Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Redemption Ark cover art

Redemption Ark

By: Alastair Reynolds
Narrated by: John Lee
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Buy Now for £30.99

Buy Now for £30.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

Revelation Space cover art
House of Suns cover art
Pushing Ice cover art
Terminal World cover art
Century Rain cover art
Beyond the Aquila Rift cover art
Children of Time cover art
Guardian of Night cover art
The Silmarillion cover art
Hyperion cover art
Roboteer cover art
Fear the Sky cover art
Predator: Incursion cover art
Veiled Alliances cover art
The Last Exodus cover art
WWW: Wake cover art

Summary

Late in the 26th century, the human race has advanced enough to accidentally trigger the Inhibitors---alien-killing machines designed to detect intelligent life and destroy it. The only hope for humanity lies in the recovery of a secret cache of doomsday weapons---and a renegade named Clavain who is determined to find them. But other factions want the weapons for their own purposes---and the weapons themselves have another agenda altogether.
©2008 Alastair Reynolds (P)2009 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Reynolds confirms his place among the leaders of the hard-science space-opera renaissance." ( Publishers Weekly Starred Review)
"The best of the new breed of space opera. Wild action on a grand scale spans well-imagined and developed worlds." ( The Denver Post)

What listeners say about Redemption Ark

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    491
  • 4 Stars
    226
  • 3 Stars
    69
  • 2 Stars
    8
  • 1 Stars
    5
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    420
  • 4 Stars
    141
  • 3 Stars
    28
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    2
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    380
  • 4 Stars
    155
  • 3 Stars
    43
  • 2 Stars
    9
  • 1 Stars
    4

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Well written and brilliantly read

Just to put things right this book is the SECOND in the series. There are other books in the same universe parrallel to this one. However this one continues the story on most directly from "Revelation space" Time has moved on though and new charecters take the lead. Its as fantastic as the first and exceptionaly well read. Can't wait for the next installment. Wikapedia has a good entry on Reynolds and all his books and short stories.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

23 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Good quality Hard SF

This is the sequel to 'Revelation Space', which was a truly terrific book. I enjoyed this one too but, frankly, it's not in the same league as 'Revelation Space' - narrative momentum does flag at times and the plot is not so skillfully knitted together, so you feel the length as it were. But still worth a listen.

The third book in the series 'Absolution Gap' is a mess by comparison - easily skipped.

John Lee does a fine job on the narration.

Recommended.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Doesn't Live Up to Revelation Space

First off, as it wasn't obvious to me: the plot of this book follows on from Revelation Space. Chasm City is a side story that is only tangentially relevant to this one.

This book is a lot more about setting the scene for a space opera than about the plot. There is a lot of description and beautiful hard science (space battles at relativistic speeds was my favourite!), but the plot moves at a glacial pace and the characters are very one-dimensional and uninteresting.

I feel that Revelation Space built up to an incredible final score towards the end, which had my proverbial jaw on the floor for a long while; both Chasm City and Redemption Ark, by comparison, feel like they are building up to a similar crescendo, but it never comes, so it feels like the storylines all just fizzle out.

John Lee does a great job at giving the characters very distinct and compelling voices.

I'm going to try a Peter Hamilton book before attempting the next instalment here.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Very enjoyable, but tedious in a few places

I got this as an audiobook because I really struggled with the print version. The overall story is great, but Reynolds needs to dial down the needless theoretical physics chat. Hard sci-fi is great, but not when it's so hard you need a physics degree to enjoy it.

Revelation Space and Chasm City weren't like that and they are excellent, so I have hopes for Absolution Gap.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Yawn-Fi

Pompous, ponderous and plain boring much of the time. Narrator is well chosen for this.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Read this book years ago but forgot how good it is

Well narrated and gripping, a great entry in this saga and easy to listen too and get absorbed. Highly recommended.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Great book

The story of the book is great and really enjoyable.
The narrator did a good job and this is well worth your time.

Enjoy it.

I certainly did

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

the span of this story

I was an instant fan of Reynolds when i first read revelation space. This novel however is even better. It spans so much time and space, waeves fantastic, futuristic, yet somehow feasible technology into the story line that this could very well be i historic roman sent back from the far future.
Did I mention I liked it?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Long winded and unsatisfactory conclusion.

The characters are well formed and you can get into the world well enough, but after a while you just don't care what happens to them. Just too many covoluted plot threads to care about and in the end it just fizzles out into what I suspect is a set up for a sequel. I wanted Ian M Banks but got a poor relation.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Just brilliant

Loving all the books
Love the tech stuff and story line
Can’t wait to get into next one

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!