Absolution Gap

Finished this book the other day. At some point I will have to sit down and write out a timeline of the Revelation Space universe. Reynolds ties up a couple of loose ends from the other books, a couple of short stories, and leaves a whole bunch of others running free.

For example, I am really unhappy with his habit of killing off major characters offscreen, mostly as an afterthought. "I'm tired of writing Felka, so I'll just kill her and never reference her again." I'm tempted to say that if you read Revelation Space and liked it, skip the sequels.

One other reason it annoyed me is that it violated the rule of Chekov. (Not the navigator, the playwright.) There was a colossally huge gun left on the mantle at the end of the first book, and it only gets... two mentions after that. Well, it's referred to obliquely a lot but has no agency to speak of.

I am reminded a bit of the Nancy Kress series Beggars in Spain. Though in that case I loved the novella but hated the book and had little use for the overwrought sequels. In this case it's not that the sequels are bad, just sort of aimless. Reynolds actually made me physically jump in my chair with one chapter of Absolution Gap, and so for that I have to give him props.