Which brings me to another quote from the book: "Yes, humanity fractured into a million daughter species, some of which were scarcely recognisable to each other. Mechanical Lifeforms: The Machine People, a race of human-looking androids with a little bit of clockwork features thrown in for flair. They still keep on going, pumping so much energy into the planet that it literally just expands from the heat and disintegrates in a slow-motion kaboom. Individually known as "shatterlings", the Gentian Line is composed of slightly under a thousand clones made from a woman who lived in the 31st century. Portal Network: The First Machine that Campion meets tells him that there are wormholes throughout the Andromeda galaxy which lead to different galaxies throughout the universe.

At SF Signal, one reviewer noted that a "sense of wonder is where this book excels", adding that "Reynolds is playing on a galactic-sized canvas and uses believable science to back up his grand ideas. I had already seen dozens of empires come and go, blossoming and fading like lilies on a pond, over and over, seasons without end. What sets House of Suns far apart from other space operas is the sheer scope and scale of the thing and the fact that the immensity of it all does not drown the beautiful humanity displayed by the main characters, Campion and Purslane, two clones of the Gentian line who have been illicitly involved in a forbidden relationship with one another. They take a detour to contact a posthuman known as ‘Ateshga’ in hopes of getting a replacement ship for Campion because his is getting old (several million years old).

Ancient Conspiracy: The House of Suns is one, being formed by the Line members responsible for the creation of the virus that wiped out the First Machines. In my spare time I am a very keen runner, and I also enjoying hill-walking, birdwatching, horse-riding, guitar and model-making. It also scored a first - the emotional intensity of the finale was such that I was close to shedding a tear or two! Through pure chance, they might just be able to avoid censure thanks to the presence of an esteemed guest – Hesperus, a member of the galaxy’s other great meta-civilization, the Machine People. It all starts with this one girl Abigail Gentian who grew up in a weird shape shifting house and later cloned herself a thousand (+/-1) times for space exploration purposes.

I’d been invited to contribute a story to an anthology entitled “One Million AD”, edited by Gardner Dozois. The scale of some of the conceptual elements was so broad that I initially had some difficulty finding a handhold to comprehend them. House of Suns is space opera on a grand scale: the Gentian line, "shatterlings" cloned from Abigail Gentian six million years ago, makes circuits of the entire galaxy in kilometers-long sub-light ships, collecting information, watching civilizations rise and fall, building Dyson sphere-like constructs to contain supernovas, making deals and occasionally feuding with other clone lines, and meeting up for a big family reunion every two hundred millennia. I’d say this would be a terrific jumping in point if you were interested in checking out Reynolds’ work. Lo que más destaca es este mundo (o mejor dicho galaxia) que a primera vista pueda parecer rebuscado, está muy bien planteado y es incluso plausible, es genial ir descubriendo la complejidad que tiene, las facciones que posee y como las acciones de los personajes pueden tener repercusiones incluso millones de años después.

The novel is set in the same fictional setting as Reynolds' novella "Thousandth Night", which appears in the anthology One Million A. I suppose adding unnecessary linear complexity to a story that already has so many strange new concepts in it, might’ve been overkill on the reader. And so how can I tell you about the journey of two shatterlings, who are in love and who are not really allowed to be because of the rules of their society, without ruining that enjoyment for you? Every 6-7 chapters brings a flashback interjection that slowly reveals details and moves everything forward.

The first person narrative is split into that of three protagonists, actually only one protagonist in a way. Simply put, it’s because everything else I’ve read (that wasn’t a novella) has been set in his Revelation Space universe, making much of it difficult – or even impossible – to discuss without extensive spoilers, or contextualising that would take up as much space as the review itself.Despite the resulting intimidating presence, they are nothing but affable and cooperative during Purslane and Campion's visit. I'm not going to reveal details of the plot - I always view that as a "spoiler" - suffice to say that this is the best SF book I have read for about 30 years!

Campion and Purslane are two shatterlings who are running late to the most recent Line reunion, having been delayed for a variety of reasons. An immensely thrilling, mind-bending piece of work, House looks to the center of all that emptiness and finds its beating heart".It is a pity that these aspects of the book fail to achieve the same heights as the universe in which it is set". Aside from a machine civilization, humans are the only sapients in the galaxy, though there is evidence of a "Prior" civilization.