Hello

Hello & Welcome
ugh face

I’m currently rebuilding the website as the old one got totally messed up when i was playing around with things (no idea what happened).

So i thought that while it was a total clusterfuck mess of SQL, i would take the opportunity to give it a whole new life and everything.

So if you go clicking on things you might find that very strange things happen. Don’t moan, i know a lot of things are broken, i’m working on it, it takes time.

I’ve got tons of old posts and pages from three websites that i’m working through and will be gradually posting all the stuff i want to keep on here while fixing all the broken things as i go through, one post, one page, at a time.

On top of doing all that, i will, of course, be continuing to add more new content and my latest posts will always appear directly below.

Or, if you prefer, you can also follow me on Twitter and Pinterest where i put a link to all new posts.

Enjoy


Providence — Alastair Reynolds

Providence -- Alastair ReynoldsAvailable in Belladonna Nights and Other Stories.

A really good sleeper ship story.   The drive’s blown and there’s no way of slowing the ship down when it reaches its destination planet, they’re just going to sail right on past.

But then one of the crew has a great idea to find some purpose to the whole trip.   Except things just don’t turn out like they hoped they would have.

Next up from Alastair is Death’s Door.

Bye for now.

Alastair’s Page

#scifi #alastairreynolds

Different Seas — Alastair Reynolds

Different Seas -- Alastair ReynoldsAvailable in Belladonna Nights and Other Stories and The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Vol 4.

Another of Alastairs proxy body stories.   This time a caretaker is stranded on an automated sailing ship and needs help.   It comes in the form of a proxy robot, and the caretaker isn’t too taken with it’s driver’s attitude.

But, more is soon revealed as we go through the story and attitudes change.

A really good little story.   And maybe a good reminder to all of us not to judge people on their first impressions, sometimes you can be very wrong.

Next up from Alastair in Providence.

Bye for now.

Alastair’s Page

#scifi #alastairreynolds

Remainers — Alastair Reynolds

Remainers -- Alastair ReynoldsAvailable in Tales from the Edge: Escalation.

A little story that Alastair wrote for the Maelstom’s Edge Universe.

You don’t need to know anything about the Universe other than a maelstrom of energy is travelling up the spiral arm of the galaxy wiping out everything in its path.   Systems are being evacuated and there’s lots of different factions with different views as to how to deal with things.

This story covers a journey back to one of the evacuated planets.

Rather good.

Next up from Alastair is Visiting Hours.

Bye for now.

Alastair’s Page

#scifi #alastairreynolds

Sixteen Questions for Kamala Chatterjee — Alastair Reynolds

Sixteen Questions for Kamala Chatterjee -- Alastair ReynoldsAvailable in Belladonna Nights and Other Stories.

Kamala Chatterjee is defending her PHD paper in front of three judges, with sixteen questions to get through.

This really isn’t Alastair’s finest work.   I think it’s another one of those stories of his that just didn’t work out but he threw it into a collection to fill the pages with.

You mileage may vary though.

Rolling on through Alastair’s books, next up is Remainers.

Bye for now.

Alastair’s Page

#scifi #alastairreynolds

The Medusa Chronicles — Alastair Reynolds and Stephen Baxter

The Medusa Chronicles -- Alastair Reynolds and Stephen BaxterThis time Alastair teams up with Stephen Baxter to write this interesting yarn, taking us from an alternative history of the Apollo missions all the way into the deep heart of Jupiter, hundreds of years later.

As usual with anything Alastair Reynolds, it’s just great all round writing.   What i really liked about this one is the recreation of Jupiter with a whole eco system going on all the way down to the core of the planet.

Once again we’ve plenty of AI stuff going on, and going wrong on a cosmic scale (rapidly approaching an Earth near you, in case you’ve been sleeping under a rock and hadn’t noticed), and a solar-system wide war with a cyborg, running/wheeling/flying around, trying to make peace between everyone.

It’s a really good novel, and whether you believe me or not, i don’t care.   If you don’t want to read it, just because i think it’s really good, then that’s your loss, not mine.

Next up from Alastair is Sixteen Questions for Kamala Chatterjee, which i’m diving straight into in my quest to read everything by Alastair before the AI’s take over and destroy everything of value that ever existed and turn the Earth into a volcanic wasteland (which won’t be long, according to some people).

Bye for now.

Alastair’s Page

#scifi #alastairreynolds

A Murmuration — Alastair Reynolds

A Murmuration -- Alastair ReynoldsAvailable 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.

Alastair’s Page

#scifi #alastairreynolds

Slow Bullets — Alastair Reynolds

Slow Bullets -- Alastair ReynoldsAt 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.

Alastair’s Page

#scifi #alastairreynolds

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Currently

Fiction

Prelude to Foundation -- Isaac Asimov With the rise of the machines on the horizon . . .
 
. . .me thinks it’s a good time to re-read Asimov.

Fiction

Four Seasons in Japan -- Nick Bradley The Cat and The City was excellent, let’s hope this is too.

Nonfiction

Why Work? -- Collection Yeah, why?

Nonfiction

More Zen.