out pretty quick, I think.

It felt like Reynolds got a call about 2 weeks before he needed to send his draft into the publisher, so he failed to go back and take out tons of irrelevant material because he was too busy slapping the ending together.

And another thing... Microexpressions play a role in this book, and Reynolds treated them as they are known today, hundreds of years in the past of this book. Given the advancements in the last 40 years on this topic, one might expect there to be some further advancement in the future. But no, there appears to be only advancement in Reynold's reading on the subject. Not exactly the forward looking science fiction I was hoping for.

I would have given it one star except it is a punctuation mark in the series. Would be better in Reader's Digest form, though...

I thoroughly enjoyed the first two novels in this series. Part mystery, part science lesson, part space opera, Reynolds' genre-bending style is driven by a compelling narrative and interesting, well-developed characters.

Beyond that, Reynold's future history, beginning with the colonization of Mars in the 21st century, and subsequent branching of humankind based on the degree of augmentation, is interesting if not entirely original (there are a number of borrowings from Iain Banks, including the whimsical naming of spaceships, but there are worse people to borrow from).

All of this falls apart in Absolution Gap, the 3rd book in the series. The overarching storyline is abandoned entirely, the mysteries Reynolds has carefully built up are left dangling, whole plotlines are forgotten, and the characters he spends two novels developing are cast aside. In the last few pages Reynolds needlessly introduces a deus ex machina, only to revoke it at the last moment (and then, possibly, reintroduce it in the cryptic epilogue). Frankly, I'm not sure how this book got past his editor's desk.

If you've read the first two books, I would recommend stopping there as that is, for all intents and purposes, the end of the story. Absolution Gap should be thought of not as a continuation but rather as a strange epilogue or sorts set in the same fictional universe with a few common characters (though the more interesting characters are killed off early in the book or left behind). The only thing this book adds to the previous two is a little more history on John Brannigan, the astronaut-turned-spaceship. But in the end it is just disappointing.

Over two decades ago Clavain, Scorpio and refugees landed on the Pattern Juggler world of Ararat. Over time Clavain and Scorpio led the development of a thriving community. However, in the past half a year, Clavain has become increasingly reclusive and neglectful of his duties until lights in the sky proclaim that their enemy, the Inhibitors, apparently have found them. Now they must flee their haven choosing a moon that orbits a weird gas giant planet.
On the moon Hela, exists the strange Quaichist cult with their enormous movable Cathedrals. The cult with their movable cathedrals follows the track of the gas giant Haldora that the satelite orbits. Clavain and his exiles arrive at Haldora where they will either save humanity from the Inhibitors or enable the enemy to complete the final solution.
The final tale of the Revelation Space trilogy is an entertaining science fiction tale that will please readers who prefer a cerebral tale with limited military action. The story line contains several brilliantly developed concepts that will send many readers comparing the fate of the protagonists with that of our earth-bound mankind's providence. Action seekers will find the pace slow and the battle warriors will wonder why there are such short abrupt skirmishes. Still ABSOLUTION GAP is an intriguing look at religion, war, societies, and economics in outer space, just more passively highbrow than active exploits.
Harriet Klausner

I expected nearly 600 pages to bring a grand conclusion to humanity's struggle against the Inhibitors - a semi-intelligent swarm of machines that destroy advanced civilizations to protect the galaxy from calamity 3 billion years in the future. But alas, I found this third volume a disappointment on many levels.

Though it was a well-written story, too much time was spent on new characters and new plot lines and too little spent on continuing the real story of the trilogy; so little time, that the actual "conclusion" of the main saga was saved for the four page epilogue; and even then told in hindsight 400 years later! In the end, very few of the mysteries or issues raised in the previous two books (Revelation Space and Redemption Ark). Also, a vital character was sacrificed for the betterment of humanity, but I felt in the end it was wasted and the story would have been better with him.

The book starts out well enough with Reynolds' storytelling approach from the first two books continued in this one - separate storylines from different times converging on the conclusion - but, it doesn't hold up as things move toward the end and new mysteries in the universe are created. I would have been fine if the whole storyline of the trilogy ended with new mysteries fof humanity to ponder...but, it is a must to bring a satisfying conclusion to those we have been dealing with for over 1700 pages!

If you have read the two previous titles, then I believe you must read this to its conclusion - maybe you will find it more satisfying in the end. But, if you are considering the trilogy and ready reviews ahead - then I suggest you contemplate the 1700+ page investment and know that the last 300 or so pages will not answer your questions nor will they satisfy your need for understanding of some of the ideas and mysteries introduced in the previous 1400 pages.

>>>>>>><<<<<<<

A Guide to my Book Rating System:

1 star = The wood pulp would have been better utilized as toilet paper.
2 stars = Don't bother, clean your bathroom instead.
3 stars = Wasn't a waste of time, but it was time wasted.
4 stars = Good book, but not life altering.
5 stars = This book changed my world in at least some small way.

Haunting. From the opening of Revelation Space to the last sentence of Absolution Gap, I couldn't put this stuff down. The last twist in the series was wonderfully inevitable...just like the heat death of the universe. And that is where I think others have had difficulties dealing with this series.

As the Greeks said, tragedy is the highest art form. Classic literature is reborn here as the hubris of humanity is time and again the agent of destruction.

I do not want to spoil anything for any potential readers, but I find the imagery oily and organic. There are scenes and personal conflicts here that were unique in my experience. For the first time in decades these books plumbed the darker portions of my own psyche. The characters are wonderfully human; frail, stupid, arrogant, intelligent, and indestructible all at once.

If you have any doubt at all about this series, start with his two novellas; Diamond Dogs and Turquoise Days. This is a wonderful introduction to the Melding Plague and the Pattern Jugglers as well as other common elements to this universe.

I can understand why some people might not be able to keep up with the narrative, but I would not change a word of these tomes. My only hope is that there is more coming from this master of science fiction.

Absolution Gap is the fourth novel in the Revelation Space series, following Redemption Ark. In the previous novel, the Inhibitors found the colony on Resurgam and, since the previous sterilization had been incomplete, the machines started penetrating the star so as to produce a jet of plasma to sterilize the planets. Ilia Volyova and Ana Khouri forced the planetary populace to evacuate to the Nostalgia for Infinity. When Clavain first arrived in the Zodiacal Light, he demanded the cache weapons, but Ilia refused to hand them over. Clavain then launched an attack, but Volyova used one of the cache weapons to break the Zodiacal Light in two.
Clavain surrendered and began assisting in the evacuation. When Volyova died from radiation and wounds, Clavain led the evacuees in the Nostalgia for Infinity to a nearby double star, p Eridani A. On the way out of the system, the evacuees are attacked by Skade's ships; they received only slight damage to the Nostalgia, but destroyed one of her ships and damaged the other two.
After the refugees fled, the Zodiacal Light repaired itself in the Resurgam system. During the wait on the repairs, Khouri and Thorn reestablished contact with Dan Sylveste and friends within Hades, the neutron star and supercomputer. When Khouri became pregnant, Sylveste and company stored the blueprints and instructions for various hyperweapons within the brain of the unborn baby. After Remontoire provided conjoiner implants within the brains of mother and baby, the unborn was able to communicate to some degree with her mother and pass on hints that led to a series of more powerful weapons.
In this novel, in 2615, near 107 Piscium, Horris Quaiche has not delivered on his promises, so Queen Jasmina of the lighthugger Gnostic Ascension puts his girlfriend, Morwenna, in the scrimshaw suit, welds it shut, and installs it on the tender Dominatrix. Then he is put aboard and they enter the system, where Quaiche discovers a fairy-like bridge on the moon Hela. Afraid that the artifact might be defended, he sends the Dominatrix with Morwenna aboard to the other side of the moon's primary, the gas giant Haldora, and goes down himself in the better armored and more nimble Scavanger's Daughter. Unfortunately, the bridge is well defended and the Scavenger's Daughter crashes on the rocks and ice.
In 2675, on Arafat, twenty-three years after the refugees have landed, Scorpio and a young Security Arm, Vasko, go to retrieve Clavain from his retreat on an outer island. Something has slipped down from orbit and the elders want Clavain to probe it with his Conjoiner implants. They wonder if it is Skade or even Remontoire, but instead it is Ana Khouri. When the Zodiacal Light arrived insystem, Skade sent a peace delegation to discuss a truce against the Inhibitors, but this was just a ruse, for they ripped the baby out of Khouri's womb and took it back to Skade, who promptly implanted it in her own uterus. Then Skade's ship was forced down on the surface of Arafat by the Inhibitors. Khouri needs Clavian and his crew to rescue her daughter from Skade.
In 2727, on Hela, Rashmika Els leaves home to catch a caravan to the Permanent Way, where the cathedrals travel constantly underneath the looming Haldora, waiting for the planet to vanish once more. Rashmika intends to ask what happened to her brother after he joined the First Adventist Cathedral. Moreover, if she can make the right contacts, she would also like bring to the attention of the scuttler artifacts committees some of her ideas on the scuttler extinction.
This volume is the last in the series, but the pace never slows down. Despite a finale in which all the dangling ends are tied off, the epilogue raises new questions. Maybe there will be another series taking off where this one ends. In any case, the author is certainly imitating real life, for every ending is also a new beginning.
Highly recommended for Reynolds fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of high tech adventures in a relativistic universe.
-Arthur W. Jordin

I got hooked into reading this series till the end. The first book was pretty good, leaving you with a taste for more, curious about how all the loose ends would be tied together. However, after getting through the 1500+ pages of the second and third books, I can say that author had no idea where he was going with the story. It is a laborious read, carried by many irrelevant characters that the author throws your way to make an uninteresting story drag on endlessly with no rhyme or reason. Almost all threads started and never developed to satisfaction. The actual conclusion of this ultimate book is just plain random and unrelated to anything. As a recommendation I would suggest reading the first book and then the epilogue of the third book (which is the actual lame ending), realizing that the content of the epilogue actually has only a vague tangential relationship to the content of the third and second books.. so you really havn't missed anything.

Oh, the humanity! Everything everybody wrote below is true: great, gothic science fiction, creeping horror, technology, darkness. Wonderful, additional storylines thrown in. Oh, and real character development. The first two books (three, including Chasm City) sold me on the Epic Quest of mankind against the Inhibitors, with wonderful little mysteries thrown in, along with tantalizing hints that they all might be related.

But what do we have here? Toss the major connecting thread between the books... the Inhibitors explained away in less than four pages. Magical "out-of-nowhere" saviors who are hinted at only twice in the entire story, and done in a way that they seem nothing more than a callous afterthought.

Imagine this...you've worked your way through the first two (three, including Chasm City) books, slowly grown used to and then developed an affinity for Mr. Reynolds' wonderfully unique style. You're happy with the subtle hints at 700 years of human history, having been given enough of the details to fill in the dark, gothic story with your own imagination. But five hundred pages to go, you start thinking, "Now we'll see the culmination of it all!" Two-hundred fifty pages, and you're thinking, "Ok, anytime now..." One hundred pages, and there's a sinking feeling..." Fifty pages, with the ending to the central theme of the series nowhere in sight, you finally realize the awful truth: this whole storyline was *never* about the Inhibitors. It was *all* a mechanism to force us to fill in the blanks of the future history of humanity, with the Inhibitor battle only a convenient way to move things along.

Until, that is, Mr. Reynolds couldn't write about it anymore. So, with nothing more than a rubber stamp called "Epilogue", the story ends. No mysteries solved. Mademoiselle? Nope. Conjoiners? Nope. Plague? Nope. Inhibitors? "Poof!" they are gone with the aid of magical fairies, only to be replaced by newer, badder bad guys. But none of this was what this story was about. As a literary mechanism, I applaud Mr. Reynolds' achievement. If you read books to be entertained along the way, this whole series is wonderful and I highly recommend it - I enjoyed 3/4 of it immensely. But if you like a story with a good ending, it is supremely disappointing... I, for one, feel cheated. It's actually worse than Hamilton and the Night's Dawn ending. Mr. Reynolds' style is to leave much to our imagination, and for most of this series he does so brilliantly. But, where he carefully takes thousands of pages to weave us a story of the past 700 years, he give us the future in a mere four.

Oh well. I suppose it was worth it.

A satisfying read, with a very interesting storyline about a religious cult based on the mysterious, momentary disappearances of a gas-giant planet. In some ways I found this book more enjoyable than the previous two, although I believe all three are worth reading. My biggest complaint would be the ending which seemed to come out of nowhere and didn't get the development it deserved. In some ways, I think Absolution Gap is better read as a standalone novel. In that sense it was a great book. As a conclusion to a 1500 page trilogy, however, it was a bit of a disappointment.

All the reviews are spot on: the book, the series, the stories, the characters - absolutely wonderful; completely on par with some of the best of Asimov, Heinlen and Meiville.

And then, the last 6 pages where everything is either forgotten about (i.e., the conjoiners, our characters, etc.) or magically "poof!" resolved.

In reality, while the epilogue is a good clarification of the series end, there seems to be at least 14 chapters, if not another book, missing in between the end of this book and the series epilogue.

And that's the main, and really only, disappointment of this book and the entire series.

Alastair Reynolds has been acclaimed to be one of the best in this field of late and I definitely agree. This futuristic space opera regarding ancient killing machines targeting humanity ranks up there with other such adventurous sci-fi: "Stranger in a Strange Land", "Puppet Masters", "Foundation", "2001", "2010", "Rendezvous with Rama", "Ringworld", all the "Star Trek" and "Star Wars" books, as well as books as new to the genre as "Advent of the Corps" and others.

Alastair Reynolds has done a fantastic job of hooking me in as a fan (to the point of ebay auctions for the harder to find books). If you're familiar with Stephen Baxter, you'll know the problem that some excellent hard SF authors have with book endings. Absolution Gap suffers much as Baxter's books suffer: great build up and attention to both science and details of plot, character and world building but the let down at the end threatens to spoil an otherwise superb read.

read all 4 books including chasm city. this was the worst. barely wrapped up the plot that he spent thousands of pages building. lame. worth reading, if you read the other books, but don't expect too much resolution. he solves most of the plot twists off-page.

Even though this book, like any book, could probably use a bit of fine-tuning to make it even better than it already is, I have to say that I found it every bit as entertaining as the previous books in this trilogy. And I definitely would rank it with other favorite books of mine such as "Foundation", "Ringworld", "Rendezvous with Rama", "2010", "Puppet Masters", "Starship Troopers", not to mention cyberpunk like "Neuromancer", "Virtual Light", "Cryptonomicon", "Snow Crash", and "Cyber Hunter". All are equally good reads.

The gigantic titles of "Redemption Arc", "Revelation Space", "Absolution Gap" are, for the first time, well spent on a published work of fiction. In "Absolution Gap" Reynolds takes the action into an even further future of the Galaxy. A little more focus on the people, but still astounding descriptions and explanations of technology.

The action is set in a far, but yet not so far future. Reynolds describes the plot, the people and above all, the technology so vividly and in-depth, that it completely blows ones perspectives away. Has Reynolds actually been to the future and learned about all this technology, it's possibilities and possible galactic fates? This work and following books are for Science Fiction what Lord of the Rings was/is for Fantasy. I would even go as far to compare these books with Sir Arthur C. Clarkes "Rama" series, the Ultimate Science Fiction achievement.

This is exceptionally skilled and very hard Sci-Fi. As when reading the Rama series, when the last page is turned, one gets the feeling of having had a glimpse into a very possible future. Very highly recommended.

After the first two books, I figured that the bad reviews here couldn't possibly be true. But this book is worse than anyone has conveyed! Wow!

All of his other books I've read are worth reading. But AbGap? Oy!

Having read the other books set in this future universe I really hoped this final book would pull everything together. It didn't. There is no 'Drama'. Interesting things do happen but, for me, they had no emotional weight. Great ideas pieced together with dry filler simply fall flat. Characters perform some of the most interesting action off stage, the reader is left to fill in details. A boring finale. I can find no reason to reccomend this book.

On the opposite quality spectrum than the other parts of the serie.
The way author solves the few crisis threads just revolted me. It was so plain unlogical, unrewarding - like the author wanted to just finish the chapter.
I hate this part of the serie. Don't waste your time and psyche.