Pushing Ice
Dec 2009 · Hachette UK
4.4star
124 reviewsreport
Ebook
528
Pages
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About this ebook
First contact with extraordinary aliens, glittering technologies that could destroy the universe in a nanosecond, huge sweeping space operas: Alastair Reynolds is back!
Some centuries from now, the exploration and exploitation of the Solar System is in full swing. On the cold edge of the system, Bella Lind, captain of the huge commercial spacecraft Rockhopper IV, helps fuel this new gold rush by attaching mass-driver motors to organic-rich water-ice comets to move them back to the inner worlds. Her crew are tough, blue-collar miners, engineers and demolition experts.
Around Saturn, something inexplicable happens: one of the moons leaves its orbit and accelerates out of the Solar System. The icy mantle peels away to reveal that it was never a moon in the first place, just a parked spacecraft, millions of years old, that has now decided to move on.
Rockhopper IV, trapped in the pull, is hurled across time and space into the deep, distant future, arriving in a vast, alien-constructed chamber. And the crew are not alone, for each chamber contains an alien culture dragged into this cosmic menagerie at the end of time.
The crew of the Rockhopper IV know a lot about blowing up comets, but not much about first contact with ultra-advanced aliens. They have two things to worry about: can they (and their new alien allies) negotiate their way through each harrying contact? And can they assimilate the avalanche of knowledge about their own future - including all the glittering, dangerous technologies that are now theirs for the taking - without destroying themselves in the process?
Some centuries from now, the exploration and exploitation of the Solar System is in full swing. On the cold edge of the system, Bella Lind, captain of the huge commercial spacecraft Rockhopper IV, helps fuel this new gold rush by attaching mass-driver motors to organic-rich water-ice comets to move them back to the inner worlds. Her crew are tough, blue-collar miners, engineers and demolition experts.
Around Saturn, something inexplicable happens: one of the moons leaves its orbit and accelerates out of the Solar System. The icy mantle peels away to reveal that it was never a moon in the first place, just a parked spacecraft, millions of years old, that has now decided to move on.
Rockhopper IV, trapped in the pull, is hurled across time and space into the deep, distant future, arriving in a vast, alien-constructed chamber. And the crew are not alone, for each chamber contains an alien culture dragged into this cosmic menagerie at the end of time.
The crew of the Rockhopper IV know a lot about blowing up comets, but not much about first contact with ultra-advanced aliens. They have two things to worry about: can they (and their new alien allies) negotiate their way through each harrying contact? And can they assimilate the avalanche of knowledge about their own future - including all the glittering, dangerous technologies that are now theirs for the taking - without destroying themselves in the process?
Ratings and reviews
4.4
124 reviews
Nicholas Raymond
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May 15, 2024
It's the storyline that's soo interesting to me. If U stop to think about what's going on in this book, it's just right up my alley, alien races and distant time and space and future humanity and technologies. I've read most of these books, this one is a standout.
Radoslaw Jurga (Radek)
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October 20, 2013
I'm glad this is one of the first science fiction I've read, as it turned out to particularly match my interests and tastes. I enjoyed it thoroughly. Some good things I remember about it: It is set in the near future, and a somehow believable one as by 2010. It isn't shy with technical and scientific aspects which are relevant to the plot, and doesn't delve on details which are not. It takes place aboard a spaceship to which interesting and adventurous things happen (including unknown alien related stuff). It shows the ship's crew life on a long time scale. There's one thing I remember feeling slightly annoyed by: The characters decisions and relationships sometimes felt a bit extreme.
1 person found this review helpful
Milk Jr
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June 8, 2019
I was slightly annoyed that the author made the main characters whine about a current US social issue in private while the rest of the text negated the complaint completely. I was waiting for his commentary on contemporary issues and it never materialized. Very out of place, the rest of the book didn't suffer from it though and is a solid sci fi adventure.
About the author
Alastair Reynolds was born in Barry, South Wales, in 1966. He studied at Newcastle and St Andrews Universities and has a Ph.D. in astronomy. He stopped working as an astrophysicist for the European Space Agency to become a full-time writer. REVELATION SPACE and PUSHING ICE were shortlisted for the ARTHUR C. CLARKE AWARD; REVELATION SPACE, ABSOLUTION GAP, DIAMOND DOGS and CENTURY RAIN were shortlisted for the BRITISH SCIENCE FICTION AWARD and CHASM CITY won the BRITISH SCIENCE FICTION AWARD. You can learn more by visiting www.alastairreynolds.com.
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