The novel “Redemption Ark” by Alastair Reynolds was published for the first time in 2002. It’s part of the Revelation Space series and is the sequel to “Revelation Space“.

For nearly four centuries Nevil Clavain has been part of the faction of the Conjoiners, modified humans who aim to create a hive mind. His strategic skills are invaluable in the war against the Demarchist faction, that Conjoiner are winning. Clavain never wanted to be part of the leadership of his faction but when finally he gets involved in it and is revealed secret information which include some terrible danger, he decides to abandon the Conjoiners and along with a diverse group of allies head to the planet Resurgam.

Ilia Volyova and Ana Khouri have known for decades the threat of the Inhibitors and hope to be able to use the powerful weapons aboard the starship “Nostalgia for Infinity” to fight them. The problem is to convince the captain to help but due to a sort of nanotechnological plague he’s now merged with the ship so he’s no longer entirely human. The clock is ticking because the Inhibitors are doing something in the Resurgam system and evacuating the population of the planet seems an impossible task.

“Redemption Ark” is set several years after “Revelation Space”. For this reason, the events occurring in the system of the planet Resurgam during that period are explained and that includes several references to the first novel. For this reason, in theory “Redemption Ark” can be read independently but I think it loses a lot because “Revelation Space” starts the story of the Inhibitors and the crew of the starship “Nostalgia for Infinity”.

One of the subplots of “Redemption Ark” takes place in part in the Yellowstone system, where the novel “Chasm City” is set too. Reading this novel is less important, however it’s useful to understand some references not explained in “Redemption Ark” and is also another excellent novel.

Some characters in “Redemption Ark” also appear in the stories included in the anthology “Galactic North”. Even when they are set long before this novel you can read them later since it’s short fiction that doesn’t adds that much to the development of these characters.

If you have already read the previous novels in the Revelation Space series, you know the typical narrative structure used by Alastair Reynolds: “Redemption Ark” starts with some subplots that converge in the course of the story. Much of the novel aims to develop the various themes and characters to get to the last part, where there are more twists.

In “Redemption Ark” there’s a subplot that starts on the planet Resurgam and is the direct continuation of the events of “Revelation Space” with some characters who survived at the end of the first novel, although we should agree on the definition of “survivor”. More information are provided about the Inhibitors and their motives but in general Alastair Reynolds devotes more space to develop the characters of the other subplots that are new or have appeared only in short fiction.

The are a lot of characters in the novel and having read the previous series helps to appreciate them to the fullest. Maybe there are too many of them, so much that the subplot concerning Antoinette Bax in the end is superfluous, merely to add another example connected to the main theme of “Redemption Ark” which, as the title suggests, is that of redemption.

In this novel there are several characters who have committed various crimes. For them, redemption isn’t a religious act, in fact they’re looking for a way to do good and make up for what they have done in their past. Redemption isn’t a topic that particularly excites me but I have to say that Alastair Reynolds handles it well because he develops it in a pragmatic way.

Despite this basic theme, “Redemption Ark” is basically a big space opera but we must always keep in mind that Alastair Reynolds worked as a scientist before becoming a writer and you can feel it in his stories. For example, a battle in interstellar space is very different from those of “Star Wars” and is described with attention about its scientific plausibility.

This characteristic of Alastair Reynolds sometimes slows the pace of the story but I think the events in “Redemption Ark” are so many, with several twists, that this isn’t a problem. Of course, the result is a very long novel – the paperback I bought is almost 650 pages long – whose ending leaves plenty of room for the continuation of various subplots and it’s not and easy read but I think its merits are much greater than its flaws.

Overall, I think “Redemption Ark” is another very good example of hard science fiction that’s a worthy part of a very high level series. If you’ve enjoyed the previous novels in the series, this book is a must have, otherwise if you like space opera with strong scientific and technological elements you’ll like Alastair Reynolds and I recommend this novel with the others in the series.