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Absolution Gap
Alastair Reynolds
Gollancz paperback, 672 pages, £6.99
Review by Mike Don (2005)

At the start, a caution. This is the fourth part of an ongoing narrative, rather than a standalone in the same future history as the earlier Revelation Space books – so new readers may be disoriented by characters with a substantial, but unstated, hinterland. That said, Absolution Gap is a fine example of a contemporary, scientifically credible, space opera: Einstein is not mocked, there’s no easy cop-outs of faster than light speed. 

The fundamental theme may well be a reworking of Saberhagen’s Berserker but with a depth of characterisation and attention to detail which compares to Berserker as a Formula 1 Ferrari to a Model T Ford. It may be that the detail sometimes overwhelms the story, since Reynolds’ distinctive style has something of the Gothic to it. He’s no longer as atmospheric as in Revelation Space, but still showing up in places; the cathedrals of Hela being the most obvious example. (Speaking of which, and as an irrelevant aside, the idea that religious belief is a pathological condition – the result of infection by an ‘informational virus’ – has a certain contemporary appeal.)

The plot builds carefully, if somewhat confusingly at first. Time dilation from interstellar travel at relativistic velocity does pose problems in narrative continuity. The dramatic climax, as humanity desperately seeks aid in defeating the sentience-destroying Inhibitors, can’t be faulted . . . but, Absolution Gap ends with a let-down of cosmic proportions. It just, well, stops. ‘With one bound he was free,’ doesn’t even cover it, as an entire novel’s worth of conflict, with allies hitherto unmentioned, is covered in five pages of epilogue – and this is a very long novel!