Infinity (novel)

Infinity is a science fiction novel by Alastair Reynolds , which belongs to both the space opera genre and the hard SF genre. It was published in Great Britain in 2000 and in the USA in 2001 (under the title Revelation Space ) and was first published in Germany in 2001 by Heyne-Verlag.

action

Infinity is divided into two storylines, which unite at the end. The periods of action are roughly between 2546 and 2566.

The first storyline begins on the planet Resurgam in the Delta Pavonis system, where xeno- archaeologist Dan Sylveste searches for artifacts and explanations for the demise of the Amarantin people. This downfall, which occurred about a million years ago, is called "the event" and occurred at a time when the Amarantin were on their way to developing techniques for interstellar space travel. However, Sylveste is deposed and imprisoned by his political opponents because, in their opinion, he is investing too much of the planet's resources in his excavations.

The second plot line turns Triumvir Ilia Volyova and the light ship desire to infinity with the Ultra crew behavior. The ship's captain is infected with a serious disease, the melt plague, which attacks his cybernetic implants. In order to heal their captain, the crew wants to find the cyberneticist Calvin Sylveste in the Yellowstone system ( Epsilon Eridani ), the scientific stronghold of mankind. As they learn that Sylveste set off into the Delta Pavonis system decades ago, the Ultras decide to fly there as soon as possible. Before departure, however, they still have to replace their weapons officer , as Volyova urgently needs a person for the post to operate 40 so-called hell-class guns (found on an abandoned asteroid). For this post there is Ana Khouri, an ex-soldier who comes from the world of Sky's Edge ( 61 Cygni ). An implant of the mysterious Mademoiselle was placed in her brain and she initially followed her commands reluctantly, but later resisted it and questioned the Mademoiselle's motives.

The storylines merge on Resurgam when the Ultras blackmail the Resurgam colony and get Dan Sylveste on board. He wants to prove his theories about the amarantine and set off to the neutron star Hades on the edge of the Resurgam system, where the showdown takes place.

background

The book is part of the Revelation Space cycle , a loosely connected cycle by Reynolds. The English original edition of the novel, like all novels in the Revelation Space cycle, was published under the Gollancz Science Fiction brand by the British Orion Publishing Group. Like the other novels, the German edition was published by Heyne Verlag and the translation was done by Irene Holicki .

reception

The literature portal Phantastik Couch stated that, on the one hand , infinity relies on a conventional SciFi setting, but on the other hand sets itself apart from the crowd with a successful character drawing. The story requires a lot of attention from the reader because of its wild jumps through storylines and time, but is full of memorable descriptions and looks very authentic in technical terms due to Reynold's scientific background. The result is a "captivating and extremely entertaining vision of humanity in space".

Web links

• Entry on the publisher's website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Phantastik-Couch.de: Infinity. Retrieved November 9, 2016 .