Available in Belladonna Nights and Other Stories.
Not one of Alastair’s best stories, i’m left at the end not really understanding what is happening in the outside world and therefore why any of this research is being done. But if you enjoy a good murmuration of starlings then you might enjoy it just for the good descriptive writing of such things.
Let’s hope The Medusa Chronicles is better.
Bye for now.
At the end of a major war, the worse of the worse, from both sides (known as the Dregs by the crew), are put onto a sleeper ship and sent off to a far flung corner of the galaxy.
One by one the Dregs awaken: and find that something has gone horribly wrong with the ship. With it’s systems failing, the ship has ended up where it should have been but a very long time in the future.
A really good story with the Dregs having to learn to put their differences aside and work together to survive, but some differences need settling first.
Next up in Alastair’s list is A Murmuration.
Bye for now.
Available in Belladonna Nights and Other Stories.
An interesting look at how future AI’s will view primitive machines: plenty of food for thought.
Next up is Slow Bullets.
Bye for now.
Another AI story.
This time an AI turns up around Kapteyn’s Star, a red dwarf a very long way away from Earth.
Basically the whole story is the AI’s transmission back to Earth, which i won’t go into because it would spoil the punch line at the end.
Really good. Maybe one day only the AI’s that we’ve sent out into the galaxy will be all that’s left of us, and i wonder what other species will make of them.
Next up on Alastair’s list is Wrecking Party.
Bye for now.
Available in the collection, Beyond the Aquila Rift.
Another story from Alastair featuring a genetically modified Tyrannosaurus rex, but unlike At Budokan where the T. Rex was a rock star, this time it’s a chat show host.
The main premise of the the story is that an AI, named Vincent, that’s been out mapping the solar system implanted in a space ship is now back on Earth implanted in a humanoid body doing the chat show round and other public appearances to publicise its exploits.
But another corporation had it’s own AI out and it’s just returned with some rather contradicting information from Vincent.
I do enjoy Alastair’s AI stories, they’re usually excellent.
Next up is Sad Kapteyn.
Bye for now.
Available in Belladonna Nights and Other Stories.
A rather interesting idea exploring transhumanism in the context of living on Mercury: specifically a group of transhumanists who make art for the sake of it.
A fixer is sent to Mercury to contact one of the transhumanist artists to make them an offer, but finds something rather different than what he expected to find.
Next up in Alastair’s timeline is, In Babelsberg.
Bye for now.
Available in Belladonna Nights and Other Stories.
A bit of a weird one from Alastair. A couple of oddballs take some strange drug and start seeing things that may or may not be as it seems to people not on drugs.
I’m not sure what Alastair’s point is with this one.
Anyway, moving on, it’s A Map of Mercury next
Bye for now.
Another super good read in this excellent trilogy, but Alastair left the ending wide open for a good follow-up story or three.
I do hope Alastair comes back to this universe, it’s a rather good place to read about and after getting to the end of this trilogy it’s rather clear that it’s a really good place for Alastair to write lots more about.
Bring it on, please, Alastair.
Next up in Alastair’s list is The Lobby.
Bye for now.
This is the second book in the Poseidon’s Children trilogy and a great follow on from Blue Remembered Earth.
Skipping quite a few years into the future there’s been some cloning and big ship building to take us to Crucible, the planet that Ocular discovered.
This story is mostly about the shenanigans of the first caravan of “holoships” that are well on their way, and also the shenanigans going on back in the solar system, and what good shenanigans they are too.
Super well written and totally captivating, as usual with Alastair, and a wonderful second episode in this trilogy.
Now i can’t wait to get my reading teeth into the final book in the trilogy, which is Poseidon’s Wake. Bring it on!
Bye for now.
This follows on quite nicely from the future Earth setting of The Water Thief, albeit this story is about a family who made their fortune during the times of climate collapse, whereas The Water Thief is about a family dumped an all but forgotten in a climate refugee camp.
So definitely read The Water Thief before diving into this, it may give you a bit of perspective as to the what the world went through outside of the Akinya family.
But, i digress, what about this story? Well, this story is the first in a trilogy that is another of Alastair’s super long narrations that he so wonderfully excels at.
The matriarch of the family dies and the family is set spinning down a trail of clues left behind by said matriarch, all while tearing itself apart along old lines of enmity.
And it’s a great paperchase of clues.
Slow starting, but stick with it, you’ll be well rewarded.
And now i’m diving straight into the second book of this trilogy, On the Steel Breeze.
Bye for now.