Eversion

I really enjoyed this book, more so than Reynolds other recent books. It reminded me of House of Suns in the beauty of the writing and how I liked the characters. However, this one is closer to literary fiction rather than an adventurous romp. It's quite a short novel, and I was glad of that because it felt the particular story could be made to drag on. I was also reminded of Terminal World, this story is a knuckling down on the character type and twisty sense of reality, but with more focus.

In the 1800s a sailing ship named Demeter is among the icebergs up the coast of Norway, looking for something. There's a serious accident. Next chapter it starts all over again. A steam ship named Demeter is sailing up the coast of Patagonia, looking for something. There's a serious accident. Next chapter it starts all over again. Early 1900s, a Zeppelin named Demeter is exploring a giant ice rift in Antarctica, something goes very wrong. Dr Silas Coade is the ship's physician each time, and he's the only person who remembers that 'we've been here before'.

Also, when does the scifi start? I didn't sign up for some sea captain shipwreck story. Reynolds is a master at telling a tale that circles a high stakes crisis while keeping the heart of the story hidden as we inch closer to the truth. This one caught my imagination so that I could not put it down. It was finished in less than two days.

TL;DR

I hated this book until chapter thirteen, which is two-hundred pages deep. The way our main character talks is just beyond annoying, I know it's because he's in the yee ol' days but it was very rough to read and I didn't like it at all. After chapter thirteen it gets better, same with the story. Interesting stuff actually happens. Average book in my opinion, not bad but it wouldn't be my first recommendation if some one was asking me about a science fiction book.

My Scoring System

I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:

X - Main Story: I was pretty confused at first but as we get deeper in the story we learn more, unfortunately by the end we still have questions left unasnwered.

X - Side Stories (if it applies):

✓ - Characters: I like all the characters, there wasn't anyone who I thought was annoying.

✓ - Setting/Ambiance: We don't get to spend much time on each of these old eras but they were interesting.

✓ - Ending: Question left unasnwered but I really liked the last interaction before the book ends.

Extensive Review

Not much to say here, even though there are quite a few characters we're mainly focused on four. Thankfully they're all interesting, likeable and are part of the entire story.

Pretty light on the science fiction, excluding the obvious that they're in a spaceship pretty much the whole book happens in these old eras of time with old technology.

The story is interesting but we don't learn much in the end. We're left with quite a few questions and I don't like that, it's not vague as in "it's left up to the reader to interpret it" (if it were it would instantly be a one star rating, I hate those endings) but I would have liked some answers. The last few chapters and the ending saved the book from being mediocre.

The ending interaction between two characters in the book in my opinion we're really good.

A new book by Alistair Reynolds, yay! I quite like some of his sci-fi books but I found this one to be a little bit boring in comparison. I think because it lacks some of the epic or space opera-ness as it's more of a self-contained story? But nevertheless it touches on some interesting concepts as the main character finds himself reliving events across different eras.

Loved every minute of this. Especially the audiobook, where the voices were exquisite.

7/10

A cool idea with a somewhat flawed execution. The first half of the book dragged a bit. It should've been about 20% shorter like many classic sci-fi stories. But the ending was worth it.

3,5/5 stars

This is a nice little mysterious adventure story that could be a great episode of Star Trek, The Orville or Stargate. Probably not something you gonna reread, since its strength is the mystery and trying to piece together wtf is going on. If you are going to read this, do yourself a favour and don't read anything about it, take and afternoon or two and enjoy a mystery.

A very cleverly written tale that really makes you think. I perhaps was primed to sympathise with the main character as I too am far from home and dreaming of a white house with a garden, on a hill in Plymouth, not too close to the sea, but not too far.