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

2615. Quaiche got in trouble with Queen Jasmina because he failed to keep his promise to get her some deals that would have enriched her. She gives him one last chance by sending him to seek his fortune in the system of the star 107 Piscium but to stimulate him she closes his lover Morwenna in a sort of sensory deprivation sarcophagus. On Hera, a moon of a giant planet in the system that he called Haldora, Quaiche finds an alien artifact and the planet momentarily disappears.

2675. After 23 years on the planet called Ararat, Nevil Clavain and his group, which includes the population saved from the destruction of the planet Resurgam, are reached by a capsule that contains Ana Khouri. A lot has happened in those years and the Inhibitors are coming but they’re not the only danger.

2727. Rashmika Els is a girl who wants to find her brother, who some years before had joined one of the cathedrals that move constantly to keep an eye on Haldora and observe its periodic disappearances. Her quest will take her into contact with Quaiche, who many years before had started an actual religion centerd around the planet.