Review by Booklist Review
Reynolds' latest is a large, sprawling tale of war, politics, ideology (including religion), and alien invasion. It starts with the return to base, after 200 years, of an exploration ship filled with corpses. Its central characters are the investigators trying to find what or who killed the ship's occupants: A human (using the term loosely) enemy? Aliens? A nanotech plague? As the investigation proceeds, Reynolds introduces a galaxy's worth of technology and politics, the latter including the faction fight that gives the book its title. Like Reynolds' previous books, this one can be considered a technothriller set in the future, with technology extrapolated from the current states of biotech and artificial intelligence. Human nature is not envisioned as having changed much at all, however, no matter how much intelligence may be augmented. Despite a quite intricate plot, skilled narrative technique and well-developed characters make this a novel most readers will find absorbing and comprehensible. --Roland Green Copyright 2003 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
With this complex, thoughtful sequel to his highly praised Revelation Space (2001), British author Reynolds confirms his place among the leaders of the hard-science space-opera renaissance. Spreading from star to star, humanity has split into different, competing factions. Late in the 26th century, the group-mind Conjoiners are defeating their main rivals, the Demarchists. Unfortunately, the Conjoiners' space exploration has attracted the notice of an ancient swarm of machines that calls itself the Inhibitors and that exists to destroy all biological intelligence. The Conjoiners don't believe they can fight this new foe, so they intend to run away and let the Inhibitors wipe out the other human tribes. One Conjoiner warrior, the centuries-old Clavain, rebels against this heartless tactic, but he must negotiate with a fragmented, distrustful mob of possible allies while pursued by his former cohorts. The novel forces readers to process an outrageous amount of information-but that's only fair, since the characters are challenged to do the same. As they extend themselves outward, they also have a chance to gain more understanding of themselves as human beings and more ability to interact meaningfully. It's rare to find a writer with sufficient nerve and stamina to write novels that are big enough to justify using words like "revelation" and "redemption." Reynolds pulls it off. (June 3) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
In the 27th century, the expansion of the human race as well as its capacity for intelligence has exceeded its boundaries and has triggered the approach of the Inhibitors, intelligent machines with one directive-to find and destroy sentient life. The only hope of averting the end of intelligent life in the universe lies in the recovery of a hidden cache of weapons of mass destruction. Set against a background of interstellar warfare between two factions of humans, the Conjoiners and the Demarchists, Reynolds's sequel to Chasm City features intense personal drama and large-scale scenes of space warfare. Told with skill and an attention to detail, this space opera series belongs in most sf collections. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
