Pushing Ice - Alastair Reynolds

Pushing Ice – Alastair Reynolds

2057. Bella Lind and the crew of her nuclear-powered ship, the Rockhopper, push ice. They mine comets. But when Janus, one of Saturn’s ice moons, inexplicably leaves its natural orbit and heads out of the solar system at high speed, Bella is ordered to shadow it for the few vital days before it falls forever out of reach.

In accepting this mission she sets her ship and her crew on a collision course with destiny-for Janus has many surprises in store, and not all of them are welcome…

My Review of Pushing Ice

HOW HAVE I NEVER READ ANYTHING BY THIS AUTHOR BEFORE!?? WOW! What a book! I am so pleased that I have a whole lot of books by Alastair Reynolds to read now. Like finding a fortune under your mattress! I am so excited to have added another 20+ books to my TBR!

It is 2057 and Bella Lind is the captain of a comet-mining vessel The Rockhopper. They get some disturbing news. One of Saturn’s moons Janus has left orbit and is on its way out of the solar system. The Rockhopper is the only ship that has time to intercept this potentially alien ship. But what awaits the ship and crew when they intercept it?

Thoughts:

I don’t want to spoil the plot for anyone by saying more. But this book BLEW ME AWAY! It reminded me a lot of “Children of Time” which was my absolute favourite book of 2017!

The sheer scope of this book, covering TENS OF THOUSANDS of years! Absolutely amazing! I am not sure how he managed to squeeze everything into a stand-alone book too, but I am very grateful because it was just amazing!

This book is not so much about the space stuff, which it has a lot of (Reynolds is an astrophysicist after all…) – But it is a story about the complexities of human relationships, particularly around the friendship of two women. It caught me by surprise how much I got sucked into the relationships just as much as the MIND BLOWING space stuff!

Really the ONLY thing it was missing for me, was a good romance. Sure there was a bit put in here and there, but it lacked a tension-building romance which I thought would have gone well in there somewhere. A few relationships were mentioned in passing, and pre-existing couples were tested as the events of the novel transpired, but overall it lacked that bit extra for my personal taste.

But otherwise, almost freaking PERFECT! It had action, MIND BLOWING SCIENCE-SPACE stuff, violence, emotion, betrayal, and ALIENS, MAN!

I listened to the audio version and the narration was FANTASTIC! He did a great job at portraying all the characters, especially the female ones, and gave them each an individual personality and voice. Exactly the reason that I LOVE so many sci-fi books on audio when they are well done.

Would I recommend this book?

YES! No hesitation. It may be a bit full-on if you are not into sci-fi, but if you are wanting something to blow your mind a bit and just a bloody good story with superb writing – look no further! I have added ALL his other work to my TBR!

(5 / 5)