Krimi-Geschichte in Reynolds Revelation Space Universum

Auch wenn die Charaktere z.T. etwas flach und stereotypisch sind, kommt der Reiz von Reynolds Werk aus den Orten und den Möglichkeiten, die das Revelation Space Universum bietet. Es verfügt über die notwendige Ausgewogenheit von Möglichkeiten und Grenzen. Vorkenntnis von selbigen hilft, ist aber nicht zwingend erforderlich.
Alles in allem kurzatmige, farbenfrohe Unterhaltung in einem tollen Universum.

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amazing crime story in sci-fi

this is worth listening to, twice.
amazing sci-fi concepts weaved together in a crime story.
I'll definitely listen to elysium fire next.

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Sci-Fi Krimi in der fernen Zukunft

Dieses Hörbuch verwebt einen klassischen Kriminalfall, ein verdrängtes tragisches Erlebnis des ermittelnden "Prefect" und eine weitreichende Verschwörung mit der Schilderung einer fernen Zukunft der menschlichen Rasse, welche bei aller Fremdheit doch möglich erscheint. Im "Glitterband", einem Schwarm von abertausenden künstlichen Lebensräumen im Orbit eines Planeten, lebt ein Teil der Menschheit unter der Aufsicht des Polizeiapparats "Panoply" und seiner "Prefects". Diese gewährleisten Sicherheit und Ordnung, greifen jedoch erst dann ein, wenn ein Problem Auswirkungen außerhalb eines der künstlichen Satelliten zeigt oder wenn das allgegenwärtige Wahlsystem, bei dem jeder Bürger eines jeden Satellitenstaaten eine (mehr oder weniger gewichtige) Stimme hat betroffen ist. Als es zu einem folgenschweren Unfall auf einem der kleinen Satelliten kommt, nimmt der Hauptprotagonist, Prefect Dreyfus, seine Arbeit auf. Dabei kommt er einem Verrat und einer Verschwörung auf die Spur, welche das Überleben des Glitterbandes bedroht. Als Panoply hier gegen machtlos zu sein scheint, muss sich Dreyfus einem Dämonen aus seiner Vergangenheit stellen. Die Geschichte ist komplex und lebt auch von der en passant erfolgenden Einführung in diese manchmal gar nicht so utopische Zukunftsvision. Gleichzeitig opfert der Autor zugunsten seines Erzählprogrammes manchmal die Glaubwürdigkeit seiner Akteure, wenn diese etwa unvorstellbare strategische Fehlentscheidungen treffen. Hier rächt sich auch eine etwas holzschnittartige Darstellung einiger zentraler Personen aus der Führungsriege von Panoply. Für paramilitärische Ordnungshüter benehmen sich die Panoply-Kräfte oft seltsam zaghaft, strategisch unbedarft oder gar kopflos. Wenn man über derartige (nicht ausdrücklich erläuterte) Schwächen der Story hinwegsehen kann, hat man einen kurzweiligen Sci-Fi Krimi, der sich scheinbar unvermeidlich auf sein Showdown zubewegt und dort, nach Klärung aller Fragen vielleicht zu folgenlos implodiert. Trotzdem hörens- bzw. lesenswert.

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great!

as usual for Alastair Reynolds a slow build up with a rewarding payoff, grand finale, plenty of interesting characters, exciting tech, great humor and emotion. and another magnificanet run by John Lee as Narrator. well done sirs! going to start your next combo story already in my library immediately

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Terrible story mangling

There is such a thing as suspension of disbelief, and then there's what Alastair Reynolds did here. The villain of the piece is probably the only halfway believable character, without telling too much, it's the standard insane menace villain. The rest of the characters in this story have personalities ranging from childish imbecile to severely brain damaged childish imbecile. If at any point in this story any character in a position of responsibility had consulted one of his two brain cells the book would be half as long.

Having enjoyed the previous installments of the series leaves me confused. While there were instances of plot derangement, e.g. a character failing miserably in recognizing the obvious solution right in front of him. they were limited and resolved quickly. For the fourth book Reynolds basically built a plot around those moments.

If you enjoy the experience of shoes raining on characters and being wholeheartedly ignored this is the book for you. If however you prefer waiting for the significant shoe to drop while intelligent characters figure it out with you, you should go elsewhere.

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Interesting characters tumble through lame storyt

I do not like the arrogant style of the reader that much, but the story is worse.

Some ideas and some interesting characters kept me from dropping off nearly till the end but at some point it was simply to much cliché

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Enthralling ... but too much arbitrDeux Ex-Machina

To start : I got the book in 2010 started reading it, but laid it aside in frustration roughly a 150 pages in

When I saw that it was a free download on Audible, I took a chance and read it (well listened to ) again

Well I had a decent time , listening almost exclusively in the car in commute, always much better than listening to the radio... but overall looking back it feels like a guilty pleasure

The Good
Terse prose, interesting setting,, while not a Sci-Fi Story in itself , more of a thriller with some crime procedural latched onto it in in a very Sci Fi Setting in the not so immediate future, in the Glitterband around the planet Yellowstone in Reynold's mostly consistent Inhibitor Universe, Some very cool extrapolations of existing tech, many interesting social observations and a good feel for convincing dialogue by the author
Some of the setting's backdrop is great, some is weak ( but not quite bad ) , and it is mostly entertaining

John Lee does a very good job narrating clearly and concisely and doing a superior job whether he voices male or female dialogue, changing tone, No fault on any of his work, even if once or twice I thought he had a different idea on the inflection of some of the dialogue. Artists privilege

Reynold's prose is tight but still descriptive, consistent, gives enough nerdy information for someone who grew up reading hard Sci Fi and the dialogue feels real. But the technology is so removed from our age it would basically be "magic". . I sort of flinched at the implication that people were wandering around with items powered by anti-matter dust ? Honestly ??? Which also seemed the main power source for most technology ? Well.. Sci-Fi
The story takes on speed swiftly and raises the stakes to a "local extinction level event" in a pretty entertaining way that draws the reader in. The narrative is told mostly through the viewpoint of Prefect Tom Dreyfuss and his Deputy Thalia Ng, plus some extra and rare viewpoints scattered throughout the story to give more insight when these characters are not on spot. This includes one of the major villains.

Unfortunately, this also quickly spoils the "whodunnit" part of the plot as 90 minutes in one knows very well who the main antagonists are and unfortunately how dumb, trusting and with fanatical trust at least one of them acts. Which really should have shown up on his psychological profile... or re- evaluations. But moreon that, later
The Prefect himself, Tom Dreyfuss is an archetypical gruff straight arrow no nonsense "field prefect", persistent, loyal and pragmatic, Widowed, no kids, who is deeply loyal to his team and so are his deputies (mostly ) which makes their viewpoint quite enjoyable and easy to grasp, even though I wondered if a raised Hyperpig might not have some different attitudes on stuff. But Hand Dreyfuss a trenchoat, and he would fit quite well into a Dashiel Hammet or Raymond Chandler novel.

The Neutral :
While there is tension and suspense, it is often dependant on some pretty inept senior prefects making bad or worse calls, usually very uninformed many of which are hair-raisingly unprofessional by 21st century standards, . As everyone supposedly gets promoted on the basis of merit, this feels off. . Also the command for this lonely enforcement/peace-keeping organization for a "nation" of roughly 100 million spread out in the orbit of a single planet seems.... ridiculously small and inefficient.. well especially without servitor help . No specialised support staff, no legal counsel... no nothing. Quite a bit of suspension of disbelief is required on almost all of "Panoply"


And the Bad

The problem at the core of the storyis that Reynolds, while imaginative is mostly clueless on police or security protocols, administrative checks setup, redundancies, internal oversight, legal procedures and statutes and this play directly into the plot because the PLOT (as is ) only works because Reynolds purposefully ignores 400+ of administrative practise and organization and oversight. Plus he is bad on setting up a proper who-dunnit, which is the heart of this mystery
None of the story would work in our age, even less so in one a few hundred years on with massively better surveillance capability, experience from history with what happens if "no one is watching the Watchmen".

I am not hyperbolic here.... the high-end ( We have nukes and dozens of spacecraft ) security force neither considers securing prisoners to hospital couches (can you say handcuff ? Sedation ?) , or considering negating their command privileges for "smart" doors, or having some basic chem sniffers or sonic detectors ? Nevermind stuff like a fancy old 20th century taser or shock prod.. A simple riot gun perhaps ? ...Or simply having restrictions on what data can be deleted from security files. There is no legal oversight, no accountability no-one these "peace officers" owe any responsibility to.
Officers who do not even follow the principle of verified fact, aka "actual Knowledge". If one gets a Euro for every " I believe" in the story , one can walk home a rich man. Reynolds seems to have a VERY dim view on any law enforcement. or just an uninformed one.
But thinking up convincing ways to work around these very obvious hurdles and restrictions might require some actual research by the author - as in asking some actual police personal or getting a knowledgable co-author to provide a solution .

This is monumentally lazy writing

The motivation for the villains is similarly vague, as the plot rests on some unspecific prediction for an event in the future by a single entity. Who, in the few moments in the story does not seem messianic or even convincing at all. We are doomed unless you help me become dictator for life....No I cannot tell you what the doom is and what will happen...
But gets trusted, IMPLiCITLY . Why check on the entities background ? Why verify the prediction ? By someone who claims to be extremely skilled at ferreting out liars. Who is by bad design the very best guy to help in taking over the world. Unselfishly.

Again... such lazy writing

In the same vein, while servitors and mechanized help is omnipresent,, in key moments it gets "forgotten" to facilliate a story development, especially around the Whiphounds (weapons , sentinels and sometimes torture devices, yes TORTURE devices which no one complains about ) which either are supersmart, or super dumb, depending on the plot's requirements, While obviously capable of working as super smart drones and scouts, they get forgotten about. once convenient

And given that it fast becomes evident that they key protagonists have layers of plot-armour (unlike other books in the Revelation Space universe ), the risks seem slow, and the listener learns to take the authors arbitrary "now we create tension and I am too lazy to set it up properly and with any logic " moments in stride. Oh an ambush... I am certain this will turn out well, .. which quite ruins ANY enjoyment. In rides the Deux-Ex-Machina

Last Words
Yes I was entertained. but it was a rather guilty pleasure, which I only enjoyed because it was amusing to listen to mild nonsense while driving and thinking " you have NO CLUE".
In all honesty I have read and listened to far more logical, thought through and consistent "pulp" than this sci-fi/Thrille/crime hybrid, usually by authors who get much more flak than this renowned author. Reynolds should stick to his imaginative and fantastic Sci_Fi stories and leave procedurals to others or put in some actual research because the layman will find it harder to catch him out on the science part. Logical fallacies : much more easily spotted,.
This is at best a 3/5 on the story... The narration is much better, and if you can ignore the jarring gaps in realism and suspend your disbelief much more than I was willing ... well it's a 4/5
But I would recommend listening to this while it is free...

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Best police men act like village sheriffs

Came here from Banks and looked for something less tough to digest. Stopped at Ch 18 as I could not stand that the best police officers of a whole galaxy act like naive amateurs. Obvious hints were ignored, incompetent seniors were made chief and high profile officers fall for simple seduction. Might be realistic on real world but here it is what is needed to make a "genius" plot work. That's lame.

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1 Person fand das hilfreich