Reddit mentions of Revelation Space

Spoilers for Revelation Space series of books

In the Revelation Space books by Alistair Reynolds, there's a race of machines that wipe out all sentient life whenever that life becomes advanced enough to trigger them. In order for the trigger to happen, the Inhibitors, as they are called, leave traps all over the galaxy in different places and forms where only an advanced space-faring race could find them. When triggered, the Inhibitors wake up from their sleep-state and destroy that race completely before going back into hiding and waiting.

It is revealed that they do this because in a few billion years the Andromeda (or other) galaxy is going to collide with the Milky Way and the resulting collision period will pretty much pose a threat everything. The Inhibitors, actually very much fond of life but not sentient life, "Inhibit" the sentient races and keeps places of life constrained to single solarsystems. This way they can move or shield or otherwise protect these areas of life when the collision comes.

As has happened many times in the past, any time a race spreads out (or, very rarely, more than one at a time) they become too far spread and too unwieldy to protect, potentially endangering this future rescue operation and therefore must be dealt with.

All that said, you can kind of see why the reveals for ME and ME2 were a little less powerful of a hit for me.

They are awesome books that I completely recommend and can be had for cheap (or even try a library).

Since the top /r/scifi post right now is about Alastair Reynolds, maybe you can try his books. I think his books are one of the best in the Space Opera genre, and written very well.

You can start with his most popular series, Revelation Space, but his other books are stellar (ha) as well, like House of Suns, or Century Rain.

Alastair Reynolds, astrophysicist, dark hard sci-fi author. Start with Revelation Space

Two series I can recommend off the top of my head, both of which I couldn't put down during the first readthrough and never get tired of re-reading:

• Tad Williams' "Otherland" quadrilogy
  
  
• Alastair Reynold's "Revelation Space" universe series (and subsequent novellas)
  
  And if you want a single book to tide you over while searching, the 832-page The War of the Flowers (also by Williams) was a riveting read.
  
  *edited for linkage

In case you haven't done so already, you should give the space revelation triology from Alastair Reynolds a chance. It presents a detailed, yet broad outlook on humanity, taking place in the next couple of hundred of years. Alastair has a lot of interesting ideas and presents them in a great way.

I've finished the big 5 novels and am currently reading the short stories and even though there's not a lot of time for the story to unfold - I'm still sitting on the edge 'cause it's so exciting.

http://www.amazon.com/Revelation-Space-Alastair-Reynolds/dp/0441009425/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1394833904&sr=8-3&keywords=alastair+reynolds

If you want some space opera that has a lot of roots in hard sci-fi, give Alastair Reynolds a shot. Reynolds is an astrophysicist, so the series has a fair bit of hard science in with its fantastic futurism. The best example is the lack of Faster than Light travel in his spacecraft. I'd suggest starting with Revalation Space.

> The sun killer arrives twice every generation looking for our people.

Could this possibly work as the first line? This line coming first might set up the impending sense of demise that your great, last line "I think again about how it’s likely the three of us will die." works towards. I think it might make for nice bookends to this piece.

Also, and this isn't any fault of yours, but I just got through reading Revelation Space and there is a nefarious "character" called Sun Stealer that is used all through the book as a malevolent force. Your entity called Sun Killer really reminded me of this since they seem a little bit similar. Might be something to think about since the book is quite famous and other sci-fi fans might also be aware of a slight similarity.

I guess the only other thing I noticed was that you start off with some descriptive action but then as it continues we get some back story that's hard to feel the weight of given that all we have experienced so far is a rock slide. I suppose what I'm not feeling is the power of the sun killer because we're only being told about it, and not shown.

"Show, don't tell" is the #1 rule of writing. Any chance you get to show something and not tell us about something is where the writer earns his paycheck. By showing us you are letting us, the readers, do the work of imagining the events and characters of the story. But when we are told we are forced to have to just sit in the passenger seat and not be allowed to let our imaginations run with your words.

EDIT : Show, don't tell is a really hard rule to abide so don't sweat it too much since you will have to tell from time to time and depending on the story - it's just something to be aware of.

Still though, I really like the blunt and heartfelt last line "I think again about how it’s likely the three of us will die." There is such an inevitable finality to this and if you can link this up tighter with the character and the power of the sun killer then you'll have gold here.

This sounds very similar to a something in Revelation Space. I started reading this trilogy because it sounded like it had a similar plot. I've made it through two of the books and I really enjoyed them. Maybe this is kind of a reference to that?

Hull Zero Three by Greg Bear

Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds - this is a /r/scifi favourite but in this case, at least for this book, it's a very similar setting to the original Alien

Sounds like a weapon from Relevation Space.

[edit] For those who don't know what that is, it's a great SF book. There is a space ship containing dozen of mysterious kida evil half-self-aware doomsday devices built by advanced human race which is no longer around. SLAM seems to fit right in :P

The Revelation Space series by Alistair Reynolds. It follows a cast of characters who are investigating the disappearance of an ancient alien race on a planet several light years from Earth. People, pigs and primates all work together to avoid certain deeeath.

You went to Verblijf Op De Boerderij in Malempre, Belgium for some pancakes and ice cream (because Belgian pancakes are fancy.)

This is my book. :)

So long as we're suggesting books, give this a try.

Revelation Space - Alastair Reynolds

Sounds interesting. And is available for dirt cheap.