The novel “Machine Vendetta” by Alastair Reynolds was published for the first time in 2024. It’s part of the Revelation Space series as the third book of the Prefect Dreyfus Emergency, in which it’s the sequel to “Elysium Fire“.
Ingvar Tench is among the prefects of Panoplia, yet for incomprehensible reasons, she finds herself in a habitat different from the one she was headed for. The consequence is that she ends up involved in a civil war and attacked by hostile inhabitants, who manage to kill her. Her colleagues don’t know why she got herself into that situation and this tragedy follows shortly after the apparent suicide attack of a prefect on another habitat.
Tom Dreyfus has a huge amount of experience but struggles to make sense of what appear to be terrorist attacks on various habitats in the Glitter Belt surrounding the planet Yellowstone. The interest of two artificial intelligences at war with each other is a surprise that disturbs him. Discovering that Ingvar Tench had a daughter makes him realize that he didn’t know his colleague very well.
“Machine Vendetta” concludes the trilogy of Prefect Tom Dreyfus’ investigations. The novels were written to tell independent stories but the protagonists are the same and the plots are developed by taking up elements of plots that were introduced previously. Alastair Reynolds provides the information needed to understand the development of the plot and the characters even if you only read this final novel, but in my opinion, you should read the whole trilogy.
During this new investigation of Panoplia, Tom Dreyfus is forced to deal with some decisions made in the past. First of all, he has second thoughts about having involved Ingvar Tench heavily in a previous investigation and fears that this turned her into a target. For this reason, he’s reluctant to involve his colleagues Thalia Ng and Sparver more than the bare minimum.
Alastair Reynolds once again explores the complex relationships between Panoplia and its inhabitants. Occasionally, the prefects find some friends but are more likely to encounter hostility despite being a police force created and managed by a direct democracy that runs the Glitter Belt.
As in the previous books, the author shows various facets of the political situation that exists in the thousands of the Glitter Belt’s habitats. There’s a remarkable diversity among the habitats and this is used to explore the problems that can emerge from the resulting complexity.
Under these conditions, it becomes even more difficult for the prefects to find the right trace to obtain progress in an investigation that involves different habitats. Not all the people they deal with are what they seem and in the background, there are always two artificial intelligences whose war is in a stalemate but you never know what they can try.
All this makes “Machine Vendetta” the culmination of the trilogy precisely because it explores the consequences of previous events and tells the different effects, even long-term, of decisions made in the previous books. It’s another common theme in this trilogy but for Tom Dreyfus, it seems that the time has come to deal with his choices. This increases the tension and the effect of the twists existing in the plot.
The novels of what was called the Prefect Dreyfus Emergency trilogy are detective stories but the setting in the fictional Revelation Space universe always shows the hard science fiction side. Technological elements always play an important role and in this book, there’s an appearance of the Ultras, cyborgs whose modifications make them very different from “natural” humans.
In my opinion, “Machine Vendetta” represents an excellent conclusion to a trilogy that mixes mystery and science fiction, also offering food for thought connected to the management of a direct democracy. For these reasons, I recommend reading the whole trilogy. It’s available on Amazon USA, UK, and Canada.
