Paperback, 512 pages
English language
Published April 10, 2008 by Gollancz.
Tom Dreyfus is a Prefect, a law enforcement officer with the Panoply. His beat is the multifaceted utopian society of the Glitter Band, that vast swirl of space habitats orbiting the planet Yellowstone, the teeming hub of a human interstellar empire spanning many worlds. His current case: investigating a murderous attack against one of the habitats that left 900 people dead, a crime that appalls even a hardened cop like Dreyfus. But then his investigation uncovers something far more serious than mass slaughter---a covert plot by an enigmatic entity who seeks nothing less than total control of the Glitter Band. Before long, the Panoply detectives are fighting against something worse than tyranny, in a struggle that will lead to more devastation and more death. And Dreyfus will discover that to save what is precious, you may have to destroy it.
Too long. Felt like a padded-out novella. If it was much shorter, it would have been great.
Alastair reynolds has become a highly competent writer of science fiction entertainments, able to balance his penchant for grotesquery and Gothicism with characters it is possible to like. In my view he has been more successful when limiting the scope of any given novel to one aspect of his larger imagined universe, allowing him to concentrate his powers of description, generating a strong flavour of the culture the action develops in. The Prefect does just that.
This particular novel is a detective story set in the Glitter Band - a place that will be familiar to Reynolds' fans. It is well written and gripping but relies at one point on a trick he's pulled once before - I hope not to see it again in the future.
Reynolds' Century Rain also involved a detective and Peter F. Hamilton is also keen on mixing the detective story with the science fiction …
Alastair reynolds has become a highly competent writer of science fiction entertainments, able to balance his penchant for grotesquery and Gothicism with characters it is possible to like. In my view he has been more successful when limiting the scope of any given novel to one aspect of his larger imagined universe, allowing him to concentrate his powers of description, generating a strong flavour of the culture the action develops in. The Prefect does just that.
This particular novel is a detective story set in the Glitter Band - a place that will be familiar to Reynolds' fans. It is well written and gripping but relies at one point on a trick he's pulled once before - I hope not to see it again in the future.
Reynolds' Century Rain also involved a detective and Peter F. Hamilton is also keen on mixing the detective story with the science fiction thriller - is a new sub-genre forming?
28/1/2012
Re-reading this I observe that there is an automaton in the shape of an owl that plays a minor role. Now Reynolds openly admits to taking inspiration from films and this particular owl appears to resemble a certain gift from the Goddess Athena in Ray Harryhausen's last film, Clash of the Titans. Hmmm. Release the Kraken!
I also think I have done Reynolds a mild dishonour by suggesting that this is perhaps only an "entertainment." In fact there is a very overt battle in the book between two characters, one of whom thinks people need to have their rights curtailed in the name of their own safety and another who is entirely opposed to this. Now, that doesn't strike anyone else as perhaps being relevant to the current political situation in various Western nations, does it?
