Really liked the sci-fi ideas (bubbles, aliens), but did not liked the writing and flat characters.. I eventually skimmed to the end, because the story didn't hold my attention.

Aw it's a sad day when I don't enjoy a Powell book and unfortunately we're experiencing that. I did not particularly enjoy this book. I was imagining the sweet story of a futuristic travelling tinker and story-teller. This is not that. I'm not really sure what it is, other than a bit of a mind-f*ck.

The book starts well and I loved the first chapter, not to mention a number of the concepts and ideas raised. Unfortunately, it quickly goes downhill. The plot was confusing and, even now, I'm not 100% sure what happened. It involves time-travel (on top of the time relativity already inherent in space travel), other dimensions. To say it was overcomplicated would be an understatement.
Full review to come on YouTube.

I was left wondering why I've ever read this book before as it's a lot of fun to read, gripping and highly entertaining.
It's sci-fi according to my heart with a lot of action&adventures, great characters, and a great world building.
I feel morally bound to read anything else this author wrote as he's a great storyteller.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

When his brother disappears into a bizarre gateway on a London Underground escalator, failed artist Ed Rico and his brother’s wife Alice have to put aside their feelings for each other to go and find him. Their quest through the ‘arches’ will send them hurtling through time, to new and terrifying alien worlds.

Four hundred years in the future, Katherine Abdulov must travel to a remote planet in order to regain the trust of her influential family. The only person standing in her way is her former lover, Victor Luciano, the ruthless employee of a rival trading firm.

Hard choices lie ahead as lives and centuries clash and, in the unforgiving depths of space, an ancient evil stirs..

I’ve been waffling about books since way back in 2010. In that time, there have been a fair number of novels I’ve wanted desperately to read but, being a one-man band, I just didn’t have the opportunity to fit them into my busy schedule. The Recollection by Gareth L Powell is one such example. When I spotted that a 10th-anniversary edition was forthcoming I realised I finally had the chance to atone for my most grievous omission and read the book.

Centuries from now, Katherine Abdulov is the black sheep of her family. A series of bad decisions have left her in the middle of nowhere attempting to re-ignite what is left of her career as a starship’s captain. Her only choice, increasingly risky jobs that offer large rewards if you manage to live long enough to collect them.

Meanwhile, in the present-day, mysterious gateways have started to appear all over the world. When Ed Rico’s brother, Verne, disappears through one immediately after a particularly heated argument, Ed realises he needs to make things right. The only way to do that is to take a leap into the unknown and follow his brother.

Chapters alternate between Katherine and Ed’s story, and as the plot reveals itself, you begin to see how their respective journeys are destined to converge.

What of the Recollection itself? Well, it is a malevolent entity driven to subsume us all. A race against time begins, humanity has to fight back or die. All this makes for a genuinely exciting read. Characters are forced to make difficult choices for the greater good. This may sound horrible, but I kind of like to see my protagonists suffer a bit. It can help flesh out and humanise a character. If done well, as in this case, it adds real depth to a story.

Tonally I think The Recollection feels like a stripped-down version of Peter F Hamilton’s Night’s Dawn series. I should stress that this is the highest of compliments. I rate The Reality Dysfunction et al as some of the best science fiction I have ever read. The only real difference is that Powell’s novel is a standalone work while Hamilton’s is space opera of truly brain-melting size. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of both approaches. They each have their place. Sometimes I’m looking for a book so large I can get utterly lost in it, while other times I prefer something a bit leaner.

A quick internet search reveals that not only has Gareth L Powell written a science fiction trilogy that I must read, but he has also co-authored a novel with one Peter F Hamilton called Light Chaser. Even better, it is due out in August of this year. Talk about cosmic synchronicity. Here I am waffling about two brilliant authors and then, within minutes of jotting down my thoughts, I discover they’ve collaborated on a book together. It’s almost as if the internet is listening to every idle thought in my head and acting upon it. How very terrifying and yet marvellous at the same time.

The more ancient amongst you may remember, way back in the day, I made no secret of my fondness for Powell’s Ack-Ack Macaque trilogy*. It is pleasing to discover that The Recollection is just as good. I’ll happily admit part of me would be keen for the author to revisit this universe again in the future. I wouldn’t be averse to following Katherine on more adventures. If you are looking for a sci-fi read with plenty of twists and turns, then look no further.

The Recollection is published by Solaris and the anniversary edition is available from 27th April. Highly recommended.

My musical recommendation to accompany this novel is the suitably ambient electronica of the soundtrack to Archive by Steven Price. It all sounds very futuristic and science-fictiony, so feels like a good fit.

*C’mon! a gun-toting, cigar-smoking, banana daiquiri devouring World War II monkey fighter ace. How can you not love that?

I missed "The Recollection" the first time around, so now I have to live with the fact that I lost out on 10 years of this story residing in my head! I loved the characters and Gareth L. Powell's writing. The plot is extremely enjoyable with plenty of shock moments. The settings are perfect, and some left me hoping the book would revisit them. This was a very fast read that I wish it had lasted longer!

My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley. This review was written voluntarily and is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.

Not quite as accomplished as the author’s later works, this tenth anniversary edition was nevertheless a very enjoyable jaunt through intergalactic adventure. More space opera than hard sci-fi and spanning many centuries, this was a gripping standalone novel that put me slightly in mind of Nimisha’s Ship by Anne McCaffrey (despite not being anything like that at all in fairness!) Really enjoyed this and all of the author’s books.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for providing me with an arc copy.

Unfortunately this book was not for me. I'm really sad about this as I love Gareth's Embers of War series that I read last year.

The storyline seemed choppy and jumped between too many timelines with not enough explanation for me. I also found the characters to be really flat and if I'm not interested in the characters then this really impacts my enjoyment of the story and these characters didn't catch my attention.

The aliens however, were the most interesting aspect of this story.

The thing about dual narratives is that just as I’m getting into the swing of the story, I find myself yanked away and into another scenario with a completely different set of characters. It means that I need to bond closely and quickly with the main protagonists so that I don’t find being pulled between two storylines too jarring. And initially, I didn’t care all that much about either Ed or Katherine. So it took me a while to get into the story.

However, as the action kicked off and they both got caught up in different elements of the narrative, I also became invested and was able to relax into the world. I really liked the idea of the arches and why they suddenly appeared. Powell ensured that we were immersed in the worlds he spun, providing a vivid backdrop to the characters. And this is important as the stakes stack up, because these worlds are put in major peril.

I can’t claim that you’ll get the quirky originality of the Ack-Ack Macaque series – the tropes Powell explores in this space opera adventure are as cosily familiar as a late-night cup of cocoa. However, the story is written with flair and conviction, so that by the time we arrive at the climactic denouement, I didn’t want to put this one down. I’m intrigued to discover if this is going to continue as a standalone, or if Powell has plans to make it the beginning of a series – there is certainly plenty of depth in the worldbuilding that would sustain several more books with these characters. Either way, this is a solidly entertaining science fiction space opera adventure recommended for fans of the genre. While I obtained an arc of The Recollection from the publishers via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
8/10

6/10 stars

My full review can be found on my blog (link attached).

The Recollection is a standalone SF novel, or, more precisely, a space opera, covering several hundred years and a bunch of dramatic conflicts, from very old and lethal to very new and quite intimate. It’s the second novel by Gareth L. Powell, so don’t be misled by the publishing date – the 2021 is a 10th anniversary edition. As a sophomore effort, it’s not bad: full of interesting, well-explored ideas, but bogged down by choppy execution, less than three-dimensional characters, and a very rushed ending.

We start with two timelines: now (more or less the now from 10 years ago, with war in Somalia and not that great British economy [actually, when you think about it, neither changed much in the last decade…]) and 400 years in the future. The protagonists of the contemporary timeline are Ed and Alice, and any description of the pair will inevitably sound like soap opera. Sigh. Let’s try this, nonetheless. Ed and Alice had been lovers, but their ties go deeper: Alice’s husband is Ed’s brother Verne (you see?) who having learned about Ed’s and Alice affair escapes in anger to another dimension. Because, coincidentally, while Verne was learning about his brother’s and wife’s betrayal, weird interdimensional arches started to pop up all over the Earth. Verne is one of the first to go through, somewhat willingly, but Ed’s and Alice’s shared guilt makes them unable to let him go. They chase after him, using a different arch – and only after they get through, they learn that it’s actually not that simple. Duh.

The future timeline introduces Katherine Abdulov, a starship captain caught between the rock and the hard place and willing to risk a lot to get back on top of things. Some soap-operatic past decisions haunt her still, and getting back to the stars and her ship, and back in the good graces of her family, are her top priorities. She gets her chance pretty quickly, and with the added benefit of an opportunity to get revenge on her former lover Victor, Kat doesn’t think twice before she makes the decision. After all, racing to a remote desert planet to bid on a one-in-a-hundred years crop of spice sounds like a great fun! What can go wrong? Fortunately for her, her ship Ammeline seems much more level-headed.

These two timelines ultimately merge into one, resolving the conflicts big and small on a suitably big scale, but the ending remains the weakest part of the novel, rushing through the events with robotic exactness and not much feeling involved in ticking all the requisite boxes – in stark contrast with the beginning parts, where it was all about emotions and psychological motivations and an enjoyable bit of oddity in crafting unusual SF protagonists. Not sure what happened there at the end – was the author asked to cut the novel back a bit? Or had he simply run out of time? Either way, the initial promise and especially the more fleshed-out middle parts are much better than the finale.

[...]

If The Recollection were given a more breathing space, allowing the author to explore the ideas touched upon in it a bit more, it could have been an intriguing contemplation of randomness vs purposefulness of the universe and humanity, of guilt and anger as factors driving many human decisions into surprising resolutions. I’d really like to read that book. There are tantalizing kernels of drama and thoughtfulness in the current version – but that’s all they are. The Recollection as it is now remains just an entertaining, undemanding read – an example of an author finding his writing legs, and ultimately a well-measured dose of light SF that doesn’t entail reading lengthy series or doorstoppers, but manages to create some interesting imagery and rehash some old tropes in an enjoyable, unostentatious way.

I have received a copy of this book from the publisher Tor/Forge through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks.

3.5 stars.
A number of interesting ideas are at work in this reissue of Garett L. Powell’s first novel. It’s a space opera that begins with the mundane and disappointing life of Ed Rico, artist, taxi driver, and screw-up. His older brother Verne rescues him from a bad situation, discovers Ed and Alice, Verne’s wife, are having an affair, and almost immediately Verne disappears into a bizarre structure that has just appeared at a tube station.
Turns out, this and others of these structures, which are appearing on earth, are portals to other planets.
When a new one appears months later, Ed and Alice, both feeling guilty about hurting Verne, leave through the portal in search of Verne.
We also meet very down on her luck Katherine “Kat” Aldunov, looking for work at a space port, and getting beat up by her former lover’s henchmen. In an unexpected chance, Kat gets a chance to rejoin her wealthy family’s shipping company as a full-fledged captain because her father wants to edge out Kay’s former lover in a business deal.
And there are aliens warning of an oncoming, implacable danger.

So, those are the story threads in this mostly engaging novel. I found the worldbuilding a little klunky at times, and sometimes felt that the character moments were a little awkward, but the pacing is pretty good, and the danger is imminent and terrifying. This does feel, for all of its individual interesting story parts, not as easily flowing a book as Powell's more recent books in his "Embers of War" series. But it's definitely worth a read as a fairly interesting space opera.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for this ARC in exchange for a review.

Unfortunately I didn't enjoy this as much as I wanted to.
I found the characters too flat for my liking and I wasn't a fan of the dual time line.
The ideas about the bubbles, portals and aliens we're great, but the writing didn't hold my attention and I had to force myself to finish reading it.
However I believe that other readers who like The Expanse or similar, might enjoy reading The Recollection.

Thanks Netgalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Recollection by Gareth Powell- High octane Space Opera that is both exciting and enjoyable. First story line: All around modern day Earth great hulking structures appear as gates to another time, place, planet, star system. Once you go through, it's too late to turn back. Second story line: future humans have spread themselves across these star systems and are now faced by a menace that threatens to destroy all life on these worlds. The intertwining story lines are packed with action and purpose. Yes, sometimes things just work out that probably shouldn't, but if you go along with it, it's fun! I really recommend this adventure.

This book was solid, not hard scifi and overall a decent read. With all that said, I couldn't really get into it. The characters were well written although they do seem to change rather quickly. This is the tenth anniversary edition but the book almost feels older than that? Parts of it read like my dad's scifi books from the 80's.

There are two distinct stories that eventually merge and it's fun to see how they wrap up. I didn't develop any strong attachments to any of the characters. It's a fun space opera. All in all, a decent enough read if you're into that specific type of scifi.

I just wish I could have gotten into it more.

Although I realised as soon as I started reading this tremendous gates-to-many-worlds yarn that I had read it before, such was the scope and imagination of the story that I probably enjoyed it ten years later as much as I had first time around. Part of its charm is thart you start with mundane events: you are introduced to a rather feckless brother who is dependant on his more competant elder brother whilst in love with that older brother's wife. All very Mills and Boon but then, just as you are wondering how the book is classified as science fiction, bang! you are launched into a roller coaster ride of interplanetary gateways, cosmic existential threats, futuristic technology and a threat to the the whole cosmos. This is a classic sf story and deserves its five star rating. Oh, and you get to find out who gets the girl.

Good fun Space Opera, told in different timelines which gave an interesting twist to speed of light travel. The author uses a well worn troupe (we must assimilate you to save you) but uses it well. After a fight with his brother, Ed watches in horror as Verne gets swallowed by a portal. When more and more portal start to open up around London Ed, along with Verne's wife Alice, jumps into a portal in the hopes of finding his brother. In alternating chapters we are introduce to a spaceship captain who is down on her luck. Grabbing the chance to save her family fortune while getting revenge on a ex lover, Kat finds herself facing an ancient evil.
If you have read Powell's later works, the Embers of War trilogy, then you will see the beginnings of some of the themes and ideas he puts into the use in the later works.

Book Review
The Recollection: Tenth Anniversary Edition by Gareth L. Powell
⭐⭐⭐ 3.5

Mysterious portals begin to appear around the world. People who go through them disappear. Those that return do so months or even years later.

Ed Rico, a failed artist, is in love with his brothers wife. After his brother discovers their affair, he accidentally falls through a portal that has appeared on the London underground. Filled with remorse, Ed and his sister-in-law set off in search of him.

Meanwhile, 400 years in the future, Katherine Abdulov is a down on her luck starship captain. In a bid to reconnect with her estranged family she must race across space to a remote planet in competition with her former lover and ruthless competitor, Victor Luciano.

Strange planets, aliens, romance, time travel, a universal threat to mankind, this well written space opera has them all. The story unfolds through the separate timelines until all the characters are brought together in a future where an alien being threatens to wipe out humanity.

This is not hard sci-fi and I believe would appeal to readers who don't usually engage with this genre as well as those who do. The time travel element is well thought out and a future where mankind has spread out throughout the stars is believable.

I liked the characters, especially Katherine, who I felt developed as the story progressed. There is enough adventure to keep the reader turning the pages and I found myself staying up late to finish the book. Both action and character driven, this is an enjoyable read with an open, though satisfying, ending.

Driving across galaxies in a Land Rover

Interstellar zombies (but are they?)

Lost Hope, Found Love

Two perspectives, one story, perfectly meshed

The fate of the universe in the balance

This, this is what space operas should be, vast arcing plotlines, travel across time and space, huge stakes, but underpinned by characters that you can relate to on a personal level. It's not easy to get the balance between the huge breadth of a story like this, it's too easy to look at the massive events going on and get focussed on those to the exclusion of all else, thinking that such events will be enough to wow the audience.

But it isn't, what matters is what we can relate to. Characters that care for each other, over centuries and light years, the bonds of family and what it means to love people with all your heart, to be willing to travel those distances to make sure that those people are safe and happy, and to know that given the choice, you'd do it all again.

This is what Space Opera should be.

The Recollection: Tenth Anniversary Edition

[Blurb goes here]

This was a fun adventure. One too easy to follow since is not hard Sci-Fi. The novel starts with two distinct stories, jumping from one to the other through the worn out magic of cliffhangers, which in this case become part of the landscape, an unnoticed piece of furniture that has always been there, but one in which you bump your leg every time you walk by it. But I digress. The two stories, alien to one another...until they're not. It has been ten years since the novel came out, so for the life of me, I can't comprehend why it feels like something written in the nineteen eighties. Still, both stories get a hold on you, even if by the first quarter of the book you already have deciphered how both stories converge. I liked the characters, although they evolve in a flash, nearly at the end of the novel. As I stated earlier. It's a fun adventure, but not one without obvious flaws. If you're a Sci-Fi buff and enjoy fun but a bit faulty reads. I think you'll like it.

Thank you for the advanced copy!

This book was a really good time. I know this is the anniversary edition, but I had never read Powell before, and even now, this book feels fresh. It isn't what I would call 'hard' science fiction, but the action is entertaining and accessible. The plot is initially presented in a way in what at first feels like 2 separate storylines, that later merge into one. The characterization makes the reader care about the outcomes, and the antagonist is suitably powerful to make the reader feel that the stakes involved are large.

To me, the writing feels a bit like Scalzi and Wendig, though with less comic relief, as well as Peter Hamilton, who has a series with an antagonist similar to the one in this story. I think fans of both mass and hard sci-fi should give this book a shot, as this author has a catalog that will be a lot of fun to explore. This will be a great entry point into that.

Amazingly, my thoughts on The Recollection by Gareth L Powell are exactly the opposite of most of the reviews I’ve read. The book is a character-driven page-turner that kept me captured throughout its length. It became obvious to me that I was reading a different book. The Recollection, second addition, must be a total rewrite of the original with all the issues raised in prior reviews having been addressed, corrected, or the storyline improved. The author now has a five-star book.

In the book, two seemingly disparate stories, each action-driven, come together in a logical Sci-Fi sort of way toward the end where a final confrontation takes place against an alien end-of-times weapon. One thread takes place in near current times with the opening of planetary portals on the earth. These mysteriously appear in random locations and only lead to human habitable worlds. Few people entering the portals come back and those that immediately do return months later due to space-time differences. Most go on using interconnecting portals that they find on each world. If they don’t settle down on one of the visited planets, they continue using a portal network that ultimately leads to a technically advanced future world. The intended result of the portal network is the human habitation of the galaxy. However, who the portal builders are and the intended purpose of the portal network isn’t revealed until the end of the book.

The second thread involves the challenges and experiences of a space trader pilot and her estranged lover. After her character is developed and her fate mysteriously hinted at, she becomes the person who delivers the ultimate alien-developed countermeasure used to push back the weaponized self-replicating swarm bent on destroying all human and alien development.

While it would be satisfying to know that the swarm gets defeated, that’s not how the book ends. Humans and their peaceful alien hosts have only found a way to hold back the swarm temporarily allowing them time to escape to a nomadic habitat built by the alien hosts designed to preserve humanity by keeping it out of the swarm’s path.

The book is an excellent stand-alone novel that could also be used as the first book in a series should the author select to continue the story. Even though Amazon’s book description indicates that this is a second edition, it has linked the low-rated reviews from the previous addition to it. This is unfortunate as those reviews have become misleading with the second edition and will cause readers to hesitate when considering the April 27, 2021 addition for their next read.