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Slow Bullets

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

From the author of the Revelation Space series comes an interstellar adventure of war, identity, betrayal, and the preservation of civilization itself.
A vast conflict, one that has encompassed hundreds of worlds and solar systems, appears to be finally at an end. A conscripted soldier is beginning to consider her life after the war and the family she has left behind. But for Scur—and for humanity—peace is not to be.
On the brink of the ceasefire, Scur is captured by a renegade war criminal, and left for dead in the ruins of a bunker. She revives aboard a prisoner transport vessel. Something has gone terribly wrong with the ship.
Passengers—combatants from both sides of the war—are waking up from hibernation far too soon. Their memories, embedded in bullets, are the only links to a world which is no longer recognizable. And Scur will be reacquainted with her old enemy, but with much higher stakes than just her own life.

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      April 27, 2015
      An interstellar war has just come to an end, but some violence-loving soldiers are reluctant to stand down. Scur, separated from her unit, is captured and tortured by the sadistic Orvin. After passing out, she awakens from suspended animation to find herself on an enormous starship floating dead in space about 1,000 years in the future. Other than the hapless crew, who have also just revived, the ship is now inhabited by hundreds of former soldiers, war criminals (including Orvin), and civilians, none of whom know why they’re there or where in space they are. Scur quickly takes charge, hoping to preserve order, to figure out why they’re on board in the first place, and to enact vengeance on the malignant Orvin. This is an odd tale, stylized and almost gothic in its sensibilities, reminiscent of Greg Bear’s Hull Zero Three in its willingness to mystify its audience and leave its shipboard mysteries unsolved. Scur is not a particularly appealing protagonist, but her growth from embittered grunt to legitimate leader is worth following. Reynolds (Poseidon’s Wake) has a loyal base of hard-SF fans, and this novella, though relatively minor, should satisfy them.

    • Library Journal

      Starred review from June 15, 2015

      What happens to survivors at the end of an interstellar war? In the latest from Reynolds ("Revelation Space" series), refugees, soldiers, and criminals are loaded aboard the same vessel and plunged into cryo-suspension. When Scur wakes in her capsule, she's confused, as it seems far too soon and no one is in charge. With the ship's computer in terminal decline and the only stable source of information the slow bullets injected into their bodies, Scur and the other passengers must decide what's more important, their personal lives or the larger fate of humanity VERDICT While shorter than Reynolds's usual fare, this is no less ambitious in covering vast scopes of space and time while addressing big questions. Suggest to fans of Ian MacDonald or Kim Stanley Robinson, particularly those who liked Aurora.--JM

      Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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  • English

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