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A review by mburnamfink
Absolution Gap by Alastair Reynolds
3.0
Absolution Gap is a decent novel on its own merits, but a disappointing conclusion to the Revelation Space series.
The best parts of the book follow Rashmika, a 17 year old girl on the frontier pilgrimage world of Hela. Hela orbits a gas giant that occasionally vanishes, revealing hints of some immense machinery inside. An entire religion has grown up on Hela, centered around moving cathedrals that keep the gas giant perpetually at zenith and the strains of an indoctrination virus floating through the population. Hela has it's own xenoarcheological paradox, a local culture of extinct scuttlers who seem to have been killed by something other than the inhibitors. Rashmika is driven to find out why the scuttlers are extinct, what's happened to her brother, and the true nature of the church, all of which seem to center on a immense bridge of unknown construction over a massive canyon, the titular absolution gap. Meanwhile, the survivors on Ararat are trying to make sense of their mission, as the Inhibitors and Conjoiner war catch up to them and Captain Brannigan takes over the Nostalgia for Infinity. The plot lurches along towards a conclusion that has about three simultaneous deux ex machinas.
It's a shame, because while Reynolds sets up a fascinating universe, he never quite figures out how to tell good stories in it. The paradox of the Inhibitors is that they're a lot like zombies, an unthinking horde that can be slowed but not stopped. The point of zombie movies is not the zombies, but the survivors. Who do you become in a moment of survival? Who will betray you? The paranoid BDSM war criminals who populate the Revelation Space universe would space each other with more ease than drinking a cup of tea, so there's not much depth to be found there. The universe is also populated with enigmatic hints that the Inhibitors are not as all powerful as they seem. Tinned apes, as space faring H. Sapiens are, might not have a spitting chance, but there seem to be civilizations which have foiled the Inhibitors through migration into alternate biological forms, cybernetic uploads running on exotic substrates, or para-dimensional spaces. The theme that transcendence is salvation pokes up again and again in the series, but is ultimately dropped.
Instead, survival is assured by two previously unknown hyper-powerful alien societies. Our heroes pick the 'right ones', and survive the Inhbitiors, buying a few centuries for another form of rogue terraforming mechanical life to threaten the galaxy.
These books have their moments, but those moments are buried in ideas that should have been cut in the draft.
The best parts of the book follow Rashmika, a 17 year old girl on the frontier pilgrimage world of Hela. Hela orbits a gas giant that occasionally vanishes, revealing hints of some immense machinery inside. An entire religion has grown up on Hela, centered around moving cathedrals that keep the gas giant perpetually at zenith and the strains of an indoctrination virus floating through the population. Hela has it's own xenoarcheological paradox, a local culture of extinct scuttlers who seem to have been killed by something other than the inhibitors. Rashmika is driven to find out why the scuttlers are extinct, what's happened to her brother, and the true nature of the church, all of which seem to center on a immense bridge of unknown construction over a massive canyon, the titular absolution gap. Meanwhile, the survivors on Ararat are trying to make sense of their mission, as the Inhibitors and Conjoiner war catch up to them and Captain Brannigan takes over the Nostalgia for Infinity. The plot lurches along towards a conclusion that has about three simultaneous deux ex machinas.
It's a shame, because while Reynolds sets up a fascinating universe, he never quite figures out how to tell good stories in it. The paradox of the Inhibitors is that they're a lot like zombies, an unthinking horde that can be slowed but not stopped. The point of zombie movies is not the zombies, but the survivors. Who do you become in a moment of survival? Who will betray you? The paranoid BDSM war criminals who populate the Revelation Space universe would space each other with more ease than drinking a cup of tea, so there's not much depth to be found there. The universe is also populated with enigmatic hints that the Inhibitors are not as all powerful as they seem. Tinned apes, as space faring H. Sapiens are, might not have a spitting chance, but there seem to be civilizations which have foiled the Inhibitors through migration into alternate biological forms, cybernetic uploads running on exotic substrates, or para-dimensional spaces. The theme that transcendence is salvation pokes up again and again in the series, but is ultimately dropped.
Instead, survival is assured by two previously unknown hyper-powerful alien societies. Our heroes pick the 'right ones', and survive the Inhbitiors, buying a few centuries for another form of rogue terraforming mechanical life to threaten the galaxy.
These books have their moments, but those moments are buried in ideas that should have been cut in the draft.