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The Prefect | 
 enlarge | Author: Alastair Reynolds
Publisher: Ace Hardcover
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy Used: $1.76
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Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 37458
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 416
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6 x 1.5
ISBN: 0441015913
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780441015917
ASIN: 0441015913
Publication Date: June 3, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
A full-length novel set in the Revelation Space universe thats sublime entertainment and gripping in the extreme.( Locus)
Tom Dreyfus is a Prefect, a law enforcement officer with the Panoply. His beat is the multi-faceted utopian society of the Glitter Band, that vast swirl of space habitats orbiting the planet Yellowstone, the teeming hub of a human interstellar empire spanning many worlds.
His current case: investigating a murderous attack against one of the habitats that leaves nine hundred people dead, a crime that appalls even a hardened cop like Dreyfus. But then his investigation uncovers something even more potentially dangerousa covert plot by an enigmatic entity seeking nothing less than total control of the Glitter Band
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| Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
 Great story, unsatisfying end December 2, 2008
Felix M (Houston, TX)
I read this book after completing "Pushing Ice" and "Century Rain", and it was very nice to return to the Revelation Space universe. The setting for this book is the Glitter Band orbiting Yellowstone, pre-melding plague. Reynolds could mine the Chasm City/Glitter Band (pre and post plague) setting for many books to come if he wanted. It's THAT rich with possibilities.
This was a good detective novel with Reynold's trademark ambition. But with the ambition comes Reynold's usual "jump the shark" moments such as Thalia Ng's escape which pushes the limits credibility. The ending reminds me of the totally unsatisfying ending of "Absolution Gap". I am not one who needs everything tied up in a neat little bow by the end, but both books introduce too many variables to just be simply dropped on the last page.
Despite these failings, the books strength is it's characters, something Reynolds always does well.
Glitter Band 2 November 21, 2008
warped space (Vancouver WA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I liked the book, but too much detail slowed down the action. I skipped some pages here and there to speed things up a bit, and I don't think I missed much.
The Prefect October 5, 2008
Judith M. Page (San Juan Capistrano, Ca)
If you like Sci Fi and have read any other Alistair Reynolds (or not) you will love this one.
 Excellent hard science fiction detective story October 2, 2008
S. Crouch (Tuggeranong, A.C.T. Australia)
The Prefect is set in the "Revelation Space" universe of some of Reynold's earlier novels. While some understanding of this might be beneficial, it's definitely not essential and first time Reynolds readers will still have a great time with this book.
The two main characters are prefect Tom Dreyfus and his assistant Thalia Ng. The prefects are basically police officers that operate out of Panoply, one of the 10,000 space habitats in the "Glitter Band" orbiting Yellowstone, a planet in the Epsilon Eridani system. The prefects don't have much real power though and are mainly responsible for administering the complex vote recording apparatus that provides democracy throughout the Glitter Band.
While investigating the mysterious destruction of a habitat, Dreyfus becomes aware of a plot to take over the whole Glitter Band by a shadowy figure called Aurora. Aurora seems to believe that only she can protect the inhabitants of the Glitter Band from future catastrophe. Aurora's agenda is not so benign, however. Thalia unwittingly becomes involved when she unwittingly loads corrupted software into the vote recording machines in several habitats. The plot proceeds at breakneck speed as it becomes a race to locate the mysterious entity known as the Clockmaker who seems to hold the key to defeating Aurora. The end of the story, while relatively satisfying, is left fairly open so I expect that the Prefects and Panoply will feature again in future Reynolds novels.
As well as being a very good detective story, the book is just a great hard science fiction novel too. The technology is quite believable for the far future with some of the concepts being quite ingenious but the technology never takes over the story. Characterization is another outstanding feature too. Even the traitor on Panoply is a credible figure, unlike the mustache twirling villains in some current science fiction novels.
This is one of the best books that Alastair Reynolds has written and I have no hesitation in giving it five stars.
Space opera meets John Rebus September 11, 2008
Jim Mann (Pittsburgh, PA USA)
Alastair Reynolds has been producing great space opera for several years now. This time he takes a somewhat different path. It's still great space opera, but he's added touches of Ian Rankin (the best current British mystery writer). Reynolds's main character -- Tom Drefyus, the Prefect of the title -- is very reminiscent of Rankin's John Rebus. He's a driven, cranky policeman, somewhat of an outcast despite his many years in the service. H is loyal to those who work for him, is sometimes at odds with his peers, and unwilling to give up when he gets his teeth into something. And of course he is brilliant at pulling together disparate elements.
I won't try to summarize the novel here. Several other reviews do a fine job with that. I'll just say that this is yet another very good novel from Reynolds. It may be his best, and is probably the one that I'd hand to anyone who hasn't read much SF but wants to find out what this "new space opera" stuff is all about. This will definitely be on my Hugo ballot next year.
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