Alastair Reynolds

Ce roman court d'Alastair Reynold est constitué de deux parties bien distinctes : la première concerne un astronaute nommé John Renfrew se trouvant dans une base sur la planète Mars et affrontant la disparition de l'humanité décimée par un virus militarisé, virus qui décime également la base martienne, le laissant seul survivant de l'espèce humaine. Après quelques mois, il décède après un accident de rover et commence alors la seconde partie où des extraterrestres, arrivés sur Mars trois cents ans après, regénère le corps de l'astronaute qu'ils ont trouvé desséché. Ils améliorent son corps et John décide de se lancer dans une quête de savoir concernant le temps et l'espace.
Sans être un chef d'œuvre, ce roman court est assez bien ficelé et se lit agréablement.… (mer)

Conclusion to the Prefect Dreyfus science fiction police procedurals set as pre-cursors to Revelation Space. The Glitter band is still running at the height of it's glory - although the cracks are starting to show. Some of those cracks are being forced wider as the two battling AIs Auora and the Clockmaker attempt to defeat each other and take control of the vast computational space this would make available to them. Auroa is fearful, she has had prior warning of the incoming plague, and is desperate to retain her ability of 'live'.

The Prefects have mostly been able to concentrate on local affairs as the AIs are confined to network traffic. The story opens somewhat confusingly with reference to past events not explicitly detailed anywhere (unless I've missed a short story somewhere?), but eventually enough is referred to for teh details to become clear. Two Prefects have committed rather unusual suicide/crimes, and in a force of over 1000 this is perhaps not unusual, but they were in such a manner as to inflame local tensions, and so Dreyfus wonders if there was a link. If you pull on enough strings even deeply buried secrets can be revealed in time. A glimmer there and a shape of a story starts to appear. But when manipulative AI is involved can you trust anything?

There were a few aspects I didn't like - the eventual motif seems to be a repeat from Fire, which is disappointing. And as with all of this series, there isn't enough worldbuilding to be truly great. Out of 10000 habitats we mostly see only pedestrian ones, when there could be an almost infinite variety. The lemurs were cute though. Somehow having nuclear weapons as the ultimate option in an age so far advanced seems dull.

The ending is quite clear that there will be no more Dreyfus emergencies. However I still want to know the full story of the melding plague and there is space for that to be written.… (mer)