Novel by Alastair Reynolds
Reactions: OMG stop with the five-page physics explainers

I love love loved the two books prior to Redemption Ark: Chasm City and Revelation Space. But dear god this one plods along. The part I loved most about those two other books is that a mystery unraveled during each book. Without that plot device here, I struggled to stay interested in Redemption Ark. I almost wish I’d stopped reading after Revelation Space and ended on a high note. Alas, I will finish the fourth and final book in this series – I’m too far in at this point.

Another thing that made this book so much more difficult to read was the masturbatory science filler. At one point there’s a five-page description of the docking sequence of a freighter to its hangar bay. Are you fucking kidding me? Similarly there are entire pages upon pages where characters wonder “what if” about hardcore scientific theorems. I get it. It’s Reynolds’ chance to show off his astrophysics degree. But dear god. Please. Stop. I started skipping entire paragraphs and pages if I detected this filler text that did nothing to further the plot.

But here’s the thing. The actual plot, when it does appear, it great. I loved the characters. I loved the evolution of the Inhibitors/wolves saga. I better understood the Conjoiners and Demarchists. It was nice to see Chasm City pop back into the story briefly. But the riveting plot was so often obscured and lost in pages and pages of boring physics textbook word vomit.

I do remember this happening once at the end of Revelation Space. And it felt out of place then because it was right at the climax of the book, near the very end. The pace was moving along nicely, things are happening, mysteries are being revealed, and then there was this multi-page physics lesson. Dude, I wished there had only been one such occurrence in Redemption Arc. But no, there are dozens of them.

I suppose this may appeal to those who love being taught a physics lesson while they read their sci-fi. For me, not so much.

Like I said, I’ll finish the final book because now I have to see where this story ends. But if you’ve already read Chasm City and Revelation Space on my recommendation, stop there. This next book ain’t worth it.