Pushing Ice

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corporation seems to have been hiding his fact, she begs for a turnaround, and turns against Bella when she refuses. This

We’re miners. We push ice. They sent us out here to do a job, to mine Janus, only this time for knowledge. It’s still mining. It’s still what we do. I say we stay. I say we stay here and finish the job. (c) pop up so late in the story and make it a real space opera that one seriously asks why it couldn´t have lifted off much, much earlier. Don´t get me wrong, there are still fascinating ideas about cryogenics, Clarketech, time travel paradoxes, alien cultures, etc., but I´ve read most of Reynolds´works twice and know that he can do so much bigger, better, and more complex. He kind of wasted a perfect plot for the sake of character focus as if he wanted to try out some social studies in space instead of doing what he is famous for, hard sci fying with fascinating meta concepts. If another author would have done this from his first work on, I absolutely wouldn´t have a problem with this social sci fi attitude, but Reynolds´just didn´t deliver the usual dessert, making this work the definitively not brightest candle on his hard sci fi space opera chimera cake. HOW HAVE I NEVER READ ANYTHING BY THIS AUTHOR BEFORE!?? WOW! What a book! I am so pleased that I have a whole lot of books by Alastair Reynolds to read now. Like finding a fortune under your mattress! I am so excited to have added another 20+ books to my TBR!Weird times to forget reason. This is where I tapped out. The captain has to make a huge decision, and ignores all reason and the lives of her people to chase this thing, Ahab style, even though she's made it very clear that she is doing this by democracy. And the weirdest part is, the thing they're following? They know where it's going! So why chase it when a better equipped team can meet up with it later?

The Mutiny: The crew schisms over whether to return to Earth and risk running out of fuel, or land on Janus and never see home again. The majority side with Svetlana and Craig, deposing Bella.

Another minus was the ending which seemed to demand a sequel that Reynolds has never written. The whole conclusion felt desperately open ended. The development of the plot from beginning to end is quite broad in scope, and Mr. Reynolds doesn't slow down to spoon feed every portion of the the plot which I enjoyed. There are a couple of lulls in the story when new events are being set up that dragged by comparison to other parts, but they were by no means boring. along: it's a highly dangerous mission, and their corporate bosses do not inspire confidence. One of Bella's key links to Pushing Ice is a hard Space Opera novel by Alastair Reynolds. In the year 2057 Saturn's moon Janus powers up and begins exiting the solar system in the direction of the Spica system .

I have come to like Alastair Reynolds more with each book I finish, and Reynolds' in-depth stories and characters are complimented very nicely by John Lee! TERMINAL WORLD (2010) Wales Book of the Year finalist. Steampunky action on a dying world, with a mystery under the skin of things. No, it's the characters. My god! This reads worse than early Vinge (whom I love!). Unrealistic, flat, contrived, plot-device-necessary characters go on and on, expressing themselves in painful dialogue and pontificating on motivations that just about nobody outside a hamfistedly-written novel would ever have. They're not even robots. They're not even baseless stereo-types. They're just plot constructions.This is a space opera mixed with hard SF, filled with plenty of drama and the character development is terrific. The book is almost bursting with its cast and the feuds that develop.

But otherwise, almost freaking PERFECT! It had action, MIND-BLOWING SCIENCE-SPACE stuff, violence, emotion, betrayal, and ALIENS, MAN! The novel opens with a curious prologue set 18,000 years in the future, describing an ambitious plan to celebrate the legendary Reynolds also does an excellent job on the women in his books. In this case I give him additional major bonus points for the two women getting all the way through the book without using the word "bitch". Bella and Svetlana are the primary characters in the story, although there are plenty of men as well. They were frequently in an antagonistic relationship that left me completely frustrated with one or the other. I was more successful with liking his men, especially Perry and Jim. ABSOLUTION GAP (2003) BSFA shortlist. End times approach; religious lunatics appear. Contains moving cathedrals and speculation about braneworlds. The power struggle between the two female leads got a bit much. I'm also not sure why the rest of the cast tolerated it. Surely you can’t have a military dictatorship without a military presence?and their factions. Both have some reason for their actions, but both also do terrible things, commit tremendous CENTURY RAIN, PUSHING ICE, HOUSE OF SUNS and TERMINAL WORLD are all unrelated standalone novels. I have vague intentions to return to the universes of PI and HOS, but nothing firm, and I don’t intend to return to the worlds of CR or TW, much as I’m fond of those books. There are three books in the REVENGER sequence.