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4.38 AVERAGE
4.38 AVERAGE
My yearning for more Revelation Space led me to this book and to my surprise, only 4 of the 18 stories were set in that universe. I'm usually weary of spoilers so I avoid reading the blurb, with the exception of standalones and first in series. I also avoided short stories, focusing on novels.
Nonetheless, I'm really glad that I've read this one, as the stories were well written, very imaginative, emotional and explored interesting themes - they've certainly opened up my appetite for more of this kind of fiction.
The story set in the House of Suns universe was a nice surprise.
The highlights for me were:
- Great Wall of Mars
- Weather
- Beyond the Aquila Rift
- Zima Blue
- Minla's Flowers
- Sleepover
- Troika
- The Last Log of the Lachrymosa
- Diamond Dogs
Nonetheless, I'm really glad that I've read this one, as the stories were well written, very imaginative, emotional and explored interesting themes - they've certainly opened up my appetite for more of this kind of fiction.
The story set in the House of Suns universe was a nice surprise.
The highlights for me were:
- Great Wall of Mars
- Weather
- Beyond the Aquila Rift
- Zima Blue
- Minla's Flowers
- Sleepover
- Troika
- The Last Log of the Lachrymosa
- Diamond Dogs
Around two years ago, Love, Death & Robots hit Netflix. I checked it out immediately and I'm glad I had. Of the many shorts in it, Beyond the Aquila Rift was the one that most caught my attention. The blend of science fiction and existential horror found a niche I hadn't realized I'd been looking for, and that night was when Alastair Reynolds landed on my radar. Now that I've finally read the short story that inspired it, I'm pleased to say that the source material is better than the Netflix adaptation, which in this case, is a feat.
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
an interesting collection of short stories/novellas. Some challenging ideas, and an interesting look at an assortment of the author's work
great stories, I especially enjoyed Thousandth Night and Diamond Dogs
An excellent collection of mostly hard SF shorts with a few that qualify as cosmic horror. Most are dark with ambiguous endings and some are classic idea driven SF. In the copyright notices you can see the death of the SF magazine, the majority were published in collections first and then included here. Only two or three saw the insides of a magazine cover.
I bought this because I knew it contained at least one novella I hadn't read that wasn't easily obtainable elsewhere. I now wish I had waited for the UK edition which has a much better cover. I also wish that the editors had done a better job - by which I mean who-ever was responsible for ensuring a high quality, accurate text. This edition contains a large number of mistakes involving wrong word order, missing words or incorrect homophones. I don't know if the UK edition is any better in this respect.
There's some great stuff in this collection but as with any other short story collection, there's some variation in quality. On this front what concerned me was a trend towards poorer efforts as the book goes on. Since they are in publication order, does this mean Reynolds is getting worse?
That said, this is still a great introduction to Reynolds for those unfamiliar with him and is worth the price for Diamond Dogs alone.
There's some great stuff in this collection but as with any other short story collection, there's some variation in quality. On this front what concerned me was a trend towards poorer efforts as the book goes on. Since they are in publication order, does this mean Reynolds is getting worse?
That said, this is still a great introduction to Reynolds for those unfamiliar with him and is worth the price for Diamond Dogs alone.