Absolution gap
by Alastair Reynolds, John Lee · first published 2003
30% recommend70% neutral
They are ancient killing machines, designed to locate and destroy any life form reaching a certain level of intelligence. Now, stirred from eons of sleep, the Inhibitors have descended on their latest target: Humanity." "The first wave of Inhibitors has sent war veteran Clavain and a ragtag group of refugees into hiding. Their leadership is faltering, and their situation is growing more desperate. But their little colony has just received an unexpected visitor: an avenging angel with the power to lead mankind to safety - or draw down its darkest enemy." As she leads them to an apparently insig
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…Tolkien (enjoyed the audio production from BBC radio) 7. The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories - Ken Liu (enjoyed several of the short stories very much) 8. Revelation Space/Chasm City/Redemption Ark/Absolution Gap - Alastair Reynolds (love the series but it is long!) 9. Executive Orders - Tom Clancy (not my favorite Clancy book but still fun) 10. Rainbow Six - Tom Clancy (also not my favorite Clancy book, a…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?” ↗Revelation Space, Redemption Ark, Absolution Gap, and Inhibitor Phase by Alastair Reynolds for the main arc.
on “A Danish political party led by an AI” ↗Absolution Gap[1] has a plot device similar to this. If you like hard sci-fi, Reynolds belongs in your queue. 1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolution_Gap
on “A Mercury Rover Could Explore the Planet by Sticking to the Terminator” ↗…Paradox [1]. On that note, another commenter mentions a KSR book that has a city moving around a latitude to keep a certain place relative to the Sun. Alastair Reynolds certainly had that earlier (in Absolution Gap). I'm also reminded of Iain M. Banks' Outside Context Problem [2] in a number of different ways. The first is that space seems, from the human perspective, to be impossible big with even the nearest…
on “Mercury Colonization” ↗Haha thanks for the correction. I forget that I need to take care with definitions when it comes to physics concepts. I just finished reading Redemption Ark, that leaves Absolution Gap and The Prefect. Only a good 2000+ pages to go!
on “What happens to chirality at relativistic velocities?” ↗Not exactly the same, but Alastair Reynolds has an idea in some of his books (e.g. Absolution gap) of religions genetically engineering viruses that literally infect people and give them religious experiences that match up to their religion. One of the characters has been infected by one, but remains…
on ““Dune” (The Movie), Annotated” ↗Argh I'm halfway through Absolution Gap now, and there's a quote from the bloody epilogue halfway down the page! Managed to avoid reading most of it fortunately.
on “What could make a star green?” ↗Sounds like Absolution Gap and/or a less annoying version of the Mortal Engines movie (please tell me the book was better than this).
on “NASA plans to launch a spacecraft to Titan” ↗…website... http://www.alastairreynolds.com/novels/ His take on this is: " The reading order isn’t that critical, in my view, but it probably improves things to read REVELATION SPACE, REDEMPTION ARK and ABSOLUTION GAP in that sequence. THE PREFECT (AURORA RISING) and ELYSIUM FIRE may be read alone or jointly, but should best be read in the above order. CHASM CITY, as well as the collections DIAMOND DOGS, TURQUOISE…
on “Ask HN: Are books worth it?” ↗Reminds me of the book Absolution Gap
on “NASA plans to launch a spacecraft to Titan” ↗