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: #104019 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-12
• Binding: Hardcover
• 416 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

Peerless
IF you don't like sci-fi, don't like tightly plotted detective fiction, don't like tension, drama and emotion in your books then you should read this anyway and see what you are missing.
You might go back to the Mr Men books afterwards but at least you will have read a masterpiece in your lifetime.

cracking adventure story
If there is a better SF writer than Alastair Reynolds currently working, I'd love to know who it is because he/she must be something extremely special.

This novel is a return to the universe of Revelation Space, and a very welcome return it is too. Reynolds has created a complex, consistent, fascinating background to his stories, richer than that produced by the vast majority of other SF writers.

This story is a cross between a detective novel and a page turning adventure yarn. It starts almost (almost gently) with an investigation of voting fraud (yes, voting fraud) but quickly ramps up into a complex multi-layered tale with potential civil war between factions of humanity, horrific robotic genocide, treachery, and insane artificial intelligences.

So if SF, and definitely hard SF, not fantasy, is your bag, this novel is definitely one for you. Highly recommended.

Space, space glorious space.
A prequel to Alastairs much loved Revelation Space novels and one that will more than satisfy the already established fans. As a novel for the uninitiated it opens the gateway to the later tales and will also present a tale that whilst it seems to repeat many themes from Reynolds other novel, will thrill and excite the reader into forgetting about these errors. As an already established fan I can see how Alastair's writing has changed with each novel produced, as such its always good to see how an author tackles an already established history generating a tale, that whilst we know the outcome, will still keep us guessing as to how things will happen to pass. A sign of a good writer.

If you want to know why you should read Reynolds novels over say Star Trek, well lets face it, Star Trek only has the moral best of humanilty, here you get to see mankind in all his honest glory as he has been throughout history and as he is today, a self serving person who may tow the line because it's the right thing to do but if a better offer comes along well who knows. To sum up this book is probably best thought of as a Space Soap Detective tale blending the best of each genre into one giant book of fun.