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Revenger #1
Vengeresse
Le système solaire a été témoin de l’ascension et de la chute des grands empires. Les planètes ont volé en éclats avant d’être refaçonnées. Pourtant, parmi les ruines des civilisations extraterrestres, l’humanité a survécu. Et la fortune est à portée de main, si on sait où chercher…
C’est le cas du capitaine Rackamore et de son équipage. Leur spécialité consiste à localiser les mondes énigmatiques qui se cachent derrière des champs de force truffés de pièges, et à en extraire les reliques et les technologies oubliées qui y perdurent. Mais tandis qu’ils exercent ces dangereuses activités de façon la plus honnête possible, d’autres ont moins de scrupules.
Adrana et Fura Ness sont les dernières recrues de l’équipage de Rackamore, enrôlées pour sauver leur famille de la faillite. Or Rackamore a des ennemis, et, aux confins de l’espace, les deux sœurs doivent s’attendre à tout. En particulier à la légendaire pirate, Bosa Sennen…
Des ténèbres d’un avenir lointain et des débris de notre système solaire nous parvient ce récit de pirates de l’espace et de trésors enfouis, de dangers indicibles et d’héroïsme résolu. Et celui d’une redoutable vengeance…
C’est le cas du capitaine Rackamore et de son équipage. Leur spécialité consiste à localiser les mondes énigmatiques qui se cachent derrière des champs de force truffés de pièges, et à en extraire les reliques et les technologies oubliées qui y perdurent. Mais tandis qu’ils exercent ces dangereuses activités de façon la plus honnête possible, d’autres ont moins de scrupules.
Adrana et Fura Ness sont les dernières recrues de l’équipage de Rackamore, enrôlées pour sauver leur famille de la faillite. Or Rackamore a des ennemis, et, aux confins de l’espace, les deux sœurs doivent s’attendre à tout. En particulier à la légendaire pirate, Bosa Sennen…
Des ténèbres d’un avenir lointain et des débris de notre système solaire nous parvient ce récit de pirates de l’espace et de trésors enfouis, de dangers indicibles et d’héroïsme résolu. Et celui d’une redoutable vengeance…
446 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 15, 2016
1210 people are currently reading
12597 people want to read
About the author
Alastair Reynolds
316 books9,413 followersI'm Al, I used to be a space scientist, and now I'm a writer, although for a time the two careers ran in parallel. I started off publishing short stories in the British SF magazine Interzone in the early 90s, then eventually branched into novels. I write about a novel a year and try to write a few short stories as well. Some of my books and stories are set in a consistent future named after Revelation Space, the first novel, but I've done a lot of other things as well and I like to keep things fresh between books.
I was born in Wales, but raised in Cornwall, and then spent time in the north of England and Scotland. I moved to the Netherlands to continue my science career and stayed there for a very long time, before eventually returning to Wales.
In my spare time I am a very keen runner, and I also enjoying hill-walking, birdwatching, horse-riding, guitar and model-making. I also dabble with paints now and then. I met my wife in the Netherlands through a mutual interest in climbing and we married back in Wales. We live surrounded by hills, woods and wildlife, and not too much excitement.
I was born in Wales, but raised in Cornwall, and then spent time in the north of England and Scotland. I moved to the Netherlands to continue my science career and stayed there for a very long time, before eventually returning to Wales.
In my spare time I am a very keen runner, and I also enjoying hill-walking, birdwatching, horse-riding, guitar and model-making. I also dabble with paints now and then. I met my wife in the Netherlands through a mutual interest in climbing and we married back in Wales. We live surrounded by hills, woods and wildlife, and not too much excitement.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,313 reviews
December 22, 2020
This trilogy about the Ness sisters, Adrana and Fura, is perfect for fans of The Expanse (of which I am one) and fans of space pirate stories (and really, who isn't a fan of space pirates?). It took me a while to get my footing in the story, since the world is so different and there is much new lingo to learn, but what a fascinating premise! The old solar system has been exploded to create a vast field of rubble, with thousands of planetoids upon which the remains of humanity live (and a few alien species). The humans of this time know of many past empires that rose and fell in the solar system, each leaving behind its own relics and secrets. The most lucrative work you can get is excavating these "baubles" for high-tech loot that humans no longer understand how to make. This scavenging is dangerous, competitive work, especially when the ships can be easy targets for pirates like Bos Sennan, the most feared and ruthless predator in the system.
Adrana and Fura escape their abusive and claustrophobic home life by signing on with Captain Rackamore as Bone Readers. They discover they can hear the whispered messages that are occasionally transmitted through the tech left behind in alien skulls, which can give them a way of quick communication across the solar system and also can provide clues about unknown baubles ripe for cracking. Creepy, right? Also, you never know what you'll find inside a bauble, or what ancient tech may be guarding these crypts of dead civilizations.
I won't give away too much, but the sisters have lots of adventures ahead of them -- aliens, pirates, traitors, lies, priceless artifacts, horrible loss and tragedy. The story is part Robert Louis Stevenson, part Stephen King, but in a sci fi mix that makes it unique. Reynolds does not spare the horses. The action moves quickly. The characters are put through all sorts of misery. At several points, I had to put down the book because the scenes creeped me out or made me claustrophobic. (And I say this as a compliment!) If you like dark swashbuckling space adventure, this is for you!
Adrana and Fura escape their abusive and claustrophobic home life by signing on with Captain Rackamore as Bone Readers. They discover they can hear the whispered messages that are occasionally transmitted through the tech left behind in alien skulls, which can give them a way of quick communication across the solar system and also can provide clues about unknown baubles ripe for cracking. Creepy, right? Also, you never know what you'll find inside a bauble, or what ancient tech may be guarding these crypts of dead civilizations.
I won't give away too much, but the sisters have lots of adventures ahead of them -- aliens, pirates, traitors, lies, priceless artifacts, horrible loss and tragedy. The story is part Robert Louis Stevenson, part Stephen King, but in a sci fi mix that makes it unique. Reynolds does not spare the horses. The action moves quickly. The characters are put through all sorts of misery. At several points, I had to put down the book because the scenes creeped me out or made me claustrophobic. (And I say this as a compliment!) If you like dark swashbuckling space adventure, this is for you!
June 2, 2020
1ish stars.
This book is one giant identity crisis. It's totally marketed as an adult sci-fi thriller. The blurb teases space pirates. Look at that cool black cover with the bold lettering and the title... Revenger. Sounds sick. Start reading and oh wait... this reads like a kid's book... with lots of mutilation... that's 400 pages long. It took me a while to get my bearings and decide whether I was actually enjoying it or not. As it turns out, nope.
I almost get the impression that Reynolds decided to write a middle grade book and deliberately wrote poorly with slapdash worldbuilding and artless dialogue because that's how he perceived the genre should be written. Ratings on Goodreads aren't particularly low so there are obviously a lot of people who enjoyed it. Maybe it's just a case of unfulfilled expectations and missed opportunity. If I had known what I was getting myself into up front, maybe I would have enjoyed it more. Probably not.
I can't handle Fura, the main protagonist. I just keep picturing little Amy March, who isn't even English, talking in a cockney accent, with her mouth screwed up like Popeye, "I got meself the ol' glowy, ain't I, guvnor." How anyone in the book could take her seriously is maybe more bizarre than anything else. We're also so blatantly manipulated into despising certain characters that I eventually started rooting for them just to rebel. I made it to about 60% before I realized I'd rather be trapped in a bauble for eternity than keep reading, so I skimmed until the end.
In summation, I recommend this to those less cynical and more accepting of terms like "ghosty," "lung stuff" and "monkey face" than myself. Maybe kids? Just beware of the suicide, use of hallucinogens, self-mutilation, cross bolts through skulls, and repeated use of vulgarities such as "chaff it!"
https://mrphilipslibrary.wordpress.co...
This book is one giant identity crisis. It's totally marketed as an adult sci-fi thriller. The blurb teases space pirates. Look at that cool black cover with the bold lettering and the title... Revenger. Sounds sick. Start reading and oh wait... this reads like a kid's book... with lots of mutilation... that's 400 pages long. It took me a while to get my bearings and decide whether I was actually enjoying it or not. As it turns out, nope.
I almost get the impression that Reynolds decided to write a middle grade book and deliberately wrote poorly with slapdash worldbuilding and artless dialogue because that's how he perceived the genre should be written. Ratings on Goodreads aren't particularly low so there are obviously a lot of people who enjoyed it. Maybe it's just a case of unfulfilled expectations and missed opportunity. If I had known what I was getting myself into up front, maybe I would have enjoyed it more. Probably not.
I can't handle Fura, the main protagonist. I just keep picturing little Amy March, who isn't even English, talking in a cockney accent, with her mouth screwed up like Popeye, "I got meself the ol' glowy, ain't I, guvnor." How anyone in the book could take her seriously is maybe more bizarre than anything else. We're also so blatantly manipulated into despising certain characters that I eventually started rooting for them just to rebel. I made it to about 60% before I realized I'd rather be trapped in a bauble for eternity than keep reading, so I skimmed until the end.
In summation, I recommend this to those less cynical and more accepting of terms like "ghosty," "lung stuff" and "monkey face" than myself. Maybe kids? Just beware of the suicide, use of hallucinogens, self-mutilation, cross bolts through skulls, and repeated use of vulgarities such as "chaff it!"
https://mrphilipslibrary.wordpress.co...
March 10, 2017
Aside from some very amusing and possibly very *accurate* rants about this book, namely that the dialogue is sometimes *crappy*, the sciencey-bits are rather *weak*, and the fact that the made up words are pretty damn *generic*, most of the tale is *still* better than sooooooo much of the adventure space-opera out there.
Is it YA? Good question. Probably. But it's middle teens at the very worst. Expect pretty cool violence throughout, a single-minded protagonist girl, and a basic premise where this same girl vows revenge against space pirate and goes to amazing lengths and harsh changes to get her revenge...
It's still a straight adventure tale. There's cool things to figure out, such as different kinds of strange alien worlds that hold loot to the right captain with the right Bone-callers at the right time, making fortunes or breaking your neck in the process, and of course, PIRATES.
It's not a light tale. We're given a lot of build-up for Fura before everything goes to hell, so don't expect anything more than straight light adventure until then... and then go ahead and expect darkness the rest of the time.
I personally liked the basic story and the twists and turns. I can ignore the other complaints as perhaps the author attempting to keep the tale relatable to a younger crowd, but I also think it was a miscalculation, too.
Depth of feeling and being likable trumps easy terms. :) Fura was kinda lacking on that, plus I'm not quite sure I liked the explanations why this girl keeps switching between erudite and low-class in her speech. It wasn't quite natural. *shrug*
Other than that, the rest of the novel felt like part of the Revelation Space universe to a degree, including weird time-like portals, aliens that infest our bodies and change the way we see and think, robots, and some really, really cool tech which *IS* the purpose of these Treasure Island bits, after all.
It's a grab bag of goodies. Either you can get through all the things that bug you or you can't. There *IS* a solid story in here, however, and its conclusion was quite cool.
Just ignore the apparent intelligence of everyone other than the MC and you'll do fine. :)
Is it YA? Good question. Probably. But it's middle teens at the very worst. Expect pretty cool violence throughout, a single-minded protagonist girl, and a basic premise where this same girl vows revenge against space pirate and goes to amazing lengths and harsh changes to get her revenge...
It's still a straight adventure tale. There's cool things to figure out, such as different kinds of strange alien worlds that hold loot to the right captain with the right Bone-callers at the right time, making fortunes or breaking your neck in the process, and of course, PIRATES.
It's not a light tale. We're given a lot of build-up for Fura before everything goes to hell, so don't expect anything more than straight light adventure until then... and then go ahead and expect darkness the rest of the time.
I personally liked the basic story and the twists and turns. I can ignore the other complaints as perhaps the author attempting to keep the tale relatable to a younger crowd, but I also think it was a miscalculation, too.
Depth of feeling and being likable trumps easy terms. :) Fura was kinda lacking on that, plus I'm not quite sure I liked the explanations why this girl keeps switching between erudite and low-class in her speech. It wasn't quite natural. *shrug*
Other than that, the rest of the novel felt like part of the Revelation Space universe to a degree, including weird time-like portals, aliens that infest our bodies and change the way we see and think, robots, and some really, really cool tech which *IS* the purpose of these Treasure Island bits, after all.
It's a grab bag of goodies. Either you can get through all the things that bug you or you can't. There *IS* a solid story in here, however, and its conclusion was quite cool.
Just ignore the apparent intelligence of everyone other than the MC and you'll do fine. :)
December 14, 2016
*** 2.65 ***
A Buddy Read with my fellow Sci-Fi enthusiasts at BB&B! We just wanted some Science Fiction!!!
.... But we didn't realy get what we were expecting... Alastair Reynolds is known for his Science Fiction/ Space Opera stuff, which is usually very good on world building and mostly action driven. Imagine my surprise when I started reading and the two main protagonist were two teenage sisters, who find out they have some obscure talent to read "bones" and can be hired on spaceships in order to "listen and find" secrets - something like intelligence gathering for the space ships of that world... Sounds OK, only for an author who is usually very strong at establishing the rules for the worlds he imagines, this time we get only vague explanations and lazy patch-work for the system's logic, since when something became too difficult to explain, at once it magically became just a part of the universe, thus taken as a given and no explanation needed. Thus it became a mixture of sci-fi, steam-punk, and fantasy all mixed up in one convenient space pirating adventure.
The other thing is the fact that Mr. Reynolds has decided to develop quirky characters, but has forgone any sense of humor or clever banter... At times, judging by the quality of the dialogue, I actually believed that the targeted audience is middle grade girls, but again, if it were them, then there should have been more humor, some optimism, and the characters at least one of them, had to be likable!!! And none of that is there... I have never found myself liking only one character in a whole book of 450 pages, and that character was a broken down robot... Also, this book is obviously meant as a first in a series, although it is not marketed as such, because there were many questions we steel need answers to and whole parts of the plot that had nothing to do with the way this book progressed, but possibly might make a difference in a bigger arc. Hopefully this would also be the explanation for the humongous holes in the plot as we have been presented with it.
I hate to be a a downer, so I will say that the second half of the book becomes more interesting and the last 15% are actually quite intense, but if there are books which follow, I would hope that the author find a way to bring some joy, hope, and laughter in them. I am not talking about rainbows and pink unicorns, but something that would make the reader cheer for the protagonists, and at least have some moments of not frowning, despairing, and wanting to kill things...
I would not recommend this to hard-core Sci-Fi fans and people who like logic in their magical systems, but for those who are not sticklers to knowing how things work and why, this might be for you:) Also, you might want to be youngish... But not too young, because there is some violence, but no romance or anything in that sphere...
I wish you all Happy Reading and have a wonderful Day!!!
A Buddy Read with my fellow Sci-Fi enthusiasts at BB&B! We just wanted some Science Fiction!!!
.... But we didn't realy get what we were expecting... Alastair Reynolds is known for his Science Fiction/ Space Opera stuff, which is usually very good on world building and mostly action driven. Imagine my surprise when I started reading and the two main protagonist were two teenage sisters, who find out they have some obscure talent to read "bones" and can be hired on spaceships in order to "listen and find" secrets - something like intelligence gathering for the space ships of that world... Sounds OK, only for an author who is usually very strong at establishing the rules for the worlds he imagines, this time we get only vague explanations and lazy patch-work for the system's logic, since when something became too difficult to explain, at once it magically became just a part of the universe, thus taken as a given and no explanation needed. Thus it became a mixture of sci-fi, steam-punk, and fantasy all mixed up in one convenient space pirating adventure.
The other thing is the fact that Mr. Reynolds has decided to develop quirky characters, but has forgone any sense of humor or clever banter... At times, judging by the quality of the dialogue, I actually believed that the targeted audience is middle grade girls, but again, if it were them, then there should have been more humor, some optimism, and the characters at least one of them, had to be likable!!! And none of that is there... I have never found myself liking only one character in a whole book of 450 pages, and that character was a broken down robot... Also, this book is obviously meant as a first in a series, although it is not marketed as such, because there were many questions we steel need answers to and whole parts of the plot that had nothing to do with the way this book progressed, but possibly might make a difference in a bigger arc. Hopefully this would also be the explanation for the humongous holes in the plot as we have been presented with it.
I hate to be a a downer, so I will say that the second half of the book becomes more interesting and the last 15% are actually quite intense, but if there are books which follow, I would hope that the author find a way to bring some joy, hope, and laughter in them. I am not talking about rainbows and pink unicorns, but something that would make the reader cheer for the protagonists, and at least have some moments of not frowning, despairing, and wanting to kill things...
I would not recommend this to hard-core Sci-Fi fans and people who like logic in their magical systems, but for those who are not sticklers to knowing how things work and why, this might be for you:) Also, you might want to be youngish... But not too young, because there is some violence, but no romance or anything in that sphere...
I wish you all Happy Reading and have a wonderful Day!!!
November 6, 2016
(Audiobook)
From the Guardian:
As banks struggle and businesses collapse, the science fiction writer Alastair Reynolds is making his own contribution to the flagging UK economy, signing an unprecedented 10-book deal with Gollancz worth £1m.
Reynolds, who has published eight novels with the Orion imprint Gollancz since his 2000 debut, Revelation Space, said he was "amazed and thrilled" to commit himself to the same publisher for the next decade. "It gives me a huge amount of security for the next 10 years," he said, "and writers don't have a lot of security. Even at the best of times you're worrying about the next deadline, the next contract. To have that in place is fantastic for me."
He has always struggled to write when his future has been uncertain, he continued, so he's delighted to be able to start "thinking strategically ... not just thinking one book ahead, but 'where do I want to be in four books?'"
After reading “Revenger” the answer is clearly “Rolling around in cash, crapping out horrible Young Adult Fiction while laughing maniacally”.
Ok I am sort of kidding there but when I say “horrible Young Adult fiction” I really do mean that if this story had a teenage vampire with six-pack abs and a heart of gold it would have been an improvement,
"Revenger" is so Young Adult it makes The Hardy Boys – Casefiles seem like profound words of wisdom beamed down from some enlightened being.
I think that anyone who can get paid to make a living from making art should be congratulated for doing so. I believe in the right of the artist to make whatever kind of art they want to make and to challenge their audience.
With the small caveat...that if Metallica want to make a Bluegrass album or collaborate with Lou Reed they make it clear to their audience “This is not a Metallica album”. The Dixie Chicks should let their country fans know ahead of time if they want to make death metal. Metallica just dropping their new bluegrass tunes on an unsuspecting audience of metalheads would likely cause the internet to explode in a ball of fiery rage.
Alastair Reynolds is the "Metallica" of Space Opera and "Revenger" is his crappy country hoedown
So here is the promo copy for Revenger
"Revenger" is a science fiction adventure story set in the rubble of our solar system in the dark, distant future--a tale of space pirates, buried treasure, and phantom weapons, of unspeakable hazards and single-minded heroism and of vengeance...
So i guess I missed the words “For Young Adults, very stupid grown-ups and/or people with traumatic brain injuries” in the copy?
This is being sold as the “New Alastair Reynolds science fiction adventure story” not “Alastair Reynolds now writes space adventures for sassy teenage girls as part of his deal to crap out a book every year for the next 10 years, quality be damned”.
Our teenage protagonist’s “Adrana” and “Fura” (or as narrator Clare Corbett calls her “Fuhrer”) are a pair of unlikeable turds.
We are introduced to them as teens who were raised rich but now, after their ailing father’s bad investments have become decidedly middle class. Their Father is a frail old man with a heart condition. They immediately endear themselves to the reader by lying to their Father, causing the destruction of his only robot, worth most of his remaining fortune and attempt to abandon him by getting passage off world, without even leaving a note.
Now I know what you are thinking dear reader “Is the book really that bad or are you just disappointed this isn’t “Revelation Space?”.
Well...let’s take a look at some sample dialogue, between a salty Cove and our hero Fura
"Don’t fret girly” Quindar said as he had to drag me along. “That fine prince has both of us in a bind. I harm a hair on your head, I’ll be looking for a new line of work”
“Harm a hair on my head” I told him “and you’ll be looking for a new way to go the toilet”
“Is that any way to talk, you were all fine and educated when you left Mazarael, I’ll be accused of bringing back soiled goods, won’t I”
“You’ll be the one soiling yourself Vidin”
At one point this feisty teenager gives a hardened space pirate a look that says "don't mess with me" and HE GOT SCURRED
The saga of causing the destruction of the family robot and feeling *slightly* bad about it is revisited repeatedly
“It didn’t mean I wasn’t sad about what had happened to Paladin, it was like feeling sad about a dog rather than a person”
Ok Fuhrer we get it, you let the family’s faithful dog/robot die and now you are *kinda* sad. You are therefore a good and interesting character.
So let’s talk about this stupid world. Ohoy me hearties we be sailing the high seas of space!
This doesn’t sound too terrible, it could be pretty good right? It's all in the execution.
Sooo...a bunch of aliens have left these really convenient treasure troves all over the universe called “baubles”. The Space Pirates travel around and wait for the Bauble-augerer to declare that they will now open like Aladdin’s cave so they can take out the “loot”.
We are a good way into the book before the booty in the baubles is described as anything other then “loot”. It is a bit like in a computer game when the programmers couldn’t be bothered to create a bunch of unique items so you win “5 loots”.
Eventually we learn some of the good loot involves “Alien coins” which is very exciting . The way the Baubles are described makes me think of gigantic clam shells just floating in space, all through the galaxy for adventurers to pilfer. BE CAREFUL, like a giant clam they close up, taking any unlucky swashbucklers with them.
< INSERT DRAMATIC TENSION> .
Our 2 rockin space pirate chicks find out in an amazing coincidence that they both have the rare and special ability to be able to “read the bones”. What is "reading the bones" you ask?
Well, on the space pirate ships of the future they have the “squawk” ie radio but they also have “the bones”. The bones are a kind of horse shaped alien skull that allow for direct ship-to-ship messages to be sent via sorta-psychics called “bone readers”. They are also used to pick up snippets of gossip and information from other ship’s skulls.
So it is a bit like installing a high security phone line that comes with a built in transmitter that broadcast's your *super secret* calls out to any skilled bone reader with a decent skull. The whole idea, which is a major part of the book is based is bafflingly stupid.
Did I mention everyone in this book is stupid? Have you ever read Enid Blyton’s “Famous 5” books?
You know the ones where primary school kids solve a mystery that has been bamboozling the police force and every adult in the town both good and bad? Well...every adult in "Revenger" is monumentally stupid in an extremely convenient way. The captains are all stupid, the crews are all stupid, the good pirates are stupid and the bad pirates are stupid. The only character that is not incredibly stupid is “Proza”. Far from being well written, Proza stands out as being the only adult in the whole book that is not an incompetent fumblebum. The problem with Proza is that even as a super famous badarse Cove, she just wants to go along with whatever the cool teenage girl who’s been on the ship for 5 minutes wants to do. Convenient!
So before long something something happens and Fuhrer decides she has a plan, and that plan is:
TO TAKE REVENGE…(ER) AGAINST THE GREATEST AND SHIVERIEST SPACE PIRATE IN THE UNIVERSE
The specifics of this plan are: ....IM SURE I WILL THINK OF ONE ONCE I GET THERE.
Of course Proza is only too happy to risk her life against the most fearsome space pirate of all time and tags along for the ride with this sassy bonereader. Almost as if she knows she will just Dues Ex Machina her way out of the impossible odds.
Almost every page of this book made me think “wow how convenient” over and over and again.
Reynolds is so good at aliens and space cities that these *very very brief* parts of the book that touch on them were almost interesting.
Instead of going to the trouble of worldbuilding – Reynolds just substitutes in Piratey words.
Ready for your crash course?
A Cove is a crewmen, a natter is a chat. A porky is a lie. Lamps are eyes,feelers are fingers. Grey is your brain, scuzzy means shitty. A Jolly Rodger is a penis lung stuff is oxygen and shivery means freaky.
OK I made 3 of those up (in <30 seconds) but the point is that not a lot of thought or effort has gone into this book. Nothing is gained by saying "shivery" instead of "freaky" it just seems more piratey...or something...I guess.
At the end of the book we receive the answer to one of our “mysteries” concerning alien loots. Instead of shedding new light on the plot, it is just really, really dumb and doesn't even really qualify as a “twist”. It's just a stupid thing that we learn at the end of a stupid book.
Let’s talk about Narrator Clare Corbett. This is the 2nd Reynolds book in a row with a female protagonist and a crappy female narrator. I am going to suggest an author of Reynold’s standing and “big budget” can get a better narrator then someone who a) Is not very good and b) best credit to date is voicing someone in “Dark souls”.
I am not going to pretend Corbett was incompetent, I just hated all of her choices, all of her accents and her terrible “man voice”. “Female Jason Stratham” would be an interesting character but was really annoying as a narrator. She certainly didn’t do anything to elevate the clunky dialogue.
I just refuse to believe that a writer as good as Reynolds was actually trying to write a good book here. I wish that his publisher’s had blurbed this book semi-honestly as a deadline induced YA-fiction for special needs level readers.
The fact that I had to scroll through 39 glowing "advanced copy reviews" to find the first negative one made me think of this analysis and want to make my own, final meme for the review.
Happy reading!
From the Guardian:
As banks struggle and businesses collapse, the science fiction writer Alastair Reynolds is making his own contribution to the flagging UK economy, signing an unprecedented 10-book deal with Gollancz worth £1m.
Reynolds, who has published eight novels with the Orion imprint Gollancz since his 2000 debut, Revelation Space, said he was "amazed and thrilled" to commit himself to the same publisher for the next decade. "It gives me a huge amount of security for the next 10 years," he said, "and writers don't have a lot of security. Even at the best of times you're worrying about the next deadline, the next contract. To have that in place is fantastic for me."
He has always struggled to write when his future has been uncertain, he continued, so he's delighted to be able to start "thinking strategically ... not just thinking one book ahead, but 'where do I want to be in four books?'"
After reading “Revenger” the answer is clearly “Rolling around in cash, crapping out horrible Young Adult Fiction while laughing maniacally”.
Ok I am sort of kidding there but when I say “horrible Young Adult fiction” I really do mean that if this story had a teenage vampire with six-pack abs and a heart of gold it would have been an improvement,
"Revenger" is so Young Adult it makes The Hardy Boys – Casefiles seem like profound words of wisdom beamed down from some enlightened being.
I think that anyone who can get paid to make a living from making art should be congratulated for doing so. I believe in the right of the artist to make whatever kind of art they want to make and to challenge their audience.
With the small caveat...that if Metallica want to make a Bluegrass album or collaborate with Lou Reed they make it clear to their audience “This is not a Metallica album”. The Dixie Chicks should let their country fans know ahead of time if they want to make death metal. Metallica just dropping their new bluegrass tunes on an unsuspecting audience of metalheads would likely cause the internet to explode in a ball of fiery rage.
Alastair Reynolds is the "Metallica" of Space Opera and "Revenger" is his crappy country hoedown
So here is the promo copy for Revenger
"Revenger" is a science fiction adventure story set in the rubble of our solar system in the dark, distant future--a tale of space pirates, buried treasure, and phantom weapons, of unspeakable hazards and single-minded heroism and of vengeance...
So i guess I missed the words “For Young Adults, very stupid grown-ups and/or people with traumatic brain injuries” in the copy?
This is being sold as the “New Alastair Reynolds science fiction adventure story” not “Alastair Reynolds now writes space adventures for sassy teenage girls as part of his deal to crap out a book every year for the next 10 years, quality be damned”.
Our teenage protagonist’s “Adrana” and “Fura” (or as narrator Clare Corbett calls her “Fuhrer”) are a pair of unlikeable turds.
We are introduced to them as teens who were raised rich but now, after their ailing father’s bad investments have become decidedly middle class. Their Father is a frail old man with a heart condition. They immediately endear themselves to the reader by lying to their Father, causing the destruction of his only robot, worth most of his remaining fortune and attempt to abandon him by getting passage off world, without even leaving a note.
Now I know what you are thinking dear reader “Is the book really that bad or are you just disappointed this isn’t “Revelation Space?”.
Well...let’s take a look at some sample dialogue, between a salty Cove and our hero Fura
"Don’t fret girly” Quindar said as he had to drag me along. “That fine prince has both of us in a bind. I harm a hair on your head, I’ll be looking for a new line of work”
“Harm a hair on my head” I told him “and you’ll be looking for a new way to go the toilet”
“Is that any way to talk, you were all fine and educated when you left Mazarael, I’ll be accused of bringing back soiled goods, won’t I”
“You’ll be the one soiling yourself Vidin”
At one point this feisty teenager gives a hardened space pirate a look that says "don't mess with me" and HE GOT SCURRED
The saga of causing the destruction of the family robot and feeling *slightly* bad about it is revisited repeatedly
“It didn’t mean I wasn’t sad about what had happened to Paladin, it was like feeling sad about a dog rather than a person”
Ok Fuhrer we get it, you let the family’s faithful dog/robot die and now you are *kinda* sad. You are therefore a good and interesting character.
So let’s talk about this stupid world. Ohoy me hearties we be sailing the high seas of space!
This doesn’t sound too terrible, it could be pretty good right? It's all in the execution.
Sooo...a bunch of aliens have left these really convenient treasure troves all over the universe called “baubles”. The Space Pirates travel around and wait for the Bauble-augerer to declare that they will now open like Aladdin’s cave so they can take out the “loot”.
We are a good way into the book before the booty in the baubles is described as anything other then “loot”. It is a bit like in a computer game when the programmers couldn’t be bothered to create a bunch of unique items so you win “5 loots”.
Eventually we learn some of the good loot involves “Alien coins” which is very exciting . The way the Baubles are described makes me think of gigantic clam shells just floating in space, all through the galaxy for adventurers to pilfer. BE CAREFUL, like a giant clam they close up, taking any unlucky swashbucklers with them.
< INSERT DRAMATIC TENSION> .
Our 2 rockin space pirate chicks find out in an amazing coincidence that they both have the rare and special ability to be able to “read the bones”. What is "reading the bones" you ask?
Well, on the space pirate ships of the future they have the “squawk” ie radio but they also have “the bones”. The bones are a kind of horse shaped alien skull that allow for direct ship-to-ship messages to be sent via sorta-psychics called “bone readers”. They are also used to pick up snippets of gossip and information from other ship’s skulls.
So it is a bit like installing a high security phone line that comes with a built in transmitter that broadcast's your *super secret* calls out to any skilled bone reader with a decent skull. The whole idea, which is a major part of the book is based is bafflingly stupid.
Did I mention everyone in this book is stupid? Have you ever read Enid Blyton’s “Famous 5” books?
You know the ones where primary school kids solve a mystery that has been bamboozling the police force and every adult in the town both good and bad? Well...every adult in "Revenger" is monumentally stupid in an extremely convenient way. The captains are all stupid, the crews are all stupid, the good pirates are stupid and the bad pirates are stupid. The only character that is not incredibly stupid is “Proza”. Far from being well written, Proza stands out as being the only adult in the whole book that is not an incompetent fumblebum. The problem with Proza is that even as a super famous badarse Cove, she just wants to go along with whatever the cool teenage girl who’s been on the ship for 5 minutes wants to do. Convenient!
So before long something something happens and Fuhrer decides she has a plan, and that plan is:
TO TAKE REVENGE…(ER) AGAINST THE GREATEST AND SHIVERIEST SPACE PIRATE IN THE UNIVERSE
The specifics of this plan are: ....IM SURE I WILL THINK OF ONE ONCE I GET THERE.
Of course Proza is only too happy to risk her life against the most fearsome space pirate of all time and tags along for the ride with this sassy bonereader. Almost as if she knows she will just Dues Ex Machina her way out of the impossible odds.
Almost every page of this book made me think “wow how convenient” over and over and again.
Reynolds is so good at aliens and space cities that these *very very brief* parts of the book that touch on them were almost interesting.
Instead of going to the trouble of worldbuilding – Reynolds just substitutes in Piratey words.
Ready for your crash course?
A Cove is a crewmen, a natter is a chat. A porky is a lie. Lamps are eyes,feelers are fingers. Grey is your brain, scuzzy means shitty. A Jolly Rodger is a penis lung stuff is oxygen and shivery means freaky.
OK I made 3 of those up (in <30 seconds) but the point is that not a lot of thought or effort has gone into this book. Nothing is gained by saying "shivery" instead of "freaky" it just seems more piratey...or something...I guess.
At the end of the book we receive the answer to one of our “mysteries” concerning alien loots. Instead of shedding new light on the plot, it is just really, really dumb and doesn't even really qualify as a “twist”. It's just a stupid thing that we learn at the end of a stupid book.
Let’s talk about Narrator Clare Corbett. This is the 2nd Reynolds book in a row with a female protagonist and a crappy female narrator. I am going to suggest an author of Reynold’s standing and “big budget” can get a better narrator then someone who a) Is not very good and b) best credit to date is voicing someone in “Dark souls”.
I am not going to pretend Corbett was incompetent, I just hated all of her choices, all of her accents and her terrible “man voice”. “Female Jason Stratham” would be an interesting character but was really annoying as a narrator. She certainly didn’t do anything to elevate the clunky dialogue.
I just refuse to believe that a writer as good as Reynolds was actually trying to write a good book here. I wish that his publisher’s had blurbed this book semi-honestly as a deadline induced YA-fiction for special needs level readers.
The fact that I had to scroll through 39 glowing "advanced copy reviews" to find the first negative one made me think of this analysis and want to make my own, final meme for the review.
Happy reading!
December 19, 2016
I picked up Revenger forewarned with the knowledge that this book was Alastair Reynolds first foray into the YA market. I must admit I had high hopes for Revenger. I was hoping we would get a book packed with the great world building and interesting plots of Reynolds regular hard sci-fi books but with the added bonus of the story having a more character driven focus. Unfortunately that never quite materialized. What we actually got was Reynolds trying, and failing, at character driven sci-fi while also sacrificing a lot of the elements of his writing that made his other books so good!
Revenger was basically a space pirate revenge thriller. As you might imagine that meant this was a super dark YA story filled with characters who vented their morals quicker than they vented their enemies out an air lock! This was definitely one of the darkest YA stories I've read over the years.
We followed the story of Fura Ness. The Ness family found themselves in financial difficulties after a number of piss poor financial investments made by daddy Ness. In order to save the family from bankruptcy Fura's elder sister Adrana convinced her that they should run off and join a "bauble" hunting space crew. Lucky for both girls it turns out they have a talent for "bone reading". Yeah, you read that right: BONE READING! In this sci-fantasy world some kids and teens in their early 20s have the ability to communicate with each other over long distances through dead alien skulls. No bone reading for those past their early 20s as their brains "thicken up" too much to meld with the skulls. Captain Rackamore signs up both sisters to his crew and they shoot off into space to join the glamorous life of looting old alien artefacts from "bauble" worlds. The bauble worlds are worlds sealed by force fields that only open for short periods. The best crews are those that know where the bauble worlds are located, when they will open, and how long they will stay open for! The best money is to be made by the crews who are willing to risk trying the bauble worlds that are still a bit of a mystery. It is a high risk game and it is made all the more dangerous by the fact that there are some captains and crews who would rather lets others risk the dangers inside the baubles and then just loot them for the goods! Since this is a revenge thriller you can imagine how our space faring sisters get on in their new career!
The story could have been quite good. What is not to love about alien treasure hunting and space pirates? Unfortunately it was let down by a few things. Reynolds' distant writing style will come as no surprise to readers of his hard sci-fi books. It is also a problem in Revenger because it made it impossible to connect with the characters or the happenings on an emotional level. Which was a big problem as it made it tough to care about what happened to Fura or the rest of the characters and also dulled the emotional impact of some of the more brutal happenings. Another familiar Reynolds' issue which plagued this story was the complete lack of humor. There was just nothing to counter the dark, dull, and depressing tone of the story. The surprise issue was the world building. It is usually a major strength of Reynolds but it let him down in this one. I think he was going for cute and YAish with the sci-fantasy technology and quirky mock Victorian setting and dialogue, but he failed to execute it properly and it came off as a bit ridiculous instead.
The plus side to Revenger is that the basic story was pretty good. Fura's story was an interesting one and her development as a character definitely caught me off guard even if it was all plausibly explained!
The world building was more sci-fantasy than sci-fi but I've never had too much of an issue with sci-fantasy stories in general and after a bit of time I got used to the idea of Reynolds' writing such a story. While I'll not say this is my favourite sci-fi world I will say it had enough going for it to intrigue me a little. This was set in a far distant future where humanity lives on millions of artificial worlds and they mostly survive by using technologies from long dead alien races or past human civilisations. There are even a few alien species in the mix. Though we did not really meet many of them in this book there was a few hints that they were going to be playing a bigger role in the sequels.
All in all I think this was an average story. It had the potential to be great but was held back by its flaws.
Rating: 3 stars.
Audio Note: This was narrated by Clare Corbett. I took a bit of time to warm to her but I eventually did and think she done an OK job overall.
Revenger was basically a space pirate revenge thriller. As you might imagine that meant this was a super dark YA story filled with characters who vented their morals quicker than they vented their enemies out an air lock! This was definitely one of the darkest YA stories I've read over the years.
We followed the story of Fura Ness. The Ness family found themselves in financial difficulties after a number of piss poor financial investments made by daddy Ness. In order to save the family from bankruptcy Fura's elder sister Adrana convinced her that they should run off and join a "bauble" hunting space crew. Lucky for both girls it turns out they have a talent for "bone reading". Yeah, you read that right: BONE READING! In this sci-fantasy world some kids and teens in their early 20s have the ability to communicate with each other over long distances through dead alien skulls. No bone reading for those past their early 20s as their brains "thicken up" too much to meld with the skulls. Captain Rackamore signs up both sisters to his crew and they shoot off into space to join the glamorous life of looting old alien artefacts from "bauble" worlds. The bauble worlds are worlds sealed by force fields that only open for short periods. The best crews are those that know where the bauble worlds are located, when they will open, and how long they will stay open for! The best money is to be made by the crews who are willing to risk trying the bauble worlds that are still a bit of a mystery. It is a high risk game and it is made all the more dangerous by the fact that there are some captains and crews who would rather lets others risk the dangers inside the baubles and then just loot them for the goods! Since this is a revenge thriller you can imagine how our space faring sisters get on in their new career!
The story could have been quite good. What is not to love about alien treasure hunting and space pirates? Unfortunately it was let down by a few things. Reynolds' distant writing style will come as no surprise to readers of his hard sci-fi books. It is also a problem in Revenger because it made it impossible to connect with the characters or the happenings on an emotional level. Which was a big problem as it made it tough to care about what happened to Fura or the rest of the characters and also dulled the emotional impact of some of the more brutal happenings. Another familiar Reynolds' issue which plagued this story was the complete lack of humor. There was just nothing to counter the dark, dull, and depressing tone of the story. The surprise issue was the world building. It is usually a major strength of Reynolds but it let him down in this one. I think he was going for cute and YAish with the sci-fantasy technology and quirky mock Victorian setting and dialogue, but he failed to execute it properly and it came off as a bit ridiculous instead.
The plus side to Revenger is that the basic story was pretty good. Fura's story was an interesting one and her development as a character definitely caught me off guard even if it was all plausibly explained!
The world building was more sci-fantasy than sci-fi but I've never had too much of an issue with sci-fantasy stories in general and after a bit of time I got used to the idea of Reynolds' writing such a story. While I'll not say this is my favourite sci-fi world I will say it had enough going for it to intrigue me a little. This was set in a far distant future where humanity lives on millions of artificial worlds and they mostly survive by using technologies from long dead alien races or past human civilisations. There are even a few alien species in the mix. Though we did not really meet many of them in this book there was a few hints that they were going to be playing a bigger role in the sequels.
All in all I think this was an average story. It had the potential to be great but was held back by its flaws.
Rating: 3 stars.
Audio Note: This was narrated by Clare Corbett. I took a bit of time to warm to her but I eventually did and think she done an OK job overall.
January 29, 2019
Ok so this is YA. Who knew? Wait, what? Everyone but me.... Oh ok.
First, a compliment (kinda).
What a great set of covers this series has
(whoever designed those outperformed the author on this one).
Second, the rest.
The essential problem is that Reynolds seems to be trying to force his writing into a stereotypical version of YA rather than playing to his strengths in world building and innovation. All he did was dumb down and it shows.
So you've got these two young sisters who have a decent enough relationship with each other, but of course one is more adventurous and wants to escape to space. As you do. I get it. It might just be because there's some dodgy shit going on at home with the family doctor and this weird drug him and the father want to give one of these girls to keep them a child. So that's not disturbing at all. Sign me up for possible death in space over that. Still not sure of the relevance of this whole aspect of the story but whatever. Pretty typical dystopian beginning. Bit weird but fine. Then we get the spaceship and that's fine.
But then it's all brutal death and complete destruction... and... there's just not enough emotional depth to hold it. The characters are all over the place: they have no veracity, changing according to the needs of the plot. Fura is bad enough but the 'reveal' about Adrana in the finale was actually painful. There's no sense of genuine growth, just a jerky bounding from one scene of awful to another, and because Reynolds is barely giving these characters the internal life of a 14 year old, it just doesn't feel real. Or maybe that's because everything is so flat we don't care about any of it anyway. On top of that it has this stilted interaction that I think is supposed to match the faux Victorian setting, but fails to sound like anyone of any age bracket. I would rather have had them yelling 'ahoy matey' at each other. THEN there's the favourite trick of YA right now where violence equals edgy. But i'll say this a million times over, it needs something to offset it. It needs a reason to be there. You can't have it as a shock tactic or character builder when there is no character growth being shown or when there's not enough emotional complexity to give the reader any reason to care either way.
The book is just one tick box after another, a gimmicky read that has zero depth.
(I think i'm more annoyed by this than I should be because it's Alastair Reynolds and it's a book about space pirates. Seriously, how the hell did he get this so wrong? SPACE PIRATES!!!)
ARC via publisher
First, a compliment (kinda).
What a great set of covers this series has
(whoever designed those outperformed the author on this one).
Second, the rest.
The essential problem is that Reynolds seems to be trying to force his writing into a stereotypical version of YA rather than playing to his strengths in world building and innovation. All he did was dumb down and it shows.
So you've got these two young sisters who have a decent enough relationship with each other, but of course one is more adventurous and wants to escape to space. As you do. I get it. It might just be because there's some dodgy shit going on at home with the family doctor and this weird drug him and the father want to give one of these girls to keep them a child. So that's not disturbing at all. Sign me up for possible death in space over that. Still not sure of the relevance of this whole aspect of the story but whatever. Pretty typical dystopian beginning. Bit weird but fine. Then we get the spaceship and that's fine.
But then it's all brutal death and complete destruction... and... there's just not enough emotional depth to hold it. The characters are all over the place: they have no veracity, changing according to the needs of the plot. Fura is bad enough but the 'reveal' about Adrana in the finale was actually painful. There's no sense of genuine growth, just a jerky bounding from one scene of awful to another, and because Reynolds is barely giving these characters the internal life of a 14 year old, it just doesn't feel real. Or maybe that's because everything is so flat we don't care about any of it anyway. On top of that it has this stilted interaction that I think is supposed to match the faux Victorian setting, but fails to sound like anyone of any age bracket. I would rather have had them yelling 'ahoy matey' at each other. THEN there's the favourite trick of YA right now where violence equals edgy. But i'll say this a million times over, it needs something to offset it. It needs a reason to be there. You can't have it as a shock tactic or character builder when there is no character growth being shown or when there's not enough emotional complexity to give the reader any reason to care either way.
The book is just one tick box after another, a gimmicky read that has zero depth.
(I think i'm more annoyed by this than I should be because it's Alastair Reynolds and it's a book about space pirates. Seriously, how the hell did he get this so wrong? SPACE PIRATES!!!)
ARC via publisher
December 30, 2016
Oh gods! What have you done Mr Reynolds?
Let me start off by saying that I am a Reynolds fan. I have read a lot of his books and rate him as one of the best hard scifi writers out there. Whilst his characters can be found wanting at times, his huge stories and world building skills are excellent and you are never short of having your head turned inside out with technical details.
Then came this book. My theory was, that he wrote this when he was a teenager and it never go published, so now he is famous, he thought he might write it again. Because in all honesty I cannot believe the man who wrote Revelation Space, The Prefect and Chasm City is the same guy who wrote this.
Awful characters, unbelievable story and a complete brain fade when it came to the science of the story. I know it was supposed to not be hard sci fi, but the character interaction was incredibly juvenile. Things like two rich sisters, meet in a dark room with a guy who can take them to other worlds, he agrees they are potential bone readers (without any tests) and they agree to go off planet there and then. When in space, they decide they don't like ship clothes and continue to move around the ship, in zero gee in dresses!! Being bone readers is a mystical thing, which Reynolds completely and utterly decides as readers we don't really need to know anything about it.
It falls short on all levels and was definitely the biggest disappointment for me this year. Imagine if Enid Blyton had wrote Famous Five go into space, then you'd have an idea of the nice and fluffy writing style.
Let me start off by saying that I am a Reynolds fan. I have read a lot of his books and rate him as one of the best hard scifi writers out there. Whilst his characters can be found wanting at times, his huge stories and world building skills are excellent and you are never short of having your head turned inside out with technical details.
Then came this book. My theory was, that he wrote this when he was a teenager and it never go published, so now he is famous, he thought he might write it again. Because in all honesty I cannot believe the man who wrote Revelation Space, The Prefect and Chasm City is the same guy who wrote this.
Awful characters, unbelievable story and a complete brain fade when it came to the science of the story. I know it was supposed to not be hard sci fi, but the character interaction was incredibly juvenile. Things like two rich sisters, meet in a dark room with a guy who can take them to other worlds, he agrees they are potential bone readers (without any tests) and they agree to go off planet there and then. When in space, they decide they don't like ship clothes and continue to move around the ship, in zero gee in dresses!! Being bone readers is a mystical thing, which Reynolds completely and utterly decides as readers we don't really need to know anything about it.
It falls short on all levels and was definitely the biggest disappointment for me this year. Imagine if Enid Blyton had wrote Famous Five go into space, then you'd have an idea of the nice and fluffy writing style.
September 22, 2016
Revenger was definitely entertaining and un-puttable down till the end though it clearly read to me as the start of a series not a standalone;
a few observations that came to mind when reading it - reminded most of C. Mieville's Railsea than anything from A. Reynolds, strong YA vibe, though violent but otherwise lots of stuff YA style (especially the part in the middle back on Mazarile which was weakest of the novel imho as it read straight out YA parental struggle drama), narrator makes or breaks it to a large extent, so you like Fura Ness' voice, you like the book, otherwise you will struggle, loved the mystery tech tidbits which are the stuff Reynolds is best at (the neutrino detecting cloth or the see-through-glass, not to speak of the main revelation at the end), great world building (a Solar System split into many habitats, where humans are in the 1799th recorded year of the 13 Occupation - ie 13th pan system human civilization, with the 12th being some 600k years in the past as there are robot survivors remembering it, tech a jumble of current and past, mysterious, aliens that came from the Milky Way and are now coexisting but mysterious and possibly dangerous etc etc)
Overall loved it by the end and I definitely want more as the ending implies; as of now, I would rank it co-#1 sf of the year alongside The Gradual, and co-#1 overall adding the Waking Fire fantasy to the mix too
a few observations that came to mind when reading it - reminded most of C. Mieville's Railsea than anything from A. Reynolds, strong YA vibe, though violent but otherwise lots of stuff YA style (especially the part in the middle back on Mazarile which was weakest of the novel imho as it read straight out YA parental struggle drama), narrator makes or breaks it to a large extent, so you like Fura Ness' voice, you like the book, otherwise you will struggle, loved the mystery tech tidbits which are the stuff Reynolds is best at (the neutrino detecting cloth or the see-through-glass, not to speak of the main revelation at the end), great world building (a Solar System split into many habitats, where humans are in the 1799th recorded year of the 13 Occupation - ie 13th pan system human civilization, with the 12th being some 600k years in the past as there are robot survivors remembering it, tech a jumble of current and past, mysterious, aliens that came from the Milky Way and are now coexisting but mysterious and possibly dangerous etc etc)
Overall loved it by the end and I definitely want more as the ending implies; as of now, I would rank it co-#1 sf of the year alongside The Gradual, and co-#1 overall adding the Waking Fire fantasy to the mix too
March 9, 2017
People seem to be very divided on this book. I will say at the outset that this is the first thing I have read by Reynolds, and I'm also a fan of YA Sci-Fi, which means I was pretty well placed to enjoy the story.
This is a typical coming of age story, with a main character, Fura, whose experiences remake her into a very different person than she imagined herself to be. It very much follows the idea of what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. The core of the story is really one of transformation motivated by a desire for revenge.
The setting feels old fashioned yet futuristic, with an interesting steampunk slant. It didn’t completely appeal to me at first, but it grew on me and I came to really appreciate the detail of it.
A few people have commented on the level of violence and how that confuses the YA categorisation. I read a lot of YA, and quite honestly, this doesn't come anywhere near to being the darkest or most violent of them. It's basically a sort of Treasure Island in space, and not any more violent than many other classic pirate tales.
So the bottom line for me was that I thought it was a well written and exciting story, with an engaging main character I enjoyed following.
This is a typical coming of age story, with a main character, Fura, whose experiences remake her into a very different person than she imagined herself to be. It very much follows the idea of what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. The core of the story is really one of transformation motivated by a desire for revenge.
The setting feels old fashioned yet futuristic, with an interesting steampunk slant. It didn’t completely appeal to me at first, but it grew on me and I came to really appreciate the detail of it.
A few people have commented on the level of violence and how that confuses the YA categorisation. I read a lot of YA, and quite honestly, this doesn't come anywhere near to being the darkest or most violent of them. It's basically a sort of Treasure Island in space, and not any more violent than many other classic pirate tales.
So the bottom line for me was that I thought it was a well written and exciting story, with an engaging main character I enjoyed following.
Read
August 19, 2016My new editor understands my needs, and was kind enough to send me an ARC of this book. And folks, it's a cracker. Basically, it's TREASURE ISLAND meets MOBY DICK, set in space, with a nice BLADE RUNNER-ish colour palette and a cast of characters worthy of a Terry Gilliam movie. I loved it. I don't give out stars, but coves, there are baubles aplenty in this, as well as blood, tears, a damn fine swashbuckling female villain and many lungstuff-sapping moments. I'm hoping there's a sequel. If not, me laddie, I'm coming for you...
May 29, 2019
4.5 stars.
Space pirates, antiheroes and ancient dead civilisations? That sound perfect to you? Me too.
Arafura Ness is drawn by her sister from the safety of their comfortable and cushy life into the uncertainties of the Bone Room on a treasure hunters space cruiser. Sensitive to the bones of an ancient creature, such bone readers are able to communicate across vast distances and carve out the secrets of the stars. When the dread Bosa Sennen kidnaps Fura’s Sister, she is forced to take action into her own hands and vows to save her at any cost...
This was such a good book. It’s a sci fi novel with a touch of fantasy and a heavy dollop of grey morality. If you enjoyed Nona or Mia then this story is for you.
Space pirates, antiheroes and ancient dead civilisations? That sound perfect to you? Me too.
Arafura Ness is drawn by her sister from the safety of their comfortable and cushy life into the uncertainties of the Bone Room on a treasure hunters space cruiser. Sensitive to the bones of an ancient creature, such bone readers are able to communicate across vast distances and carve out the secrets of the stars. When the dread Bosa Sennen kidnaps Fura’s Sister, she is forced to take action into her own hands and vows to save her at any cost...
This was such a good book. It’s a sci fi novel with a touch of fantasy and a heavy dollop of grey morality. If you enjoyed Nona or Mia then this story is for you.
March 13, 2017
2 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum https://bibliosanctum.com/2017/03/12/...
Revenger was my first book by Alastair Reynolds, which makes admitting that it did not work for me all that much harder. Still, in all fairness, I had been warned by several others beforehand that this does not feel representative of much of his work (as apparently the target audience is YA). Instead of choosing something else as my introduction to the author though, I decided to throw caution to the wind and try it anyway, so that’s on me.
The story follows Adrana and Fura Ness, a pair of teenaged sisters who live with their ailing father on the planet of Mazerile. A series of bad investments have bankrupted the family and now the girls have little prospects for the future, which is why when Captain Rackamore turns up in his sunjammer hoping to recruit a new Bone reader for his crew, Adrana and Fura are quick to take him up on his offer. Because the two of them are Sympathetics, they are perfect for the job which involves mentally linking themselves up with a mysterious piece of technology called a skull on the ship, enabling the crew to communicate with other travelers using the long-established inter-galactic trade routes.
So without another thought spared to their dear old dad, the girls decide to run off and join Rackamore on The Monetta’s Mourn, beginning their treasure seeking adventures among the remains of lost civilizations. The galaxy is filled with crews like theirs scavenging the far corners of space for “baubles”, a term used to describe artificially enclosed planets that can contain all manner of precious valuables and wonders. But perhaps just as common are the ships that prey on these treasure hunting crews, waiting for others to do the hard work before swooping in and snatching away their bounty. Adrana and Fura end up learning this lesson the hard way when The Monetta’s Mourn comes under such an attack, the crew becoming the next victims of the fearsome space pirate known as Bosa Sennen.
So what worked and what didn’t? On a world-building level, I could appreciate what Reynolds was trying to achieve here. Revenger is a mix of hard sci-fi with something else that is less definable—a mythological, fabled element that belongs more in a fantasy novel, perhaps. The universe is filled with alien artifacts, ancient technologies, and other unexplainable mysteries such as individuals with special gifts. And while the story takes place in deep space and humankind has achieved the ability to travel among the stars, the atmosphere of the setting is nonetheless evocative of an era more befitting of the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries. Think the Age of Discovery, exploration and mercantilism, crews setting off into the great unknown on treasure voyagers hoping to bring home fortune and glory. It’s a classic maritime adventure novel complete with pirates, ship wrecks and hidden booty, except that it’s all superimposed over a science fiction backdrop.
But as fascinating as this all was, the disappointment came crashing down when, after getting through nearly half the novel, I realized very few of these elements were actually explored. All those new and unfamiliar terms that were being thrown around at the beginning, ostensibly teasing the reader and making us all think that explanations were forthcoming, ultimately led to no satisfying answers.
Then there was the main character of Fura. She’s everything I find distasteful in a teen protagonist—selfish, impulsive, arrogant, and naïve. She takes new experiences for granted, treats opportunities like she is entitled to them, and doesn’t think too hard about the consequences of her actions. I realize she’s supposed to be a teenager, but this type of attitude and thinking feels even more immature than is called for somehow.
Overall, I also found myself unenthused by the story. It’s possible that my dislike of Fura had something to do with it, though in general I thought the plot suffered from poor pacing. For a novel supposedly aimed at a young adult audience, it’s surprisingly slow. Things ticked up a bit when The Monetta’s Mourn came under attack by pirates, but then returned to a monotonous pattern once the dust settled.
I tried, but I just couldn’t get into this one. Revenger was definitely not what I expected from my first foray into Alastair Reynolds, but fans might be relieved to know I’m chalking this up to an anomaly which is not indicative of his usual work. I fully intend to try him again in the future, hopefully with a book that has a story and characters that are more to my tastes.
Revenger was my first book by Alastair Reynolds, which makes admitting that it did not work for me all that much harder. Still, in all fairness, I had been warned by several others beforehand that this does not feel representative of much of his work (as apparently the target audience is YA). Instead of choosing something else as my introduction to the author though, I decided to throw caution to the wind and try it anyway, so that’s on me.
The story follows Adrana and Fura Ness, a pair of teenaged sisters who live with their ailing father on the planet of Mazerile. A series of bad investments have bankrupted the family and now the girls have little prospects for the future, which is why when Captain Rackamore turns up in his sunjammer hoping to recruit a new Bone reader for his crew, Adrana and Fura are quick to take him up on his offer. Because the two of them are Sympathetics, they are perfect for the job which involves mentally linking themselves up with a mysterious piece of technology called a skull on the ship, enabling the crew to communicate with other travelers using the long-established inter-galactic trade routes.
So without another thought spared to their dear old dad, the girls decide to run off and join Rackamore on The Monetta’s Mourn, beginning their treasure seeking adventures among the remains of lost civilizations. The galaxy is filled with crews like theirs scavenging the far corners of space for “baubles”, a term used to describe artificially enclosed planets that can contain all manner of precious valuables and wonders. But perhaps just as common are the ships that prey on these treasure hunting crews, waiting for others to do the hard work before swooping in and snatching away their bounty. Adrana and Fura end up learning this lesson the hard way when The Monetta’s Mourn comes under such an attack, the crew becoming the next victims of the fearsome space pirate known as Bosa Sennen.
So what worked and what didn’t? On a world-building level, I could appreciate what Reynolds was trying to achieve here. Revenger is a mix of hard sci-fi with something else that is less definable—a mythological, fabled element that belongs more in a fantasy novel, perhaps. The universe is filled with alien artifacts, ancient technologies, and other unexplainable mysteries such as individuals with special gifts. And while the story takes place in deep space and humankind has achieved the ability to travel among the stars, the atmosphere of the setting is nonetheless evocative of an era more befitting of the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries. Think the Age of Discovery, exploration and mercantilism, crews setting off into the great unknown on treasure voyagers hoping to bring home fortune and glory. It’s a classic maritime adventure novel complete with pirates, ship wrecks and hidden booty, except that it’s all superimposed over a science fiction backdrop.
But as fascinating as this all was, the disappointment came crashing down when, after getting through nearly half the novel, I realized very few of these elements were actually explored. All those new and unfamiliar terms that were being thrown around at the beginning, ostensibly teasing the reader and making us all think that explanations were forthcoming, ultimately led to no satisfying answers.
Then there was the main character of Fura. She’s everything I find distasteful in a teen protagonist—selfish, impulsive, arrogant, and naïve. She takes new experiences for granted, treats opportunities like she is entitled to them, and doesn’t think too hard about the consequences of her actions. I realize she’s supposed to be a teenager, but this type of attitude and thinking feels even more immature than is called for somehow.
Overall, I also found myself unenthused by the story. It’s possible that my dislike of Fura had something to do with it, though in general I thought the plot suffered from poor pacing. For a novel supposedly aimed at a young adult audience, it’s surprisingly slow. Things ticked up a bit when The Monetta’s Mourn came under attack by pirates, but then returned to a monotonous pattern once the dust settled.
I tried, but I just couldn’t get into this one. Revenger was definitely not what I expected from my first foray into Alastair Reynolds, but fans might be relieved to know I’m chalking this up to an anomaly which is not indicative of his usual work. I fully intend to try him again in the future, hopefully with a book that has a story and characters that are more to my tastes.
October 1, 2016
* I was sent this book for review from the publisher *
This is such a fun storyline! I have to say I was a little hesitant to dive into this becuase, although I had heard good things, I don't like super high-tech science books and I didn't want this to turn out to be like that. It's not! This is actually one of the most interesting and fun SF books I have ever read and it had a fabulous mix of superb characters, space pirating and action. The plot was fast-paced, but easy to settle into, and it worked really well overall!
In this book we're following two sisters who live on a world where the economy has crashed, their father is in debt, and their mother died years ago. They don't really have much of a life at all so when they are given the chance to travel away from the world, earn some money, and to have an adventure both of them quickly take that chance. Adrana & Fura Ness (the sisters) are recruited to join Captain Rackamore's ship as he sails through space hunting treasure. They are to be the new bone-readers and they pick up strange signals and messages through space and old skulls.
What I really enjoyed about this is that it's a super easy story to quickly connect with. I loved seeing the bond that the two sisters shared and the fact that they were so eager to take a chance and do something big. When the story later goes downhill for them I loved seeing their faith and endurance which set them on the path to reuniting.
I actually ended up listening to a large part of this book on audiobook and I loved the narrator, Clare Corbett, as she voice acted all the characters incredibly well and gave each one a personality and a tone. This really helped to enhance my reading of the book, and I would definitely recommend checking out the audio version if you like that!
Overall, this was just purely fun and feisty for me. I enjoyed the plot a lot and the characters even more and when everything came together I think it was exciting and dramatic. Definitely one I would recommend to someone newer to adult SF or someone who liked books like Red Rising :) 4*s overall.
This is such a fun storyline! I have to say I was a little hesitant to dive into this becuase, although I had heard good things, I don't like super high-tech science books and I didn't want this to turn out to be like that. It's not! This is actually one of the most interesting and fun SF books I have ever read and it had a fabulous mix of superb characters, space pirating and action. The plot was fast-paced, but easy to settle into, and it worked really well overall!
In this book we're following two sisters who live on a world where the economy has crashed, their father is in debt, and their mother died years ago. They don't really have much of a life at all so when they are given the chance to travel away from the world, earn some money, and to have an adventure both of them quickly take that chance. Adrana & Fura Ness (the sisters) are recruited to join Captain Rackamore's ship as he sails through space hunting treasure. They are to be the new bone-readers and they pick up strange signals and messages through space and old skulls.
What I really enjoyed about this is that it's a super easy story to quickly connect with. I loved seeing the bond that the two sisters shared and the fact that they were so eager to take a chance and do something big. When the story later goes downhill for them I loved seeing their faith and endurance which set them on the path to reuniting.
I actually ended up listening to a large part of this book on audiobook and I loved the narrator, Clare Corbett, as she voice acted all the characters incredibly well and gave each one a personality and a tone. This really helped to enhance my reading of the book, and I would definitely recommend checking out the audio version if you like that!
Overall, this was just purely fun and feisty for me. I enjoyed the plot a lot and the characters even more and when everything came together I think it was exciting and dramatic. Definitely one I would recommend to someone newer to adult SF or someone who liked books like Red Rising :) 4*s overall.
November 28, 2018
I’m not a fan of YA, generally because, in most of them, the action does not fit the characters’ age. The story of Fura Ness here is not far from that; had she been around her 30s, I think it would have made the story and her actions much more reliable.
However, as always, the universe in which Al Reynolds unfolds his tale is a marvel to me and so I chose to focus on that instead. We have a Congregation build of around 50 million worlds, in the 13th Occupation (the 12th was around ~600,000 years ago), we have robots and also some aliens coexisting with humans. Yet the focus in not on them, as is AR’ style, but on the lost civilizations, which left behind artifacts of real value to be found in the so called ‘baubles’ – small ‘planetoids’ encompassed by some sort of energy shields which open up once in a while, making possible for humans to scavenge inside them and try their luck in finding treasures.
There is much more to this universe and its lost civilizations and that’s the best part of the book. Add to this a loathsome character, a not so nice turn of events, the horror touch of the author – which here is a bit more than usual – and you’ll have plenty to feed your imagination.
Overall, I liked it very much. I’ll never get tired of his worlds, which I get to roam every time I read one of his works.
However, as always, the universe in which Al Reynolds unfolds his tale is a marvel to me and so I chose to focus on that instead. We have a Congregation build of around 50 million worlds, in the 13th Occupation (the 12th was around ~600,000 years ago), we have robots and also some aliens coexisting with humans. Yet the focus in not on them, as is AR’ style, but on the lost civilizations, which left behind artifacts of real value to be found in the so called ‘baubles’ – small ‘planetoids’ encompassed by some sort of energy shields which open up once in a while, making possible for humans to scavenge inside them and try their luck in finding treasures.
There is much more to this universe and its lost civilizations and that’s the best part of the book. Add to this a loathsome character, a not so nice turn of events, the horror touch of the author – which here is a bit more than usual – and you’ll have plenty to feed your imagination.
Overall, I liked it very much. I’ll never get tired of his worlds, which I get to roam every time I read one of his works.
May 11, 2017
Reynolds tale of two young sisters who stow away on a starship to escape the dreary future their father has planned for them starts off well enough, but starts getting predictable halfway through. There's a sort of "Daniel Defoe in space" vibe to it that is more admirable in the attempt than the execution.
As usual, Reynolds follows Clarke's third law in his depiction of future and/or alien tech - that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" - so the worldbuilding is as fun as what we've come to expect from him. The villain is properly menacing until Reynolds takes the bite out of her at the end, and likewise the final third of the story loses steam, and ends up pretty much right where I expected it to.
Not bad, but a disappointment coming from Reynolds.
As usual, Reynolds follows Clarke's third law in his depiction of future and/or alien tech - that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" - so the worldbuilding is as fun as what we've come to expect from him. The villain is properly menacing until Reynolds takes the bite out of her at the end, and likewise the final third of the story loses steam, and ends up pretty much right where I expected it to.
Not bad, but a disappointment coming from Reynolds.
June 16, 2019
This new book by Reynolds is set in a cargo-cult, semi-steampunk kind of universe, at times familiar. At first, I found the book to be a bit too-familiar in nature, but by chapter 3 the world- and character-building were good, and the plot mysteries were intriguing.
As always, Reynolds' imagination is amazing, and the number of minor and major clever elements were terrific. Pacing is good, without being overwritten, and the penultimate chapters and action sequences were fun.
The final chapter was a bit sentimental, cloying and overwritten, as is sometimes the case with many writers. It's not clear if this is a standalone book, or the first in a series, but I would be happy to read further in this universe.
A lovely final quote near the end of the book:
... I stationed myself at Bosa’s window and looked out of it, beyond the Nightjammer to the purple glint and glimmer of the Thirteenth Occupation, the fifty million little worlds of the Congregation, all the named worlds and baubles, the countless more that had never been named and never would be, huddling close to the Old Sun, pressed in from outside by all the magnificent darkness and silence of the Empty, and I mused on all the people on them, all the towns and cities, all the ships sailing between those places, proud with cargo and prizes, sails bright and billowing on the photon winds, and the bones that whispered secrets between the ships, and I wondered what it would take for me to ever feel that I could lead a settled and normal life in those worlds.
Note: Mostly I would classify this as acceptable for Young Adult, although some parts are pretty graphic and gory.
NOTE: Please, please also read Turquoise Days, a novella, and short stories Enola, Weather, and Zima Blue. Surely his finest works, along with House of Suns
As always, Reynolds' imagination is amazing, and the number of minor and major clever elements were terrific. Pacing is good, without being overwritten, and the penultimate chapters and action sequences were fun.
The final chapter was a bit sentimental, cloying and overwritten, as is sometimes the case with many writers. It's not clear if this is a standalone book, or the first in a series, but I would be happy to read further in this universe.
A lovely final quote near the end of the book:
... I stationed myself at Bosa’s window and looked out of it, beyond the Nightjammer to the purple glint and glimmer of the Thirteenth Occupation, the fifty million little worlds of the Congregation, all the named worlds and baubles, the countless more that had never been named and never would be, huddling close to the Old Sun, pressed in from outside by all the magnificent darkness and silence of the Empty, and I mused on all the people on them, all the towns and cities, all the ships sailing between those places, proud with cargo and prizes, sails bright and billowing on the photon winds, and the bones that whispered secrets between the ships, and I wondered what it would take for me to ever feel that I could lead a settled and normal life in those worlds.
Note: Mostly I would classify this as acceptable for Young Adult, although some parts are pretty graphic and gory.
NOTE: Please, please also read Turquoise Days, a novella, and short stories Enola, Weather, and Zima Blue. Surely his finest works, along with House of Suns
July 15, 2024
3.0 Stars
Reynolds is an author who excels best at worldbuilding so this close perspective YA character story didn't exactly play to his strengths. The space pirate bits were fun at times, but not the strongest read.
Reynolds is an author who excels best at worldbuilding so this close perspective YA character story didn't exactly play to his strengths. The space pirate bits were fun at times, but not the strongest read.
March 10, 2024
Away from that, looking out into the Empty, only two things: stars and blackness, and a lot more of the latter than the former. The stars were impossible little pinpricks, and the black was a cruel, cold slap against the idea of light.
Lots of critical opinions and reviews here. I can’t help but wonder, if this was written by someone other than Reynolds (or written under a nom de plume), whether the general consensus would still be the same. I’d been putting off reading Revenger based on reviews here, but here we are.
I will say that it is nothing like, say, the Revelation Space books. The whole “young adult” moniker seems to be creating some confusion as well. I’ve been reading some interviews with Reynolds (also, the author’s blog) and seems this wasn’t necessarily supposed to be aimed at that market. Even so, if it helps, call it what you like.
The story takes place in the far, far future, and Reynolds does take some creative license as far as the science is concerned (which is the biggest difference from his other books). In the Revenger universe, there have been innumerable space faring civilizations that have risen (and subsequently fallen), and now the current inhabitants of the galaxy exist surrounded by the detritus.
There is lots of high tech and access to all kinds of left-overs from human and alien civilizations, but no clear indication of how things work (even the occupants of the universe appear to be in the dark about a lot of their surroundings, even though they have the ability of space travel). The author uses lots of “lingo” to describe the universe, for example: Swallowers (Singularities), Swirly (Galaxy), Crawlies / Clackers etc (Aliens), Lungstuff (Air), Skyshells (Domes) and more.
The “worlds” described here are also a bit of a deception, since they aren’t planets in the conventional sense. They could be just about anything, from artificial words, abandoned space stations, generation ships (let your imagination go wild). There are often hints, such as whether gravity is supplied by spin or by a singularity at the core of the world, so it’s quite a bit of fun navigating the fictional setting on display and colouring in the missing bits.
The book is told in the first person perspective, but in a way that is misleading. The protagonist is actually writing down an account of events, and there is a matter-of-fact detached feel to the proceedings. The protagonist is not always likeable, since there is a resignedness in the account which is lacking emotional context / content (which would be expected when one is writing down something after it happened). Even so, callous characters and grim proceedings are nothing new for Reynolds, especially pertaining to the Revelation Space books. Speaking of which, there is quite an amount of blood, gore and grim on display here.
In the end, it reads like a bit of a Dungeon Crawler / Space Opera / High Seas adventure hybrid. In a way it also reminded me of the Dying Earth books by Jack Vance, especially the characters, but extrapolated to space. However, it’s been ages since I read that, so I could be wrong.
In closing: I found Revenger colourful and entertaining.
I’d seen the fifty million worlds of the Congregation in one glance, seen the shifting, shimmering purple twilight that was all that remained of the Old Sun’s energies, after those tired old photons had fought their way to the great void of the Empty. I’d seen the glimmer of the rubble left over from the forging.
Lots of critical opinions and reviews here. I can’t help but wonder, if this was written by someone other than Reynolds (or written under a nom de plume), whether the general consensus would still be the same. I’d been putting off reading Revenger based on reviews here, but here we are.
I will say that it is nothing like, say, the Revelation Space books. The whole “young adult” moniker seems to be creating some confusion as well. I’ve been reading some interviews with Reynolds (also, the author’s blog) and seems this wasn’t necessarily supposed to be aimed at that market. Even so, if it helps, call it what you like.
The story takes place in the far, far future, and Reynolds does take some creative license as far as the science is concerned (which is the biggest difference from his other books). In the Revenger universe, there have been innumerable space faring civilizations that have risen (and subsequently fallen), and now the current inhabitants of the galaxy exist surrounded by the detritus.
There is lots of high tech and access to all kinds of left-overs from human and alien civilizations, but no clear indication of how things work (even the occupants of the universe appear to be in the dark about a lot of their surroundings, even though they have the ability of space travel). The author uses lots of “lingo” to describe the universe, for example: Swallowers (Singularities), Swirly (Galaxy), Crawlies / Clackers etc (Aliens), Lungstuff (Air), Skyshells (Domes) and more.
The “worlds” described here are also a bit of a deception, since they aren’t planets in the conventional sense. They could be just about anything, from artificial words, abandoned space stations, generation ships (let your imagination go wild). There are often hints, such as whether gravity is supplied by spin or by a singularity at the core of the world, so it’s quite a bit of fun navigating the fictional setting on display and colouring in the missing bits.
The book is told in the first person perspective, but in a way that is misleading. The protagonist is actually writing down an account of events, and there is a matter-of-fact detached feel to the proceedings. The protagonist is not always likeable, since there is a resignedness in the account which is lacking emotional context / content (which would be expected when one is writing down something after it happened). Even so, callous characters and grim proceedings are nothing new for Reynolds, especially pertaining to the Revelation Space books. Speaking of which, there is quite an amount of blood, gore and grim on display here.
In the end, it reads like a bit of a Dungeon Crawler / Space Opera / High Seas adventure hybrid. In a way it also reminded me of the Dying Earth books by Jack Vance, especially the characters, but extrapolated to space. However, it’s been ages since I read that, so I could be wrong.
In closing: I found Revenger colourful and entertaining.
I’d seen the fifty million worlds of the Congregation in one glance, seen the shifting, shimmering purple twilight that was all that remained of the Old Sun’s energies, after those tired old photons had fought their way to the great void of the Empty. I’d seen the glimmer of the rubble left over from the forging.
June 16, 2020
Did Not Finish (DNF).
I'm a big fan of Alastair Reynolds and have read many of his books. Chasm City and several, but not all in the Revelation Space series being particular favorites.
This book was a hard start. Firstly, it is a lame attempt at YA. Although, it was my mistake in not realizing that the author had plunged into the monied killing-ground of YA authorship with this book.
The technical craftsmanship of the book is all good. Reynolds always knows how to hang words together.
Where the story goes awry is with plot and world building. The plot is the ole Runaway to Make Their Fortune trope. But instead of the circus, its an alien artifact scavenging spaceship. It really ought to end badly for the two, teenage, female protagonists. I'd have at least expected them to be trafficked; ending-up as sex-slaves or food for a Jabba the Hutt-like alien. (However, this is YA.) There is even a Robbie the Robot in the beginning of the story. Uggh. What really disturbed me was how Reynolds forgets the Laws of Physics and everything he knows about astronautics. In his adult stories he's serious about his space science. Here, the Techno-speak is there, but the science is gone. He even falls so far as to include some fantasy-like hocus-pocus with alien relics and telepathy.
This book was a disappointment to me. In the past I've read YA science fiction that held my interest. This book was just too puerile for me to continue.
Readers looking for a less juvenile, YA science fiction space opera read should try their luck with The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. That book has fewer pretensions.
I'm a big fan of Alastair Reynolds and have read many of his books. Chasm City and several, but not all in the Revelation Space series being particular favorites.
This book was a hard start. Firstly, it is a lame attempt at YA. Although, it was my mistake in not realizing that the author had plunged into the monied killing-ground of YA authorship with this book.
The technical craftsmanship of the book is all good. Reynolds always knows how to hang words together.
Where the story goes awry is with plot and world building. The plot is the ole Runaway to Make Their Fortune trope. But instead of the circus, its an alien artifact scavenging spaceship. It really ought to end badly for the two, teenage, female protagonists. I'd have at least expected them to be trafficked; ending-up as sex-slaves or food for a Jabba the Hutt-like alien. (However, this is YA.) There is even a Robbie the Robot in the beginning of the story. Uggh. What really disturbed me was how Reynolds forgets the Laws of Physics and everything he knows about astronautics. In his adult stories he's serious about his space science. Here, the Techno-speak is there, but the science is gone. He even falls so far as to include some fantasy-like hocus-pocus with alien relics and telepathy.
This book was a disappointment to me. In the past I've read YA science fiction that held my interest. This book was just too puerile for me to continue.
Readers looking for a less juvenile, YA science fiction space opera read should try their luck with The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. That book has fewer pretensions.
October 10, 2016
5 Stars
Revenger by Alastair Reynolds can almost do no wrong with me. I love his writing style, his pacing, and of course his genre, science fiction. This book is something that none of his other books are, including The Blue Remembered Earth series, it is accessible to all, including the young adult crowd. That does not mean that Revenger is written down to them, or watered down. It just means that it is easily digested.
Comparisons to Mieville's Railsea, and the Shipbreaker series by Paolo Bacigalupi are totally inevitable and fair. Like them, Revenger is an adventure story packed into a science fiction world. I loved every page as this really is my genre of choice.
If you are a fan of Alastair Reynolds then you should read this just to see how much this accessible story is still a Reynolds story through and through.
If you enjoy science fiction on the light side this is for you.
If you want to know about an amazing young girl with a really cool name, Fura Ness, than you should pick this up.
Finally, the fact that this is a self contained story with no other connections or series, makes it very special and worth your time.
I loved it.
Revenger by Alastair Reynolds can almost do no wrong with me. I love his writing style, his pacing, and of course his genre, science fiction. This book is something that none of his other books are, including The Blue Remembered Earth series, it is accessible to all, including the young adult crowd. That does not mean that Revenger is written down to them, or watered down. It just means that it is easily digested.
Comparisons to Mieville's Railsea, and the Shipbreaker series by Paolo Bacigalupi are totally inevitable and fair. Like them, Revenger is an adventure story packed into a science fiction world. I loved every page as this really is my genre of choice.
If you are a fan of Alastair Reynolds then you should read this just to see how much this accessible story is still a Reynolds story through and through.
If you enjoy science fiction on the light side this is for you.
If you want to know about an amazing young girl with a really cool name, Fura Ness, than you should pick this up.
Finally, the fact that this is a self contained story with no other connections or series, makes it very special and worth your time.
I loved it.
October 29, 2016
Oh, what a trip!
So I'm not sure how many of you went to see The Usual Suspects in the theater a bunch of years ago. I remember when the film ended, and the lights came on again in the movie theater, my first and only thought was, Oh, I need to circle around back into this room to see this movie again, and do so immediately!
And this was my feeling when I realized I was reading this book's final page. Holy s$#@, people! Ok, I confess, although Alastair Reynolds has been a favorite author of mine for well over a decade, I'm quite embarrassed to confess that until now, I've only read from the giant collection of short fiction this genius has bestowed upon us. But from the very first page of this book, I was hooked, that kind of "hooked" where I chose to accept the need for too many all-nighters in my very near future to be able to complete reading this book. And it is definitely best enjoyed savored.
The story takes us on a roller coaster pirate story that unfolds about 10 million years from now, and in space. Oh yes! Space opera and pirates, Oh my! But there's so much more! The lore about the multiple civilizations that came and went before the current one, the bootie the pirates are after, that whole archeological aspect, where the more ancient the civilization of the past, the more incomprehensible and mind blowing their technology.... I honestly can gush for hours. But wait! Just in case all this is not yet enough to get you to run to get this book this very instant, there's also a perfectly crafted revenge story that helps to drive this novel. And secrets. And an ending that is beautiful in its surprising turns.
Oh, this book. This BOOK!!! Without a doubt, in the top 3 of the books I've read this year. If only we could add a few hours onto every day! I'd start reading it again right now!
Happy reading!
So I'm not sure how many of you went to see The Usual Suspects in the theater a bunch of years ago. I remember when the film ended, and the lights came on again in the movie theater, my first and only thought was, Oh, I need to circle around back into this room to see this movie again, and do so immediately!
And this was my feeling when I realized I was reading this book's final page. Holy s$#@, people! Ok, I confess, although Alastair Reynolds has been a favorite author of mine for well over a decade, I'm quite embarrassed to confess that until now, I've only read from the giant collection of short fiction this genius has bestowed upon us. But from the very first page of this book, I was hooked, that kind of "hooked" where I chose to accept the need for too many all-nighters in my very near future to be able to complete reading this book. And it is definitely best enjoyed savored.
The story takes us on a roller coaster pirate story that unfolds about 10 million years from now, and in space. Oh yes! Space opera and pirates, Oh my! But there's so much more! The lore about the multiple civilizations that came and went before the current one, the bootie the pirates are after, that whole archeological aspect, where the more ancient the civilization of the past, the more incomprehensible and mind blowing their technology.... I honestly can gush for hours. But wait! Just in case all this is not yet enough to get you to run to get this book this very instant, there's also a perfectly crafted revenge story that helps to drive this novel. And secrets. And an ending that is beautiful in its surprising turns.
Oh, this book. This BOOK!!! Without a doubt, in the top 3 of the books I've read this year. If only we could add a few hours onto every day! I'd start reading it again right now!
Happy reading!
September 26, 2016
Reynolds is always good, but this novel that begins like a YA and morphs into a terrible dark story about innocence and corruption, is clearly his best since House of Suns. And is short and tightly written for a space-opera, another important quality in my opinion. Great, great book!
November 22, 2021
Space + Pirates = swashbuckling, space faring adventures. With Pirates. In space. Space Pirates! Did I mention I love space pirates? Maybe I should mention that.
I love Space Pirates! Who doesn't?
I also like Alastair Reynolds. I know him to be able to do fantastical world building that is at the same time totally crazy and yet believable. I very much enjoyed his Century Rain many years back. So I had some if not high than at least somewhat raised expectations.
But let's start with world building. A big fact about this universe are the baubles, which is really a fancy way to say bubbles - which is really a non-technical way to say "self contained pocket dimensions". At least that's what I would call them. These baubles are full of interesting stuff to loot, so they're like treasure islands in the vast of space. It really fits nicely with the overall pirate and treasure hunter theme.
Our heroine (and her sister) are bone readers, which means they use an alien skull as some kind of radio. I must admit that this is kind of the weak spot in the world building for me - why isn't it called skull reading (there's mention of the skull network), and why is this so important? As far as I can see it, bone readers are supposed to catch valuable rumors that other bone users talk into their skulls. It seems like the kind of thing that only feeds on itself - why are bone readers so valuable? If everybody simply stopped using them, how much would that really affect those space captains? That's a part that demands a lot of suspension of disbelief.
Talking skulls. O Horatio, I knew you not all that well.
Luckily enough, the bones are part of the story, but not the whole story. Because about 30 % in, everything goes pear shaped (as we all knew it would, right from the start), and the focal point of the story turns from bone reading and jolly adventures in baubles to revenge.
You wouldn't have guessed it by the name of the story, right?
It's also the point where I was seriously starting to doubt the way this novel was going. Against my better judgement (from the book's blurb), the novel had started to feel a lot like a YA read. And that really clashes with the violence shown here. Now it's beginning to look like the start of a brutal revenge movie (think Colombiana), but still paired with YA. Which makes me think this is YA for older readers, but it's really an odd pairing of genres.
Luckily, at around the 60 % mark, the YA aspect takes a heavy step into the background, and for me, the real story begins. There's a cyberpunk moment there, and I had the feeling everything before was some kind of prolonged prologue.
Excuse me, Sir, I need some help. Could you offer a hand?
*****
We need to talk about a few things. Characters are well defined, for the most part. There are some motivations I don't really get, but overall that's okay.
Pace is a different beast. It's really slugging in the first 30 %, and becomes tolerable after that. Upon hitting the 60 % mark, the pace really picks up and it's a page turner for the rest.
Which leaves me at one star redaction for each, the crude mix of genres (it's not a YA in the end, not really) and the pace problems. I'm adding a half star back because the pace is great in the last 40 %, so 3.5 stars (rounded down to 3 to let some room for improvement for the next installment in the series).
You can also read this review on my Blog.
I love Space Pirates! Who doesn't?
I also like Alastair Reynolds. I know him to be able to do fantastical world building that is at the same time totally crazy and yet believable. I very much enjoyed his Century Rain many years back. So I had some if not high than at least somewhat raised expectations.
But let's start with world building. A big fact about this universe are the baubles, which is really a fancy way to say bubbles - which is really a non-technical way to say "self contained pocket dimensions". At least that's what I would call them. These baubles are full of interesting stuff to loot, so they're like treasure islands in the vast of space. It really fits nicely with the overall pirate and treasure hunter theme.
Our heroine (and her sister) are bone readers, which means they use an alien skull as some kind of radio. I must admit that this is kind of the weak spot in the world building for me - why isn't it called skull reading (there's mention of the skull network), and why is this so important? As far as I can see it, bone readers are supposed to catch valuable rumors that other bone users talk into their skulls. It seems like the kind of thing that only feeds on itself - why are bone readers so valuable? If everybody simply stopped using them, how much would that really affect those space captains? That's a part that demands a lot of suspension of disbelief.
Talking skulls. O Horatio, I knew you not all that well.
Luckily enough, the bones are part of the story, but not the whole story. Because about 30 % in, everything goes pear shaped (as we all knew it would, right from the start), and the focal point of the story turns from bone reading and jolly adventures in baubles to revenge.
You wouldn't have guessed it by the name of the story, right?
It's also the point where I was seriously starting to doubt the way this novel was going. Against my better judgement (from the book's blurb), the novel had started to feel a lot like a YA read. And that really clashes with the violence shown here. Now it's beginning to look like the start of a brutal revenge movie (think Colombiana), but still paired with YA. Which makes me think this is YA for older readers, but it's really an odd pairing of genres.
Luckily, at around the 60 % mark, the YA aspect takes a heavy step into the background, and for me, the real story begins. There's a cyberpunk moment there, and I had the feeling everything before was some kind of prolonged prologue.
Excuse me, Sir, I need some help. Could you offer a hand?
*****
We need to talk about a few things. Characters are well defined, for the most part. There are some motivations I don't really get, but overall that's okay.
Pace is a different beast. It's really slugging in the first 30 %, and becomes tolerable after that. Upon hitting the 60 % mark, the pace really picks up and it's a page turner for the rest.
Which leaves me at one star redaction for each, the crude mix of genres (it's not a YA in the end, not really) and the pace problems. I'm adding a half star back because the pace is great in the last 40 %, so 3.5 stars (rounded down to 3 to let some room for improvement for the next installment in the series).
You can also read this review on my Blog.
October 17, 2016
Revenger does not play up to the strengths that Alastair Reynolds has as an author. When I first heard about this book I was excited because Reynolds was going to try something new, a first-person story with a tight focus. I realized through reading Revenger, that Reynolds has always been a big picture guy, and that is what I love about his books, an expansive and detailed universe with nuances that blow your mind. In Revenger, he is shackled by the perspective of one character, and it just didn't work for me.
Adrana and Arafura are sisters wanting to run away from home in search of adventure and money. They leave because their father needs money for a possible heart surgery and their lives are being stifled into a direction that means they will have next to no freedom. There are hints of their father wanting them to stay little girls with the assistance of a creepy doctor too. The two of them join a spaceship that looks for lost treasure in the universe, a mash-up of pirates and treasure hunters.
The first thing I would like to mention is that this opening to the story just did not settle right with me. The beginning felt thrown together and too convenient. Within the first 20 pages, the girls are deciding to leave their home, and join a space vessel. These girls that have never done a day's work in their life, are found to be able to have the ability to talk with magic alien skulls, immediately making them valuable to spaceship crews. I expect this type of beginning in an older fantasy book but not in a Reynolds science fiction book.
I never became invested in the story because I felt the entire story of Arafura was being started in the wrong place. There is no need to show the scenes of how they got aboard Rackamore's ship. It would have been better to talk about these things in dialogue with other characters. I feel the real story doesn't start until after they are in space and the main conflict scene happens. If the story started right before the main conflict scene, that creates the entire narrative, it would have been such a better book, but instead, the story starts in a very uninspiring place with a trope about girls running away from home, but have special abilities to make themselves valuable.
During the scenes of conflict, which I don't want to talk about in great detail because I think the book is better without knowing what happens, the book was outstanding. I also saw hints of that expansive universe world building that I love from Reynolds during the space flight scenes. Because this is a universe that is exponentially old, technology has been destroyed and rebuilt many times, so this far future is nothing like what you would expect it to be. The space flying is somewhat similar to our current day space flight capabilities but with a few more advanced things thrown in.
The space treasure hunters are looking for baubles that are floating around in space. The ships use an alien skull to "hack" into the communication of other ships to find baubles before everyone else. Inside these baubles, there are a lot of old(more technological advanced) items that can be sold on the market. The big thing is that these baubles only open during a small window and there need to be people that can break into the vaults. It's a cool idea but because we have this limited view of the story, we never get a good explanation why these baubles are even out there and why they open and close. In fact, there are a lot of things in this book, because they weren't explained, just made me think of possible inconsistencies. There is a possibility I missed a lot of these clues, though.
I think that a lot of people's experience with this book will revolve around their thoughts on the main character Arafura's character growth. Either the reader will believe her character growth as believable or not. I personally did not believe her character growth at all. She changed so drastically in such a small period of time. I know that traumatic events change people quickly but her entire personality was different by the end of the story. There is a weird story element that explains why she changed so much but I never was on board with that explanation.
Revenger isn't a bad book per say, I thought it was just an OK read, I didn't hate it, but I found it to be a problematic read that just didn't engage me much beyond a few crucial scenes. Reynold's character writing was never the reason I read his books, it was always the world building, and in Revenger, Reynolds is trying to get better at character writing, but at the expense of what I enjoy most about his books.
2/5
8/25 Possible Score
2 - Plot
2 - Characters
2 - World Building
1 - Writing Style
1 - Heart and Mind Aspect
Adrana and Arafura are sisters wanting to run away from home in search of adventure and money. They leave because their father needs money for a possible heart surgery and their lives are being stifled into a direction that means they will have next to no freedom. There are hints of their father wanting them to stay little girls with the assistance of a creepy doctor too. The two of them join a spaceship that looks for lost treasure in the universe, a mash-up of pirates and treasure hunters.
The first thing I would like to mention is that this opening to the story just did not settle right with me. The beginning felt thrown together and too convenient. Within the first 20 pages, the girls are deciding to leave their home, and join a space vessel. These girls that have never done a day's work in their life, are found to be able to have the ability to talk with magic alien skulls, immediately making them valuable to spaceship crews. I expect this type of beginning in an older fantasy book but not in a Reynolds science fiction book.
I never became invested in the story because I felt the entire story of Arafura was being started in the wrong place. There is no need to show the scenes of how they got aboard Rackamore's ship. It would have been better to talk about these things in dialogue with other characters. I feel the real story doesn't start until after they are in space and the main conflict scene happens. If the story started right before the main conflict scene, that creates the entire narrative, it would have been such a better book, but instead, the story starts in a very uninspiring place with a trope about girls running away from home, but have special abilities to make themselves valuable.
During the scenes of conflict, which I don't want to talk about in great detail because I think the book is better without knowing what happens, the book was outstanding. I also saw hints of that expansive universe world building that I love from Reynolds during the space flight scenes. Because this is a universe that is exponentially old, technology has been destroyed and rebuilt many times, so this far future is nothing like what you would expect it to be. The space flying is somewhat similar to our current day space flight capabilities but with a few more advanced things thrown in.
The space treasure hunters are looking for baubles that are floating around in space. The ships use an alien skull to "hack" into the communication of other ships to find baubles before everyone else. Inside these baubles, there are a lot of old(more technological advanced) items that can be sold on the market. The big thing is that these baubles only open during a small window and there need to be people that can break into the vaults. It's a cool idea but because we have this limited view of the story, we never get a good explanation why these baubles are even out there and why they open and close. In fact, there are a lot of things in this book, because they weren't explained, just made me think of possible inconsistencies. There is a possibility I missed a lot of these clues, though.
I think that a lot of people's experience with this book will revolve around their thoughts on the main character Arafura's character growth. Either the reader will believe her character growth as believable or not. I personally did not believe her character growth at all. She changed so drastically in such a small period of time. I know that traumatic events change people quickly but her entire personality was different by the end of the story. There is a weird story element that explains why she changed so much but I never was on board with that explanation.
Revenger isn't a bad book per say, I thought it was just an OK read, I didn't hate it, but I found it to be a problematic read that just didn't engage me much beyond a few crucial scenes. Reynold's character writing was never the reason I read his books, it was always the world building, and in Revenger, Reynolds is trying to get better at character writing, but at the expense of what I enjoy most about his books.
2/5
8/25 Possible Score
2 - Plot
2 - Characters
2 - World Building
1 - Writing Style
1 - Heart and Mind Aspect
November 1, 2024
When I was first sent a copy of Revenger for review, my immediate thought was of the excellent but criminally short-lived TV show Firefly. However I seem to draw this comparison now for all books revolving around a spaceship crew. I love stories of life on a spaceship, from Firefly to my favourite video game Mass Effect.
Unlike many of the previous tales I’ve read, watched or played, Revenger is told from the point of view of a teenage girl. Arafura is a privileged young woman, the youngest daughter of a wealthy man. Her sister, Adrana, is the more confident of the two, the more adventurous and bolshy. Arafura seems meek and timid, reluctant to follow her sister into trouble but also too scared to let her go off alone. The book starts with them escaping their ‘nanny bot’ and stowing away on a ship, where the adventure begins.
There is just so much action from the very beginning of this novel that it is impossible not to feel draw in instantly. I was unsure of Arafura as a narrator at first – the boring sister, perhaps, the less adventurous one – but actually this decision worked so well. The reader follows Fura as she grows in confidence and matures, as she learns what revenge means. There were plenty of other likeable characters too, although there wasn’t always time to get to know some and get a sense of who they really were due to a rather quick changeover in some cases. The villain of the story, Bosa Sennan, has some fantastic folklore built around them that really made me feel as if humankind had been space-faring peoples for centuries. And the idea that Bosa Sennan’s ship could just come out of nowhere, undetected was pretty terrifying.
I actually really enjoyed the premise of what the ship’s crew actually did – exploring abandoned alien bases/ships/planets, that were only accessible during certain periods of time, and looting everything that could be found. I’d love a whole novel based purely around that! It sounds like some cool sort of space archaeology/exploration.
Whilst this is pitched as a Young Adult novel, don’t let that put you off if you’re not normally a reader of YA. Similarly, if you’ve ever felt intimidated by Alastair Reynolds’ galaxy-sprawling works of science fiction, don’t be scared off by this one. The tone is completely different, his writing style almost unrecognisible from his previous work such as House of Suns, but every bit just as fantastical and epic. To top it off, the cover is simple but so perfect, demonstrating the vastness and emptiness of space.
I received a copy of this book for free from the publisher, in exchange for an honest review. Originally posted on my former blog, Rinn Reads.
Unlike many of the previous tales I’ve read, watched or played, Revenger is told from the point of view of a teenage girl. Arafura is a privileged young woman, the youngest daughter of a wealthy man. Her sister, Adrana, is the more confident of the two, the more adventurous and bolshy. Arafura seems meek and timid, reluctant to follow her sister into trouble but also too scared to let her go off alone. The book starts with them escaping their ‘nanny bot’ and stowing away on a ship, where the adventure begins.
There is just so much action from the very beginning of this novel that it is impossible not to feel draw in instantly. I was unsure of Arafura as a narrator at first – the boring sister, perhaps, the less adventurous one – but actually this decision worked so well. The reader follows Fura as she grows in confidence and matures, as she learns what revenge means. There were plenty of other likeable characters too, although there wasn’t always time to get to know some and get a sense of who they really were due to a rather quick changeover in some cases. The villain of the story, Bosa Sennan, has some fantastic folklore built around them that really made me feel as if humankind had been space-faring peoples for centuries. And the idea that Bosa Sennan’s ship could just come out of nowhere, undetected was pretty terrifying.
I actually really enjoyed the premise of what the ship’s crew actually did – exploring abandoned alien bases/ships/planets, that were only accessible during certain periods of time, and looting everything that could be found. I’d love a whole novel based purely around that! It sounds like some cool sort of space archaeology/exploration.
Whilst this is pitched as a Young Adult novel, don’t let that put you off if you’re not normally a reader of YA. Similarly, if you’ve ever felt intimidated by Alastair Reynolds’ galaxy-sprawling works of science fiction, don’t be scared off by this one. The tone is completely different, his writing style almost unrecognisible from his previous work such as House of Suns, but every bit just as fantastical and epic. To top it off, the cover is simple but so perfect, demonstrating the vastness and emptiness of space.
I received a copy of this book for free from the publisher, in exchange for an honest review. Originally posted on my former blog, Rinn Reads.
September 1, 2016
This futuristic romp was badly marketed to me, a mature adult with a taste for hard-science speculative fiction. I found it listed as straight sci-fi but Revenger slots neatly into the YA ‘coming of age’ genre.
It pushes back no boundaries and instead sticks to safe territory. Sailing-ship privateers seek galactic treasure and over-indulged adolescents rebel against parental authority to join a scavenger crew. Gruff coves become loyal shipmates, the teenage protagonist is aided by a friendly robot or two, hi-tech prosthetic limbs replace the captain’s hook. There’s a significant nod to the Guild Navigators of Dune and the psy-Talents of Anne McCaffrey’s Tower sequence in the unusual abilities which set the young heroine apart. And if you read between my lines, you may think I’m saying that Revenger feels extremely derivative. You may be right.
Alastair Reynolds’ earlier galaxy-spanning space operas used to inspire awestruck admiration at their audacious combination of extrapolation, invention, powerful characterisation, semi-bewildering (but entirely believable) hard science and sheer brutal brilliance. You’ll find all those things and more in his Revelation Space series, among Chasm City and the diamond dogs.
But if you’ve come to Revenger seeking more of the same then… it’s a bit of a let-down. The plot moves along like a video game with crews breaking open sealed space-vaults to raid ancient loot. The dialogue stoops to ‘ahoy me hearties!’ cringe-inducing cliche.
Despite being disappointed by this novel’s limited scope and the predictable path of the plot, I was still entertained by Reynolds’ writing, his ability to spin a ripping yarn even from threads as well-worn as these. But Revenger is comfortably safe; emotionally and intellectually unchallenging. If I were a spiky young adult all over again, then I’d hope to read something more original, something with some real spark. Let’s hope that his next foray into interstellar space will take more risks.
6/10
There's a more detailed review over at:
https://murdermayhemandmore.wordpress...
It pushes back no boundaries and instead sticks to safe territory. Sailing-ship privateers seek galactic treasure and over-indulged adolescents rebel against parental authority to join a scavenger crew. Gruff coves become loyal shipmates, the teenage protagonist is aided by a friendly robot or two, hi-tech prosthetic limbs replace the captain’s hook. There’s a significant nod to the Guild Navigators of Dune and the psy-Talents of Anne McCaffrey’s Tower sequence in the unusual abilities which set the young heroine apart. And if you read between my lines, you may think I’m saying that Revenger feels extremely derivative. You may be right.
Alastair Reynolds’ earlier galaxy-spanning space operas used to inspire awestruck admiration at their audacious combination of extrapolation, invention, powerful characterisation, semi-bewildering (but entirely believable) hard science and sheer brutal brilliance. You’ll find all those things and more in his Revelation Space series, among Chasm City and the diamond dogs.
But if you’ve come to Revenger seeking more of the same then… it’s a bit of a let-down. The plot moves along like a video game with crews breaking open sealed space-vaults to raid ancient loot. The dialogue stoops to ‘ahoy me hearties!’ cringe-inducing cliche.
Despite being disappointed by this novel’s limited scope and the predictable path of the plot, I was still entertained by Reynolds’ writing, his ability to spin a ripping yarn even from threads as well-worn as these. But Revenger is comfortably safe; emotionally and intellectually unchallenging. If I were a spiky young adult all over again, then I’d hope to read something more original, something with some real spark. Let’s hope that his next foray into interstellar space will take more risks.
6/10
There's a more detailed review over at:
https://murdermayhemandmore.wordpress...
September 15, 2016
5 Fantastic Stars for Revenger...
Revenger is one of those books that you just know from the very start that it's going to keep you locked to its pages until the very end. I won't go into a summary because I think the synopsis sums up the basis of the story very well and anything I can think to add will just spoil it. I will say though that it exceeded even my highest expectations. The world building and the character development was absolutely phenomenal! By the time the story was ending I was hoping for just a few more pages because I wasn't ready to let go of the Ness sisters or their world just yet. I dearly hope there are many sequels in the works because there is so much more to be gleaned from the amazing world Reynolds has created. If you enjoy a good space adventure, then Revenger is a must-read!!
*I received this ARC from NetGalley & Orion Publishing/ Gollancz in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!
Revenger is one of those books that you just know from the very start that it's going to keep you locked to its pages until the very end. I won't go into a summary because I think the synopsis sums up the basis of the story very well and anything I can think to add will just spoil it. I will say though that it exceeded even my highest expectations. The world building and the character development was absolutely phenomenal! By the time the story was ending I was hoping for just a few more pages because I wasn't ready to let go of the Ness sisters or their world just yet. I dearly hope there are many sequels in the works because there is so much more to be gleaned from the amazing world Reynolds has created. If you enjoy a good space adventure, then Revenger is a must-read!!
*I received this ARC from NetGalley & Orion Publishing/ Gollancz in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!
June 6, 2023
Nežinau, kodėl, bet su Reynoldsu iki šiol buvau nesusipažinęs. Tad juolab nežinau, kodėl įsivaizdavau jo kūrybą visiškai kitokią. Na, bet gyveni ir mokaisi. Knyga laimėjusi Locus kaip „Best Young Adult Book“. Ką aš žinau. Labiausiai, kas traukia link YA – tai pagrindinės veikėjos amžius ir gal kiek per greitas virsmas iš geltonsnapio viščiuko į patyrusią vilkę.
Seserys Adrana ir Fura Ness pabėga iš namų, įsitikinusios, kad turi retą talentą – klausytis kaulų. Tiksliau, kaukolių. Ne šiaip kažkokių, bet kažkokios ateivių rasės kaukolių. Kiekvienam kosminiam laive būtinai tokia yra, o kaulų klausytojai per jas gali komunikuoti su kitais laivais, nuklausyti net ne jiems skirtos informacijos ir panašiai. Adrana ir Fura, per kraštus perpildytos nuotykių troškimu, nusisamdo į kapitono Rackamore laivą. Ko jau ko, bet nuotykių joms bus atseikėta. Rackamore, kaip ir daugelis kitų nepriklausomų kapitonų, užsiima tuo, kad apiplėšinėja „bumbulus“ – užantspauduotus pasaulėlius. Bumbulai sykis nuo sykio tam tikram laikotarpiui (dažniausiai labai trumpam) atsiveria, tai per tą langą reikia sugebėti įveikti visus užraktus, išnešti viską, ką geresnio randi ir tikėtis iš to uždirbti. O rasti galima labai mįslingų dalykų, kurių gamybos paslaptis seniai prarasta laiko tėkmėje, o gal ir išvis jie sukurti svetimų civilizacijų – kas ten žino?
Labai kokybiška space opera. Turinti kažkokio „The Expanse“ ir „Firefly“ kvapelio. Gal labiau antrojo, bet tokio tamsesnio.
Keturi iš penkių ir imu antrą dalį nelaukdamas.
Seserys Adrana ir Fura Ness pabėga iš namų, įsitikinusios, kad turi retą talentą – klausytis kaulų. Tiksliau, kaukolių. Ne šiaip kažkokių, bet kažkokios ateivių rasės kaukolių. Kiekvienam kosminiam laive būtinai tokia yra, o kaulų klausytojai per jas gali komunikuoti su kitais laivais, nuklausyti net ne jiems skirtos informacijos ir panašiai. Adrana ir Fura, per kraštus perpildytos nuotykių troškimu, nusisamdo į kapitono Rackamore laivą. Ko jau ko, bet nuotykių joms bus atseikėta. Rackamore, kaip ir daugelis kitų nepriklausomų kapitonų, užsiima tuo, kad apiplėšinėja „bumbulus“ – užantspauduotus pasaulėlius. Bumbulai sykis nuo sykio tam tikram laikotarpiui (dažniausiai labai trumpam) atsiveria, tai per tą langą reikia sugebėti įveikti visus užraktus, išnešti viską, ką geresnio randi ir tikėtis iš to uždirbti. O rasti galima labai mįslingų dalykų, kurių gamybos paslaptis seniai prarasta laiko tėkmėje, o gal ir išvis jie sukurti svetimų civilizacijų – kas ten žino?
Labai kokybiška space opera. Turinti kažkokio „The Expanse“ ir „Firefly“ kvapelio. Gal labiau antrojo, bet tokio tamsesnio.
Keturi iš penkių ir imu antrą dalį nelaukdamas.
November 23, 2016
Space Pirates!! Nothing more to say :)
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