It was! The whole book plays a lot with various types of consciousness. Although that was a bit of a spoiler, so out of respect I'll give a somewhat obfuscated link and just say if you're reading something by Alastair Reynolds right now you should consider that before following the link:
(Reynolds' got enough books in his bibliography I don't feel like I'm spoiling anything by mentioning his name - I suspect I could come up with any random plot point and he's probably written it in somewhere)
https://openlibrary.org/books/OL26809698M
(Reynolds' got enough books in his bibliography I don't feel like I'm spoiling anything by mentioning his name - I suspect I could come up with any random plot point and he's probably written it in somewhere)