Elysium Fire

I always enjoy Reynold's Revelation Space stories, and this one is good even if it rehashes a lot of the plot skeleton from another story.

Solid world building that continues to grow the Revelation Space universe and the characters also continue to develop, becoming more complex. Solid police procedural that also delves into identity, loss, grief and demagoguery.

It's been a number of years since I read the first book in this series (although, as it happens still less than the gap between their publication dates...) and I found that I didn't remember much of it beyond the setting. Nonetheless, this does continue with plot elements from the previous book, and seems to be setting things up for a further one. Which hopefully, won't be another eight years coming.

The main story here is new, however, so my lack of recollection wasn't as big a problem as it might have been. The novel flips between Dreyfus investigating an apparent plague of unexplained deaths in the “present” and the childhood backstory of a man who is somehow connected with them. As the story goes on, the latter becomes more relevant to the former and elucidates some of what's going on that isn't apparent to the main viewpoint characters. Both include inventive detail, building on what was previously established in the first novel and the “present-day” parts include some dramatic moments as the situation becomes increasingly dire.

There are plenty of twists in the plot, and some of the questions of identity and the reliability of memory that have featured in other books by Reynolds. It's an enjoyable return to the universe of Revelation Space with a fast-paced and complex plot and some great ideas.

A worthy sequel to “The Prefect” but also an excellent stand-alone, although you might miss a few nuances if you haven't read the earlier book. It also helps if you've read some of Reynolds' other books in the Revelation Space universe, but nothing critical will be missed if this is your first Reynolds book. Having said that, however, the reading is much enhanced if you've read the other books, and the tale does re-introduce characters, environments and other elements seen in those books to great effect. The story moves along briskly, and the tension is ratcheted upward satisfactorily. There are multiple POVs here, but I found sufficient coverage given to all. I hope there are more tales to come in this series and in this universe.

A worthy sequel to an all-time favourite. A great blending of classic detective story, very current social commentary, and true thought-provoking science fiction equal to any of the greats of the genre.

I strongly recommend this series.

This is a sequel to The Prefect, and a part of the wider Revelation Space series, but it's not essential to have read the other books before this one (I read The Prefect about ten years ago and given that these days I can't remember what I had for breakfast by half past two I was a bit daunted about jumping straight into this one, but I needn't have been).
Good Sf should always reflect the times in which it was written, and this is probably Reynolds' most political novel yet. Reynolds of course spent a large part of his career in Europe, and this book is haunted by Brexit. A key plot element concerns a demagogue whipping up secessionary sentiment, and there's an underlying theme about the use and fragility of democracy. But it's not a dull, dry read. There is more of a crime novel feeling than his previous books, with plenty of incident and mystery. The action keeps rollicking along, with well timed shifts and developments in the case. The very end is possibly slightly too infodumpy but it's a niggle, that's all. I suspect that given the simultaneous rebranding of The Prefect to Aurora Rising, this is intended to kickstart a Dreyfus series, and I'll happily be along for the ride.