Notes on 'Revelation Space' (2000) by Alastair Reynolds (b. 1966)
Alastair Reynolds belongs to a new generation of critically acclaimed authors who will still engage with space opera but who have tended to take down a notch the epic scope that characterised the resurgence of space opera in the 1980s. Revelation Space is the first book in Reynold’s Revelation Space series (2000-2003). It chronicles humanity’s colonisation of space, a precarious and disparate effort that is threatened by a space plague known as the Melding Plague as well as a mysterious, advanced machine civilisation. Reynolds’ dark realism lends itself particularly well to the long periods of claustrophobic space travel that has become something of a trademark of his. Revelation Space came second place for the Locus Best First Novel award (2001) and was a finalist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award (2001).