Elysium fire
Ten thousand city-state habitats orbit the planet Yellowstone, forming a near perfect democratic human paradise. But even utopia has a dark side. As members of the habitats start suddenly and randomly dying, a charismatic figure begins to sow insurrection, convincing a small but growing number of inhabitants to break away from the Glitter Band.
Stats for nerds
3recommend
5mentions
5people
2019–2026years
60% recommend40% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Reynolds' Aurora trilogy (of Revelation Space - Aurora Rising, Elysium Fire, Machine Vendetta) hits very close.
- I stumbled upon some great reddit posts this year with reading suggestions, and compiled my own "humanity is fucked" themed reading list, which included:
* Mercy of Gods by James S.A. Corey
* The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton
* Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
* Dawn by Octavia Butler
I then diverged from this list (I have more) to re-read (though it's not such a great divergence):
* If This Is a Man / The Truce by Primo Levi
Other books I enjoyed reading this year in no particular order:
* Tau Zero by Poul Anderson
* Machine Vendetta by Alastair Reynolds
* Elysium Fire by Alastair Reynolds
* Aurora Rising by Alastair Reynolds
* Shadow of the Silk Road by Colin Thubron (loved this)
* The Lord of the Rings (the god knows how many times re-read)
* The Centauri Device by M. John Harrison
* Future's Edge by Gareth Powell
* Blueshift by Joshua Dalzelle
* The Heart of a Continent by Francis Younghusband (I didn't quite manage to finish it, but it was a fascinating read nonetheless)
- I did not expect to see sci-fi here but I'd like to add anything in the Revelation Space universe by Alastair Reynolds. I just got done reading it for a 2nd time, and Elysium Fire for the 1st time and I'm in love with his style of writing and the universe he's created.
I just want more information about all the things like Ultras, Rust belt, Glitter band, Belle epoque and so forth.
In my opinion it's not as poetic as Dune but it's not action filled like The Expanse. The fascinating parts that make me keep reading are all the cultural and technical details he brings out between the story line.
- also a major plot in Elysium Fire by Alastair Reynolds
- Weird, the Wikipedia book order and the Goodreads order don't match...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revelation_Space_universe
https://www.goodreads.com/series/56392-revelation-space
When in doubt I'm heading over to the author's website...
http://www.alastairreynolds.com/novels/
His take on this is: " The reading order isn’t that critical, in my view, but it probably improves things to read REVELATION SPACE, REDEMPTION ARK and ABSOLUTION GAP in that sequence. THE PREFECT (AURORA RISING) and ELYSIUM FIRE may be read alone or jointly, but should best be read in the above order. CHASM CITY, as well as the collections DIAMOND DOGS, TURQUOISE DAYS and GALACTIC NORTH, can be read at any point."
