Baxter makes a bold move in the penultimate fifty pages of The Wheel of Ice. Where before chapter followed chapter rather closely and major events weren't skipped over, he breaks both precedents here.
Apparently there was quite the kerfuffle around Phee's going back to Mnemosyne after the previous party had to flee a more war-prone make of the Blue Dolls. But we're not privy to that forum's details and Baxter leaves little about it in the scenes following. I had to make sure I hadn't missed a chapter, since the references to the debate sound like previous instances of references to other events that happened earlier in the story.in the narrative
Similarly, we're outright told that the rings of Saturn are the memories of the ship embedded in Mnemosyne. There's no scene or revelation delivered mid-chapter, we're just outright told. Though, strangely, in the chapter after the secret of the rings is told, the Doctor has a bit of dialogue that could easily have been the big revelation of said secret.
This seemingly switched pair of chapters, along with bits like "Jo Laws called a council meeting in her home in Res Three. A meeting of sorts." make this section of the book feel rushed. It's almost as though Baxter had to edit things down in great haste.
Fortunately, the book's ideas and its fantastical elements remain in tact. Now all that's left is to pull off a grand ending.
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