Skip to main content

Eversion (SF) - Alastair Reynolds *****

Alastair Reynolds has already proved himself a master of intelligent space opera such as Shadow Captain - with Eversion he enters more exotic territory, giving us an SF novel where things are much more weird and wonderful, and he succeeds equally well here.

We start Eversion on a nineteenth century sailing ship, looking for a strange fissure in the sub-Atlantic ice that is thought to lead to a vast, mysterious structure. The narrative is told from the point of view of Dr Coade, the Demeter's surgeon, along with a number of suitably disparate characters (one with a name surely intended to bring A. E. van Vogt to mind). These range from a greedy financier to an obsessively driven mathematician and cartographer, plus a titled lady who seems intent on ridiculing Coade, particularly over his attempt at writing a scientific romance.

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. From here on in things get decidedly strange: Coade is suddenly on a steam ship rounding Cape Horn, but with the same crew and the same mission.

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. This is the kind of long-lasting, puzzling, 'what the heck is going on?' scenario that occurs in some of the best of Gene Wolfe's fantasies such as Castleview and There Are Doors - but it is less often found in science fiction, and Reynolds makes a great job of dealing it.

The only problem with such an 'unwrap the multi-layered puzzle' book is how to end it. Wolfe has a tendency to not really bother, leaving it to the reader to work out. The alternative, which Reynolds uses here, is to have quite a lot of exposition at the end. I'm not sure either works perfectly - but this doesn't stop the mystery being a wonderful experience for the reader, as long as you are prepared to let go and see how things develop, rather than expect to understand everything that's happening before getting near the end.

One thing that, frustratingly, isn't fully explained is the eversion of the title - I can't sensibly describe what this refers to without giving too much away, but it's pretty much presented as a given without the reason for it happening being explored. Again, though, this doesn't get in the way of the excellent storytelling.

Overall, Reynolds paces things well and builds the mystery at the same time as giving clues that will allow some to enjoy a sense of achievement in getting ahead of the narrative - it's a beautifully constructed novel and never fails to keep the reader engaged. I'm not a natural audience for the opening period nautical setting - but it still interested me and as the situation develops and changes, the book really takes off. An excellent addition to Reynolds' impressive collection of reliably entertaining science fiction.

Hardback:   
Kindle:  
Using these links earns us commission at no cost to you
Review by Brian Clegg - See all of Brian's online articles or subscribe to a weekly digest for free here

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire - Henry Gee ****

In his last book, Henry Gee impressed with his A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth - this time he zooms in on one very specific aspect of life on Earth - humans - and gives us not just a history, but a prediction of the future - our extinction. The book starts with an entertaining prologue, to an extent bemoaning our obsession with dinosaurs, a story that leads, inexorably towards extinction. This is a fate, Gee points out, that will occur for every species, including our own. We then cover three potential stages of the rise and fall of humanity (the book's title is purposely modelled on Gibbon) - Rise, Fall and Escape. Gee's speciality is palaeontology and in the first section he takes us back to explore as much as we can know from the extremely patchy fossil record of the origins of the human family, the genus Homo and the eventual dominance of Homo sapiens , pushing out any remaining members of other closely related species. As we move onto the Fall section, Gee gives ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pagans (SF) - James Alistair Henry *****

There's a fascinating sub-genre of science fiction known as alternate history. The idea is that at some point in the past, history diverged from reality, resulting in a different present. Perhaps the most acclaimed of these books is Kingsley Amis's The Alteration , set in a modern England where there had not been a reformation - but James Alistair Henry arguably does even better by giving us a present where Britain is a third world country, still divided between Celts in the west and Saxons in the East. Neither the Normans nor Christianity have any significant impact. In itself this is a clever idea, but what makes it absolutely excellent is mixing in a police procedural murder mystery, where the investigation is being undertaken by a Celtic DI, Drustan, who has to work in London alongside Aedith, a Saxon reeve of equivalent rank, who also happens to be daughter of the Earl of Mercia. While you could argue about a few historical aspects, it's effectively done and has a plot...
Post a Comment
Read more

Amazing Worlds of Science Fiction and Science Fact: Keith Cooper ****

There's something appealing (for a reader like me) about a book that brings together science fiction and science fact. I had assumed that the 'Amazing Worlds' part of the title suggested a general overview of the interaction between the two, but Keith Cooper is being literal. This is an examination of exoplanets (planets that orbit a different star to the Sun) as pictured in science fiction and in our best current science, bearing in mind this is a field that is still in the early phases of development. It becomes obvious early on that Cooper, who is a science journalist in his day job, knows his stuff on the fiction side as well as the current science. Of course he brings in the well-known TV and movie tropes (we get a huge amount on Star Trek ), not to mention the likes of Dune, but his coverage of written science fiction goes into much wider picture. He also has consulted some well-known contemporary SF writers such as Alastair Reynolds and Paul McAuley, not just scient...
Post a Comment
Read more