Available in the collection, A Place So Foreign and Eight More.
A fun little story about coming home.
A human councillor on an alien world goes home to watch his childhood home be demolished. Along the way he reminisces about his childhood there.
It’s different and i quite enjoyed this: you might also enjoy it.
Next up will be Visit the Sins.
Bye for now.
Have you ever fell asleep in a dream and in that sleep you start dreaming, only to fall asleep in that dream and start dreaming again. But then you wake up from that final dream and a new day begins, but it’s just soooo fucked up you can’t understand what’s going wrong with the world: because you thought you’d actually woken up because you forgot you fell asleep within a dream within a dream and you haven’t actually woke up, woke up, you just woke up within the next dream level up, you’re still dreaming. And it takes a while to realise what the fuck is going on. If that’s never happened to you then you’re really missing out a wonderful mind fuck.
It’s just like what happens in the film Inception, they go to sleep and dream, then go to sleep and dream and then go to sleep and dream, in order to get so far down the rabbit hole in order to get the thing they want.
And yes, you can fall asleep in dreams and then dream in that sleep and so on. It’s freaky!
Why am i telling you this? Because Silas Coade, our protagonist within Eversion, appears to be doing the same thing. So if you liked that idea in Inception you might just really like this one as well, because this is just as good but in a much different way. I can’t tell you why it’s different because it would totally ruin the story, you just have to believe me that it’s really good and read it for yourself.
This is currently Alastair’s last published novel and i’ve read everything else he’s written apart from the young adult, nonsensical, Revenger trilogy, which i just couldn’t cope with. So now i sit eagerly awaiting the next great story from this master of science fiction: let’s hope it’s not too long in appearing.
Bye for now.
Available in Belladonna Nights and Other Stories.
And here’s me thinking that i’d read all the Revelation Space stories, and then i find this one. Admittedly, it was published after i had read most of the Revelation Space series, so i’ll forgive myself for not reading it in the chronological order of Revelation Space.
But, anyway, it’s always nice to get another Revelation Space story thrown into ones life now and again.
This one takes us back to Chasm City, after the plague has mangled it, following a clean up crew on the lower levels. I really enjoyed it. Once again, as most things by Alastair, extremely well written and brilliant sci-fi.
Now all i have to do is wait for the next Revelation Space story, which i hope won’t be too long in coming. I love this series.
If you haven’t read Revelation Space then i suggest you follow it in chronological order and read everything — it’s really, really good.
Bye for now.
A super good time travel novel without all the annoying paradoxes within which some writers seem to get themselves messily tie up in knots.
I can’t really say much more without ruining the story. So i’ll just say, even if you don’t usually enjoy the temporal sci-fi stuff, read this, it’s good.
Next up in Alastair’s literary journey is Polished Performance.
Bye for now.
Available in Made to Order: Robots and Revolution — Anthology.
A really good story set aboard a sleeper ship that is flown and managed by robots while all the wealthy humans sleep the long cold sleep.
But something goes wrong with the cooling system for the sleepers and the robots become worried that they’ll be core wiped to cover up the mess when they get to their destination. Thus begins the cunning plans of the robots to avoid annihilation.
Next up in Alastair’s literary journey is Plague Music, which is actually a Revelation Space story set in Chasm City.
Bye for now.
The third book in the Before The Coffee Gets Cold series, and what a great book.
If you haven’t read any of this series yet then i really, whole heartedly, suggest you get back to the beginning and give them a go. The time-travelling-chair-in-a-cafe really is such a great story telling device, especially with the rules that come along with it.
And it’s in those rules that the stories shine. The main one being that you cannot change anything in the present by going back to the past. This rule really does sort the wheat from the chaff and creates stories that are deep and meaningful for all of us.
This third book takes us away from the first cafe to another cafe in Japan with it’s own chair and ghost. The owner has gone away so some of the crew from Tokyo have taken over because only a female over the age of 7 years, from their family, can pour the coffee.
A lot of this book is about death, and how we all deal with the death of a loved one, and the ending is incredible: Toshikazu really nailed the ending, it’s so perfect and so moving. It’s not often that my eyes get soggy at the end of a book, but this one did it perfectly. While the whole book is really good, it’s only when you get to the ending that you realise that it’s all been about building up the ending, where Toshikazu brings everything to a perfectly sharp focus.
And don’t forget, the next book in the series, Before We Say Goodbye, is coming out in September 2023, so be sure to put that in your diary.
Bye for now.
This trilogy is twaddle. I gave it a good a go but gave up on book two, didn’t get around to reading this.
Hopefully Permafrost will have Alastair back to grown up books and may he never attempt young adult stuff ever again, he really isn’t very good at it.
Bye for now.
I tried, i really did, but i just can’t take any more and i’ve given up on this stupid trilogy. It’s all too much young adult for me and, worse than that, it’s not even very good young adult. It’s just totally unbelievable nonsense.
A child is playing silly games with grown ups, the grown ups know the child is playing silly games with them but they keep letting the child have its way even though the child is probably going to get them killed. Yeah, right!
Alastair should stick with what he does best, sci-fi for intelligent grown ups.
So, unfortunately, my quest to read everything by Alastair Reynolds has come to an end. I’m not reading the rest of this trilogy unless someone pays me £1000.
So, skipping ahead, the next book in Alastair’s literary arsenal is Permafrost. Let’s hope he’s back to normal and it’s as good as his usual stuff.
Bye for now.
Not the greatest story Alastair has ever told. It’s all very young adult-ish stuff, and it’s really not anything like what i love about Alastair’s usual sci-fi.
But, i suppose, every writer may wish to have a try at some YA stuff occasionally. I just really hope that Alastair doesn’t ever do it again, thank you.
I mean, let’s be serious, a child who isn’t even old enough to leave home, escapes and takes on the system’s most feared and devastating pirate? Really? And adults just fall over themselves to do her bidding?
But, as i’m committed to reading the whole of Alastair’s writings, i must continue with this farcical trilogy and see where it leads.
So next up it will be Shadow Captain.
Bye for now.
Wow!
Once again, Blake has written one of the best pieces of sci-fi i’ve ever read. A literary wonder. Totally un-put-down-able.
Not only is this a great story about the coming environmental apocalypse and the extinction event that will wipe Homo sapiens from the face of the Universe, this is also a great critique of Homo sapiens’ hubris and arrogance with regard to Nature.
Homo sapiens has got this seriously fucked up idea that it can control and rule Nature and that there’s no need to change the way we are because science will always find an answer to all our woes.
This is one of those books that i’ll be telling everyone i know to read — it’s that good — even though i know probably none of them will bother to read it because, hey, what do they need to know that they can’t watch on television or Youtube?
Anyway, i’m off back to Alastair Reynolds to finish off the last 7 of his books that i haven’t read already.
Bye for now.