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wingfooted's review against another edition
4.0
Diamond Dogs: There is a certain genre of movie that I quite enjoy. It involves a group of unwitting strangers being thrust into an unknown situation and forced to work out various puzzles in order to proceed. Often times, coming to the wrong conclusion has dire effects. Diamond Dogs is this premise put into a novella, and I heartily enjoyed it.
The cast of characters were each vibrantly drawn, with depth and personality to spare. Watching them work their way through the Blood Spire, each reacting in their own unique way to the pressures of the situation was fun in that same gut curdling kind of way watching movies of the genre is. I thought Reynolds did a good job working with this concept, adding in enough originality and spice to keep it interesting, while still including some fun references to people like myself who enjoy this type of thing regularly. I wouldn't call this story a masterpiece, but I would definitely call it a satisfying read, worth the few hours it took to get through. 4 stars.
Turquoise Days: This one moved at a much more leisurely pace, taking it's time to build up the world and to let us get to know the narrator before ratcheting up the action quite quickly towards the end. While I did enjoy the first portion of the story, there were points where it dragged on a bit, seeming to meander forwards with no real sense of a developing story. Nevertheless, the climax was well worth the wait, and the ending was satisfying, despite being rather bleak. 4 stars once again.
The cast of characters were each vibrantly drawn, with depth and personality to spare. Watching them work their way through the Blood Spire, each reacting in their own unique way to the pressures of the situation was fun in that same gut curdling kind of way watching movies of the genre is. I thought Reynolds did a good job working with this concept, adding in enough originality and spice to keep it interesting, while still including some fun references to people like myself who enjoy this type of thing regularly. I wouldn't call this story a masterpiece, but I would definitely call it a satisfying read, worth the few hours it took to get through. 4 stars.
Turquoise Days: This one moved at a much more leisurely pace, taking it's time to build up the world and to let us get to know the narrator before ratcheting up the action quite quickly towards the end. While I did enjoy the first portion of the story, there were points where it dragged on a bit, seeming to meander forwards with no real sense of a developing story. Nevertheless, the climax was well worth the wait, and the ending was satisfying, despite being rather bleak. 4 stars once again.
rileedawg's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
dracola112's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
pigsflew's review against another edition
2.0
Diamond Dogs was an incredibly gritty story with no happy ending, and no lessons learned for the main character. It appears to be a moral lesson in greed and pride; how the characters who survive the novel seem to suffer a fate worse than death. It is of course well written, but does not contribute to the RS universe of which it is a part, except in setting up monsters to be taken down or used later (see Galactic North).
Turquoise Days made a brave attempt at exploring the Pattern Jugglers, a probable sentient species that is so alien that humans can't actually decide if it is sentient or not; it does a fantastic job of that exploration. The problem with this story is that ultimately they are contemplating the destruction of an entire world's worth of an intelligent species to prevent the reemergence of one man. It appears to me that the solution could be much more simple.
I cannot complain about the design and artful storytelling behind these two stories; Reynolds has not faltered there. But their content does not agree with me.
Turquoise Days made a brave attempt at exploring the Pattern Jugglers, a probable sentient species that is so alien that humans can't actually decide if it is sentient or not; it does a fantastic job of that exploration. The problem with this story is that ultimately they are contemplating the destruction of an entire world's worth of an intelligent species to prevent the reemergence of one man. It appears to me that the solution could be much more simple.
I cannot complain about the design and artful storytelling behind these two stories; Reynolds has not faltered there. But their content does not agree with me.
thedadsie's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
11corvus11's review against another edition
5.0
Turquois days felt almost more like cosmic horror than general sci-fi. Creepy in a good way.
bionicbeaver's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
hybridhavoc's review
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Both stories are quite good, and welcome additions to the Revelation Space universe. Between the two I personally preferred Diamond Dogs just because it was a fair bit darker in tone. It did a phenomenal job of building tension. A fair bit of body horror to it though.
The second story, Turquoise Days, has us spending some more time with the Pattern Jugglers. They are such an interesting element of this universe. I especially appreciated how real and complex the relationship between the sisters felt.
The second story, Turquoise Days, has us spending some more time with the Pattern Jugglers. They are such an interesting element of this universe. I especially appreciated how real and complex the relationship between the sisters felt.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Murder, Body horror, and Medical content
brian9teen's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
4.0
zare_i's review against another edition
4.0
Two very interesting novellas.
First one is for all means and purposes story of obsessive compulsive behavior. When two old friends, adventurers with quite a renown, encounter a series of deadly puzzles they just start obsessing over it. Nebulous prize awaits them, but losses suffered seem to indicate that prize might not be worth it.Or at least sane people would see this from the beginning. Story old as human race, quest for the Holy Grail, with assumed prize, wealth, glory, immortality - assumed...... what if the prize is one of the mentioned things but with the unexpected twist (like that knight from Indiana Jones story that is immortal but cannot move anywhere, so what is the point, living forever in cave alone)?
Story is very much inline with the cyber-bio-punk motives from Revelation Space series. Story is straight forward, with several twists and very very cinematic in presentation.
Second story (Turquoise Days) is more relaxed one, told from the perspective of one of the scientist on rather isolated human colony. Colony is known as a place where Pattern Jugglers, remainders of ancient civilization, cover and spread through entire seas and even grow so large that they come to surface and form atolls. Due to saturation of atmosphere and waters with the alien microorganisms local human colonists have very deep knowledge and experience of melding their minds with these entities that some suspect are nothing more than biological data storage. So when unexpected visitors pop up, with agenda of their own and parties within them start to release destructive alien pathogens our protagonist will find herself not only being chased by past but also witnessing rise of something strange, monstrous even, thing of legends, necessary repellent to outside attack. How one can come to terms with alien mindset that is so old, that for it human colonists are nothing more than passing entertainment?
Ending is little bit melancholic, poetic, but considering the state of affairs I do not see how it could end any other way.
All in all very interesting collection, two very different novellas, linked with possibly aeons between them, showing how universe is very very dark and ultimately unfriendly (or better yet in general not caring). Vast Terra Incognita that humanity can only learn about in small, ridiculously small steps lasting centuries.
Recommended to fans of SF adventure and mystery.
First one is for all means and purposes story of obsessive compulsive behavior. When two old friends, adventurers with quite a renown, encounter a series of deadly puzzles they just start obsessing over it. Nebulous prize awaits them, but losses suffered seem to indicate that prize might not be worth it.Or at least sane people would see this from the beginning. Story old as human race, quest for the Holy Grail, with assumed prize, wealth, glory, immortality - assumed...... what if the prize is one of the mentioned things but with the unexpected twist (like that knight from Indiana Jones story that is immortal but cannot move anywhere, so what is the point, living forever in cave alone)?
Story is very much inline with the cyber-bio-punk motives from Revelation Space series. Story is straight forward, with several twists and very very cinematic in presentation.
Second story (Turquoise Days) is more relaxed one, told from the perspective of one of the scientist on rather isolated human colony. Colony is known as a place where Pattern Jugglers, remainders of ancient civilization, cover and spread through entire seas and even grow so large that they come to surface and form atolls. Due to saturation of atmosphere and waters with the alien microorganisms local human colonists have very deep knowledge and experience of melding their minds with these entities that some suspect are nothing more than biological data storage. So when unexpected visitors pop up, with agenda of their own and parties within them start to release destructive alien pathogens our protagonist will find herself not only being chased by past but also witnessing rise of something strange, monstrous even, thing of legends, necessary repellent to outside attack. How one can come to terms with alien mindset that is so old, that for it human colonists are nothing more than passing entertainment?
Ending is little bit melancholic, poetic, but considering the state of affairs I do not see how it could end any other way.
All in all very interesting collection, two very different novellas, linked with possibly aeons between them, showing how universe is very very dark and ultimately unfriendly (or better yet in general not caring). Vast Terra Incognita that humanity can only learn about in small, ridiculously small steps lasting centuries.
Recommended to fans of SF adventure and mystery.