Revelation Space

Revelation Space
by Alastair Reynolds

In the far future, a singular question haunts humanity: why are there so few intelligent civilizations in the universe? Revelation Space is a sprawling operatic novel that ranges across vast gulfs of time and space-to arrive at a terrifying answer.

Nine hundred thousand years ago, something annihilated the Amarantin civilization just when it was on the verge of discovering space flight. For the human colonists now settling the Amarantin homeworld, what caused the species extinction is of little more than academic interest. Even after colonists discover an almost perfectly preserved city on the planet, only the archaeological community seems interested.

But one scientist, Dan Sylveste, is convinced that solving the Amarantin riddle is vital to the survival of humanity. Desperate to get at the truth-but with few resources, Sylveste forges a dangerous alliance with the crew of the starship Nostalgia for Infinity. The ship's cyborg crew are walking weapons and could easily become a very real danger. They could also be Sylveste's only hope to find the answer he so zealously seeks.

Before becoming a full time writer, Reynolds was a scientist for the European Space Agency. Reynolds postulates a dark future of human machine cyborgs and artificial intelligences, which have mankinds emotions of revenge and murder. Mankind is colonizing the stars but finding little trace of extraterrestial civilizations. The question is: Where is everybody? The answer is shocking.

TB