142. (February 2025) Eversion, by Alastair Reynolds — The Tabletop Roleplayers' Book Club

Eversion 6 - Gaming

RichardAbbott — Sun, 02 Mar 2025 11:45:10 +0000

Is there anything here that could be used for gaming?

Eversion 5 - Mimesis and All That

RichardAbbott — Sun, 02 Mar 2025 11:44:46 +0000

There are some cool animations of the mathematics of eversion of a sphere online (eg or among others). These clearly inspired some parts of the book, such as the descriptions of the alien craft, and the almost-repetitive structure. Do you think Alistair Reynolds struggled too hard to force this kind of mimetic form onto the book? Were there enough other ideas in the book to round it out?

Eversion 4 - The Characters

RichardAbbott — Sun, 02 Mar 2025 11:41:43 +0000

Granted that we had pretty much the same cast of characters each iteration, did you feel you gradually got to know them better? When you finally learned about their real identities, were there any surprises left?

Eversion 3 - The Pacing and Timescale

RichardAbbott — Sun, 02 Mar 2025 11:41:20 +0000

When we finally learn the time scale over which everything has been happening it is enormously longer than anticipated, setting up the "we have to do this now or it's too late" crisis. I don't think there was any prior hint about this. Did the pace of the book work for you?

Eversion 2 - The Plot Twist

RichardAbbott — Sun, 02 Mar 2025 11:40:53 +0000

Obviously the Big Plot Twist is the real identity of Silas (and Ada) in contrast both to the other crew members, and his own self-perception. There were plenty of clues about the real location of the ship, but not nearly so many about identity. Did this work for you? Had you anticipated it?

Eversion 1 - The Story

RichardAbbott — Sun, 02 Mar 2025 11:40:29 +0000

The story is deliberately repetitive, with the same cast of characters in slightly different guise replaying almost the same events, each time with minor progressions... until Silas accepts his actual situation. Did this work for you or not? Did it make you curious as to what was happening or just see it as lazy writing?

Cover blurb for Eversion

RichardAbbott — Thu, 26 Dec 2024 16:23:57 +0000

Eversion is a superb, original Gothic SF novel. A small group of intrepid explorers are in search of a remote and mysterious artefact. It's a well-funded expedition, well organised, which is lucky as they're sailing north of Bergen on the schooner Demeter, searching for a narrow inlet which will lead them to a vast uncharted lake - and their goal--

Until disaster strikes.

Doctor Silas Coade wakes from disturbing dreams, on the steamship Demeter, in pursuit of an extraordinary find almost too incredible and too strange to believe, secreted within a lagoon in the icy inlets of Patagonia. But as they come in sight of their prize he and the crew see they are not the first to come so far: there is a wreck ahead, and whatever ruined it may threaten them as well--

Shaking off his nightmares, Doctor Silas Coade joins his fellow exploders on the deck of the zeppelin Demeter and realises something has already gone dangerously wrong with their mission. If any of them are to survive, then he will have to take the exploration - and their lives - into his own hands . . .

About Alastair Reynolds

RichardAbbott — Thu, 26 Dec 2024 16:24:44 +0000

Alastair Reynolds was born in Wales in 1966. He has a Ph.D. in astronomy. From 1991 until 2007, he lived in The Netherlands, where he was employed by The European Space Agency as an astrophysicist. He is now a full-time writer.