I found it an easy read with plenty of intrigue and high SF concepts. That’s not a problem, I like my SF filled with mystery, wonder, and big ideas and first contact books typically fit that bill. I was right about the initial setting, but to my surprise, it’s really a first contact story. Due to the title, I assumed this book was going to be set in our solar system and focus on space mining. I would classify the book as hard science fiction. In addition, for some reason, Reynolds’ “Diamond Dogs” short story is one that blew me away and firmly lodged itself in my long-term memory, so I’ve been wanting to read some more Alastair Reynolds for a while now. I enjoyed Reynolds’ “Revelation Space” as a Teen or a young adult, although I can’t remember much about it anymore (I should reread it!). I received “Pushing Ice” as a Christmas present, it was on a list of books I wanted. They have two things to worry about: can they (and their new alien allies) negotiate their way through each harrying contact? And can they assimilate the avalanche of knowledge about their own future - including all the glittering, dangerous technologies that are now theirs for the taking - without destroying themselves in the process? … ( more) The crew of the Rockhopper IV know a lot about blowing up comets, but not much about first contact with ultra-advanced aliens. And the crew are not alone, for each chamber contains an alien culture dragged into this cosmic menagerie at the end of time. Rockhopper IV, trapped in the pull, is hurled across time and space into the deep, distant future, arriving in a vast, alien-constructed chamber.

The icy mantle peels away to reveal that it was never a moon in the first place, just a parked spacecraft, millions of years old, that has now decided to move on. Around Saturn, something inexplicable happens: one of the moons leaves its orbit and accelerates out of the Solar System. Her crew are tough, blue-collar miners, engineers and demolition experts. On the cold edge of the system, Bella Lind, captain of the huge commercial spacecraft Rockhopper IV, helps fuel this new gold rush by attaching mass-driver motors to organic-rich water-ice comets to move them back to the inner worlds. Some centuries from now, the exploration and exploitation of the Solar System is in full swing.

Pushing ice by alastair reynolds