Tom Dreyfus is a Prefect, a law enforcement officer with the Panoply. His beat is the multifaceted utopian society of the Glitter Band, that vast swirl of space habitats orbiting the planet Yellowstone, the teeming hub of a human interstellar empire spanning many worlds. His current case: investigating a murderous attack against one of the habitats that left 900 people dead, a crime that appalls even a hardened cop like Dreyfus. But then his investigation uncovers something far more serious than mass slaughter---a covert plot by an enigmatic entity who seeks nothing less than total control of the Glitter Band. Before long, the Panoply detectives are fighting against something worse than tyranny, in a struggle that will lead to more devastation and more death. And Dreyfus will discover that to save what is precious, you may have to destroy it.
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Prefect Dreyfus Emergency
11 books in catalog
Hard science fiction and sprawling space opera intersect in expansive far-future universes where real orbital mechanics, deep-time stretches, and uncompromising astrophysics shape human destiny. Welsh author Alastair Reynolds established his reputation with Revelation Space, a seminal novel that launched a dark, intricate future history spanning millennia.
Drawing directly on his professional background in astronomy, Reynolds brings scientific rigor to grand interstellar scale, creating complex narratives grounded in realistic physical constraints such as the speed of light.
Born in Barry, South Wales, in 1966, Reynolds spent his early years in Wales and Cornwall before studying physics and astronomy at Newcastle University. He went on to earn a PhD in astronomy from the University of St Andrews in Scotland.
Reynolds moved to the Netherlands in 1991 to work as a research astronomer for the European Space Agency (ESA), where he contributed to astrophysics research while writing science fiction in his spare time. After publishing his first short story, "Nunivak Snowflakes," in Interzone in 1990, he steadily built a extensive body of work before leaving ESA to become a full-time writer. He has won the British Science Fiction Award and received nominations for the Hugo Award, Arthur C. Clarke Award, John W. Campbell Memorial Award, Theodore Sturgeon Award, and Locus Award.
Reynolds's writing is characterized by hard science fiction anchored in real-world physics, deep time, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and high-concept space exploration. His narratives routinely avoid faster-than-light travel, forcing starships to rely on relativistic travel across centuries and emphasizing the immense physical distances of interstellar space.
His works frequently explore themes of post-humanity, cybernetic evolution, archaeological discovery among dead alien civilizations, and existential threats to intelligence. These elements appear both in his standalone novels and across his extensive catalog of short fiction.
