Absolution Gap

Alastair Reynolds

Apr 2020 · Sold by Orbit

About this ebook

In the third book of the legendary Revelation Space trilogy, the last remnants of humanity realize that forging an alliance with a greater and even more mysterious alien force may be their only chance for survival.
The Inhibitors were designed to eliminate any life form reaching a certain level of intelligence -- and they've targeted Humanity. War veteran Clavain and a ragtag group of refugees have fled 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.
And as she leads them to an apparently insignificant moon light-years away, it begins to dawn on Clavain and his companions that to beat one enemy, it may be necessary to forge an alliance with something much worse . . .
"Absolution Gap is a good as it gets, and should solidify Alastair Reynolds' reputation as one of the best hard SF writers in the field." -- SF Site

Ratings and reviews

I enjoyed the other two books but this goes way too deep on a story line which offers no resolution to the trilogy whatsoever. The series has so many fun sci-fi concepts in it but it just stops all of a sudden at the end of this book and then tries to resolve the major plot of the entire trilogy in a brief epilogue. I don't write a lot of reviews and I am pretty easy to please, but this was a uniquely unsatisfying and abrupt ending. I'm not sure I've read another series that built so many interesting ideas up and then just abandoned them all so completely.

About the author

Alastair Reynolds was born in Barry, South Wales, in 1966. He studied at Newcastle and St. Andrews Universities and has a Ph.D. in astronomy. he stopped working as an astrophysicist for the European Space Agency to become a full-time writer. Revelation Space and Pushing Ice were shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award; Revelation Space, Absolution Gap, Diamond Dogs, and Century Rain were shortlisted for the British Science Fiction Award, and Chasm City won the British Science Fiction Award.