Eversion by Alastair Reynolds is a masterful surprise in this author’s work, and I found myself reading it straight through. Instead of opening in one of Reynolds’ future worlds, the action starts on a sailing vessel, the Demeter, in a stormy sea off the coast of Norway in either the late 18th or early 19th centuries. The story of Eversion is narrated by Dr. Silas Coade, ship’s surgeon, who spends his spare time writing stories of a fantastical future. But when disaster strikes the Demeter, the action starts over again, this time on the coast of Patagonia around the mid-19th century. Then the scene shifts to the Antarctic, another fifty years or so in the future, and then it goes beyond that.
Eversion by Alastair Reynolds

The time and technologies shift in each case, but we always encounter the same set of characters in a series of narrations by Dr. Coade, each of which reflects the linguistic style of the era he’s experiencing. In each version of the story, there is also the common search for a strange and enormous structure, referred to as the Edifice, hidden away, either within a barely navigable inlet or deep within a huge cavern far below the surface. Only Silas begins to piece together the resemblances from one version of events to the next, but he has just a few flashes of memory.

...............

At every stage of this mystery, Reynolds describes the technologies of the various vessels in great detail as well as the increasingly sophisticated instrumentation and mathematics for pinpointing and identifying the big, dumb object that proves so elusive to the explorers. But for me, the most memorable parts of the story, as is often the case in Alastair Reynolds’ writing, relate to the inner drives of the characters he creates and his depiction of a particular type of longing for relationships that are always out of reach.

If you’re a fan of Reynold’s space operatic stories, you’ll need to adjust your expectations, but patience gets a big reward in this perfectly executed novel. Eversion is a finely written science fiction mystery that I could not put down.

In all honestly, I expected this book to be your typical multiple-timeline, slightly-formulaic sci-fi thriller, possibly with a touch of romance thrown in. It was not. The multiple timelines, while slightly unfamiliar at first, were different enough that I didn't get bored, but still followed the same basic idea. In all of them, Doctor Silas Coade is a doctor onboard a ship destined for doom; there is the discovery of omission of a past, failed expedition and an ominous warning, yet the party takes no heed and continues on. In every timeline, the goal is a mysterious structure named the "Edifice," and the timeline ends with Coade dying.

But the real story starts a little over halfway through the book, where Coade realizes that Something Is Not Right, and the timelines are all something akin to figment of his imagination. They are trying to warn him of something; from here on, the timelines "stack" onto each other, with frequent switching from reality t0 fiction. I thought the execution of these chapters was fantastically well-done, and the differentiation between the two was clear while also leaving a sort of trepidatious feeling that I always love in any sci-fi novel.

My favorite part of the novel, however, is definitely the ending, where Coade moves into a little town to be a land-based doctor. The nod to the first timeline (when Coade expresses his incompatibility with seafaring and longs for solid land) was a nice ending to Coade's story, and the mention of Ada Cossile (Coade's crush and the one who snaps him into reality, although there is no explicit mention of the two being in a romantic relationship) made it all the better.

Overall, a solid novel, albeit a tad lengthy (but definitely worth the read) - 5/5

Doctor Coade is in a time loop where in each new life, he remembers a small piece of the past. Each time period is immersive. The time periods start in the 1800s and go forward.

AWESOME! Alastair Reynolds is such an amazing writer. He could create a mind-bending story about paint drying on your wall!

In Eversion, we find ourselves in the 1800's on an old ship exploring the ocean near Norway. Silas Coade is the on board physician and he is tasked with keeping the crew safe as they explore uncharted territory. Pretty basic, except, the story repeats after Silas dies...again, and again, and again.

I personally do not like historical fiction, but Alastair had me sucked in to find out the why. After each death, Silas finds himself on a new voyage, with the same men, however he only just remembers a sliver of what happened before. You can't help but read on to learn what Eversion really means. This is science fiction at it's very best! If you like scifi, space voyages, and trippy twisty tales then Eversion is for you! #Orbitbooks #NetGalley #AlastairReynolds #Eversion

An exhausting waste of time. What begins as an engaging naval ghost story devolves into a fifth season "we're in a time-loop' episode. Kept reading by the skill of the writer, but the promise is never fulfilled. A recursive masturbation nightmare that never pays off. An attempt at an AI existential crisis retelling of I have no mouth but I must Scream that never delivers.

Eversion is a thoroughly compelling and chilling near future space mystery that feels a bit like some of the best reality warping parts of a Philip K Dick novel (Ubik comes to mind most readily) along with the mysterious foreboding and wonder of a cryptic alien artifact from a sci-fi classic like Arthur C Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama or 2001: A Space Odyssey. At its heart it's a poignant tale with a grand reveal that develops throughout the narrative via the protagonist's recurring processes of denial and acceptance and is pretty mind blowing. It falls somewhat outside Reynolds' usual space opera fare, but is no less masterful in its crafting and execution, and has a tone generally more hopeful and less darkly baroque than his widely acclaimed Revelation Space series.

A bunch of feelings on this one, as someone who has been an avid reader of Reynolds' books in the past.

The good stuff: This had all of the spooky alien atmospherics you'd expect in a Reynolds work, with gross bio-organics galore. I really enjoyed the mood of the steamship reality in particular. It all felt very Lovecraftian as they sight the Edifice and pick through that version of Europa, and it was nice to see Reynolds really excel at a different kind of genre. Easily the highlight of the book for me.

The bad stuff: The sheer page count granted to the alternate realities and establishing the (often very similar!) facts in each of them can be brutally repetitive. Especially when it ultimately doesn't pay off in a satisfying way. There's so much time in the sailing ship reality, which takes up the full first quarter of the book, dedicated to the mystery of "thirteen and five," and it ends up simply being the name of the suit in the main timeline. Oof.

The worst stuff: Naming your AI main character Coade. It wasn't a mind-bending reveal, it was a complete groaner. I honestly can't believe an editor let Reynolds keep that one in there.

The bottom line: 3.5 stars, rounding up to 4. I was never bored while reading Eversion, even if I feel like its parts were better than its whole.

As Eversion opens, we meet Silas Coade, ship’s physician on the Demeter, a sailing ship hired to find some sort of artifact off the coast of Norway in the 1800s. Calamity occurs, and then we meet Dr. Coade and the crew of the Demeter on a steamship in the later 1800s, and yet again later in time. The resolution of this strange plot wasn’t unexpected by me, but what happens after caught me totally off guard and kept me glued to the book.

Eversion is well plotted, and has great writing and characters. I just loved how Silas’ s character grew as the story unfolded. As Silas was truly the linchpin to the book, Mr. Reynolds did a masterful job in his creation.

Well done and highly recommended.

My thanks to Orbit Books and to Netgalley for providing an ARC of Eversion.

Alastair Reynolds is one of those authors that always keeps me on my toes. I never know what to expect from one of his books just based on the blurb alone and Eversion is definitely an example of that. A book that both feels wildly ambitious and more grounded than some of his other recent releases, Eversion was a book that I consumed over the course of a couple days and I'm super excited to see what comes next from Mr. Reynolds.

Eversion is a weird tale about the Dr. Silas Coade and the many failed expeditions he finds himself on; some in the past and some in the distant future. If Dan Simmon's the Terror was a time loop hard sci-fi tale I feel that it would be remarkably similar to this. Silas is a fantastic character and brings solid energy to this book. This is one of those books that lives or dies on it's main character and Silas is a huge part in the book's success. His analyticalness makes him the perfect MC to try and figure out the mystery of the weird pattern he's found himself in.

Alastair Reynolds has been one of my favorite writers ever since The Prefect/Aurora Rising and this is another hit installment to his massive corpus. I think longtime fans and newcomers will both find a lot to love in Eversion.

Eversion is a splendid book. It is a mystery of three intertwined stories - one set on a sailing expedition, another an airship, and the third a spaceship in the outer solar system. It is also a study of character and humanity. Dr. Silas Coade, who binds the three strands together, is a sympathetic figure who grows and matures throughout the book. The language is excellent and the writing and pacing sophisticated and mature. I read this in a day. I think Eversion’s melancholy feel will stick with me. Highly recommended.