Teaser

When a crew of comet miners stumble across an alien artefact, they have no idea of what lies ahead. Propelled across the galaxy with no way home, their choices will forge a legacy that will last generations . . .

Review

Published in the brief gap between the Revelation Space saga and the rather more popular standalone House of Suns, 2005’s Pushing Ice often gets overlooked by readers. After all, it’s not the book everyone raves about, and it doesn’t fit into any of Reynolds’ larger universes. If I hadn’t been trawling through Reynold’s back catalogue one day, I doubt I’d ever have heard of it. This is a real shame, as Pushing Ice is easily one of his stronger works. It’s exactly what I like from my hard SF authors. It’s a standalone. It’s chunky without being overly long. It builds on one idea after another, building a story across an epic scale, but never straying too far from a focused core narrative. It feels like a short story writ large in the best possible way.

The book gets off to a bit of a false start by introducing a complex interstellar society filled with political dealings and wondrous technology. However, this is only a frame for the rest of the novel, which is largely an extended flashback to events occurring rather closer to our own present. Honestly, I would have loved to see more of this far future, though it does eventually fall back into the main narrative as time goes by.

The rest of Pushing Ice is a book of two halves. The first is a fairly traditional story of a human crew pushed to the brink by extreme circumstances. Their are elements of Leviathan Wakes (James S. A. Corey) here, with characters filling out the usual archetypal roles. The smarmy corporate type, the former best friends who would stop falling out if they’d only talk to each other, the kindly doctor and his stoic patient. These early stages are more than a little tropey, but they’re enjoyable nonetheless. I’m a real sucker for a space survival story, and this ticks all the boxes. It feels ripped from the pages of NASA history, with Reynolds’ scientific background paying dividends.

Things change when we arrive at our destination. It’s no great spoiler to say that there are aliens in this book, and they are properly alien. No rubber foreheads or pointy ears here, but a well-realised and utterly nonhuman creation that, for all its alien nature, is easy to imagine. Reynold’s writing can be clinical at times, but when it comes to Fountainheads and Musk Dogs, it’s incredibly evocative. The change to a more cosmic perspective does necessitate some awkward developments. Anti-aging technology is a staple of science fiction, but it often comes with the downside of dragging out character arcs across unlikely lengths of time. Characters end up not speaking to one another for decades simply because the story requires a larger community when they reunite.

As the nook reaches a conclusion and all the story elements fold in on one another, it would have been understandable if things became muddled. But no, that’s not the case here. In it’s closing stages, Pushing Ice finds a renewed purpose, and builds towards a denouement that is as satisfying as it is intriguing. I have no doubt that some people would like a follow-up, but for me the ending occurs exactly when it needs to. A little ambiguity goes a long way.

Even with a few quibbles, Pushing Ice is a strong novel. It may not hit the heights of Slow Bullets, but aside from short fiction, I don’t think Reynolds has done it better than he does it here.

Stats

• Narrated by John Lee
• A Standalone Novel
• First Published 2005
• 19hrs 43mins