The Prefect - Alastair Reynolds

Even though it is set in the Revelation Space universe there is a sense in The Prefect that this is Reynolds in sci-fi pulp form rather than the hard literary science-fiction and expansive scale of the other books in the series or of the remarkable Pushing Ice. It does at least mean that the book is certainly more accessible, rarely faltering in pace and managing to hold the reader throughout.

The plot is not an intricate one, although it does initially start out as one kind of police investigation by the Prefect Dreyfus of Panoply (the law-enforcement system or at least the authorities in charge of the upholding of the democratic process of the ten thousand habitats of the Glitter Band), looking into the destruction of one of the habitats and over 900 people and finding that behind it there is a threat on another scale entirely.

With megalomaniacal computer entities, killer robots, invading forces threatening to sweep across the whole of the Glitter Band, internal rivalry, espionage and sabotage, there are plenty of challenges for Drefus and his associate Thalia Ng to face and lots of plot-holes for Reynolds to plug with deus ex-machina devices, but this is still entertaining stuff, if not Reynolds at his best.

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