Product Description

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: a covert takeover bid by a shadowy figure, Aurora (who may once have been human but certainly isn't now), who believes the people of the Glitter Band should no longer be in charge of their own destiny. Dreyfus discovers that to save something precious, you may have to destroy part of it.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3475 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

Mark Yon, SFFWORLD.COM
"An enjoyable novel which shows Reynolds growth as a writer. Though good before, I think this is one his best novels to date."

Review
"Combines space-roaming adventure with a solid detective story. Fast-paced and inventive, this may be Reynolds' best yet." (Lisa Tuttle THE TIMES )

"THE PREFECT is hugely entertaining and inventive, a compelling fusion of the detective novel and a brilliantly constructed vision of the future. Cracking stuff." (DEATHRAY )

"An enjoyable novel which shows Reynolds growth as a writer. Though good before, I think this is one his best novels to date." (Mark Yon SFFWORLD.COM )

"Politics, ambition and betrayal against the backdrop of Reynolds' Revelation Space universe." (Anthony Browne STARBURST )

"There's enough inventiveness here to keep you entertained for a good while." (SANDSTORM REVIEWS )

"In The Prefect Alastair Reynolds executes an enjoyable and extremely fast-paced return to the universe that made his name. The story develops nicely and explodes into a furious page-turning pace in its second half that barely lets up. The Prefect is Reynolds' best novel since at least Redemption Ark, and is an engrossing read." (THE WERTZONE )

"This is a book about freedom, its limits and how much liberty we should sacrifice in the name of safety - pertinent themes suggesting a new political edge to Reynolds' work." (Jonathan Wright SFX )

"A welcome return to his Revelation Space universe." (EDGE )

SANDSTORM REVIEWS
"There's enough inventiveness here to keep you entertained for a good while."

Customer Reviews

Solid entry to the series, possibly a good place for beginners...
It is the year 2427. The place is the Glitter Band, ten thousand space habitats circling the planet Yellowstone, the golden heart of human space where a multitude of different cultures meet and trade, and a waystop for huge lighthuggers as they slowly traverse the distances between the stars at speeds just below that of light. This is the universe of Revelation Space, Alastair Reynolds' critically-acclaimed gothic space opera which has now extended across five novels, two novellas and a short story collection. The Prefect is a stand-alone addition to this excellently-realised future history, taking place approximately a century before the events of Chasm City and Revelation Space itself.

Whilst the planet Yellowstone and its biggest settlement, Chasm City, deal with their own affairs, it falls to the prefects of Panoply to police the vast Glitter Band and its 100 million citizens, who practice the ultimate form of democracy, Demarchism. Every minute dozens of decisions, large and small, are put to the public vote and the people of the Glitter Band spend much of their time engrossed in politics, employing a form of VR known as Abstraction to talk to one another, or choosing to lose themselves in fantastical reflections of the real world. The greatest crime in the Glitter Band is an attempt to deny the will of the people. [...][...]And, as this is a mystery novel, to say any more of the plot would threaten to indulge in spoilers. Suffice to say that the links between The Prefect and the other Revelation Space novels are subtle and numerous. The Prefect in fact occupies a position within its larger series framework similar to the position Steven Erikson's novel Midnight Tides occupies in his Malazan Book of the Fallen sequence: generally a standalone novel, but with equal arguments in favour of reading the book before the others (events in the other novels are clarified by information provided in The Prefect) or afterwards (when the reader understands exactly what will become of this society in the future).

Reynolds is on good form here, although arguably he fails to recapture the immediacy of his finest work, Chasm City. The Prefect is a somewhat more straightforward novel. Although there are several startling, late revelations and plot twists, the reader is in possession of most of the facts reasonably early in the book. Tom Dreyfus also remains a somewhat less complex protagonist then regular Reynolds readers may be used to, but as usual the author has a few aces up his sleeve which force the reader to reassess the character during the novel's conclusion.

In The Prefect Alastair Reynolds executes an enjoyable and extremely fast-paced return to the universe that made his name. The story develops nicely and explodes into a furious page-turning pace in its second half that barely lets up. At the same time Reynolds' ability to conjure up vivid imagery remains intact (one plotline is not for the squeamish or for anyone with a fear of knives), as does his assured grasp of his universe and the remarkable cultures and ideas that make it up. The book is not without its flaws - in particular, those who have already read Absolution Gap and know of Reynolds' fondness for ambiguous endings may be better-prepared for the conclusion than others - and there is perhaps a feeling that we are being set up for a sequel at the end, but these are fairly minor concerns. The Prefect is Reynolds' best novel since at least Redemption Ark, and is an engrossing read.

Reynolds has learnt some new tricks...
For me this is without a doubt Reynolds' best work to date. It has the same gritty-space-operate flavour as previous Revelation Space novels, but the pace of the plot is considerably higher and there is less time spent on long introspectives. The Glitter Band pre-melding-plague is a great setting for those who know the series, and the book follows mainly just two plot-strands tracking Dreyfus and his deputy Thalia, so there's not too much to keep tabs on. Overall it reminds me a little of Ian Banks' Player of Games or David Brin's Startide Rising, which is a high standard indeed.

Glitters
Once again Alastair Reynolds returns to his "Revelation Space" universe and is a glorious read. Field Prefect Tom Dreyfus is an agent of Panoply, an agency that ensures and protects the voting rights of the residents of the Glitter Band, ten thousand habitats which orbit the planet Yellowstone in the year 2427. When a habitat is attacked Panoply sends their best agent and his team to investigate and once he begins he will not stop until he finds the truth.

Reynolds further adds to his menagerie of characters and expands his colourful universe, having read all of Reynolds's other "Revelation Space" books its great to see an era that is in the golden age of man kind the but never been visited.

The Prefect stands well as a stand alone book and if you have read the other books in the series it adds another dimension. More please Mr Reynolds!