Alastair Reynold's Revelation Space

   

         Alastair Reynold’s Revelation Space is a brilliant first novel.  The story’s central figure, archeologist Dan Sylveste, has spent decades researching the Amarantin.  The Amarantin were a civilization on the verge of spaceflight when their sun flared up and wiped out their entire race.  The Event, as it is referred to by Amarantin researchers, was deemed little more than a cosmic hiccup.  Sylveste believes otherwise, and is devoted to discovering what really brought about the end of Amarantin civilization.  What follows is a story of truly epic scope and presumably dire consequences for humanity in the sequel novels.