A review by wyrmbergmalcolm
Elysium Fire by Alastair Reynolds
5.0
This is the second book in this police-procedural story and does follow on from the first book in many ways; I highly recommend reading Aurora Rises first. I did and am very glad of it. I also recommend reading the short story: Open and Shut which fills the gap between books one and two - it's freely available to read on the internet. What I did find a curious choice was that, despite how integral book one was to certain parts of the story, the world-building in book two was much more forgiving than in book one. What I mean by that is that certain aspects of this futuristic environment that are introduced in book one are not really explained until book two. Quickmatter, for example, was referenced several times in book one but with no explanation as to what it actually was. By the end of the book, I had fathomed enough to at least understand what it does. However, book two takes the time to provide details on its operation and uses. This is the same for many aspects. This isn't a negative thing necessarily, but just odd that that level of detail wasn't in book one with perhaps a small reminder in book two.
Right, on to the story. The story bounced between three separate areas: investigation into the deaths; the separatist issue; and two boys hunting virtual animals. I must confess, I initially struggled with the parts with the boys as it seemingly had nothing to do with the main story points for the vast majority of the book. Thankfully those segments were short and not too frequent and did eventually become significant.
The rest of the book was fully engaging with the satisfying progressions and red herrings that good investigative stories contain. There were some nice surprises leading on from book one that helped give the two books cohesion.
Dreyfus, Thalia and Sparver, the three Panoply agents investigating the cases were extremely likable and I enjoyed the role reversal for Thalia and Sparver.
Fingers crossed for a book three.
Right, on to the story. The story bounced between three separate areas: investigation into the deaths; the separatist issue; and two boys hunting virtual animals. I must confess, I initially struggled with the parts with the boys as it seemingly had nothing to do with the main story points for the vast majority of the book. Thankfully those segments were short and not too frequent and did eventually become significant.
The rest of the book was fully engaging with the satisfying progressions and red herrings that good investigative stories contain. There were some nice surprises leading on from book one that helped give the two books cohesion.
Dreyfus, Thalia and Sparver, the three Panoply agents investigating the cases were extremely likable and I enjoyed the role reversal for Thalia and Sparver.
Fingers crossed for a book three.