On the plus side, this book and this series has a fascinating setting, interesting characters, and some plausible-seeming science. On the minus side, this sequel's characters just didn't sparkle like the premiere novel, nor did the plot and pace seem as well wrought. Not too sure if I'll continue with the series (even though a week ago I was talking it up to friends). ( )

I tried, i really did, but i just can't take any more and i've given up on this stupid trilogy.   It's all too much young adult for me and, worse than that, it's not even very good young adult.   It's just totally unbelievable nonsense.

A child is playing silly games with grown ups, the grown ups know the child is playing silly games with them but they keep letting the child have its way even though the child is probably going to get them killed.   Yeah, right!

Alastair should stick with what he does best, sci-fi for intelligent grown ups.

So, unfortunately, my quest to read everything by Alastair Reynolds has come to an end.   I'm not reading the rest of this trilogy unless someone pays me £1000.

So, skipping ahead, the next book in Alastair's literary arsenal is Permafrost.   Let's hope he's back to normal and it's as good as his usual stuff.

Bye for now. ( )

Felt less like a quest than the first book. And definitely a middle book of a trilogy -- the story ends abruptly. The details about the occupations and the coins themselves was intriguing. ( )

Not bad, but not great. Trouble is I'll have to read the third in the series just to see how it plays out! ( )

The second book of the Revenger series.
Arafura and Adrana Ness now command Bosa Senen's ship, and renamed it the Revenger at the end of the first book in the series. Paladin has been installed as the ship's brain. Strambli is injured by a ghostie knife while they worked to disguise the ship, and she becomes septic with a wound infection (although how the infectious organism was alive in outer space is hard to understand), out of ion fuel supply, and sailing with only five crew from the previous ship that Adrafura joined. They are pursued by two ships commissioned to hunt Bosa Senen, and in the course of attempting to disable the rigging of one of the ships manage to blow up the other. The pursuers are enraged. The Revenger makes it to a wheelword, Wheel Strizzardly, that is controlled by a thug, Glimmery. Arafura gave the crew some choices, but wanted this world because there is a character from Bosa's past hiding on the wheel. She wants him to find the Miser, the asteroid where Bosa deposited her quoins. The Revenger finds the asteroid, and brings together quoins worth trillions, but having gathered so many quoins in one room, the quoins rearrange their values throughout the universe. This ruins many rich people and banks, and enriches some of the poor. The Ness sisters are thought to have done this deliberately, and are now universally condemned ( )