I really enjoyed the [b:Revelation Space|89187|Revelation Space (Revelation Space, #1)|Alastair Reynolds|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1405532042l/89187._SY75_.jpg|219037] series and therefore grabbed this unfamiliar Alastair Reynolds novel when I saw it in the library. I'd forgotten how brilliant the world of that series and [b:Chasm City|89185|Chasm City|Alastair Reynolds|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1309203334l/89185._SY75_.jpg|2926628] was, so found 'The Prefect' even better than I hoped. Technically it's a police procedural about a space cop, but 400 years in the future crime and policing are sufficiently different as to be fascinating. Moreover, there are themes of what role and powers the police should have, whether they should be armed, and to what extent their ends should justify their means. The setting is the Glitter Band, ten thousand orbital habitats with wildly varying political and social structures.

While the peril of the plot was highly compelling, I also really enjoyed learning about the democratic processes of the Glitter Band. The main role of the police force is to safeguard these processes by fixing any errors in the complex polling software running in every habitat. Before disaster really strikes, I loved Thalia's exhausting work trip to run patches in four habitats. One is a voluntary tyranny gone wrong, one a whimsical fairyland of flying horses and panda-people, in another everyone is fully immersed in VR and retains only the vestiges of a physical body, and the last, House Aubusson, is an arcadian direct democracy with a particularly intriguing export: influence on polls. The polling system doesn't just record one vote per person, it analyses how 'correct' that person's past votes were and adjusts the weighting of their future votes. To live on House Aubusson, your judgement has to be good enough to retain a vote-weighting above 1.25. As a lot of my recent work has been survey weighting, the implications of this are of particular interest to me. There is no mention of truly extreme weights, just a few individuals at 3 or just above, so amid millions of people a few individuals couldn't hugely bias poll results. Nonetheless, I'm curious about the effect this weighting would have over time.

All the world-building in 'The Prefect' was excellent. Strange enough to make this future vivid, yet smoothly integrated into the narrative and quick to become familiar. There are plenty of clever and amusing details. It made me smile that in a future where sleep could be prevented for over a decade using drugs, most still drink coffee. It's such a delicious stimulant and has been popular for two hundred years now, so why not! Rather than having to make your own, though, any wall will dispense a coffee then recycle the receptacle once you've finished with it. The varying levels of network connectivity ('abstraction') used in different parts of the Glitter Band were neatly shown, as was the importance of trade internally and externally.

The characters are likewise appealing. Tom Dreyfus is much more than the jaded cop with a tragically-fridged wife that he might initially seem to be. I liked the rapport he had with both his superiors and his juniors. He shares narration duties with other prefects, which definitely contributes to how involving and well-paced the plot is. After initial intimations of approaching disaster, major catastrophe hits and the prefects must contend with a combination of threats that cannot easily be countered. It's notable that they make mistakes, acknowledge these, and learn from them, as well as admitting to fear and fallibility. This is not some super-macho police squad that shoots first and asks questions never. Giving Gaffney's point of view was powerful, as it shows how a seemingly exemplary prefect could be easily radicalised into authoritarianism. He makes a great primary antagonist as he forces his colleagues to reflect on their own beliefs about ends and means.

The twists and turns of the plot are executed brilliantly. Via different points of view, the reader sees both the wider strategic picture and microcosms of disaster. Throughout, Dreyfus doggedly investigates what the hell is going on, his boss attempts to protect the Glitter Band as a whole, and his subordinates do their best to save who they can. There are some spectacularly memorable scenes and ingenious revelations. Aumonier is a wonderful character, held hostage in her own body for more than a decade by mysterious tech attached to her spine yet relentlessly competent. The moment when she's abruptly decapitated to release her from this is extraordinary, followed by her severed head being taken hostage by Gaffrey! I also found Thalia's increasingly tense struggles to survive on House Aubusson suitably thrilling. Everything to do with the Clockmaker lived up to the ominous hints dropped at the beginning.

Although the ending was almost entirely satisfying, one thing I felt remained unresolved concerned the encroaching threat Aurora convinced Gaffney about, some kind of nonspecific apocalyptic plague. It seemed plausible to me that what Exordium foresaw was Aurora's takeover of the Glitter Band: by (allegedly) trying to prevent a plague she unleashed one in the form of weevil robots. I wondered if that was why Aurora was increasingly dissatisfied by what Exordium reported in their plague predictions? Amid these dramatic events, the narrative also considers big questions of what constitutes consciousness, how much should be sacrificed for security, and whether solidarity can be found with radically altered posthumans. This is exactly what I want from hard sci-fi. 'The Prefect' reminded me that carefully imagined and impeccably executed visions of the future are an absolute joy to read. ( )

Realized I had read this before, under its original title The Prefect ( )

Fabulous space opera police procedural with cyberpunk overtones. ( )

Plots and counterplots, evil artificial intelligences, mysterious death machines, betrayals and rescues, massive orbiting space habitats, last-minute escapes and unexpected setbacks, gadget weapons and super-powerful spaceships - all this flailing around in apparent complex chaos but well actually well-controlled exposition. What more could you want from an extra-terrestrial adventure? ( )

kaleidoscope of ideas ( )