Pushing Ice
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| Author | Alastair Reynolds |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Gollancz |
| Released | 27 Oct 2005 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 460 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-575-07438-8 |
Pushing Ice is a 2005 science fiction novel by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds (ISBN 0-575-07438-8).
[edit] Plot summary
Pushing Ice is set in the not too distant future and in the very far future of the human race. In the distant future, the elected rulers of humanity gather to decide on a suitable ceremony to honour the person they consider was responsible for modern humanity, Bella Lind. Lind was the captain of the Rockhopper IV back in the early days of humanity's exploration of the solar system. When one of Saturn's moons (Janus) leaves orbit under its own power, the Rockhopper IV was the only ice mining ship capable of catching it. Lind and the crew were asked to undertake the dangerous mission and send back as much information as possible before they had to turn back. However, on approaching the moon, now revealed to be a ship of some sort, they are caught in the ship's wake as it accelerates closer to light speed and drawn too far from the solar system to make it back. In a last ditch attempt, they land on the ex-moon and try to survive as the speeding ship takes them further away in space and time from home. Pushing Ice, like H. G. Wells' classic The Time Machine, explores the futility of existence when compared with the vastness of time.
[edit] Connections to Revelation Space
Some fans have pointed out possible links to Alastair Reynolds's Revelation Space universe. Pushing Ice may or may not be set in this universe; it is set in 2057, long before any other books set in that universe, so none of the factions referenced in Relevation Space have formed. The people in Pushing Ice do have the beginnings of neural implant technology. Other fans claim that Pushing Ice is set in its own universe; it depicts humans having survived as far into the future as 18 000 AD, which would violate the story Galactic North, which is set in the Relevation Space universe, but shows human civilisation, and indeed most terran planets, having been destroyed by 10 000 AD.
[edit] Trivia
A spacecraft being propelled inadvertently by general relativistic effects, in the direction of the star Spica, was also included (as a very minor plot point) in the novel Earth by David Brin, published fifteen years earlier.
The strange behaviour of the Saturn moon Janus as described in this book is real. (Janus and Epimetheus swapping places every 4 years) More about it can be found in this Wikipedia article.
