Ringworld — Larry Niven

Ringworld -- Larry NivenBeing one of the sci-fi classics with “SF Masterworks” status, this has been in my too-read pile for ages, and now i’ve finally got around to reading it.

It’s a little bizarre, giant cat people and three legged, two headed aliens as well.   It all seems like Larry felt that to make it more sci-fi-ish he had to make the strangest aliens he could imagine: very Seventies kitch stylee.   And the ending is woeful.   We go through all this adventure with our group of four with so much detail and depth and when we get to the ending and the leaving of the Ringworld we are left with nothing but vagueness.

But . . .

. . . other than the weird Seventies kitsch aliens and the woeful ending, it’s very good.   One can’t help but be blown away by the concept of the Ringworld and it’s size and complexity: is this what the future may hold for us?

One thing’s for certain, i’m diving straight into The Ringworld Engineers, which is the much needed sequel to this book.

Larry’s Page

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House of Suns — Alastair Reynolds

House of Suns -- Alastair ReynoldsThis follows Thousandth Night and is before Belladonna Nights in the trilogy.

One word: genius.

This book is superb from beginning to end, and it also leaves it open for a good follow on at some time in the future if Alastair feels like continuing the series at some point. I certainly hope he does.

Not only does this book demonstrate Alastair’s knowledge as a physicist, but it also demonstrates his incredible imagination and writing skills.

If you want a taster of Alastair at his best and you don’t want to go through all of Revelation Space just yet, then i suggest reading the House of Suns trilogy, sci-fi fans won’t be disappointed.

Alastair’s Page

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Thousandth Night — Alastair Reynolds

Thousandth Night -- Alastair ReynoldsOriginally published in One Million A.D., and also available in the collection, Beyond the Aquila Rift.

It soooo good to be back from all that multi-universe nonsense and into some real sci-fi from Alastair once again.

This story is superb.   Essentially, it’s fracture yourself into one thousand clones, known collectively as a “line”, and send them off on a trip around the galaxy to see what they can discover.   At the end of the trip all the clones meet up a pre-determined place and time and download each other’s holiday journal, known as a “thread”, into their own minds.   Whoever is determined the best thread gets to decide on the location and setting of the next reunion after the next trip around the galaxy.

There’s quite a few rules and a fair bit of etiquette to all this to keep things interesting and sensible, but when some people don’t appear to be playing by the rules and conforming to the etiquette, others start to have suspicions.

I really like the idea of this and if you do too you’ll be happy to know that House of Suns is next in the trilogy with Belladonna Nights straight afterwards, so there’s plenty more still to come.

Alastair’s Page

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The Fixation — Alastair Reynolds

The Six Directions of Space -- Alastair ReynoldsYou’ll find this in Deep Navigation.

Yet another one of Alastair’s parallel universe, ridicilous nonsense stories.   Utter rubbish, to put it mildly.

I live in hope that he will soon get over this bizarre phase in his bibliography.   Next up in the timeline is The Sledge-Maker’s Daughter, and i think i’ll throw my Kindle across the room if there’s even a hint on one single parallel universe, let alone an infinite number of them.

Alastair’s Page

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The Six Directions of Space — Alastair Reynolds

The Six Directions of Space -- Alastair ReynoldsOriginally published in Galactic Empires

More of that parallel universe nonsense that Alastair is obviously having a thing for during this period of his writing: 2006/2007.   Fingers crossed it should be over soon and we can get back to some proper good sci-fi.

The next story from Alastair’s timeline will be The Fixation.

Alastair’s Page

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Tiger, Burning — Alastair Reynolds

Tiger, Burning -- Alastair ReynoldsYou’ll find this in Deep Navigation.

It seems that someone’s been leaking top secret information from a top secret facility in a different reality and a detective is sent to investigate.   The only problem being that the only way to get there is to have his consciousness uploaded and sent by signal and then put into a new body at the other end: exactly like in Altered Carbon.   But for some reason the detective finds himself re-sleeved into a bit cat’s body: hence the title Tiger, Burning.

Really good, Alastair at his best, as usual.

Next up in Alastair’s timeline will be Signal to Noise, from 2006.

Alastair’s Page

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The Autobiography of Jean-Luc Picard — David A. Goodman

The Autobiography of Jean-Luc Picard -- David A. GoodmanVery much similar to The Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway that i read two books ago.

Thoroughly enjoyable look back at Jean-Luc’s early life before the Enterprise, and also some good snippets from the series and afterwards also.

Another must for Trekkies everywhere.

David’s Page

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