Aurora Rising
2017 • 528 pages
Ratings25
Average rating4.1
15
Ratings25
Average rating4.1
Previously published as THE PREFECT. A rollercoaster ride through the dark and turbulent universe of REVELATION SPACE: an interstellar thriller where nothing - and no one - is what they seem ... Tom Dreyfus is a Prefect, a policeman of sorts, and one of the best. His force is Panoply, and his beat is the multi-faceted utopian society of the Glitter Band, that vast swirl of space habitats orbiting the planet Yellowstone. These days, his job is his life. A murderous attack against a Glitter Band habitat is nasty, but it looks to be an open-and-shut case - until Dreyfus starts looking under some stones that some very powerful people would really rather stayed unturned. What he uncovers is far more serious than mere gruesome murder: a covert takeover bid by a shadowy figure, Aurora (who may once have been human but certainly isn't now), who believes the people of the Glitter Band should no longer be in charge of their own destiny. Dreyfus discovers that to save something precious, you may have to destroy part of it. 'An adroit and fast-paced blend of space opera and police procedural, original and exciting' George R. R. Martin
Reviews with the most likes.
I was pretty surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. Alastair Reynolds name is one I've heard come up before, but never investigated, so I'm glad my book club keyed me into this one. The story is a sort of noir space opera, and the writing is sharp and even funny at times. It maybe has a few too many super-competent female characters who for one reason or another have serious dependencies on Dreyfus, but they are also characters enough in their own right to not make that tendency too glaring. Also, space pigs. If you like a good mystery and a good space romp, give this one a try.
Interesting twist on the murder mystery theme.
Well written story wise and good movement of the plot although it went on a very long time. I didn't get a hint of the murderer til ‘the butler did it' scene, which I like.
I didn't like the structure of the paragraphs. There was absolutely no visual [and probably audio as well] transition of the storylines switching, not even a graphic separator or extra blank lines! I had to quickly reread the top of the paragraph to do the catch up and there was alot of switching going on.
I may try the next in the series, although I'm not a murder-based mystery fan.
It's fine. I think this might be a case where the audiobook performance got in the way of the story. John Lee has an idiosyncratic style, which apparently works for many people but not for me; a bit too monotone, with an oddly portentous intonation.
Update: after listening to other audiobooks narrated by John Lee, I think this is probably an outlier. For some reason this reading is much flatter than his other work.
