The novel reflects Reynolds's professional background: he has a PhD in astronomy and worked for many years for the European Space Agency.

Over the course of decades, Sylveste learns that the Amarantin may have become technologically sophisticated before their sun destroyed life on the planet Resurgam nearly a million years prior.

Volyova and the other members of her skeleton crew wish to find Sylveste because they believe he can help them with their captain, who has been infected with the Melding Plague, a nanotech virus that attacks human cells and machine implants to pervert them into grotesque combinations.

Once aboard, however, Sylveste informs the triumvirs that he has antimatter bombs hidden inside the implants in his artificial eyes that could destroy the Nostalgia for Infinity.

He then agrees to attempt to cure their captain in exchange for a trip to Cerberus, a mysterious nearby planet orbiting a neutron star that he believes holds the secret to the truth of Amarantin civilisation.

But in the case of Revelation Space, two and three years later I still could remember the opening scene in the archaeological dig on the lonely planet of Resurgam with remarkable clarity.