Victoria BC science fiction book club discussion

Discussion for the entirety of Revelation Space.

Hello All

I finished this book a couple of weeks ago. I should have shared some thoughts then, but I didn't, so I'm going to now.

I quite liked the book, which is odd, considering how little I liked any of the characters. The most sympathetic was Khori, and even she wasn't a great person. It says a lot about the author that he can make you like the story despite disliking the characters.

The way the author started each character's story at roughly the same subjective time, then allowing them to catch up via relativity was clever.

I loved how derelict and horrifying the ship was, especially the captain. It seemed weird to me that they would have a massive starship, but only use a very small part of it.

Does anyone else have some thoughts? What did you think of the idea of Reynolds' solution to the Fermi Paradox? What element of the universe that Reynolds' interested you the most? What were the weak points in the story?

This was an excellent read, and I was hooked most of the way. I agree the characters came across as very unlikable for most of the novel, however if I had been travelling through space for decades, even centuries, in a cold massive ship, I would probably get a little jaded too. The concepts were so strong however that it more than compensated for this deficiency. The pattern jugglers, the shrouds, Calvin's experiment; all fascinating ideas that touch on some pretty heavy philosophical issues.

I would be interested to learn more about the ship's history, and more specifically the captain. Ironic how he was able to take control of the ship in the end by being physically interfaced with it. One of the themes of the novel seems to be the line between humanity and technology blurring. This is seen not only with the captain's transformation, but also Calvin's and the rest of the Eighty as they attempted to transfer their consciousnesses into digital forms.

I thoroughly enjoyed how the thesis of the book boiled down to a resolution of the Fermi Paradox. I think this paradox is one of the most fascinating yet frustrating questions remaining about our galaxy, and Reynold's solution was both intelligent and logical. Who knows - maybe we'll find something out near Pluto when New Horizons flies by later this year.