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Audiobook notes at the end.

This is the first I've read of Alistair Reynolds but I'm sure I'll be picking up more.

The prose itself is beautifully written and I loved how inventive the world was. Even some of the more outlandish scientific ideas are explained in ways that make them believable and I never questioned their workings within the universe Reynolds created.

The book is told in three viewpoints - that of Abigail Gentian, who shattered herself into 1,000 clones and sent them out into the universe, and Campion and Purslane, two of Abigail's shatterlings. The book is split into eight parts and Abigail's story prologues each part and is easy to separate. The numbered chapters, however, switch between Campion and Purslane and are much more difficult to detect. There were several times I was unaware the viewpoint had switched until a third person reference pointed me in the right direction. So that was a little annoying.

I was also pretty unimpressed by the ending. I don't want to give too much away, so it will suffice to say that I thought it was rather anticlimactic.

Audiobook: I listened to the audiobook narrated by John Lee. I wasn't exceptionally fond of him in the first few chapters - but he grew on me a bit by the end. I'd probably listen to another audiobook from him.