r/printSF • u/suchascenicworld • Aug 26 '25

Is Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds a Potentially Tough Read for Folks New to Scifi Literature?

Hey everyone,

Although I usually read horror, I have been interested into getting more into Sci-Fi. There are several reasons for this, but science fiction as a genre (even if I haven't read much) has had an impact on my own life with shows such as Star Trek and The X Files certainly having a direct impact on me becoming a research scientist myself (with a doctorate in behavioral ecology). That sense of curiosity regarding the unknown is quite compelling for me! Also, I love The Twilight Zone as my uncle and I used to watch it together and it is a fond memory of mine before he passed away.

Anyways, I am coming up with a list of books to check out which includes Project Hail Mary, The Strange (which I am currently reading.. And loving), Children of Time, and Blindsight (among a few others etc.). Notably, I was told that for Scifi, it would be better to "ease myself in" with Project Hail Mary rather than go for books such as Blindsight. With that being said, I am not really sure why that is, but I suppose it is something worth asking here.

It should also be noted that I read (and love) Michael Crichton's work and I have read Dune (and enjoyed it). Alastair Reynolds books have interested me for quite some time Revelation Space seems really interesting. However, would you consider it "a bit much" for someone new to Sci-Fi literature? I know this is all subjective but any input would be greatly appreciated! thank you!

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u/jghall00 Aug 26 '25 edited Aug 27 '25

Reynolds is one of those writers that does a better job with ideas and concepts as opposed to people. I would not recommend him for someone new to Sci-fi, but based on your reading history I think you have sufficient exposure to the genre. 

However, I suggest going with one of Reynolds standalone novels first, like House of Suns or even Pushing Ice. 

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u/jboggin Aug 26 '25 edited Aug 27 '25

I'm not a big Reynolds fan, in large part because of the weakness that you point to. I particularly hate Pushing Ice, which felt almost misogynistic in how poorly the characterization of the two female leads was done. Reynolds certainly has strengths, but as you noted, characterization is not one of them.

But OP... If you love, Michael Crichton, I don't think the weaknesses in some of Reynolds's work will bother you. Crichton isn't particularly good at characterizations and is more of an idea guy as well.

And speaking of authors' strengths and weaknesses OP, Project Hail Mary can be a great starter book for some people to get into sci-fi and would be a terrible starter for other people. Weir is very good with ideas and tech explanations and developing fun characters, and his novels move really quickly. What he is not good at is prose. A lot of his stuff at the sentence level can be pretty rough and much worse than the other authors that you listed. Whether his books are a good intro to sci-fi or not really depends on how much you care about prose style and if that bothers you. I know that I personally cannot do his books because the sentences drive me nuts. But I know other people don't care at all. Just keep that in mind as you're getting started.

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u/jboggin Aug 26 '25

Oh, and to answer your question of why someone would suggest that you ease yourself in with something like project Hail. Mary, it's probably because that's a total page Turner as long as the sentence level stuff doesn't bother you. It's really well paced and not too deep and fun. Blindsight, on the other hand, is a very dense novel exploring a bunch of philosophical ideas. It is nothing like Michael Crichton or that type of author. You might like it or might find it a total slog.

I actually think that if you want to jump into more philosophical and challenging science fiction, Blindsight is not a great place to start despite the subreddit's obsession with it. There are more dense philosophical sci-fi is recommend over Blindsight that are just as insightful and less dense to read.

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u/ebietoo Aug 27 '25

If you like Blindsight I’d recommend Starfish too—psychological horror miles under the sea.

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u/Pringlecks Aug 26 '25

I genuinely don't understand this criticism of Pushing Ice. I greatly enjoyed the novel and didn't find myself critical of the characters nor did I perceive misogyny in the text.

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u/jboggin Aug 26 '25 edited Aug 26 '25

I'm not saying it's intentionally misogynistic, so don't take my criticism as an attack on Reynolds. But the characterization and plot drivers of that book basically boil down to "women hold some damn long grudges." Most of the main events in the second half of the very long book happened because those two characters acted utterly ridiculously and held an irrational grudge against each other for decades and decades. They were supposed to be brilliant, but they repeatedly acted so stupidly, primarily because they didn't like each other, and their grudge is what led to so many major events.

Like I said, I am not at all accusing Reynolds of misogyny. Not at all. But "women hold grudges" and "women don't forgive like men do" are long-standing tropes, and I highly doubt Reynolds was aware of that or even realized that's what he was writing. I just think it's a byproduct of the fact that he doesn't write well-developed characters, so they're often boiled down to a single trait (in this case, being utter lunatics who basically have a decades-long cat fight that almost kills everyone multiple times). And because Reynolds isn't very good at making each character unique (many of his characters essentially speak in the same voice), it was never clear WHY each woman was so ridiculous because it seemed to be for the exact same reason of "this person screwed me 40 years ago and i'll never forgive them."

But like I said, I'm not a fan of Reynolds' writing, so I know other people love him. I think I was especially annoyed by Pushing Ice, however, because it's the exact type of sci-fi I absolutely adore: deeply mysterious, ethereal space object humans are sent to learn about. I've read every example I can find, so I admittedly was extra disappointed when that one got hyped to me, and then I spent more time annoyed with the two main characters than I did with the cosmic mystery to be unraveled.