The Prefect by Alastair Reynolds

[Werthead]

I have put up a full review of Reynolds' latest novel on my blog. However, the short version is: it's good. A return to form after a couple of interesting-but-flawed books, The Prefect is a highly compulsive thriller with more action than perhaps is expected from a Reynolds novel, although not at the expense of his usual dark, noirish ideas and at times unsettling atmosphere. The book is set a century before Chasm City and Revelation Space, but curiously has a lot of very interesting ties to the other novels. A good comparison is the way Steven Erikson's Midnight Tides relates to the other Malazan novels, and can be read either before or after with the reader gaining a different experience depending on which approach they take. It is not a perfect book - I think we'll have to take it as read that Reynolds isn't going to hit the heights of Chasm City again - but is a fine slice of modern space opera.