Eversion, Alastair Reynolds

I enjoy reading books, and I've read a lot of them over the years. Often when I'm looking for a new book to read, it can be hard to get a quick, balanced review. Either people really love the book, usually because it's by their favorite author, or they really hate it for some reason.

Either way, the review doesn't tell you as much about the book as it does about the reviewer.

"Is this a book that I want to read?" 

That's all we want to know, and here I hope to be able to answer that question, by imagining what other people might get out of the book.

As a teacher, I often have to choose or recommend books for other people, and it's not really important if I enjoyed it. What matters is if it will be something that other people can enjoy reading.

So for each short review, I will finish by trying to describe the people who will, or won't want to read the book.

Eversion, Alastair Reynolds

Reynolds is most famous for his Revelation space stories, though he has some other works that are just as good. In recent years, he's been leaning more towards young adult kind of content, or general adventure than the space opera of his earlier novels. Of course, he's a writer, and he has to write a certain number of books each year to pay the bills, just like anyone.

This story feels a bit like what were called in the 1950s a "quota quickie". In the UK after the war, Cinemas had to make sure that a percentage of the films they showed were domestic productions. For local film companies this was a godsend, because it let them compete with the foreign market. But they had trouble keeping up with demand. Many films of this period were made cheaply and quickly, to fill the quota. That doesn't mean they were all bad. Hammer Horror films emerged from this era, with the company being saved from bankruptcy by the policy. But it gave all the films a particular flavor.

This feels a bit like a writer writing to fill their quota. It's a serviceable story. It's got a good twist, though the seasoned sci-fi fan will see it coming a mile away. His style of writing is good, and always keeps me glued to the page. I went through the book in two sittings. But it lacks some of the wider perspective of his other stories, and some sections did feel like filler. I wanted to hurry up and get to the good bit. At the end, I was a bit disappointed by how neatly  the story was wrapped up. It felt a little too self-contained. I almost wished for some lose ends.

Who will like this book:

I think I can assume that any regular fan of Reynolds will enjoy this. If you're someone who wants to introduce other readers to his work, as a fan yourself, then this might be a good entry point. The story is generic enough to be understood by anyone, and it feels a bit like it could work as a movie script. The stand-alone nature of the narrative works well in this respect. If you're a regular sci-fi fan who hasn't ready any of his books, and have a gap in your reading list, this would fit in there.

Who wouldn't like this book:

Obviously people who don't like the genre. That probably goes without saying. It's unashamedly classic sci-fi, and if you don't like that, you won't like this either. 

This book also fits into the sub-genre of British Sci-fi. It's a genre which is sometimes a little romantic about the past; sailing ships, God save the Queen, the age of exploration, the faded glories of empire and so on. The genre actually subverts these things, but if you're not aware of that, it can seem like it is glorifying the past. 

If you're not British, or you're one of those people who has recently started learning about history, and has found out that the past was really, really horrible, and how deeply involved the British were in that horror, then you might find this story-- and others in the genre-- hard to endure. 

Reynolds rarely wastes any energy condemning anyone, and even his villains (when they are even present) are hard to hate. If you desire a strong moral contrast in your stories, with a clear divide between good and evil, then this won't satisfy that hunger.