Eversion by Alastair Reynolds
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Alastair Reynold's new standalone novel is a real keeper. At first, I thought it was a homage to Cloud Atlas by way of Dan Simmon's Terror, but after getting much farther along, I've got to say that its title gives it all away. And pleasantly so.

Eversion: not to be confused with inversion, is a fancy way of saying "inside-out". After being grounded in several incarnations of exploration ships, having twisted myself up with the great characterizations, I have to say that I came out of this a bit inside-out, as well.

But then there's the whole question of topology. And that's where things get really interesting.

Solid, or quite more than solid SF here. Reynolds is always one of my top to-go guys for the genre and he's proven himself many times over. I'm reminded of some of his very best short fiction in these pages, a huge-concept piece written adroitly, and in the end, he gives us a great psychological knife-twist.

I totally recommend this for lovers of old-and-new-school exploration fiction. The ice-on-the-boat ambiance totally got me going, as did the slow introduction to the mystery.




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