The Prefect by Alastair Reynolds
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Book Reviews of The Prefect
Book Review: Tightly plotted, expert space opera, with a dash of CSI in Space
Summary: 4 Stars
The Prefect, set in the Revelation Space universe many years before the previous four novels, is another fine outing by Reynolds. Part space opera, part cop procedural, the book focuses on Tom Dreyfus, a senior officer for Panoply, the organization charged with the security of the Glitter Band, an orbital ring of habitats surrounding the planet Yellowstone in the Epsilon Eridani system. Because the novel's events occur about a century before the Melding Plague that effectively destroyed the civilization around Yellowstone, we get to see a tantalizing glimpse of the golden era before the plague struck.
After the deliberate destruction of one of the Glitter Band's ten thousand habitats, apparently by the transhuman Ultras, Dreyfus is tasked to investigate the crime. What he discovers goes far beyond the murder of a thousand people, leading eventually to a danger threatening the entire Glitter Band.
Dreyfus battles Aurora, an AI that wants to rule the Glitter Band, as well as a highly-placed traitor within Panoply. Reynolds throws in another complication in the form of the Clockmaker, another ruthless AI that Panoply had thought destroyed nine years before the story opens. Before long, it becomes clear that the Clockmaker may still be a threat, and that Dreyfus has some really big problems to solve.
The book is a standalone, and you do not have to have read the previous novels to enjoy or understand what's happening. I especially enjoyed seeing the Yellowstone civilization at its height, rather than the sad remnants depicted in the previous books. More of that, please.
Enjoyable and taut to the very last page, The Prefect is a winner. Highly recommended.
Book Review: Not Free SF Reader
Summary: 4 Stars
Detective, spies and AI.
Alastair Reynolds has done it again, delivering another good book. Over 20 novels and stories of his I have read, and still averaging over 4. Very impressive.
The Glitter Band is a system of ten thousand floating habitats, all independent, but all tied into a common voting mechanism for government administration by an organisation that is called the Panoply. Think Judge Dredd, without the guns and you will have some idea.
At the beginning of the novel, the voting software for this organisation needs upgrading to remove a security hole. Around the same time one of the habitats is blasted by the drive of an Ultra spaceship.
Panoply field prefect Tom Dreyfus smells a big rat, and with his team, sets out to investigate.
Although this is a standalone novel, elements do tie in in small ways to the Sylveste epic, in a way that will be pleasing to longtime readers.
No space opera this one, but the baroque and slightly creepy atmosphere and characters of his other Revelation Space novels is well to the fore. If you like those, not much doubt you will like this story, too.
It gets quite a bit more complicated after the early setup, with political divisions, plots, and counterplots emerging, as Dreyfus unravels the mess, finding out some truths about himself in the process, as well as who he is working for.
Book Review: Another excellent story
Summary: 4 Stars
I just got done reading this book in a marathon session since I could hardly put it down. I always get the feeling that I am reading something like the bible when I read one of Alastair's novels, so heavy with meaning.
As for this story, it is within the Revelation Space universe, with references to the old favorites: The Shrouds, Ultras, Conjoiners, and such. But there is also new stuff in it as well. It felt like this book was more about the story and people, rather than the environment as a whole in books past. At times, the text did get a bit long winded with explanations that seemed to be aimed at Alastair virgins.
While the ending did leave me feeling somewhat unfufilled and fell a bit flat, it still left me wanting more; more about the story. So because of this, I gave it four instead of five stars. Still highly recommended for all Alastair fans.
Finally, I would like to hope that Mr. Reynolds will eventually get around to a book dealing totally with the Shrouders and everything surrounding them. With all of the buildup of them in his universe, it would be a great masterstroke to reveal what has been hiding in there all this time, cue Phillip's transformation, and what it would mean to his universe.
Book Review: A return to the Revelation Space universe
Summary: 4 Stars
The Prefect is a detective story set in the Revelation Space universe. Readers unfamiliar with the setting are well advised to read the earlier novels first as familiarity with Mr. Reynolds past work is presumed. That said, the story involves entirely new characters and the events of the earlier novels don't have much bearing on the plot.
The Prefect is set in the Glitter Band, home of 10,000 self contained communities. The prefects are ostensibly the police force of the Glitter band but are more appropriately protecct and maintain the voting apparatus that serves as the collective government. When one of the communities is destroyed, apparently in retaliation for spurning a deal proferred by an Ultra ship, the investigation leads to conspiracies involving fellow prefects and shadowy artificial intelligences.
The Prefect is an entertaining and fast paced detective story. Where it falls flat is in giving away too many of the secrets early on. While I enjoyed the book, many parts seemed rushed and the characters were not given enough opportunity to develop.
Overall, fans of the prior Revelation Space books should enjoy this, while new readers should start with the earlier books.
Book Review: Great story set in the pre-plague Yellowstone system
Summary: 4 Stars
As far as I can tell, this story is set after the departure of Dan Sylveste for Delta Pavonis but before the onset of the Melding Plague.
Some Spoilers follow, consider reading this book before reading my review.
It is a mystery/suspense story following the efforts of 1 main character and a couple of supports to unravel a large conspiracy directed at taking control of the Glitter Band. Given the context of demarchist democracy, he offers a much more in-depth view of the orbiting communities of Yellowstone than we have gotten anywhere else, including in Chasm City. Significant reference is made to material, events, and persons in previous books, particularly Revelation Space. Several character revelations and developments were not obviously telegraphed but are credible when looked at in retrospect, a somewhat-hard thing to do for many authors.
I only had a single quibble but I am going to wait until it is published in the US to write that here, as presumably 99% of readers of this review haven't read the book.