Eversion by Alastair Reynolds (brief note)

Second paragraph of third chapter:

‘The pictures are very pretty, doctor. I’ve never seen a book so nice.’

Very nicely done and interesting linkage of the protagonist in several similar but different timelines – the Arctic in the nineteenth century, the Antarctic in the twentieth, and outer space in the near future. I tend to think of Reynolds as a hard sf writer, but this goes in some unexpected directions. You can get it here.