Cultural and scientific references

This article provides an overview of various cultural and scientific references in the Revelation Space universe works by Alastair Reynolds.

Article under construction.

Musical references

By far the most plentiful in the overall Revelation Space series are nods to music, including specific bands, songs, etc., many of them of British provenance.

• Diamond Dogs - song and name of the eponymous 1974 concept album Diamond Dogs, by David Bowie
• Glitter Band - aside from the literal meaning, this might be something of a pun, as there was a 1970s British glam rock act known as The Glitter Band
• Hospice Idlewild - the name of this orbital habitat of the Ice Mendicants near Yellowstone might be a reference to the Scottish rock band Idlewild, from Edinburgh (though there are several possibilities behind the naming inspiration, in the area of music alone)
• Madonna of the Wasps - "Madonna of the Wasps" is a song by the British alternative rock artist Robyn Hitchcock and his band The Egyptians, from their 1988 album Queen Elvis
• Pattern Juggler - the obscure figure of "the pattern juggler" is mentioned in the lyrics of the song "The Court of the Crimson King" by King Crimson, from their 1969 prog-rock album In the Court of the Crimson King
• Tangerine Dream - aside from describing the rough colour of the gas giant, the name is a nod to the German electronic band Tangerine Dream (its most famous individual member being Chris Franke, who also worked as a film and television composer)
• Turquoise Days - the name of the novella is inspired by the title and lyrics of a 1981 song by the British rock band Echo and the Bunny Men. This is even explicitly hinted at in the opening dedication of the novella, which cites a brief excerpt from the lyrics ("Set sail in those Turquoise Days").

Film references

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Literary references

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Religious and mythological references

• Apollyon - lighthugger named after Apollyon, the Greek version of the name of Abaddon, a Biblical figure of a destroying angel of death.
• Ararat - the planet's name references the mountains of Ararat, tied in Biblical tradition to the first landing location of Noah's Ark after the waters of the Flood receded. The Biblical mountains or Ararat reference the mountains of Urartu, a region that was also home to the ancient Kingdom of Van from antiquity, now in modern day Armenia. In-story, some crew members of the Nostalgia for Infinity, now landed on Ararat, comment on how the name began as an obvious joke by someone, but eventually stuck among the exile population.
• Cockatrice - lighthugger named after a mythical creature (also popular in British and French heraldry), a blend of a small dragon and a cockerel/rooster
• Fand - this obscure planet's name is based on a female character from Irish mythology
• Galatea - lighthugger, named after one of several female characters from ancient Greek mythology that bore the name (either the statue brought to life by sculptor Pygmalion, a nereid in love with shepherd Acis, or the daughter of Eurytius, son of Sparton)
• Golgotha - the planet's name is an obvious Biblical allusion, to Golgotha, the location of Christ's crucifixion, also known under the alternate name Calvary. The first name is derived from Aramaic, golgolta, "skull", and is often translated as "the place of the skull".
• Poseidon - lighthugger named after the ancient Greek deity of the seas, one of the Twelve Olympians
• Roc - gas giant planet in the Delta Pavonis system, named after the giant bird of prey from Persian and Middle Eastern mythology (a rather appropriate reference, given the nature of the extinct Amarantin from Resurgam, in the same system)

Fine arts references

• Bride of the Wind - lighthugger named in tribute of Die Windsbraut (or The Bride of the Wind in English), a 1913/1914 painting by Austrian expressionist painter Oskar Kokoschka
• Faint Memory of Hokusai - lighthugger, possibly named in reference to famous 18th and 19th century Japanese painter Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), a representative of the ukiyo-e style of painting. His most famous work is The Great Wave off Kanagawa.

Historical references

• Belle Epoque - an apparent Demarchist revival of an existing term (La) Belle Époque, frequently used to describe the period in the history of France, between 1871 (the end of the Franco-Prussian War) and the outbreak of the First World War (1914), when the French Third Republic experienced an almost unprecedented period of peace, economic prosperity and expansion, and a flourishing of the arts and public life. The mostly Francophone-descended Demarchist leadership intended the use of a term as a generally flattering comparison of Yellowstone's period of prosperity to a period of prosperity from older Earth history.
• Orvieto - lighthugger named after the Italian city in the Province of Terni in southwestern Umbria, known for its historical architecture.
• Petronel - lighthugger named after the petronel is a 16th and 17th century matchlock or wheellock firearm. Something of a compromise between a pistol and an arquebus, the petronel was a precursor to cavalry carbines.