Alastair Reynolds

In 2057, Bella Lind and the crew of the Rockhopper mine comets for their ice, but when Janus, one of Saturn's ice moons inexplicably leaves its orbit and heads out of the solar system at high speed, Bella is assigned to follow it, unaware that the moon has some most unusual surprises in store. 20,000 first printing.

Pushing Ice

Tobias V. Langhoff

The most common criticism against Alastair Reynolds is that he’s pretty bad at characterization, so it’s interesting that he wrote a book about the flawed leaders of a new human civilization that unwillingly find themselves cast away from Earth. Often compared to Rendezvous with Rama and other sci fi books featuring humanity’s first contact with a Big Dumb Object™, in this novel we follow a group of space miners who are marooned from Earth and have to reestablish their society while trying to create some meaning in life and trying to figure out their situation. The politics and inter-personal dynamics are more developed than the characters themselves, as usual for Reynolds, but all in all it works pretty well.

The second most common criticism against Alastair Reynolds is his inability to write endings, and sadly, this book doesn’t satisfy. The end comes abruptly, with little in the way of closure, and I can only hope that there will one day be a sequel to this book (as well as his other great one-off novel featuring relativity: House of Suns).

Some of Reynolds’s usual tropes are here, such as a playfulness with relativity (which creates some mind-bending situations) and inertia dampening, which are clearly concepts he’s given some thought based on his background in astrophysics. The aliens and their culture and technologies are also cool.

All in all, a less ambitious science fiction novel than many of his other books, and while the result is a slightly less interesting and epic story, it is more grounded and human and mostly succeeds at that.

Ryan LaFerney

Pushing Ice is a multi-generational, sprawling space opera that packs a punch. In Pushing Ice, one of Saturn’s moons suddenly departs from its orbit and shoots off into deep space. Bella and her crew are desperate for some much needed R&R – until Janus, one of Saturn’s ice moons, inexplicably leaves its natural orbit. Bella takes the bait and hopes to beat the Chinese to Janus. As it heads out into the solar system at high acceleration, layers of camouflage fall away; it appears that Janus was never a moon in the first place but a sophisticated machine. Now this moon-shaped machine is headed towards the star system Spica, two hundred and sixty light-years away. As Rockhopper gives chase events begin to cast doubt in the minds of some of the crew, particularly Bella’s closest friend Svetlana, who thinks that they might be being kept in the dark about certain things by the owners of the ship back on Earth. As they get nearer to Janus, tensions rise and eventually an immense decision will have to be made, which tears Bella and Svetlana’s friendship apart, as well as the Rockhopper crew. They will either have to land on Janus and get carried out into space or find a way of dropping out of its slipstream, possibly destroying themselves in the process, and hope that Earth sends a rescue ship before systems run down. For now, Bella is victorious, but this is only the beginning of the adventure for the Rockhopper and its crew. 

Janus's arrival at a huge structure in the Spica star system leaves the crew of the Rockhopper with no choice. They have to colonize the moon they just chased and landed on. They spend decades making the moon their home, during which time they meet an alien race (The Fountainheads) that is not responsible for creating the Janus ship and are able to somewhat rejuvenate the aging crew . But before too long other alien races show up and all hell soon break loose. Can the humans withstand hostile alien cultures? 

This is a story including actual hard science and speculative physics, and of personal crew conflicts and leadership, and yes, of aliens! It all feels realistic and never unbelievable. The characters felt well-drawn out, in comparison to what many other reviewers have said. I will say I did find myself skimming the more science driven dialogue but even then Reynolds find a way to make science readable and passable to the average joe. But every now and then, the action would slow down, and the writing would seem a tad bit dry. Still, Pushing Ice was for me a good mix of classic science-fiction with modern space opera. Think Arthur C. Clarke meets James S.A. Corey. 

I'd certainly like to revisit this novel in the future as it is filled with really interesting concepts and bizarre alien cultures. Ultimately, this story is about human survival and a good human survival story is always riveting. 

For fans of: Arthur C. Clarke, James S.A. Corey, Larry Niven.

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?

Stephen Gill 

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?

Pushing Ice

Reviews