Instead of doling out the secrets of the Matryoshka through plot devices or intuitive discovery by the characters, the narrator monologues for pages, explaining everything he’s gleaned magically through contact with the alien device. The mysteries established in the ‘present’ story are intriguing, but they’re solved in the ‘past’ through a shockingly literal info-dump cum deus ex machina.

Unfortunately, the story falls apart dramatically in the final third. I already knew more about the Matryoshka than any other living person. The contact could not have lasted more than an instant, but the information that had gushed through was ringing in my skull like the after-chime of God’s own church bell.Ī window of comprehension had opened and slammed shut again. I flinched back, just as Galenka had done. I felt mental sutures straining under the pressure. Knowledge, clean and brittle and viridescent, as brittle and endlessly branching as a flower chilled in liquid nitrogen, forced its way into my skull. There’s a certain bite to the characters and the pride they show in their status as a cosmonaut and their mission to solve the mystery of the Matryoshka.

Showcasing the space age from the point of view of the Russians (who have reclaimed the space race after all the other nations dropped out, deeming it irrelevant and/or too expensive) is a nice change of pace from the typically American- or Chinese-dominated near future space tales. There’s terrific tension and mystery in both narratives, which are balanced nicely by having the narrator fleeing in the ‘present’ narrative and seeking in the ‘past’ narrative. Reminiscent (both structurally and thematically) of Robert Charles Wilson’s Hugo-winning Spin, Troika tells its tale through two parallel stories–one a light-thriller/mystery in ‘present’ day that deals with the fallout of the second story, a past-tense first-contact narrative detailing the narrator’s experiences with the Matryoshka, an enormous space-bound monolith of alien origin that mysteriously appears in Earth’s solar system. Troika, a novella by Alastair Reynolds, best known for his Revelation Space series, starts off with so much promise, but is ultimately constrained by the nature and natural boundaries of its length.

Troika by alastair reynolds