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Science Fiction Fantasy Blog

Our Discussion of The Prefect by Alastair Reynolds

Tom Dreyfus is a Prefect, a policeman of sorts, and one of the best. His force is Panoply, and his beat is the multi-faceted utopian society of the Glitter Band, that vast swirl of space habitats orbiting the planet Yellowstone. These days, his job is his life.

A murderous attack against a Glitter Band habitat is nasty, but it looks to be an open-and-shut case - until Dreyfus starts looking under some stones that some very powerful people would really rather stayed unturned. What he uncovers is far more serious than mere gruesome murder... Goodreads

The Prefect stands on its own, although it is part of the Revelation Space Universe… we are looking forward to the sequel Elysium Fire due in January 2018.

Below are a sampling of our comments:

  • Reynolds is a master-plotter and he gets everything right.
  • I liked the mystery aspect and the cool technology.
  • I liked the character of Thalia, the plot, the characters, and the world.
  • It was a classic, fast-moving space opera. Although it was set in an alien universe, the character names were very conventional, like “Tom.”
  • I’m trying to picture the hyperpig…
  • Dreyfus was a stand-up guy. He didn’t kill the conjoiner and she then rigged the whiphound to spare him – karma.
  • Gaffney was complicated because he believed what he was doing was right.
  • It would have better if we’d been kept guessing about who was behind things longer.
  • Losing abstraction for the habitats is like if we lost internet.
  • I struggled to figure out the connections between the different groups – the other books in the series shed extra light on the world – “The Eighty” event carries though all the books.
  • There was a bit of the Star Wars problem where all the characters are connected to everyone else – less than 6 degrees of separation.

Please add any additional thoughts or comments you may have about The Prefect. We gave this title the codes SOP, ROB, COP, IMM, POL & HRO with an average rating of 4.2.

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