The dead ship was a thing of obscene beauty. Redemption Ark continues the braided narratives begun in Revelation Space. The stories of the principal characters—the archaeologist-cum stellar consciousness Dan Sylveste, the assassin Khouri, and the weapons expert Ilia Volyova—play out on the galactic stage.

The central mystery of the book is the answer Reynolds proposes to a question raised by physicist Enrico Fermi in the middle of the 20th century; “Where is everybody? ” Fermi was countering the notion that the galaxy should be, according to what is understand of the laws of nature, home to many advanced civilizations despite the lack of evidence of their existence.

In Redemption Ark, characters and cultures are confronted with the existence of a mysterious group of entities known as the Inhibitors, whose mission is to destroy any race that achieves faster than light travel. Sylveste, Khouri, Volyova, and others in the novel all have their own ideas about how to meet the threat of the alien Inhibitors, with conflicts and complications ensuing.