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Alastair Reynolds
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The Prefect (Revelation Space) Mass Market Paperback – May 26, 2009

by Alastair Reynolds (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 783 ratings
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Critically-acclaimed author Alastair Reynolds creates “a fascinating hybrid of space opera, police procedural and character study”(Publishers Weekly) in this novel in his Revelation Space universe.

Tom Dreyfus is a Prefect, a law enforcement officer with the Panoply. His beat is 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. But his investigation uncovers something far more serious than mass slaughter—a covert plot by an enigmatic entity who seeks nothing less than total control of the Glitter Band.
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  1. Print length
    576 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Ace
  4. Publication date
    May 26, 2009
  5. Reading age
    18 years and up
  6. Dimensions
    4.16 x 1.23 x 6.73 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    0441017223
  8. ISBN-13
    978-0441017225
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for The Prefect

“This is solid British SF adventure, evoking echoes of le Carre and Sayers with a liberal dash of Doctor Who.”—Publishers Weekly

“Absorbing...gripping in the extreme...A fine provocative portrait of utopia on the brink. The relentless narrative momentum it employs simply underscores the pertinent urgency of that topic. The resulting mixture of space opera and police procedure is sublime entertainment.”—Locus

“A well-constructed amalgam of detective fiction, hard-SF and space opera.”—Andromeda Spaceways
 
“A great book and a worthy addition to the world of Revelation Space.”—Sci Fi Book Spot 
 
“[A] magnificently imagined world.”—Booklist

“Alastair Reynolds has developed real skill in mixing a detective investigation mystery with a background that is as thoroughly hard science as anybody’s...Eminently satisfying.”—SF Site

About the Author

Alastair Reynolds is the author of the Poseidon’s Children series and the Revelation Space series. Born in Barry, South Wales, he studied at Newcastle University and the University of St. Andrews. A former astrophysicist for the European Space Agency, he now writes full-time.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ace; Reprint edition (May 26, 2009)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Mass Market Paperback ‏ : ‎ 576 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0441017223
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0441017225
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.2 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.16 x 1.23 x 6.73 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 783 ratings

About the author

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Alastair Reynolds

Alastair Reynolds

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Alastair Reynolds was born in Wales in 1966. He has a Ph.D. in astronomy. From 1991 until 2007, he lived in The Netherlands, where he was employed by The European Space Agency as an astrophysicist. He is now a full-time writer.

Photo by Robert Day [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
783 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

ZOMGPWN❗
5.0 out of 5 stars Glitter Band police procedural
Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2017
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I really enjoyed The Prefect, coming to the story after reading most of the other Revelation Space related books. It's comparable to Chasm City in that this tale takes place outside the overarching story arc of the Inhibitors and their romp through the universe. Also, like Chasm City it takes place in the Yellowstone/Glitter Band system. What I really enjoyed about it was how it touched on aspects of this universe that haven't been explored in depth yet... particularly the Shrouders and the Sylveste Institute for Shrouder Studies. In the Revelation Space universe, there are a few different alien factions that remain mysterious and beyond human contact/comprehension. Perhaps the most mysterious of these is the Shrouders. While they remain aloof in The Prefect, we do get a deep dive into the backstory of Philip Lascaille - the only individual to have even minimal contact with The Shrouders and emerge with a beating heart. I found this aspect of the book really fascinating and worth the price of admission alone. It's also interesting that this novel is set prior to the advent of the Melding Plague.

The main story line involves the Glitter Band police force and associated detectives, locally referred to as Panopoly and Prefects. While investigating two seemingly unrelated events, Prefect Tom Dreyfus slowly uncovers, not only a connection between these two events but a deeply woven plot to overtake the entire population of the Glitter Band put in place by a malevolent force. Without giving away too much, this all ends up involving other aspects explored in previous Revelation Space books - specifically The Eighty and Exordium.

I really like what Reynolds has done with these additional "side" books in the Revelation Space world because they flesh out a lot of things hinted at previously and utilize the dramatic tension created by some of these concepts to great effect. This book also introduces some new toys like the whiphounds that are just as creative and interesting. I enjoyed the way the two separate storylines of Thalia Ng and Tom Dreyfus intertwine and played off one another. Overall this book was just done extremely well and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I will say that if you haven't read the main books in the Revelation Space series you might not get as much enjoyment out of the details. But you can still read this book and enjoy it. The background just won't mean as much to you. For instance, when Dreyfus makes initial contact with the Conjoiners in this novel, the effect is chilling and disturbing - mainly because of what is already known about Conjoiners from previous works.

I just read that there is a sequel to The Prefect in the works, and if that's true I will be picking it up as soon as it comes out. I'm eager to dive back into this corner of Alastair Reynolds' fascinating universe.
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Joe Karpierz
4.0 out of 5 stars like I said
Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2018
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Earlier this year, Alastair Reynolds' latest novel, ELYSIUM FIRE, was published. ELYSIUM FIRE is a sequel to Reynolds' 2007 novel THE PREFECT. As I am a fan of the works of Alastair Reynolds, and I wanted to read ELYSIUM FIRE, it seemed to me to be high time that I finally got around to reading THE PREFECT.

THE PREFECT takes place in Reynolds' Revelation Space universe, and in fact take place before the novel REVELATION SPACE, the first novel published in the universe. It's not really a prequel per se, but one of the drawbacks is that the novel gives the feeling that the reader should have already read the other Revelation Space novels, as most of the entities, aliens, constructs, and terms of the universe are assumed to be known. There is some explanation of terms, but this explanation is minimal. On the one hand, that can be irritating to readers new to the Revelation Space universe, but on the other hand it is somewhat refreshing that readers are allowed to puzzle out what some of these things are.

The setting is the Glitter Band, a group of 10,000 habitats that orbit the planet Yellowstone in the Epsilon Eridani system. Those who have read other Revelation Space novels will recall that the Glitter Band was devastated by something called the "melding plague". The prefect of the title of the novel, Tom Dreyfus, is a law enforcement/police officer with an organization called The Panoply, a group charged with protecting the residents of the Glitter Band (the odd thing about this is that early on in the novel high ranking prefects claim that the group is not a police force, but in reality they are just that). The Glitter Band is run as what appears to be the closest thing to a true democracy, as all decisions affecting residents of the Glitter Band are voted upon using a device called a polling core, a computer of sorts that transmits the queries to the populace and tallies the votes. The majority wins. Until it doesn't.

Dreyfus has just returned from a mission to one of the habitats wherein he and his deputy prefect Thalia Ng were investigating a voting fraud crime when he's sent to investigate the destruction of one of the habitats of the Glitter Band and the 900+ people that live there. What he finds there are more questions to be answered than he was originally prepared to ask.

Meanwhile, a bug in the polling core software has been discovered. Thalia, being an expert in such things, codes and tests the fix herself, and plans to test the implementation by hand installing the fix on four of the most problematic habitats, after which, if all goes well, she'll go back to Panoply and patch the remaining 10,000 or so polling cores remotely.

The two seemingly different and unrelated set of events end up pointing to a sinister plot to take over the Glitter Band by an enigmatic entity that isn't even alive in the sense that we know it. Dreyfus and the rest of the prefects on Panoply must race to stop this takeover from happening.

THE PREFECT is the kind of novel a lot of us grew up reading, the kind of novel with big ideas, interesting and somewhat way out there technologies, some altered reality in the form of something called the abstraction, which also allows people to communicate. It is huges sense of wonder stuff with some big ideas in a space opera setting; like I said, the kind of novel a lot of us grew up reading.

Which tends to mean, and it certainly means it here, that this isn't a character based story. Rather, the characters are there to advance the plot and showcase what the future could be like. That's certainly contrary to the way a good deal of award winning and critically acclaimed science fiction is written today, but...it's comfortable and entertaining. You're not going to fall in love with any of these characters, but that's not the point of a novel like this. If you like big ideas and complex plots, then this will be right up your alley. It certainly was right up mine.

Speaking of comfortable, I became captivated with John Lee's voice while listening to a number of Peter F. Hamilton novels that he narrated. I normally don't check the narrator of an audio book until the end when I'm preparing to write a review. Lee's voice sounded familiar enough that I had to check on where I'd heard it before. I enjoyed Lee's narration on the Hamilton books, and I certainly enjoyed it here. The combination of the the comfort food of a good space opera with the comfort food of a narrator I like from another set of novels by a different author - something I hadn't encountered before - made this a thoroughly enjoyable listen.
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anon
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in India on December 9, 2017
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Very Good Novel with lot of new ideas..
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T. Krombach
4.0 out of 5 stars Super SF-Welt, magere Story-Entwicklung
Reviewed in Germany on April 13, 2012
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Dies war mein erstes Buch von Reynolds, und ich hatte wohl zu hohe Erwartungen. The Prefect ist kein Hard-SF, sondern eher Space Opera. Das Glitter-Band Universum ist facettenreich und Reynolds hat eine ganze Menge interessante und ausgefallene Ideen in petto. Die Story allerdings lässt zu wünschen übrig. Die Entwicklungen sind einfach zu seicht, man spürt förmlich den Autor denken "Oh, jetzt wird es Zeit dass die Guten einen auf den Deckel bekommen" und schon bricht der Schurke aus, nimmt sich ohne Probleme eine Wunderwaffe und wendet das Blatt. Bis 50 Seiten danach der Gegenstreich kommt.

Wie schon ein voriger Rezensent sagt, sehr gutes Popcorn-Kino, aber keine hohe Literatur.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars A great introduction to Alistair Reynolds.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 7, 2009
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The Prefect was my first foray into the realm of Revelation Space and reading out of sequence doesn't seem to have had an impact on my understanding and enjoyment one bit. The book has bags of pace and focuses on a small set of characters which helps keep the narrative punchy and uncluttered. This is a much better book than 'Century Rain' ( a non-Revelation Space work ), hanging together more satisfyingly.

Fundamentally, The Prefect is a Detective story set in space, overlain with a rich tapestry of interesting technological and philosophical threads. The narrative centres around Field Prefect Tom Dreyfus ( a kind of cop ) who works for Panoply, an emasculated pseudo police force that protects the voting rights of the residents of the Glitter Band ( a collection of ten thousand habitats which orbit the planet Yellowstone four hundred years or so in the future ).

The story kicks of when a habitat is attacked resulting in the death of all of its inhabitants. Panoply sends one of their best agents to investigate and in classic detective tradition, Tom Dreyfus refuses to rest until the mystery is solved and the Glitter Band is saved from what seems to be inevitable destruction. Although set in a fantastical future, Reynolds encourages us to build allegiances with the citizens of the Glitter Band ( the democracy fixated Demarchists ) to such an extent that he is able to portray the enigmatic Conjoiners as the exotic "aliens".

The book didn't take long to read at all, but before I'd reached halfway I went and ordered a batch of Reynolds's other work. In terms of scope and ideational innovation, comparisons with Banks are valid, however, Reynolds is far more accessible, far less literary - this is in turn, both for the better and for the worse. I'd sooner read Reynolds on a beach, but Banks will satisfy the inner literary snob more completely.

There are a couple of one dimensional characters such as Senior Prefect Gaffney, a classic misguided "bad guy" who might have been "good" under other circumstances, but I can forgive the lack of convincing character development and exposition of motive because of the basic, old fashioned entertainment factor. Likewise, the artificial intelligences don't grip the imagination and elicit sympathy like Jane in Orson Scott Card's Enders series for example, but this weakness is made up for by the more modern treatment. Indeed, as a programmer, the ending made me chuckle a little inappropriately ( in a way only a geek can ). Remember, the first law of distributed programming is don't distribute!
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Spcmnky
4.0 out of 5 stars Great police sci-fi
Reviewed in Canada on October 22, 2019
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Alastair Reynolds uses his talent for sci-fi 'crafting' interestingly to make a rather good police novel. Set in his revelation space world.
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Cat5
4.0 out of 5 stars Good solid work from Al!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 6, 2012
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This book drags a bit at times, but is otherwise sound. It fills in a number of gaps in the other Revelation Space books whilst delivering an absorbing read. There are the usual cast of less than nice characters mixed with some that you develop some sympathy for. Those unfamiliar with the RS series may get slightly lost at times re the tech discussed, but if you bear with it most things get some explanation.
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