Century Rain (Revelation Space) [Englisch] [Gebundene Ausgabe]

He consequently develops our present time into a possible future scenario: In Century Rain, Earth has completely been devastated by a Nano virus, killing all life except for the orbital colonies, and leaving Earth under an ice mantle. Out of this, two fractions develop: The Trashers, rejecting any further modifications, and the Slashers, trying to develop Nano technology to perfection.
Verity Auger, the main protagonist belongs to the Trasher fraction. Her job as an archaeologist is to dig fragments from Earth and to reconstruct the past and lost knowledge after the catastrophe.
As the crisis between Slashers and Trashers gets critical, Verity is sent to a special mission to a strange sphere found in space. Inside: Earth in the year 1959 with a different time-line after 1939, where WWII has not happened, but also not the technical development resulting from the war did not take place.
Wendell Floyd is a private investigator living in Paris of 1959 investigating the murder of a young woman, when he encounters Auger, who claims to be the sister of the victim looking for her lost property.
Out of this, Alastair develops an astonishing plot with several turns and edges. It is never entirely clear who can be trusted, and who not. Very clever written, the protagonists discover bit by bit the missing information and understand the motives of the other actors.
While the setting is clearly Science Fiction, Alastair plays very cleverly with thriller and suspense elements. Especially, the Paris scenario of 1959 could also be the setting for a novel noir in the 1930s, without any SF elements. This way, it is just fun to read the book; and it is one of those you can hardly put down.
On top, the author explains the technical elements sufficiently to be theoretically possible and thus backs up the story.
At the end, Alastair leaves this path a bit and his protagonists become the typical movie hero stereotypes, who are willing to sacrifice themselves for the sake of others. But you can see the author smiling and asking not to take everything too serious, and to have some fun. I guess, Alastair had a great time writing this book.

In Summary: Despite not set in the great Revelation Space universe, I can only recommend this next great masterpiece.

Zugegeben: Die ungelösten Rätsel machen die Sache spannend. Ich habe den Roman in zwei Tagen (vielmehr Nächten) verschlungen. Trotzdem bleibt ein zwiespältiger Eindruck. Reynolds macht es sich m.E. zu einfach; er zeichnet fast nur schwarz-weiss. Die Helden sind richtige Helden, die Bösen bleiben im Dunkeln. Es fehlen die Zwischentöne, die Chraktere bleiben flach. Dies gilt im großen und ganzen auch für Wendell Floyd, obwohl dies ein starker Chrakter ist, dessen Humor an verschiedenen Stellen richtig Spaß macht. Tunguska, ein Slasher, ist gar eine regelrechte Lichtgestalt ... Die Handlungsmotive und Gedankenwelten der Protagonisten bleiben vage. Außerdem nervt Reynolds für meinen Geschmack zu sehr mit dem erhobenen moralischen Zeigfinger, eben schwarz-weiss. Gut, er zeigt am Beispiel Frankreichs, daß politische Manipulation und Agitation jederzeit möglich sind. Doch warum Frankreich, nicht England? Eine ketzerische Frage ... Die Handlung entwickelt sich zu gradlinig, es fehlen überraschende Wendungen, und der Zusammenhang zwischen den beiden Handlungssträngen zeichnet sich relativ frühzeitig ab. Daneben gibt es auch noch ein kleines logisches Problem, doch ich will nicht zu viel verraten.

Lesenswert ist das Buch trotz der Kritik, kommt allerdings nicht an die "Revelation-Space"-Stories heran, deren Höhepunkt in meinen Augen "Redemption Ark"(deutsch: Die Arche) ist. Schade. (Leider kann ich keine 3,5 Punkte vergeben, deshalb nur 3)

This is an excellent, suspenseful and gripping novel, a good mix of crime, SF and alternative history. In essence, it is about the uncovering of an evil conspiracy and the attempt to prevent it from happening.

The first part, the detective work, is excellently written and mixes a hi-tech, futuristic 'present' with a 'past' on a version of Earth similar to ours. Suspense is great, and I couldn't wait for the protagonists to finally discover what the conspiracy was all about. It is a great mix of the classical detective novel with science-fiction. It comprises about four fifths of the whole book.

The second (much shorter) part, in which the protagonists try to thwart the evildoer's plans, is a little bit of a letdown, and does not nearly manage to convey the same nail-biting suspense as the first part. This is due mainly to the fact that we never really get to know the 'evil guys', and although their aims are presented, their motivation is not made very clear. Also, I would have preferred the second part simply not to be so short and contain more plot elements and twists.

The characters are - as seems to be typical from this author - believable and lifelike, but even the 'good' ones are often not entirely likable. That's a plus in my book, it keeps them interesting. Dialogue is very good, witty and sarcastic at times (his sense of humour and how it shines through in his books is one great strength of A. Reynolds IMO), and contributes greatly in characterising the protagonists.

The only problem is that in this book, we don't get any interactions with, much less characterisation of, the 'evil' characters. In fact, we learn almost nothing about them, who they are, and what motivates them. For me, that's the biggest drawback of this book. I hope there will be a sequel in which we get to see further events more from the conspirators' perspective...

For those who have read all or some of the author's books dealing with the 'Revelation Space' universe, this one is very different in style, setting and scope - it is not nearly as epic in scale as the 'Inhibitor Trilogy' (Revelation Space, Redemption Ark and Absolution Gap). It's just as good, but different, so be forewarned :-)

This book was a hugely enjoyable, entertaining read, despite its shortcomings, and thus I rate it 4/5.