I was born in Wales, but raised in Cornwall, and then spent time in the north of England and Scotland. I really like the universe that Alastair Reynolds creates in the space opera "Machine Vendetta": A massive swarm of over 10,000 independent orbital habitats, a fleet of far flung post-human spacefarers, an elite team of agents protecting the voting rights of the local citizens in a colonized solar system, and just to keep things interesting, a couple of god-like AI's that do not share empathy with humanity. That's not the case here, as it's mostly a follow-up to the events of four years ago, which sought to resolve the Clockmaker and Aurora situation. Prematurely writing this review because I started it on Netgalley without realizing that it is the 3rd book of a series.

It wasn’t a great resolution, not even as good as the rest of the book, but acceptable all things considered. This is solid British SF adventure, evoking echoes of le Carre and Sayers with a liberal dash of Doctor Who. You don't need to have read the previous books - enough of the backstories are given along the way to explain to newcomers - but those who have read the previous novels will appreciate what happens more.Dreyfus, Jane Aumonier, the senior officer of the Panoply, Thalia Ng and other prefects have to unravel multiple mysteries to understand the depth of betrayal and AI infiltration they are facing. As with the the other Alastair Reynolds space opera novels I have read, this was quite entertaining and was just what I needed. The relentless narrative momentum it employs simply underscores the pertinent urgency of that topic. No, I hadn't, this was simply a case of Reynolds having a lot of stuff happen outside of the written story. 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.

To complicate this febrile situation further, elements from the past have come back to haunt the characters. It's something he's been knocked for, especially in his early novels, but he's clearly grown to become an author fully capable of creating authentic characters with genuine emotional resonance. There were several questionable narrative choices, but it seems I've become inured to them or maybe it was my mood. 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.Reynolds has perfected a clipped style of moving stories forward at a fast pace, but that also means that characterization comes through more through action than introspection. But 'cop' is not the correct term – it's more like they are the public safety monitors, trying to deal with any issues with a light touch but willing to bring in the heavy support as needed. 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. This is where I admit that I don't know what it is about this time, but for some reason I felt especially charitable about all the issues that would've otherwise bothered me.