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Halcyon Years

A gripping new murder mystery set on a spaceship from the million-copy bestselling ‘mastersinger’ of science fiction

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Halcyon Years

By: Alastair Reynolds
Narrated by: Tim Treloar
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About this listen

 A superb new noir/science fiction fusion from the 'mastersinger of space opera' (The Times) and the creator of the beloved Revelation Space universe - strap in for a gripping murder mystery . . .

Yuri Gagarin is a private investigator, who picks up small cases from his local community, runs into trouble with the local police, and generally ekes out a living as best he can. He's aboard the Halcyon - a starship, hurtling through space, carrying thousands of passengers with thousands more sleeping the journey away.

Only his usual investigative work - catching cheating spouses, and small time con artists - is about to take a turn. He's hired by a mysterious woman called Ruby Red to look into a death in one of Halcyon's most elite families . . . and then warned off the case again by a second mysterious woman called Ruby Blue. Caught between the two, he's about to be embroiled in a murder mystery in which - at any moment - he could be the latest victim.

Gripping, fast-paced fun this is a classic noir mystery with a science fiction twist, which will keep you guessing, and on the edge of your seat, to the end.

Halcyon Years is a fresh new masterpiece from the undisputed master of science fiction - unmissable for fans of classic SF like Asimov and Philip K. Dick as well as new TV smash hits like Silo and Severance. Science Fiction Space Opera Fiction Mystery Crime

Critic reviews

A hugely entertaining film noir pastiche set on a generational spaceship
Alastair Reynolds is a genre adventurer . . . Halycon Years is a novel composed of nested mysteries and riddles
All stars
Most relevant
Amusing interesting and an engrossing listen over the holidays kept me interested till the end

Noir in Space

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Not Alastairs best, entertaining but patchy.

Liked: narrator, basic outline of plot.

Disliked: Final third of book didn’t work for me.
Yes, its a scifi novel and yes, there is an element of suspending disbelief…

…but the eventual use of the technology level presented felt implausible & the human interactions didn’t feel very convincing.
There was quite a bit of telling rather than showing.
Certain characters felt underdeveloped and subject to “plot armour”.

The result of the above felt rather like it had descended into a 1970s bond movie rather than its original noir tone, which was a shame as Reynolds usually is good at merging scifi and noir.

Overall this felt like the author had an excellent core idea, but struggled during the execution.

I enjoyed it despite its flaws…but would recommend most of the authors other works first over this one. Fans will likely still enjoy it, but should temper expectations.

Basic idea good but gets rather James Bondish, not his best

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I was a bit sceptical of the first chapter weather this was going to be a ggod read but wow was i supprised the characters are great the story flows well and the end was not obvious.

Good read fast paced story

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Very entertaining sci-fi detective story with the wide cast of humane, often humorous, characters the author regularly delivers.

Great Page-Turner

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Reynolds’ most lighthearted novel I’ve read. Comfort food. Gripping but tongue in cheek and very funny in places. A slight departure from his usual fare but I was thoroughly entertained and kept guessing throughout. I loved it.

Gritty Private-Eye in Spaaaaaaace…

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