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
Voice of the Whirlwind — Walter Jon Williams
The third instalment in the Hardwired Series.
A super good story and certainly no complaints on that aspect of the book, but the telling of it leaves a bit to be desired. As in Hardwired, we are told a tale without any explanation as to the background, only for that to be revealed later on.
At 6% i found myself suddenly realising what’s happening in this vagueness that i’d been reading which left me with no choice but to go back to the very beginning and begin again. Why Walter can’t just tell you what you need to know before you read it instead of sometime afterwards i have no idea. There’s a few other places in the book that i was left feeling like i’m going back and forward in time and feeling like i’m not quite sure where i am any more.
It is rather annoying because he is certainly a great crafter of story, with great characters and world building, but then goes and lets it all down by writing things out of sequence and all over the place.
But, it is worth putting up with this downside to enjoy a really good story.
And this officially ends the trilogy, although i believe that Aristoi is kind of set in the same universe with a fair few references to Nero, one of our favourite characters from Solip:System: so i may just have to dive into that in the not too distant future.
Walter’s Page
#scifi #cyberpunk #walterjonwilliams
Solip:System — Walter Jon Williams
I believe this novella was written as an afterthought to attempt to bridge a gap between Hardwired and Voice of the Whirlwind, thus creating a trilogy once a few things got ironed out in Voice of the Whirlwind.
Which i think is a bit bad because this book is a very much needed sequel to Hardwired whether or not there was another book to follow.
I’m definitely pleased it was written as it does finish off Hardwired and Nero’s escapades as Roon rather nicely.
Brilliant novella, and now i dive straight into Voice of the Whirlwind.
Walter’s Page
#scifi #cyberpunk #walterjonwilliams
Hardwired — Walter Jon Williams
This is one of those books with lots of jargon that isn’t explained in advance, and so you wander through a world with nomenclature and terminoloy that means nothing to you until, in the case of the term “thatch” for example, you get over 60% of the way into the story before someone explains what the word means. I would suggest that it’s definitely well worth reading the bit at the back named “Panzerboy” before you begin as that helps a little settling in.
Other than the nomenclature/terminology issue, which i suggest you just deal with it and accept it for what it is, it’s a super good story that became a very much couldn’t-put-downer towards the end — which is kinda once i’ve figured out all the nomenclature/terminology — and i found myself diving straight into Solip:System without a pause.
It’s certainly got me wanting to re-read the series again in a few years time now i know what things mean before i begin.
So yes, indeedy, it’s certainly rather good cyberpunk and worthy of it’s praises as a classic of the genre.
Walter’s Page
#scifi #cyberpunk #walterjonwilliams
Nightingale — Alastair Reynolds
What begins as a war-criminal hunt slowly turns more and more strange and out of control for our intrepid party of hunters.
I really enjoyed this super good novella. It was nice of Alastair to throw a delicious little shorty between Revelation Space and Redemption Ark: both the size of trilogies in their own right.
And the ending is brilliant.
Available in the collection, Galactic North.
Next up in the series is Redemption Ark
Alastair’s Page
#scifi #alastairreynolds
Revelation Space — Alastair Reynolds
This is one rather large book but, thankfully, it’s one rather good book as well that keeps those pages turn, turn, turning.
I think my only complaint is that when Volyova uses the Nostalgia for Infinity as a murder weapon by accelerating it and braking it in order to smash one of her crew to death, there’s no explanation as to what happened to everything else in this massive ship that wasn’t nailed down properly. Like, what happened to all the ship-slime, rats, shuttle craft, the weapons cache and many other things besides: were all of the these things nailed down to protect them against such repeated high G acceleration and forward braking phases? There were many ways of carrying out this killing that didn’t require any further explanation, but to use the method that Volyova did and then for Alastair to just fail to explain what happened to everything else in the ship does annoy me somewhat.
Because the ship isn’t designed to brake in the forward motion. It’s designed to accelerate to one G continuously up to the half way point of the journey, then it will flip 180 degrees and use the same one G thrust to slow itself down. Why would the engines suddenly be capable of huge 10 G burns in both directions just to kill one person? I really think it’s needs a proper explaining.
But yeah, i know, that’s how picky i have to be to find any real criticism of this immense book. It is the only fault i could find, and to be fair, most people would probably read this and not even think about it.
I do hope that doesn’t put anyone off (not that i think for one moment that it would 
), because other than that one bizarre murder it’s super good, great writing, great characters, everything as we’ve come to expect so far in this series.
And i look forward to some more: next up is Nightingale.
Alastair’s Page
#scifi #sfmasterworks #alastairreynolds
Grafenwalder’s Bestiary — Alastair Reynolds
This one has call backs to A Spy in Europa, Diamond Dogs, and Chasm City, so if you missed reading any of those then you really need to go and read them first.
And it’s such a good short, like, really good. The ending is brilliant.
Available in the collection, Galactic North.
And now, finally, at long last, we get onto the title work, Revelation Space. Yes peoples, it’s finally the big books’ time to be read, so it may be a while between future reviews.
Alastair’s Page
#scifi #alastairreynolds
Turquoise Days — Alastair Reynolds
In this book we go off to the planet Turquoise, so named because it’s an ocean planet covered in turquoise oceans.
Within the oceans are the Pattern Jugglers that got a mention in Diamond Dogs, and in this book we get a much deeper introduction to them.
So yeah, a really enjoyable novella adding yet another alien layer onto the growing alien layers of the Revelation Space universe.
Available in the duology, Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days.
And the next book in the series is Grafenwalder’s Bestiary.
Alastair’s Page
#scifi #alastairreynolds
The Last Log of the Lachrimosa — Alastair Reynolds
The Lachrimosa is an Ultra vessel whose captain has bought some information which he believes will make him a lot of profit. And so the ship ends up at a planet exploring a place the crew really don’t want to explore.
This has hints of the wars between the maggots and the machines that was mentioned in Chasm City, and it seems we’re getting info dumped for the big books at the end of the series. Info dumping aside, it’s an enjoyable novella to whizz through in a day or so.
Available in the collection, Beyond the Aquila Rift.
This is folllowed by Turquoise Days.
Alastair’s Page
#scifi #alastairreynolds
Chasm City — Alastair Reynolds
Wow, now that was an epic sci-fi journey. My Kindle showed it at 11495 Loc points, which makes it easily longer than some trilogies, and it’s all just one book: great value for money.
In this book we begin by following a character, Tanner Mirabel, who is a mercenary of sorts. Tanner seems to have been infected with an indoctrination virus that gives him a historical/religious figure’s memories as dreams and flash backs. On top of this Tanner has also wound up leaving the planet he was on, Sky’s Edge, and gone off on a lighthugger to Yellowstone, not realising the Melding Plague has destroyed everything. Then, to add insult to injury, Tanner is also suffering reefer-sleep amnesia, although he does remember some things, like the fact that he came to Yellowstone to kill the man who killed his boss’ girlfriend.
But everything is not quite as it seems, people are waiting for Tanner, people are hunting Tanner, and some people just want to kill Tanner — or whoever he might be.
Brilliant! This book has so many twists and turns as a fucked-up Tanner takes us on a fucked-up guided tour around Yellowstone’s Chasm City, a post Melding Plague Chasm City that’s just totally fucked-up. Alastair does the most amazing writing job.
Scores on the doors: to quote from Spinal Tap, “Look, right across the board… 11, 11, 11…”
Next up is The Last Log of the Lachrimosa.
Alastair’s Page
#scifi #alastairreynolds
Dilation Sleep — Alastair Reynolds
So we continue with the same theme from Monkey Suit, in that we’re on an lighthugger running away from Yellowstone and the Melding Plague.
This enjoyable little short introduces us to the real science of time dilation, wherein the nearer one gets to the speed of light, the faster time passes in the outside universe in relation to those on the space ship.
And if we take this idea and put those on the space ship in reefer-sleep, where their bodies and brains are taken down into hibernation state — so hardly ageing at all — and then send them close to light speed for a few years, decades can pass in the outside universe while these people age a few weeks or months: thus being known as dilation sleep.
Then if we look at the situation that is occurring on Yellowstone and consider that rich refugees can afford to pay Ultras to go on a trip around the galaxy in dilation sleep for a few years while hopefully everything back home gets sorted out, and that is where we are in this book.
Except that one of the crew has been awakened by the ship because something has gone wrong and needs fixing.
Good stuff.
Available in the collection, Galactic North.
And the next book in the Revelation Space series is Chasm City, which most definitely isn’t a short: more like a whole trilogy under one cover.
Alastair’s Page
#scifi #alastairreynolds
Fiction
. . .me thinks it’s a good time to re-read Asimov.
Fiction
Nonfiction
Nonfiction
