Revelation Space Books In Order

Publication Order of Revelation Space Books

Revelation Space series by Alastair Reynolds
Author Alastair Reynolds writes the “Revelation Space” series of space opera novels. The series began publication in the year 2000, when “Revelation Space” was released.

The series kicks off Alastair’s larger Revelation Space universe that he has set many of his later books, stories, and series in.

This series depicts a fictional future history of humanity, within the trappings of a space opera milieu which has a generally hard science fiction focus. It follows the human species through various conflicts from the relatively near future (roughly 2200) to about AD 40000, with all of the novels being set from 2427 until 2727, although some stories extend past this period of time.

The main trilogy (or “Inhibitor” trilogy) consists of the novels “Revelation Space”, “Redemption Ark”, and “Absolution Gap”, and it deals with humanity coming to the Inhibitors’ attention and the war that resulted from that.

Reynolds says that the books do not need to be read in this order, but it would most likely improve things if you did. Other related books set in this universe can be read at any time or not read at all.

“Revelation Space” was shortlisted for both 2000 BSFA and Arthur C. Clarke Awards. “Chasm City” won a British Science Fiction Association award in the year 2002.

“Revelation Space” is the first novel in the “Revelation Space” series and was released in the year 2000. Something annihilate the Amarantin civilization right when it was on the brink of discovering space flight some nine hundred thousand years back. A scientist, named Dan Sylveste, is going to stop at nothing in order to solve the Amarantin riddle before ancient history can repeat itself.

Without any other resources at his disposal, he forges a dangerous alliance with the cyborg crew of a starship called Nostalgia for Infinity. However while he closes in on the secret, there is a killer that is closing in on him. Because the Amarantin were destroyed for some reason—and if that reason is revealed, the universe, along with reality—could be altered irrecoverably.

This is a magnificent and huge space opera that ranges across the known and unknown universe alike, right towards the most horrifying of destinations. Some found this to be a tour de force and to be ravishingly inventive. This novel also features one of the most satisfying and complex mysteries in modern science fiction, which unfolds in a fully realized universe which is complete with a billion years of history.

“Chasm City” is the second novel in the “Revelation Space” series and was released in the year 2001. The formerly utopian Chasm City, which was a doomed settlement on the otherwise inhospitable planet, has been overrun by the Melding Plague, a virus that is capable of infecting any body, computerized or organic.

Now the whole city has been corrupted: from the people and even the buildings that they inhabit. Only the most wretched kind of existence still remains. For Tanner Mirabel, a security operative, it is the landscape of nightmares through which he hunts for a low-life postmortal murderer. However the stakes become raised when his search brings him opposite a centuries old atrocity that history would much rather just forget.

Reynolds keeps things moving along briskly and never lets up on the tension, nor does he ever slack on the flow of some brilliant ideas. Some readers found themselves thinking about this one for days after they finished reading it. It melds faraway worlds and brilliant ideas with sharp prose style and a strong narrative.

“Redemption Ark” is the third novel in the “Revelation Space” series and was released in the year 2002. Late in the twenty-sixth century, the human race has finally advanced enough to trigger by accident the Inhibitors, which are alien killing machines that were designed to detect intelligent life and then destroy it.

Humanity’s only hope lies in the recovery of a secret collection of doomsday weapons, and one renegade called Clavain, who is determined to track them all down. However other factions are looking to claim the weapons for their own uses. And the weapons themselves have got a whole other agenda altogether.

This is a highly satisfying read and each of the plot threads was brought to its logical conclusion. Readers found this to be a well written combination of horror, science fiction, mystery, and suspense and it is quite a good page turner, sure to keep you up late reading to see what happens next.

“Absolution Gap” is the fourth novel in the “Revelation Space” series and was released in the year 2003. The Inhibitors have returned and Humanity is now doomed! Many millennia ago, the Inhibitors seeded the entire universe with machines designed to detect life then suppress it. However after hundreds of millions of years, the machines began failing and intelligent creatures began emerging.

Then Dr. Dan Sylveste and the crew of Infinity found what happened to the Amarintin race and they awakened the Inhibitors. On Yellowstone, a place where nobody’s quite who they appear to be, the Inquisitor and all the planet’s Most Wanted Criminal watch while the Inhibitors turn a tiny group of planets into some raw materials.

Whatever they have been building with these materials is no good for Humanity.

Fans of the novel found this to be an interesting and impressive conclusion to the trilogy. The ending is a perfectly human ending, very satisfying.

“The Prefect” is a novel in the “Revelation Space” series and was released in the year 2007. Tom Dreyfus is a Prefect, a police officer of sorts, and is one of the very best. His force is Panoply, and his beat is the multi-faceted utopian society of the Glitter Band, which is that same vast swirl of space inhabitants orbiting the planet Yellowstone. His job has become his life, at this point.

One murderous attack against a Glitter Band habitat is quite nasty, but it appears to be an open-and-shut case. Until Dreyfus begins looking under a few stones that very powerful people would much rather remained unturned. What he reveals is much more serious than just a gruesome murder.