The threat of the inhibitors reappears with all its danger in “Redemption Ark”, leading to the total extinction of humanity as it happened in the remote past with the rest of the intelligent cultures that tried to spread across the galaxy. The weapons contained in “Nostalgia for infinity, the ship of the ultras that already appeared in “Revelation Space”, continues to orbit the planet Resurgam, acquiring vital importance, to the point of provoking a bloody race in its pursuit to ensure its possession in the face of the coming war. Different factions of the divided humanity in war, will try to ensure its control, which will cause various space clashes where the author shows once again a prodigious imagination. Meanwhile the inhibitors, or the wolves, as they are known by the faction of the Combined, undertake in the solar system of Resurgam their quiet genocidal task of titanic proportions, which will lead to consider the evacuation of the planet, with scarce means and little cooperation from the government and the population.
I'm not sure about the universe being indifferent. We live in it and its laws are what we have adapted to. Conditions change here on Earth as well as round the Universe but we would still have to adapt to the same laws where ever we were. If we look at science now the new frontier isn't so much the material universe,but the mathematical. The visible could be described as a tidal wave of probabilities painting across a moving canvas (to mix metaphors). At this level we can ask is that tide indifferent or is it full of intent. On a human level I would suggest that its very hard to answer that question because we cant be inhuman. In other words even our attempts at having no intent are part of our intent. I'm reminded of the orange. It just happens to be the right size to be eaten and the pips spat around. Was it intent that produced a fruit that feeds others in order the orange itself can propagate? What of the rules that produced this convenient arrangement and the unlikely events needed to bring it about? Do these speak of intent? In my view there are two masters in the Religion-in-SF field today, Gene Wolfe and China Miéville. Miéville agrees about Wolfe. I don`t know if Wolfe thinks the same about Mieville. Strikingly Mieville is an atheist and Wolfe a Catholic. What I like about both of them is their openness to the literally infinite range of possibilities for the human, post-human and alien. The sense that the universe is not just stranger than we know but stranger than we can know. Which is also why I think Tarkovsky`s “Solaris” and “Stalker” are full of mystery - in both cases we are faced with something absolutely beyond anything we can even name let alone understand. That sense of astonishment and bewilderment can bring with it an understanding that our daily mundane existence is also astonishing and bewildering and full of infinite possibilities. In “Stalker and “Solaris there are no special effects at all. But the earth and the sea are transformed into alien places simply by being closely and minutely observed. And “Stalker” ends with a tiny, un-noticed, trivial miracle, an almost imperceptible intrusion of ??? God??? the Beyond??? Real Reality??? The Akien ??? into our world. Stalker seems to me to capture the sense of the absolute otherness which is required for a real concept of the Divine. It does this without any special effects or CGI. The film reminded me of the lines from Rilke`s Duino Elegies: “Denn das Schöne ist nichts als des Schrecklichen Anfang, den wir noch grade ertragen, und wir bewundern es so, weil es gelassen verschmäht, uns zu zerstören.” (For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror, which we are still just able to endure, and we are awed because it serenely disdains to destroy us.) The Stalker himself is a man like Jeremiah, a man broken by his encounter with something real but beyond words and names. The film shows us a postindustrial landscape literally transfigured by the fact of observation. I loved the fact that the aliens - if that is what they were - came and left and changed everything and said nothing. The final scene, the tiny un-noticed "miracle" performed by the Stalker`s child is a moment of pure perfection. Reynolds SF stands sort of between Wolfe and Miéville. Reynolds tries to create a universe full of mystery, and usually leaves it up to the reader to imagine the reality behind the veil. Religion in SF is a fun topic, and much misunderstood. Whether or not you see religion and science as at odds, SF is a fertile toolkit for exploring religious and religious-studies themes.
Alastair Reynolds successfully tries to create a universe full of mystery, and usually leaves it up to the reader to imagine the reality behind the veil. Probably the best Revelation Space novel of the bunch. Last but not least, we're faced with the unfathomable "doorstopper effect" that distorts space-time and causes novels of 300 or 400 pages ending up as huge tomes that barely fit on our shelves. In this case, the "doorstopper effect" was moderately strong and the novel ended with almost 800 pages (!). A shame.
