Revelation Space

AT LAST, put out the flags, I finished Revelation Space which I have trudged through for what feels like a decade, and includes reading the first 100 pages in March, laying it aside till June, and then reading a small bit each day since, till those 550 closely packed pages were finally completed. I would surface after reading some dull stuff for what seemed hours, and find I had only read 8 pages.

Astrophysicist Reynolds first novel is jam packed with awe-inspiring ideas, embracing a timescale of billions of years, interesting world building, futuristic tech - especially the weapons - and deep intrigue by billion year old beings with plans to prevent the development of intelligent species. There is hard science too in places, about black holes the blurring of the space time continuum etc, over my head of course. BUT, and its a big but, for me the whole thing was ruined by the dull, dry, plodding, pedestrian style which muted the most pyrotechnic developments and plot revelations.Obviously I was predisposed against it since I dont really enjoy hard SF, not really my cup of tea (I like my SF plot and character driven, with the SF themes there to be enhanced by the people and action. Hal Clement's Mission of Gravity is more to my taste than say, Tau Zero). The characters in RS were just flat, mostly unlikeable, and I just couldnt care less what happened to them. Add a really slow pace, then squashing mind-bending events and ideas in the last 20 pages, and it was just a constant irritation for me. One for the guys here, I think.