Redemption Ark
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Redemption Ark cover
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| Author | Alastair Reynolds |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Chris Moore |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Revelation Space |
| Genre | Hard sci-fi novel |
| Publisher | Gollancz |
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Publication date
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31 December 2002 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover and Paperback) |
| Pages | 576 |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 48236275 |
| 823/.92 22 | |
| LC Class | PR6068.E95 R43 2002 |
| Preceded by | Chasm City |
| Followed by | Absolution Gap |
Redemption Ark is a 2002 hard science fiction space opera novel by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds. It is the second book in the Revelation Space series (the third including Chasm City, a standalone story), and it continues the story of Nevil Clavain begun in the short stories "Great Wall of Mars" and "Glacial". The novel was named "Best Science Fiction Novel of the Year" by Chronicle magazine.
The plot of Redemption Ark involves the pursuit of the "hell class" weapons stored on the ship Nostalgia for Infinity (introduced in Revelation Space). In Reynolds's universe, humanity has split into several factions. These include the Conjoiners, humans who have incorporated technology that allows them not only to share thoughts, but to enhance many aspects of their existence (such as vision enhancements, pain blocking, fastidious memory collection and recall etc.). The other featured faction is the Demarchists, baseline humans who originally practiced a form of decentralised mass-participatory democracy, but whose civilisation was all but destroyed by a nanotechnology plague. These factions, allies before the plague, are, in the time frame of the novel, at war with each other, with a Conjoiner victory imminent.
The novel takes place around the planets Yellowstone and Resurgam, in two story lines which converge near the climax of the novel.
The novel begins in the year 2605, where Skade has been tasked with investigating a Conjoiner ship that has returned to the Conjoiner headquarters, the Mother Nest. It is revealed early on that Skade is a Conjoiner woman who appears to be in touch with secret circles of control within the theoretically egalitarian Conjoiners society. In the ship, she discovers Galiana, the original founder of the Conjoiners, who left Conjoiner space decades previously on an exploration mission. In space, she encountered the Inhibitors, who have unleashed an agent into her ships which has taken control of it and killed her crew. It now controls her mind as well. Galiana requests that Skade kill her, but Skade only places her in suspended animation in the hope that she can be helped in the future.
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