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The Prefect: Difference between revisions
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''The Prefect'' is a novel by [[Alastair Reynolds]], set within his "Revelation Space" universe. Chronologically, it occurs before the main series and functions as a prequel, fleshing out the backstory of the fictional future history.
It is the Belle Epoque, the peak of human society. Around the planet [[Death World|Yellowstone]] a ring of ten thousand orbital habits called "The Glitter Band" is known far and wide. Each habitat is a society unto itself, with its own rules and culture. Uniting them is the political philosophy of Demarchy - democratic anarchy - where the one and only universal law is that no citizen be denied the right to vote. Thus, the Glitter Band contains a myriad of possible human cultures, ranging from idyllic egalitarians who [[Space Amish|consciously limit the use of technology]], to Matrix-style worlds where everyone is [[
The closest thing to a governing agency is the Panoply, a [[Space Police|quasi-police force]] whose main purpose is to investigate and prevent voting fraud. Despite having authority that’s limited by the voting will of the people, the Panoply wields enormous power in the Glitter Band, able to cut-off “[[The Metaverse|abstraction]]” ([[Augmented Reality]] that most citizens rely on) to any habitat that decides to go rogue, neutering them. Though many Glitter Band citizens dislike the idea of the Panoply, most agree that the agency is necessary to maintain and protect the utter freedom that the Demarchy represents.
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During a sting operation on a vote-manipulating scam, Tom Dreyfus, a high-ranking Field Prefect, discovers a loophole in a habitat’s polling core logic. Realizing that other habitats could take advantage of the same loophole, he tasks his rookie partner Thalia Ng to install an emergency code fix across the Glitter Band. Meanwhile, he is dispatched to investigate the destruction of a habitat called Ruskin-Sartorious. Habitat destruction is a rare and serious occurrence, but it appears that Ruskin-Sartorious was hiding something. Something so monstrous, someone [[Fiery Coverup|was willing to destroy the habitat to hide it]].
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* [[Asteroid Thicket]] – Subverted. The Glitter Band is actually made of space stations and hollowed out asteroids and was constructed. Also, though it resembles a ring from a distance, the individual habitats are several kilometers apart from each other at the closest.
* [[Bio Augmentation]] – A fact of life, along with [[Cyborg|cybernetic enhancements]] such as neural implants. Kept to a minimal, for the most part. Conjoiners, for example, have spliced in chimpanzee muscle fibers into their bodies to give them superior strength. The extreme end of this are the "Ultras", a society of merchants who perform drastic and sometimes grotesque modifications to their bodies, often purely for aesthetic reasons.
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* [[Losing Your Head]]: Happens to {{spoiler|Jane Aumonier, to get rid of the scarab}}. Luckily, with the future technology, she gets better.
* [[Meat Puppet]] – The Clockmaker does this late in the novel, controlling a recently-deceased body and fooling several people.
* [[My God, What Have I Done?]] – The Supreme Prefect, before Jane, committed suicide after “The Clockmaker Incident”.
** Later, Jane and several senior prefects have this reaction after they {{spoiler|start nuking habitats in order to stop the spread of Aurora’s machines, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent citizens}}.
* [[Rushmore Refacement]] - in the abandoned Amerikano base, Dreyfus sees some scenic panoramas, including
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* [[Was Once a Man]] – {{spoiler|Aurora}} and {{spoiler|The Clockmaker}}.
* [[Weaponized Exhaust]] – Ruskin-Sartorius is destroyed by an Ultra's ship exhaust.
* [[Well
** Though he passes the [[Moral Event Horizon]] when he murders a prisoner in cold blood because they were going to reveal his treachery.
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