u/overzero

3.25/5 Revelation Space continues to be a bit of an enigma for me where I really enjoy the moment to moment reading experience while simultaneously recognizing that as a larger series it has a lot of problems. This entry has some of the biggest issues so far where it's paradoxically doing too much and too little at the same time. I'd say I was sufficiently whelmed with the book and there were some moments that I thought were quite good and entertaining and other moments that were very clumsy and badly executed.

Structurally it needed more focus. The exploration of the extent of a "perfect" democracy via the Demarchists is compelling, it just wasn't fully explored in a satisfying way, felt like he dropped this prematurely and didn't follow through well enough. Also he goes back to the well of his tried and true exploration of consciousness and memory with the Voi brothers, in itself a really good idea, just not executed in a fully satisfying way and had a really clumsy climax and conclusion.

The throughline of the previous book felt pretty shoehorned in and awkward, felt included out of necessity of making this a real trilogy instead of disconnected from the first.

That being said I do fundamentally find Reynolds writing to be enjoyable to read, just think this needed more time to cook to make it more compelling and hit harder. I'm still interested in the final book of the trilogy but not dying to pick it up immediately.

4.25/5 Unapologetic and raw, subtle and complex while having big moments and a lot to think about. You are invested in this world, or at least you should be from the previous books or you might struggle. Definitely less accessible and polished than The Scar which is close to a perfect fantasy book, this one has a lot more rough edges which seem there by choice but there's a lot of fissures between the plotlines, characters, themes that you can fall into and bounce off this book. It's easy to see how it's divisive.

What I often hear about this book is about the political aspects as well as a huge flashback section that disturbs the pacing. It does indeed have a big flashback in the middle, but I might have been prepared enough to handle this, it definitely is a very oddly paced books and the storylines fit together roughly where they often shear together and the momentum is hard to find, however I often had moments to latch onto in every section that are just about better than anything else you'll read in the genre.

The plot itself is very interesting, I did have moments of confusion with how events played out and some things felt abrupt but I enjoyed the amount it challenges you and really goes for it. I'll have to do some digging to make sure everything made sense in my head though, there's some character motivations and resolutions that I'll need to think deeper on to truly figure out how to feel about it.

The politics are done with care, I did not find the book preachy at any point and Mieville if anything handles the moral complexity with a much greater care than most authors, he excels at this and I find it to be one of his strengths. You will not get any easy answers to any political or moral question in the book and we're better for it.

The world building has a lot going on in this one and it feels less cohesive than the previous books but there's constantly interesting and weird things happening, I do wish it was built up a bit better so it was a little easier for me to piece the world together mentally and have it make sense, if anything the amount of new lore and mechanics to the world in this entry was surprising, especially as the previous books already made for a strong foundation.

I do think Mieville is doing something unique in the genre and elevates it beyond what it typically is. This is often subversive but not in a way that removes all payoff from what the book sets up, however Mieville often says the most with what isn't on the page and this one has a lot left unsaid where you will have to fill in the gaps to feel wholly satisfied.