Elysium Fire

Why it’s on the list: The second of Alastair Reynolds’s Dreyfus novels: citizens of the Glitter Band are dying as the neural implants linking them to the habitats’ shared systems fail, and Tom Dreyfus has to work out whether it is a defect, an attack or a cover, while a secessionist movement argues for dissolving the Band’s one binding institution. A failure cascade in deployed hardware, investigated as a crime.

Where I heard about it

• The a16z infrastructure team — on the a16z Infra Reading List, B tier (“also worth reading”), volume two of the Dreyfus Emergencies, which they rate “possibly better” than the Inhibitor trilogy.

About this edition

Readable after The Prefect; the premise assumes you know what a prefect is for.

Connections

• a16z Infra Reading List — the list this came from.
• Alastair Reynolds — the author.
• The Prefect — the first Dreyfus novel, reissued as Aurora Rising.
• Machine Vendetta — the third.
• Revelation Space · Redemption Ark · Absolution Gap · Chasm City — the rest of the universe.
• Science Fiction — the genre page.