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Spotted out his existence just now, and his wikipedia page states he is well known for hard sci-fi. Looks like he has a really long series of novels set in one universe, and a bunch of stand alone stuff on other universes. I also noticed a Doctor Who story, which doesn't seem to fit within the definition of hard science fiction.
Is he any good? If I wanna give books by him a try, what should I pick up? I don't want to commit to a long series so I'd rather start with a stand alone...
Have a listen to his short story Sledge Maker's Daughter.
Starts at about 1:50 - 2:00 into the podcast.
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Alastair Reynolds is very good. He writes hard SF mixed in with more speculative elements (one of his novels is a cross-genre mix of SF and steampunk; another is half hard SF, half noir thriller set in 1950s Paris), but his hard SF is VERY hard. He has no FTL travel in most of his books and uses time dilation and sleeping capsules to get people from planet to planet in reasonable timeframes.
You can read his stand-alones in any order, as they have no sequels or prequels. PUSHING ICE is a good one to start with as it's a classic 'big dumb object' SF story. CENTURY RAIN is more offbeat, with half the story being set in the future and half in 1950s Paris, and the way the two stories come together is a bit contrived. It's still entertaining though. TERMINAL WORLD is the SF/steampunk hybrid and features a very, very clever twist to the setting (that in my estimation only about half of readers seem to pick up on). HOUSE OF SUNS is the only one of his novels I haven't read yet but by many accounts is his best book to date. It's about a woman who clones herself hundreds of times over to explore the Galaxy at slower-than-light speeds over the course of thousands of years. There's also ZIMA BLUE, a short story collection.
His current series, POSEIDON'S CHILDREN (consisting, so far, of BLUE REMEMBERED EARTH and ON THE STEEL BREEZE), is pretty good but a bit oddball for him. It's not finished (the third book is due in late 2014 or early 2015) and I don't rate it among his best work. It's certainly readable, though, and he has some interesting ideas about how Africa will undergo a massive, China-style econoic boom in the next century as more and more work and industry is outsourced there.
Reynolds's signature work is the REVELATION SPACE universe, in which humanity is threatened by self-replicating machines known as Inhibitors. It's excellent stuff, though confusing. I have a chronology here. The simplest thing to do is to start with CHASM CITY (also a strong contender for the title of his best book) and then go through the trilogy (REVELATION SPACE, REDEMPTION ARK, ABSOLUTION GAP), the short story collection GALACTIC NORTH, which actually concludes the story from the trilogy (bit of a bad idea there), and then the prequel (THE PREFECT) and the novella compilation (DIAMOND DOGS, TURQUOISE DAYS).
Alistair Reynolds is good. I have read most of the Revelation Space series as well as House of Suns. He does a good job with hard science fiction and telling a compelling story. Will just say his writing is a bit on the dark side, especially Revelation Space...something to keep in mind.
My only warning is that he is best appreciated in small doses. His writings and plots are excellent, but I find that his books often focus on a specific writing gimmick I prefer not to name to avoid spoilers. It can get a bit repetitive if read all in one go.
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Alastair Reynolds is very good. He writes hard SF mixed in with more speculative elements (one of his novels is a cross-genre mix of SF and steampunk; another is half hard SF, half noir thriller set in 1950s Paris), but his hard SF is VERY hard. He has no FTL travel in most of his books and uses time dilation and sleeping capsules to get people from planet to planet in reasonable timeframes.
You can read his stand-alones in any order, as they have no sequels or prequels. PUSHING ICE is a good one to start with as it's a classic 'big dumb object' SF story. CENTURY RAIN is more offbeat, with half the story being set in the future and half in 1950s Paris, and the way the two stories come together is a bit contrived. It's still entertaining though. TERMINAL WORLD is the SF/steampunk hybrid and features a very, very clever twist to the setting (that in my estimation only about half of readers seem to pick up on). HOUSE OF SUNS is the only one of his novels I haven't read yet but by many accounts is his best book to date. It's about a woman who clones herself hundreds of times over to explore the Galaxy at slower-than-light speeds over the course of thousands of years. There's also ZIMA BLUE, a short story collection.
His current series, POSEIDON'S CHILDREN (consisting, so far, of BLUE REMEMBERED EARTH and ON THE STEEL BREEZE), is pretty good but a bit oddball for him. It's not finished (the third book is due in late 2014 or early 2015) and I don't rate it among his best work. It's certainly readable, though, and he has some interesting ideas about how Africa will undergo a massive, China-style econoic boom in the next century as more and more work and industry is outsourced there.
Reynolds's signature work is the REVELATION SPACE universe, in which humanity is threatened by self-replicating machines known as Inhibitors. It's excellent stuff, though confusing. I have a chronology here. The simplest thing to...
Thank you very much! I would take the oppertunity to say that your numerous posts and recommendations have added many books to my reading list, and so far I really appreciate your opinions on books as it seems to resemble mine. Your contribution to this forum is felt, at the very least, by me :)
Thanks :)
Reynolds does have my favourite starship name of all time:
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Chasm City is certainly brilliant. Revelation Space is very good too, but I find the trilogy tails off with the subsequent tomes, with the denoument really quite pants. Actually Revelation Space ends things quite nicely so it is perfectly enjoyable on its own. Terminal World, Pushing Ice, Century Rain and House of Suns are standalone and likewise enjoyable, with my favorite being Century Rain. He's certainly a very fine writer and very readable.
I liked all of Revelation Space, Chasm City a little less cause it's mostly on one planet. House of Suns is similar.
Terminal World is also enjoyable, reminded me of Mieville's Scar.
Pushing Ice and Blue Remembered Earth were near future and not to my taste.
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So I finished reading "Pushing Ice". I like many things about it, but I do have two important questions.
1) While the story was great and had some interesting elements in it, the writing style was a bit wooden, and the characters a bit one dimensional (especially the support characters). Is this Reynold's usual style or does he normally give more attention to the inner world and emotional responses or at the very least the PoVs?
2) A plot related question with massive "Pushing Ice" spoilers:
So when Bella discovers the cube sent to her from the future, the cube says that Bella was the one who "gave humanity the stars" by sending back to earth all the information she found on Janus - however, this never happened during the story, and Bella even says out loud that she has no idea what the cube is referring... and then the last of the book goes by without the issue being addressed again. And given that Bella is in the far, far , *far* future now, I can't see how she'll ever get any information back to 2075 earth.
Anyone knows what's up with that? did I miss something?
Interesting. I will have to check his works out sometime or another.
Reynolds's characters are usually better. PUSHING ICE was him deliberately doing an Arthur C. Clarke-style 'big dumb object' novel and probably went a bit too far with emphasising the science over the characters.
Most of the rest are better, with probably his best characterisation being in CHASM CITY, CENTURY RAIN and his newest books.
