History Literature / RevelationSpaceSeries

** There is also another ShoutOut implicit in the title, to DavidBowie's album ''Diamond Dogs'' (which was based loosely on Creator/GeorgeOrwell's ''[[Literature/NineteenEightyFour 1984]]'').

** It doesn't end there: Reynolds is a self-confessed fan of 70s and 80s music, and it shows... A gas giant in the same system as Yellowstone (Epsilon Eridani) is called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangerine_Dream Tangerine Dream]]. Pre-Plague Yellowstone's ring of orbital habitats is called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glitter_Band The Glitter Band]]. And the very name of the [[StarfishAlien Pattern Jugglers]] may be a reference to a verse from KingCrimson's well-known song ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53q2YuKGejc In The Court Of The Crimson King]]''.

-->Hirz nodded. '[[IndianaJones The dream with the hat, right?]]'

* ConsummateLiar: [[spoiler: Aura/Rashmika Els in ''Absolution Gap'']]

** ''Revelation Space'' and ''Chasm City'' show a new, monastic-esque faith - the Ice Mendicants - whose clergy and members are dedicated to protecting, helping or healing people who've awakened from [[HumanPopsicle reefersleep after an interstellar journey]] (particularly those who were less lucky). They're [[GeniusBonus sort of like]] the original version of TheKnightsHospitallers during TheCrusades, before they became more of a WarriorMonk order. Also, they're one of the few new religions that are closer to SaintlyChurch rather than CorruptChurch.

* FiveManBand
** Hard to define, but in general:

* FlyingCar: The volantors of pre-plague Chasm City. Appear explicitly in the opening chapter of ''Diamond Dogs''.
* ForgottenSuperweapon:
** The first ''Revelation Space'' novel features PoweredArmor suits that are never mentioned in later books, though there are several stituations in which they would make a huge difference. Then again, they would likely [[spoiler: have been destroyed/corrupted when the Melding Plague / TheCaptain took over the ship]]; this is plausible, since they also appear in ''Diamond Dogs'', which is mostly set in the pre-Plague era.

* FutureImperfect: Antoinette Bax mentions that the first astronaut was named Neil Gagarin. Also, various throwaway snippets about Earth history by several other characters.

* GoMadFromTheRevelation: Horris Quaiche's {{backstory}} in ''Absolution Gap'' concerns his firm slip into depression and insanity after [[spoiler: the woman he loved died by accident while [[SurvivorGuilt he managed to survive and get rescued]] ]]. This is not helped at all by the fact that he's got a special nano virus implanted into his body. It serves to pacify him via indoctrination by presenting hallucinations showing random religious imagery from Earth's history. And it always goes off in situations where he becomes overloaded by grief, anger or other negative emotions. So take a wild guess [[HeroicBSOD what happens to him]] [[SanitySlippage once he finds out about]] [[spoiler:the death of his significant other]].

* ''Literature/RevelationSpace'' (2000)

* ''Literature/DiamondDogs, Turquoise Days'' (2003) - A pair of novellas unrelated to the main storyline but set within the same universe.
* ''Redemption Ark'' (2002)
* ''Absolution Gap'' (2003)

* ''Galactic North'' (2006): A series of short stories set in the universe. Though standalone, they tie into its history at various points, including the narrative of the novel trilogy.

* ''Literature/RevelationSpace''
* ''Chasm City'': A prequel to ''Revelation Space''
* ''Literature/DiamondDogs, Turquoise Days'': a pair of novellas unrelated to the main storyline but set within the same universe
* ''Redemption Ark''
* ''Absolution Gap''
* ''Literature/ThePrefect'': A prequel to ''Chasm City'', set before the Melding Plague.
* ''Galactic North'': A series of short stories sWet in the universe.

'''This series contains many convoluted {{Plot Twist}}s and [[TheReveal reveals]]- while most spoilers are marked, read at your own risk if you have not read the series!'''

!!This series provides examples of:

* VillainProtagonist: The short stories ''A Spy in Europa'', ''Grafenwalder's Bestiary'' and large parts of ''Chasm City''.

* ''Galactic North'': A series of short stories set in the universe.

* ItHasBeenAnHonor: Antoinette Bax's ship subpersona i.e. ship computer representation Beast [[spoiler: is at some time revealed to be an alpha-level (meaning scanned) version of a criminal called Lyle Merrick. Towards the end of Redemption Ark, end of Chapter 39, Lyle says to Bax: "It was a pleasure to serve under you. A pleasure and an honour.]]

* ItHasBeenAnHonor: Antoinette Bax's ship subpersona i.e. ship computer representation Beast [[spoiler: is at some time revealed to be scanned version of a criminal called Merrick Lyle. Towards the end of Redemption Ark Lyle says to Bax: "It was a pleasure to serve under you. A pleasure and an honour.]]

* GratuitousRussian: Volyova, but only when she gets particularly frustrated or angry (so it's mostly limited to swear words or snarky comments), and with [[FakeRussian fairly bad Russian grammar]] at that (she doesn't seem to differentiate between singular and plural forms of her favourite cussword). [[AuthorsSavingThrow It is mentioned]], however, that her language, "Russish", is not the same as modern Russian (according to [[http://www.alastairreynolds.com/rs-universe/rs-glossary/ Reynolds' website]], it's a hybrid of Russian and English).

* GratuitousRussian: Volyova, but only when she gets particularly frustrated or angry (so it's mostly limited to swear words or snarky comments), and with [[FakeRussian fairly bad Russian grammar]] at that (she doesn't seem to differentiate between singular and plural forms of her favourite cussword). [[AuthorsSavingThrow It is mentioned]], however, that her language, "Russish", is not the same as modern Russian ([[WordOfGod Reynolds himself]] has mentioned that it's a hybrid of Russian and English).

* GratuitousRussian: Volyova, but only when she gets particularly frustrated or angry (so it's mostly limited to swear words or snarky comments), and with [[FakeRussian fairly bad Russian grammar]] at that (she doesn't seem to differentiate between singular and plural forms of her favourite cussword). [[AuthorsSavingThrow It is mentioned]], however, that her language, "Russish", is not the same as modern Russian.

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: "The Inhibitors", "the Shadows", "the Melding Plague" (as well as "the Uncontained" from ''Pushing Ice'')

* FateWorseThanDeath: The Scrimshaw Suit used by one of the ship's captains in ''Absolution Gap''. You can't move and have no external sensory stimulous. It gets attached to the front of the ship and buried under tonnes of ice used to shield the ship from dust collisions when going at near light speed for the subjective years that interstallar travel takes. And it won't let you die. Or sleep.

** The [[NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup "Cache Weapons"]] aboard ''Nostalgia for Infinity''.
** A lesser example in the first ''Revelation Space'' novel, which features PoweredArmor suits that are never mentioned in later books, though there are several stituations in which they would make a huge difference. Then again, they would likely [[spoiler: have been destroyed/corrupted when the Melding Plague / TheCaptain took over the ship]]; this is plausible, since they also appear in ''Diamond Dogs'', which is mostly set in the pre-Plague era.

The series includes:

* ''Chasm City'': A prequel to ''Revelation Space''

* ''Literature/DiamondDogs, Turquoise Days'': a pair of novellas unrelated to the main storyline but set within the same universe

** The ''[[WordOfGod author himself]]'' has claimed that the ending to ''Galactic North'', with [[spoiler:the remnants of humanity fleeing the galaxy from the Greenfly that will eventually overcome the universe]] is "[[http://web.archive.org/web/20050204072321/http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue406/interview.html quite optimistic, in my book]]" [[spoiler:because there's some time left before the inevitable annihilation of the universe]]. He must have a different standard than, ''oh, all of us carbon-based life forms''.
** Specifically, he compares that ending to past crises humanity has faced in real life. [[spoiler::His perspective on the looming annihilation of the universe is optimistic because there's still some time "...before things reach a crisis point again. And humanity will survive that, as well...". Don't worry, guys, the HordeOfAlienLocusts will only be here in a few thousand years! I think we can take them!]] That goes ''beyond'' optimism.
** [[spoiler:The Inhibitors, at least initially, mainly owing to their thinking on a timescale insanely longer than most sentient races. They routinely wipe out whole spacefaring civilisations [[WellIntentionedExtremist for the greater good]] - the greater good in this case being 'to make the crisis easier to navigate when the Milky Way collides with Andromeda'. Which it will do in approximately ''three billion years''.]]

* EldritchAbomination: [[spoiler:The Inhibitors and the Shadows.]]

* EmergencyTransformation: In the short story ''The Great Wall of Mars'', [[spoiler:a life-or-death situation is what finally forces the protagonist to join the [[HiveMind Conjoiners]]]]. He later [[spoiler:pays it forward by giving a comatose Volyova a medichine infusion despite her phobia of them]] in ''Redemption Ark''.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Quaiche's [[spoiler: tragically deceased lover Morwenna]]. Though bear in mind that Quaiche himself is more of an AntiVillain.

** [[spoiler:Implied to be the original biological form of individual Inhibitors, before they transformed themselves into a completely artificial species. Their former outward appearance was seemingly canine-like, gaining them the nickname "wolves" among humans.]]

* InvisibleAliens [[spoiler:Made necessary by the Inhibitors]].

* NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup: [[spoiler:[[LostSuperweapon The Hell class weapons]] aboard ''Nostalgia for Infinity''. Justified, as the weapons were built to plans received through Exordium; the Conjoiners were so scared by both what they'd created, and how they had created them, that they deliberately destroyed the plans and made no attempt to build more of them.]]

* OldShame / CreatorBacklash:
** In the afterword of ''Galactic North'', Reynolds [[WordOfGod admitted]] that his Revelation Space novels are derived in part from a much more space-opera-ish set of unpublished novels which he devoutly intends should never see print, [[http://voxish.tripod.com/id16.html although he regards them as a valuable learning experience]].
** An experimental short story called ''Pandora's Box''. He [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W9CFeSqIMw ceremoniously destroyed every single copy of it]] printed in the English language during his visit at Finn Con 2009. There is a Finnish translation though, so it still exists in Finnish.
** ''[[http://approachingpavonis.blogspot.com/2010/10/computa-two-previously-unpublished.html Computa Two]]'', and its [[http://approachingpavonis.blogspot.com/2011/01/computa-2-continued-and-concluded.html conclusion]].

-->'Christ, yes,' the infiltration specialist said, as if suddenly remembering. 'The cubes. What about you, Richard?' 'Indeed,' I answered, flinching at the memory of that one. [[{{Cube}} I had been one of a party of people trapped inside an endless series of cubic rooms, many of which contained lethal surprises.]] 'I was cut into pieces by a trap, actually. Diced, if I remember accurately.'

** The ''[[WordOfGod author himself]]'' has claimed that the ending to ''Galactic North'', with [[spoiler:the remnants of humanity fleeing the galaxy from the Greenfly that will eventually overcome the universe is "[[http://web.archive.org/web/20050204072321/http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue406/interview.html quite optimistic, in my book]]" because there's some time left before the inevitable annihilation of the universe]]. He must have a different standard than, ''oh, all of us carbon-based life forms''.

* BaseOnWheels:
** The "cathedrals" and "caravans" of Hela's [[FantasticReligiousWeirdness strange local chuches]] from ''Absolution Gap''.
** Though some of them are actually built like giant {{Spider Tank}}s, including the first and greatest, Quaiche's ''[[MeaningfulName Lady Morwenna]]''.

A [[MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness Hard Sci-Fi]] SpaceOpera series by Welsh author AlastairReynolds, where 26th century humans have achieved advanced nanotechnology and slower-than-light interstellar travel and find themselves needing to discover why [[AbsentAliens all the other intelligent species they find evidence of seem to have gone mysteriously extinct]].

!The Revelation Space series provides examples of:

A hard sci-fi space opera series by AlastairReynolds, where 26th century humans have achieved advanced nanotechnology and slower-than-light interstellar travel and find themselves needing to discover why [[AbsentAliens all the other intelligent species they find evidence of seem to have gone mysteriously extinct]].