Elysium Fire Audiobook By Alastair Reynolds cover art

Elysium Fire

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Elysium Fire

By: Alastair Reynolds
Narrated by: John Lee
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About this listen

Elysium Fire is a smoldering tale of murderers, secret cultists, tampered memories, and unthinkable power, of bottomless corruption and overpowering idealism from the king of modern space opera.

Ten thousand city-state habitats orbit the planet Yellowstone, forming a near-perfect democratic human paradise.

But even utopia needs a police force. For the citizens of the Glitter Band that organization is Panoply, and the prefects are its operatives.

Prefect Tom Dreyfus has a new emergency on his hands. Across the habitats and their hundred million citizens, people are dying suddenly and randomly, victims of a bizarre and unprecedented malfunction of their neural implants. And these "melters" leave no clues behind as to the cause of their deaths....

As panic rises in the populace, a charismatic figure is sowing insurrection, convincing a small but growing number of habitats to break away from the Glitter Band and form their own independent colonies.

For more from Alastair Reynolds, check out:

Revenger

©2018 Alastair Reynolds (P)2018 Hachette Audio
Adventure First Contact Science Fiction Space Exploration
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What listeners say about Elysium Fire

Highly rated for:

The Story Of Elysium Fire Is Set In Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space Universe, Specifically In The Utopian Glitter Band Around The Planet Yellowstone. It Follows A Detective-style Mystery Plot With Plenty Of Twists And Turns, Centered Around Uncovering Ancient Crimes And Secrets. The Narrative Is Split Between The Investigation By Law Enforcement And The Coming-of-age Story Of Two Antagonistic Brothers With The Power To Manipulate Matter. Reynolds Crafts An Immersive Futuristic Setting With Advanced Technologies Like Brain Implants And Ai Holograms. While The World-building And Character Narratives Are Praised, Some Find The Overall Storyline Thin, The Ending Anticlimactic, And Certain Plot Elements Unclear Or Predictable.
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Another wonderful performance from John Lee

Just can't get enough of Reynolds' Revelation Space books, or anything he writes, in fact.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

2nd time reading

John Lee does an excellent job narrating. because of his narrating performance it is very easy to follow with character dialogue.
this is the second book in the Dreyfus emergency series, honestly I recommend you read this last of any of the Revelation space universe.
I demand a sequel
always a fan of the way he writes his stories.

I recommend any of the revelation space series.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Promising, but overly-fantastical story.

I'm sure I will read Alistair Reynolds work for the rest of my life, but this won't be my favorite.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Moderately Interesting

If you havent read other Reynolds books you should start with Chasam City, The Prefect, Revelation Space or pushing ice, all of which are much better. I found Elysium Fire to be a much weaker story, populated with a cast of somewhat cliched and predictable characters. I was especially annoyed by the introduction of a major antagonist from The Prefect since it seemed that the storey was about to become extremely interesting; she played essentially zero part in the rest of the tale.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Another Great Alastair Reynolds Novel

5 out of 5 ⭐️ cannot wait for the next release in the series this fall!

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Too arcane this time

This left too much to interpret, and the post script Drew the story we had been told into question. I hate unreliable observer syndrome. Tell me the story, but don't then tell me you lied to me.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Well rounded and fresh

Mr Reynolds has delivered a story with well developed and interesting characters and a completely fresh story in the revelation space universe. I can't wait for the next installment. Where will prefect Dryfus end up next? Will we find out more about the melding plague? A wild New turn?

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great police drama in a sci-go setting

Incredibly detailed, complex, twisting plot, you don’t get much better than this for science, fiction or crime drama.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Awesome

Everything he writes is amazing. This one is so so so so so so good.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Good story, narrator hurts it.

If you could sum up Elysium Fire in three words, what would they be?

Hot Headed Children

What was one of the most memorable moments of Elysium Fire?

When the children realized what they were

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The narrator, John Lee, has a very bad habit of modulating the volume of his voice- he consistently reduces the volume through a sentence- starting loud and getting quieter almost always. If listening in a noisy environment, (like a car) this can mean missing content. This is definitely not the only book where he has done this- It was *FAR* worse in 'Pandora's Star' - it is enough that If I see the book is narrated by Mr. Lee, I hesitate a little.

In every other respect Mr. Lee's performance is exemplary- the characters are performed distinctly and consistently. I make the mention only so that he can improve future performances.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Forgetting isn't perfect

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