Alastair Reynolds

**Hobbit** · November 18th, 2004, 05:55 PM

Of course the delay does mean that you've got chance to catch up with the others, Mono.

Would recommend Chasm City, myself. Though the last one I read was Ok, but not as good, though some people really like it.

Hobbit

**Luke_B** · November 18th, 2004, 05:59 PM

Oh, I thought I had to read them in order... Thanks Hobbit.

There's just so many gaps in my reading at the moment, but now I've finished uni I can't start reading for fun again!!

**Hobbit** · November 18th, 2004, 06:24 PM

Oops yes, I'd better make that a little clearer - you can read Chasm City as a stand alone, as it is in the same places as Revelation Space etc. It was Al's second book.

The others (except for Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days - 2 short novellas) are best read in order. DDTD involves characters and races in Redemption Ark etc but can be read separately.

Hobbit

**Erfael** · November 18th, 2004, 07:16 PM

I read Chasm City recently and really enjoyed it quite a bit. Waiting to finish the trilogy until I can get the third in paperback used somewhere.

**tdeanatoz@yahoo** · December 9th, 2004, 01:01 PM

Having read all of Reynold's fiction in this universe, I would definitely recommend reading Chasm City first, then Revelation Space, Redemption Ark, and finally Absolution Gap. Some of the events at the beginning of Revelation Space are not going to make sense unless you've read Chasm City. Many of us who have read all of them agree that Chasm City was probably written (or at least plotted out) first but remained unsold. Incidentally, many of the events in Absolution Gap won't be clear unless you've read the novelette "Galactic North." Many of the critics who have reviewed Absolution Gap and say it does not end the Inhibitors series have clearly not read "Galactic North." This is definitely the best future history that I have read since Dan Simmons' Hyperion books, and that's saying something!

**Avi_stetto** · April 17th, 2005, 06:59 PM

I haven't yet read Absolution Gap or Century Rain. I bet I'll enjoy them when I get around to them.

I've enjoyed the first three in the Inhibitor world. It's space opera like I've never seen before.

Chasm City had to have one of the freakiest endings that I've ever read. I should have expected it, though, because I read both Revelation Space and Redemption Ark before I read Chasm City.

**Talvalin** · April 28th, 2005, 05:17 AM

Originally Posted by Hobbit

I'm looking forward to the arrival of Century Rain, which sounds like something a little different from Alastair - a more contemporary time travel story. Should arrive soon.

Hobbit

Probably his best since Chasm City. The characters are more developed and the dialogue is sharp, even if the main characters all seem to crack the same kind of jokes.

The Paris setting is excellent, and it's a joy to piece together what is going on. The problem lies with the final third, essentially one long chase with occasional info-dumps from a character who seems to develop a remarkable grasp on concepts that were alien to him/her earlier on in the book. You'll see what I mean.

Decent overall, Century Rain is still not the classic that Reynolds is capable of writing. For that, I will have to wait a little longer.

**Mugwump** · May 17th, 2005, 10:30 AM

These irregular shaped tomes mock my best attempts to create aesthetically pleasing book displays.

Was there some terrible miscommunication of sizes during printing?

**Mithfânion** · May 17th, 2005, 11:13 AM

I'm personally looking forward to his next one, which seems much more spectacular, titled "Pushing the Ice", due in November:

First Contact with extraordinary aliens, glittering technologies that could destroy the universe in a nanosecond, huge sweeping space operas: Alastair Reynolds is back!

Synopsis
Some centuries from now, the exploration and exploitation of the Solar System is in full swing. On the cold edge of the system, Bella Lind, captain of the huge commercial spacecraft Rockhopper IV, helps fuel this new gold rush by attaching mass-driver motors to organic-rich water-ice comets to move them back to the inner worlds. Her crew are tough, blue-collar miners, engineers and demolition experts. Around Saturn, something inexplicable happens: one of the moons leaves its orbit and accelerates out of the Solar System. The icy mantle peels away to reveal that it was never a moon in the first place, just a parked spacecraft, millions of years old, that has now decided to move on. Rockhopper IV, trapped in the pull, is hurled across time and space into the deep, distant future, arriving in a vast, alien-constructed chamber. And the crew are not alone, for each chamber contains an alien culture dragged into this cosmic menagerie at the end of time. The crew of the Rockhopper IV know a lot about blowing up comets, but not much about first contact with ultra-advanced aliens. They have two things to worry about: can they (and their new alien allies) negotiate their way through each harrying contact? And can they assimilate the avalanche of knowledge about their own future - including all the glittering, dangerous technologies that are now theirs for the taking - without destroying themselves in the process?

**Mithfânion** · September 22nd, 2006, 08:06 AM

Still haven't bought a reynolds book, but have now decided ( after hearing a lot of bad press about his three Revelation space novels characters ) to start with his new collection called Galactic North coming out in a few weeks.

**ricoboc** · September 28th, 2006, 12:49 AM

I read 'Revelation Space' when it was first released. I thought it was the best sci-fi book i had read that year. I have yet to read his other books.

SOON, I hope.

**FuzzBunneh** · October 8th, 2006, 05:07 AM

Am I really the only one who spent three weeks getting through the first 250 pages of Revelation Space and then decided to read something else?

That was about a year ago, and it's one of those books I'm planning on giving another go (as opposed to the books I've put down and declared beyond redemption). I always feel extremely frustrated when a book everyone's been raving about flies right over my head.

**s271** · October 9th, 2006, 03:09 PM

I like him a lot, especially Diamond Dogs. IMO it capture the feeling of scientific tragedy - the person sacrificing his personality part by part for some highest porpose. Recent story of Perelman and Poincare Conjecture come to the mind...

**tdeanatoz@yahoo** · November 2nd, 2006, 01:56 PM

I just finished Zima Blue and Other Stories, his first short fiction collection. My bibliography of it can be found over at "Reading in November 2006."

**Werthead** · November 9th, 2006, 07:34 AM

Originally Posted by Mithfânion

Still haven't bought a reynolds book, but have now decided ( after hearing a lot of bad press about his three Revelation space novels characters ) to start with his new collection called Galactic North coming out in a few weeks.

Bizarre. His characters are pretty good and some of them are pretty original. He's not quite as good at character as say Iain Banks, but is a lot better than say David Brin (and light-years beyond the likes of Greg Bear, Gregory Benford, Stephen Baxter and Arthur C. Clarke). Probably on a par with Peter F. Hamilton, although Reynolds tries to make his characters less like us, whilst PFH tries to make them more contemporary.