Revelation Space, by Alastair Reynolds

[essentialsaltes]

I found Revelation Space tough going. It's a pretty big book, but even so, I found attention wandering, and it's taken me quite a while to get through. The prose is perfectly functional, but it plods rather than sparkles(*). Lots of big space opera-y action, and some interesting ideas, but the motivations of the characters grow increasingly obscure; seemingly they are wired to seek out the next idea Reynolds wants to reveal, no matter how obviously dangerous that would be. One character is basically on a relentless quest from page one to pick up Chekhov's gun.

* Actually, the most amusing phrase is (I assume) a happy mistake -- "It was like gazing into the moonlit depths of an arboreal forest." I mean, what other kind of forest can there be? And then I started pondering a tiny forest that lives in a tree. And cracked myself up.
* The second most amusing mistake is the misuse of etymology where entomology was meant.