Line #87 Literature/RevelationSpace


1	[[quoteright:188:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/revspacecover_5337.jpg]]
2
3	''Revelation Space'' is the first novel in the Hard Sci-Fi SpaceOpera series of [[Literature/RevelationSpaceSeries the same name]], by Creator/AlastairReynolds.
4
5	The book opens in the year 2551 on the planet Resurgam, a newly-founded colony on the edge of human space. The colony hasn't had time to terraform yet, leaving most of the planet a wasteland wracked by ruinous dust storms. Dan Sylveste, brilliant scientist and leader of the colony, oversees an archaeological excavation of a [[AbsentAliens long-dead alien civilization]]'s remains. He discovers they had achieved a ''much'' [[AdvancedAncientAcropolis higher level of technological sophistication]] than previously thought...before they were wiped out in a [[{{Gotterdammerung}} mysterious cataclysm]]. Fearing the same could befall humanity, Sylveste races against time to investigate an ancient genocide before dust storms, unruly colonists, and his own sordid past catch up with him.
6
7	[[MeanwhileInTheFuture Meanwhile, in the past]], the ship ''Nostalgia for Infinity'' is enroute to the planet Yellowstone. Designed to carry thousands of colonists in suspension, its only passengers now are a handful of Ultras — {{transhuman}}s adapted to the rigors of long interstellar spaceflight. They're desperate to find Sylveste: their captain has been infected with the "Melding Plague" and they believe only Sylveste can save him. But in a universe [[MundaneDogmatic without faster-than-light communication]], they don't know Sylveste left Yellowstone more than 15 years ago. On Yellowstone itself, an [[ProfessionalKiller assassin]] named Ana Khouri has been hired to infiltrate the ''Nostalgia for Infinity'' once it arrives. Her mission? Follow it to Sylveste and kill him, at all costs.
8
9	Due to the time dilation effects of light-speed travel, the novel juxtaposes multiple plotlines, separated by decades, as happening concurrent with each other. The novel also introduces an expansive and complex [[TheVerse universe]].
10	----
11	!!This novel provides examples of the following tropes:
12	* AbsentAliens: ''Revelation Space'' is littered with examples of this, though the reasons for why are only hinted at towards the end of the novel. The sequels further explore and explain this.
13	* ActionGirl: Both Ilia Volyova and Ana Khouri, verging at points into BackToBackBadasses.
14	* AHouseDivided: The ''Nostalgia For Infinity'' - the entire crew hates each others guts and are all capable of, as well as willing to, murder each other.
15	* AlienGeometries:
16	** The Shrouds. Spacetime near the "edges" is under a constant state of flux, meaning that any ship that attempts to approach is [[LudicrousGibs torn apart by the wildly shifting tidal forces]].
17	** The [[spoiler:Inhibitor "Jewel" at the center of the mysterious planet]] orbiting Hades. When [[spoiler:Sylveste first sees it, it appears to be rotating in the center of a chamber. However, as he proceeds straight towards it, it appears to him that the walls of the chamber are rotating, while the Jewel is fixed, implying that the Jewel is dragging spacetime around it.]]
18	* AmbiguouslyBrown: Ana Khouri. Though concerning her roots on Sky's Edge and her given name, she probably has South American ancestry. (The surname is her husband's, who is of Middle Eastern descent.)
19	* AnachronicOrder: Literally; the different plotlines take place decades apart and later combine (or rather, the earlier ones "catch up" to the latest one) due to relativistic time-dilation.
20	* AntiMatter: Used as a weapon of mass destruction, and as a highly efficient fuel. Ack-am launchers fire tiny pellets of normal matter containing a magnetic confinement field for the antimatter. [[spoiler:Sylveste has a pinhead of anti-matter in his eye, used to coerce the Triumvirate into helping him]]
21	* AnyoneCanDie: [[spoiler:of the primary cast, the only one who remains unambiguously alive throughout the ordeal is Ilia Volyova. Khouri, Sylveste and Pascale are also alive in the end, but only through resurrection.]]
22	* CoolOldGuy: [[PlayingWithTropes Played with]] Sylveste. He's been alive for [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld hundreds of years]] due to relativistic space travel, but that doesn't really count due to hibernation and time dilation. However, even accounting for that, he's subjectively in his sixties.
23	* BadassNormal: A lot of the main characters, but Volyova probably takes the cake. MacGyvering ? Check. {{Batman Gambit}}s ? Check. DeadpanSnarker ? ''Check.'' SmokingIsCool ? ''Double check.''
24	* BadassLongcoat: Ana Khouri wears one while on a Shadowplay assasination assignment in Chasm City. They're also popular on Sky's Edge, where she was born.
25	* BigDumbObject: Several:
26	** The sealed [[spoiler:advanced Amarantin city]] is initially presented as this; it's a gargantuan shell surrounded by solid rock.
27	** The [[spoiler:mysterious planet orbiting Hades]] is revealed to actually be an immense [[spoiler:Amarantin]] artifact. When [[spoiler:Sylveste and the gang]] manage to get inside, they discover that it's composed of [[spoiler:layers and layers of different Amarantin defenses, like several Big Dumb Objects all stacked around each other in a kind of Matrioshka doll]].
28	** And, of course, at the end when it's revealed that [[spoiler:the neutron star Hades is actually a ''giant alien supercomputer'']].
29	* BodyHorror: The effects of the Melding Plague.
30	* BodySnatcher: Calvin's ability to take over Dan's body (with Dan's permission) to perform a complicated surgery.
31	* BrainUploading:
32	** The backstory mentions a group of people known as "The Eighty" who were the first to attempt BrainUploading. They all died (well, technically, their simulations were corrupted or went irreversibly insane).
33	** Dan Sylveste's father, Calvin Sylveste, was one of the Eighty, and presumably is dead as well. However, Dan has a slight-lesser-quality simulation of Calvin (a "beta-level", as opposed to an "alpha level" like the Eighty) that proves to be frighteningly convincing.
34	** Alpha-level simulations are perfect copies of the original mind. Beta-levels are very convincing but non-sentient, though particularly high-end beta-levels (like Calvin’s) will loudly insist that they are.
35	* CasualInterstellarTravel: [[AvertedTrope Averted]]. It takes decades to get between stars, and even getting a ride on a Lighthugger is rare outside of the core planets like Yellowstone. Border worlds may have a Lighthugger drop by only after a couple decades.
36	* ChekhovsBoomerang: Dan Sylveste has "hot-dust" implanted in his artificial eyes before his eviction from Resurgam into the hands of the ''Nostalgia for Infinity'' crew. Sylveste later reveals to the crew that he is carrying this hot-dust which enables him to destroy the ship at any moment. In later conversations he reveals he had been bluffing about the hot-dust implant, and it is forgotten by a certain entity which happens to be overhearing. Until the climax, when it turns out that Sylveste was bluffing about bluffing.
37	* CoolStarShip: The ''[[http://www.solarvoyager.com/uploads/atrasicarius/nostalgia_for_infinity.jpg Nostalgia For Infinity]]''
38	* CrystalSpiresAndTogas: Chasm City, at least until [[spoiler:the Melding Plague ruins everything]].
39	* CultureChopSuey:
40	** A given, with humanity being quite a cosmopolitan mix during the events of the trilogy, especially on old and densely inhabited colony worlds like Yellowstone. Nationalities play a far lesser role than back on [[EarthThatWas Earth]] and the main new political and social divisions are purely ideological factions (such as the Conjoiners, the Demarchists, the Ultranauts, etc.). Some characters' names give obvious hints about a great mixing of nationalities.
41	** Yellowstone is a cosmopolitan mix of a planet, settled mostly by American, European and East Asian colonists. Sky's Edge was settled by Latin American, Middle Eastern and Pakistani/Punjabi nationalities.
42	* {{Cyborg}}: A lot of the future factions of humanity have {{Transhuman}}ist trappings, at least as far as having with various brain implants. The Conjoiners are a whole society of these, the Ultras and Demarchists less so.
43	* DeathWorld: The AllPlanetsAreEarthLike trope gets a major kick in the shins in this series. The most Earth-like planet mentioned is Sky's Edge, which is full of hostile life that is biologically incompatible with Earth life. Eating it will kill you (and vice versa) or do nothing. Then there are the Pattern Jugglers - algae-like StarfishAliens inhabiting planets with global oceans - that usually act benign, but once in a while someone who swims with them doesn't come back, [[CameBackWrong comes back wrong]], [[EmptyShell or worse]]. Also, Yellowstone, the most important and most populated interstellar colony of humanity, has an atmosphere and surface very similar to Saturn's moon Titan, so only the giant domed settlements (like Chasm City or [[{{Egopolis}} Loreanville]]) and orbital habitats are actualy populated. Pretty much all planets in the series are either uninhabitable, barely habitable (without advanced tech) or habitable, but full of EverythingTryingToKillYou.
44	* DeathFromAbove: Threatened by Volyova in ''Revelation Space'', who uses one of her ship's smallest weapons to devastating effect as a warning to the inhabitants of Resurgam. She also has access to teratonne-yield nukes and "hell class" weapons that could conceivably shatter worlds.
45	* DemotedToExtra: Khouri's role is lessened throughout the novels; she only plays a relatively small role in ''AbsolutionGap''
46	* DomedHometown: Most cities have pressurized domes over them to allow for a breathable atmosphere. Chasm City is the most notable, with a 60 kilometer wide dome covering the city and the volcano-like rupture in the center that provides the gases used to make the city's air supply.
47	* DramaticUnmask: When Dan finds [[spoiler:Sajaki's empty powersuit, revealing that the "Sajaki" he thought had been accompanying him and talking to him was actually Sun Stealer]].
48	* EldritchStarship: The ''Nostalgia for Infinity'' starts out as a worn and half-broken but still apocalyptically powerful mess of a starship, with a ''really'' dysfunctional crew and its Captain affected by the Melding plague and in permanently suspended animation. The Captain is eventually released from stasis and proceeds to ''Meld with the ship'', making it impossible to differentiate between the two and creating a half-biological, half-mechanical entity that has its own will. It is certainly capable of differentiating between friends and foes, but there are places of the ship safer than others, and it's described as an unnerving and pretty damp place to be, with unknown fluids of biological origin permeating various areas. And then it gets upgraded with ''even more powerful'' weapons...
49	* ElectronicEyes:
50	** Dan Sylveste. At first he has advanced eyes that are able to record all that he sees and playback later for review, along with taking snapshots and live-zooming. Later, though, his eyes are damaged and are repaired with local parts on Resurgam, leading to a terrible security-cam-like vision (i.e. black and white, slow framerate, etc).
51	** In ''Diamond Dogs'' the explorers of the Blood Spire end up having a MadDoctor remove their eyes altogether and replace them with cybernetic versions.
52	* FantasticSlurs: Yellowstonian Demarchists call Conjoiners "spiders" and rogue Demarchists, Skyjacks and Ultras "zombies". The "spider" nickname was also used by the Coalition for Neural Purity seen in the chronologically earliest installments of the series. Conjoiners refer to baseline humans as "the retarded".
53	* ForgottenSuperweapon: The "Cache Weapons" aboard ''Nostalgia for Infinity'', [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast rather descriptively]] defined "Hell-Class". They were created [[spoiler:by future Conjoiners as a last-ditch measure against the Wolves]], after which [[NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup the plans were destroyed]] to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, though they prove absolutely ''devastating'' against other humans - being able to, among other things, ''destroy a planet in a single shot'' - once used against the intended targets they prove much less "super" than hoped for, and many of them are destroyed in battle.]]
54	* GodzillaThreshold: Mademoiselle considers destroying an entire populated planet with the ''Nostalgia For Infinity'''s [[WeaponOfMassDestruction Hell-Class weapons]] to be preferable to allowing [[spoiler:Daniel Sylveste to travel to [[BigDumbObject Cerberus]] and unwittingly re-awaken the Inhibitors, for [[PrecursorKillers a very good reason]].]]
55	* GrandTheftMe:
56	** What [[spoiler:the Captain]] did to [[spoiler:Sajaki]] prior to the events of ''Revelation Space'', though it technically is more of a BodySnatcher example, as the "host" mind is overwritten and effectively "killed".
57	** [[spoiler:Calvin Sylveste]] had originally engineered [[spoiler:Dan Sylveste as a clone of himself to make it easier to possibly imprint a copy of himself into Dan's brain.]] While he does do this near the end of the book (and had already done it once previously), it's more of a two minds/one body relationship.
58	* GratuitousRussian: Volyova, but only when she gets particularly frustrated or angry (so it's mostly limited to swear words or snarky comments).
59	* GreyGoo: [[PlayingWithTropes Played with]] regarding the Melding Plague. It absolutely devastates [[spoiler:Chasm City]], horribly killing thousands of people and mutating the affected landscape. [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in that it only attacks ''nanotech'', meaning that normal matter (and baseline humans without any nanotech in their body) are completely unaffected. However, in specific circumstances, it can be beneficial [[spoiler:as shown at the end of the novel, when a plague-infested Captain is implied to have ''become the ship'' and saves Khouri and Volyova's asses]].
60	* GunPorn: The "[[PunnyName Warchive]]" aboard the ''Nostalgia for Infinity'', which can reproduce any weapon from recorded human history. Volyova and Khouri make good use of it at the end of novel, when they need to arm themselves.
61	* HumanPopsicle: Most starship passengers, as it's either cryo or spend years or decades awake between stars.
62	* HuntingTheMostDangerousGame: Shadowplay, in which the bored, virtually immortal residents of Chasm City are hunted by professional assassins according to pre-agreed rules. The game is set up so most of the clients survive, in order that people will keep paying for the thrill-seeking experience.
63	* IceQueen: Volyova
64	* InsistentTerminology:
65	** "Servitors" [[CallARabbitASmeerp for robots]] (non-sentient worker ones).
66	** What are these "cryogenics" you speak of? They're called "reefersleep", dammit!
67	** Flying cars are "[[EverythingSoundsSexierInFrench volantors]]," get it?
68	* InSeriesNickname: The Yellowstonians (and apparently people from other terrestrial planets as well) often refer to themselves as "Stoners".
69	* LastNameBasis: Most of the characters in the novels address each other by last-name only; Ilia Volyova and Ana Khouri being the only ones whose first name is said more than a couple times.
70	* LostTechnology: it's mentioned offhandedly during the novel that the Conjoiners are no longer building lighthuggers, and since they alone know the secrets of the engines nobody else can build - or fix - the only vehicles that allow humanity to travel the stars. The ships do repair themselves, but as the Nostalgia for Infinity's dilapidated interiors show there are limits, and accidents do happen.
71	* MatterReplicator: The universe has "Manufactories", which are essentially extremely adaptable factories ranging from the size of a washing machine to enormous kilometer wide constructs. The devices require matter, and some time to actually build the object, but they can build a huge array of devices. The first novel, ''Revelation Space'', has the "Warchive" on the starship ''Nostalgia For Infinity'', which is a manufactory specifically designed to build guns, with an archive of millions of weapons from the modern age of the 2500s to pre-history. If given certain parameters, it will splice together different guns to get the desired elements.
72	* MeanwhileInTheFuture: A given, with all the TimeDilation and AnachronicOrder going on.
73	* MileLongShip: Lighthuggers have a length of roughly four kilometres.
74	* MoreThanMindControl:
75	** When it's not simply driving its hosts mad, [[EldritchAbomination Sun Stealer]]'s influence on people is implied to be this. For example, [[spoiler:Dan Sylveste's]] urge to go to Resurgam, despite [[spoiler:there being no good reason to go there, let alone dig for a colony and begin archaeological research]].
76	** Also implied with [[spoiler:Calvin and Dan's relationship. Dan somehow never seems aware that he is Calvin's clone (he still believes the entire time that he is just Calvin's son), despite all the important and odd details he knows (such as the fact that Calvin can take over his body like a puppeteer). Also, despite their antagonistic relationship, Calvin seems to have an undue influence on Dan's decisions.]]
77	* MysteriousAntarctica / GrimUpNorth: Much of Resurgam is like this, due to still being largely unpopulated and partially terraformed.
78	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler:What Dan Sylveste and the Nostalgia's crew unwillingly put into motion at the end of ''Revelation Space'']].
79	** At one point one of the most powerful cache weapons is activated by an interfering actor - assumed hostile - and targeted at the planet Resurgam, with the intent of completely destroying it and the several thousand colonists it houses. The crew of the ''Nostalgia'' manages to destroy the weapon moments before it fires and saves the day. [[spoiler: Then it turns out the intervening actor was simply going for the safest action - sacrificing a few thousands to avoid a course of action that would alert the Inhibitors to humanity's presence, and as a result kill billions and possibly end humanity altogether]]. Nice job stopping that!
80	* NonActionGuy: Dan Sylveste. He is a main character, and is certainly ''around'' a lot of action, but largely avoids most of it himself.
81	* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: Dan Sylveste and his father, Calvin. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] by their very long lifespan, immense wealth and use of assistive technology (mind-expanding cybernetics, AI personas that help them do science, etc.) designed to help them live up to this trope.
82	* PoweredArmor: The [[AMechByAnyOtherName "suits"]] are a very versatile example of this trope. Powerful enough to probably wipe out an entire modern-day army. Slightly subverted in that the suit will "take over" if it deems the situation too dangerous to trust to relatively-slow human reflexes (at which point the person inside becomes little more than glorified cargo).
83	* PoweredByAForsakenChild: The brains of children are installed in [[spoiler:the Conjoiner Drivers]] according to the short story "Weather" in ''Galactic North''. [[spoiler:Their minds do a bunch of math that lets the drives work. Something of a subversion to the trope as the Conjoiners consider running a drive to be a vocation which is chosen voluntarily. The brain can decide to be reintegrated with a body after working for a few decades.]]
84	* ProjectedMan: Many of the "entoptic" simulations and personal avatars are presented as this.
85	* SchizoTech: Sky's Edge armies hit this; some soldiers will be carrying what are essentially AK-47s with some computer integration, while others will be using artificially intelligent suits of PoweredArmor wielding anti-matter cannons, turning them into a PersonOfMassDestruction.
86	* ShownTheirWork: Reynolds is a former astronomer and a former ESA employee.
87	* SolarSail: [[WeaponizedExhaust Weaponized]]. A ship constructs a solar sail and releases the sail behind its engines, using the engines to propel the sail backwards at the ship pursuing it. The speed difference between the ship and the sail would be enough to instantly destroy the ship.
88	* SpacePeople: Many Ultranauts, such as Triumvir Hegazi, have never set foot on anything that wasn't built by man.
89	* SpacePirates: Ultras are seen as pirates, even when they are (mostly) honest traders. The ''Nostalgia for Infinity'' was used to raid ships before the events of ''Revelation Space'' - and during the events of ''Revelation Space'', they threaten to nuke cities from orbit to coerce the population into releasing Sylveste.
90	* SpiritAdvisor: The Mademoiselle's beta-level sim in Ana Khouri's implants. Also, Calvin's simulation to Dan, once Calvin figures out how to get around various safeguards and pop into Dan's visual field whenever he wants to...
91	* StarKilling: In the final part of novel, the [[BigBad Inhibitors]] "sing" [[spoiler:Delta Pavonis]] apart[[note]]using a "graver," a gravitational-wave laser tuned to the frequency of the star[[/note]] in order to destroy the local human colony: having already wiped out one species native to the system millennia ago, they're determined to do the job for good this time. It's also offhandedly mentioned that they know fifteen different ways to destroy a dwarf star. Not only do they kill the star, but they do so by first building a gigantic machine to take apart the system's gas giant, then use the material they recovered from ''that'' to produce the star-killing weapon - which is so large and so massive that a character notes it shouldn't even be possible for it to ''exist'' without collapsing in on itself. When they fire their weapon at the star, it doesn't just kill the star - [[spoiler:it turns it into a astronomically [[AwesomeButImpractical huge Flamethrower.]] ]]
92	* StarshipLuxurious: The ''Nostalgia For Infinity'' used to be this, and while it still fits in with the ''enormous'' part of a luxurious starship, it's [[EverythingIsTryingToKillYou not a very nice place to be]].
93	* TitleDrop: "Revelation Space" refers to the region of spacetime around a Shroud; the one person who survived a close encounter later describes having alien knowledge downloaded into his brain.
94	* TomatoInTheMirror: [[spoiler:Dan Syvleste]], twice. He's the last to realize that [[spoiler:Sun Stealer]] has stowed away in his mind, and he doesn't find out that [[spoiler:he's his father's clone]] until moments before [[spoiler:he blows himself up]].
95	* TheEveryman: Ana Khouri is the most ordinary of the main cast. Unsurprisingly, she's also technically TheHero.
96	* VillainProtagonist: Ilia Volyova for most of the first novel.
97	* WrongGenreSavvy: The Inhibitor Jewel has what appear to be OnlySmartPeopleMayPass tests at the entrance. They are there to identify intelligent lifeforms for destruction by exploiting the power of Correction Bait.

Context Literature / RevelationSpace