Good, but a little formulaic

Once again, an excellent set of characters, all with good developmental arcs, set in a time and place rich in detail.

My only gripe is the slightly formulaic story. In particular, the use of "whip hounds" rather than pistols or stun batons. They at first appear to be a technological marvel, but eventually are used in the plot in a very disappointing fashion. This in itself wouldn't be all bad if it wasn't for the fact that it feels like this plot point was the only reason they were included at all - the use of any other weapon would have changed everything.

Overall though, a very enjoyable listen.

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Great story, really well read

Full marks to John Lee for his reading. It makes all the difference to an audio book when the narrator gives character to his performance. Well done also to Alastair Reynolds. Another great adventure.

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another good one

Still an enjoyable series although I wasn't too keen on the end. but kept my interests throughout

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Good story so far. Character voices changed from previous book in series.

I do hope I can listen to the rest of this book as the first book in the series was great, as was the narration. The narration seems ok in this book too, apart from the fact that all the characters voices are different. I have just finished listening to Prefect and was hoping for a seamless transition into this story, however, having to learn all the new voices is somewhat distracting. Very odd considering it is the same narrator. Shame really.

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Good Story but why change the voices?

I usually love John Lee reading Alastair Reynolds books but as another reveiwer has ponted out, in this title he has completley changed a lot of the charaters voices since The Prefect which is set only 2 years earlier. For me Sparva is the worst example of this, he used to soind gruff, with an attitude but now sounds like a posh aristocrat rather than a Hyperpig Prefect.

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5 people found this helpful

Alastair Reynolds does it again

Another excellent addition to the revelation space series. Hard sci-fi at it's best. Superb depth of vision and enthralling sprawling density.

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superb

hard to put down this clever and complex tale. loved It! read It, it's awesome

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Excellent world building sci-fi combined with a twisty detective story

I’ve read other A Reynolds stories but this was my first listen on Audible. I enjoyed the story as above (great Sci-fi world building continuing from earlier stories in this universe, The Prefect, Chasm City etc which might help but aren’t essential) and the combination with a detective story. The narrator was entirely clear and the different characters voices and accents probably do help to differentiate speakers, but the pace was a little too deliberate for me. Four not five stars for Mr Lee

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1 person found this helpful

Not his best work

Usually love this authors books but this was a bit boring. Not sure why the reader made the characters sound like aristocrats from the 18th century. Ruined it for me a bit.

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Great story from an expansive universe

the characters are particularly well written, the environments are well described and the story drives you to continue with the following books

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