Pushing Ice cover art

Pushing Ice

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Pushing Ice

By: Alastair Reynolds
Narrated by: John Lee
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About this listen

2057. Humanity has raised exploiting the solar system to an art form. Bella Lind and the crew of her nuclear-powered ship, the Rockhopper, push ice. They mine comets. And they're good at it.

The Rockhopper is nearing the end of its current mission cycle, and everyone is desperate for some much-needed R & R, when startling news arrives from Saturn: Janus, one of Saturn's ice moons, has inexplicably left its natural orbit and is now heading out of the solar system at high speed. As layers of camouflage fall away, it becomes clear that Janus was never a moon in the first place. It's some kind of machine - and it is now headed toward a fuzzily glimpsed artifact 260 light-years away. The Rockhopper is the only ship anywhere near Janus, and Bella Lind is ordered to shadow it for the few vital days before it falls forever out of reach. In accepting this mission, she sets her ship and her crew on a collision course with destiny - for Janus has more surprises in store, and not all of them are welcome.

©2008 Alastair Reynolds (P)2010 Tantor Anthologies & Short Stories Fantasy Fiction Science Fiction Space Opera Solar System Short Story

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Critic reviews

"[Reynolds is] a genius for big-concept SF and fans of Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama and Larry Niven's Ringworld will love this novel." ( Publishers Weekly
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I thoroughly enjoyed this audio book which gripped me throughout. The book's strengths were the womderful imagination displayed in creating an intricate, convincing, and constantly evolving alien world into which our human heros are tossed. The book's weakness was the somewhat unconvincing description of the human society established in this alien world, and the strange moral choices that our heros sometimes make. I have listened to better readers than John Lee, but he was clear throughout.

A gripping and enjoyable listen

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This book was ok but I wouldn't be recommending it many people.
I was hoping for something a bit more "rendezvous with rama" and a bit less "flash gordon radio drama".

And the narrator really has some odd pronunciations going on.
Sounds like Matt Berry in "Toast of London".
But I got used to it.

Just ok

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This story has everything!
The plain ‘meh’ front cover and title arent anything to judge this book on. If like me you factor those things into your selections i would usually swipe past when browsing. Included in membership too whoch is a bonus. This is my first Alastair Reynolds book and wont be the last!

Wow!

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It's often difficult in Sci fi to balance grand scale space and time with the human element, and character narrative that makes stories engaging on an emotional level. In Pushing Ice, Reynolds manages to walk that line near perfectly. Dealing with relativity, time dilation, and the various engineering challenges of space faring, are fleshed out and believable characters whose arcs and relationships form the heart of this book. All against a backdrop of themes of friendship, leadership, legacy and impermanence.

John Lee is also an excellent narrator who's work I've enjoyed on many audible titles. His reading absolutely does the tale justice and brings it to life.

I'd highly recommend this book to anyone.

Time and echoes

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Lost interest after a few hours. Rather tedious and predictable story. Just felt like a lot of padding.

Tedious

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I find it hard to continue after a few hours. Having read lots of Reynold's books
one thing he struggles at is consistent, believable 3 dimensional characters. Sometimes he
does it well and comes up with fascinating individuals as long they are tied to fascinating tech and events.
Such as in books like 'House of Suns.' or John Brannigan in "Revelation Space.'
But when he moves away from grand ideas to everyday mundane dialogue
they lack real depth and there is less than surface level insight into their cookie-cutter personalities.
He is more of a big ideas science writer. Sometimes he's on fire and other times it just feels lazy.
I find the same characters popping up in his books. We have another surly, tech-savvy Russian woman
pitched against her captain or crew members. It's all a bit familiar to some of the
characters and interactions in other books. Am not sure if it's a combination of John Lee's narration too, but the cheesy soap opera conflicts among the crew are 2 dimensional and tedious. He should ask himself "is this actually interesting to read or is just a device to plod the plot along?" It's like it's all Alastair talking and he just puts a veneer on top, We have 'Russian Angry Woman' 'Confident older experienced guy' 'Corporate bad guy', 'The doctor,' it just feels shallow and therefore boring so far. But I'll struggle on and update review.

Slow with cheesy character dialogue

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Don’t listen to that much Sci fiction (other than all the Iain M Banks. Great epic and original story with credible physics.

Loved it

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A decent space opera slightly spoiled by an okay narration and sometimes frustrating and two dimensional characterisation

Decent space opwra

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Nice story and well narrated. This is the first Alastair Reynolds book I have read or listened to and I enjoyed it. Not as good as Foundation or other classics but much better than rubbish like Seeds of Earth.

Very good

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Already know what a fantastic story this is so thought I'd try Audible offering.
The narration was disjointed and was more "stated" than spoken and the edits between obvious breaks was horrendous. Refund requested.

What a shame.

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