Hachette Book Group is a leading book publisher based in New York and a division of Hachette Livre, the third-largest publisher in the world. Some of my books and stories are set in a consistent future named after Revelation Space, the first novel, but I've done a lot of other things as well and I like to keep things fresh between books.

They're present here, but I think for first time Reynolds has a scene where he acknowledges and intervenes with the identity issues because he knows you're speculating about the identity of a character. Machine Vendetta begins with Prefect Ingvar Tench taking an unscheduled journey to Transtromer, a minor habitat where she is killed by a mob. Usually when a book follows up from events that occurred it's something that happened in previous books. It wasn’t a great resolution, not even as good as the rest of the book, but acceptable all things considered. Meanwhile something treacherous is happening again, and it will take all their knowledge and power to find the culprit and save the day.A prefect who happens to be a hyperpig (an uplifted pig functioning alongside humans) has apparently betrayed his office and staged a suicide attack on one habitat. I guess the first thing to note is that this book is set in a broad and encompassing universe that Alistair Reynolds has created.

Insurrection is rising, and the destruction of part of a peaceful jungle-like habitat, Valsko-Venev, seems to have been instigated by Mizler Cranach, seemingly a rogue hyper-pig Prefect, an event which has created distrust towards the Prefects and inspired racist xenophobia as the act is seen as a racist attack. From the king of modern space opera comes a new adventure in the Prefect Dreyfus series— Machine Vendetta is a thrilling tale of deadly conspiracies and old enemies that refuse to die. We had to wait until 2018 for Elysium Fire, and both form the background for the clash of rogue AIs that is central to Machine Vendetta.I am dying to know what happens but I think I've already read a major spoiler for the series and I don't want to risk running into more! This also leads to things being tied up in a definite ending, which I suspect may divide readers a little. It's always a shame when a book serises isn't quite able to stick it's ending properly; Alastari Reynol's world-building shines through and the yellowstone he presents is every bit as futurstic and mystical as any other. Although this is the third book in the Prefect Dreyfus series, and I had not read the previous books, I found "Machine Vendetta" to be perfectly readable, understandable, and highly enjoyable. This led to me wondering why she was always referred to by her first name while Dreyfus is almost always referred to by his last.

There is big trouble in the Glitter Band, the ten thousand habitats of which are patrolled by a force of only a thousand prefects of the Panoply. Dreyfus feels that the death may be related to Tench’s ongoing secret investigation of Catopsis, sanctioned by Dreyfus after the events of Elysium Fire. Alastair Reynolds has produced a fine, fast-paced thriller in Machine Vendetta, the third, and apparently final novel in the Prefect Dreyfus Emergencies series.As Tench’s mentor and friend, Tom Dreyfus is brought in to investigate her death and the events leading up to it – What was the reason for the trip? Rogue Artificial Intelligence; genetic engineering; cloning; post-humanism; hubristic families; found (or orchestrated) family; all of these themes are essentially and magnificently interwoven, and always, always, the overweening theme is Doing the Right Thing.

Machine Vendetta is a sharply drawn and finely told mystery, and my only concern is that, according to one statement of Reynolds, it could be his last, not only in the Prefect Dreyfus series but also in the Revelation Space universe.

Dreyfus works the scenes like a seasoned police officer and we do our best to keep up and play along!