A fairly straightforward space odyssey adhering to all of the relevant genre conventions and providing an interesting glimpse into Alastair Reynolds's early ideas. While his abilities and prose seem to have improved in his later work, he maintains a strong ability to cultivate interesting characters- and of course, perhaps most definitively towards his style, he describes brilliant fantasies. He has a strange idea of what makes a good anti-hero, but a good enough one to keep me entertained.