Absolution Gap is both a very good novel and a very bad series finale. The last book in a series that began with Revelation Space several years book, Absolution Gap presents a thrilling story of its own but simply gives up when it comes to resolving the huge intergalactic struggle hinted at in the earlier books.

Like the previous novels, Absolution Gap presents a number of interlinked stories. On Hela, a moon surrounding the gas giant Haldora, a young archaeologist named Rashmika Els is slowly coming to a theory about why, every once in a while, the gas giant simply seems to disappear. Thousands of light years away, Clavain and his ragtag band of humans and pigs are forced to flee Ararat as the galaxy-devouring Inhibitors discover them. And Clavain's former colleagues, aided by a mysterious young girl born with strangely inventive powers, unleash all the hell they've got against the Inhibitors in what seems to be a futile attempt to prevent them from destroying all intelligent life.

At its best, Absolution Gap is extremely competent hard science fiction. In one of the best sequences of the book, Reynolds lavishly describes the exotic and terrifying new weapons that the Conjoiners throw against the Inhibitors as certain members of Clavain's crew try to escape Ararat. And Rashmika's adventures on Hela--especially her interactions with the disgusting religious leader Quaiche--can be nail-bitingly tense. Quaiche himself, along with his retinue, is an eerily gothic creation, with the same kind of grotesquely organic use of technology that Reynolds is fond of using to create horror. Quaiche's obsession with following Haldora's orbit, and his attempt to cross Absolution Gap--a kilometers-deep chasm--across a mysterious bridge, are both weird and arresting (even though the bridge ends up being a huge McGuffin).

As usual, Reynolds is better at plot and technology than at character; his books always have the slightly sterile feel that comes with an author impatiently employing (fictional) human beings as a tool to do what he really wants, which, in this case, is to play with really big guns and really big objects. Also as usual, there is a twist to the plot, driven very much by Reynolds's trademark clever play with time dilation. (I can actually see him setting down pencil to paper to calculate the appropriate dates.)

Alas, for those (like me) who have been following this series from the beginning, the climax of the plot line with the Inhibitors is . . . disappointing. Brief review: As we discovered in the first book, the Inhibitors are vicious, hive-mind machines sent back from the future whose sole goal, it seems, is to prevent intelligent life from space-faring. To that end they have unleashed supernova against alien species, hunted down and killed a curious maggot-like civilization, and driven mankind to the ends of the galaxy. You'd expect, given the huge buildup over three previous thick volumes of plot, that Reynolds would have a slam bang conclusion to mankind's struggle against the Inhibitors. You'd be wrong. Not only does Reynolds bring in a deus ex machina to deal with the Inhibitors--he follows that up with yet another random, unnecessary peek into future history, where we discover that everything that has happened has been irrelevant. I kid you not.

I get the feeling that Reynolds kind of wrote himself into a hole, making the Inhibitors just too damned powerful to dispose of in any way but with external help. In fact, I almost wish he had just ditched the Inhibitors plot line from the beginning and replaced them with some other galactic threat. The half-assed attempt to deal with the Inhibitors is the only serious weakness in Absolution Gap, but it's enough to hobble the rest of the novel as well.

Copyright © 2004 Steven Wu