Alastair Reynolds at Tangled Web UK

Page Updated: 28/01/2008

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Alastair Reynolds - Page 2

Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days

Redemption Ark

Chasm City

Revelation Space

Paperback - Gollancz (2003)

First British Edition Gollancz (2003)

Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days
Just when you thought it was safe to go back into interstellar space . . .
In his best-selling novels Revelation Space, Chasm City and Redemption Ark, Reynolds portrays a dark, noirish universe of five centuries hence, where warring human factions are stalked by even more vicious extraterrestrial predators, where the wilder fringes of human culture are at least as strange as the real aliens.
But it isn’t all doom and gloom: there will always be those who are up for a challenge - people like Richard Swift, the listless adventurer of the novella Diamond Dogs. When an old friend offers Swift the chance to help him explore Blood Spire, an enigmatic structure surrounded by the bones of those who have already tried, Swift can’t say no. But if he wishes to understand it, he must pay Blood Spire’s toll, which is greater than Swift could ever have imagined, and more cruel than death.
And there will also be heroes: those prepared to stand up for an idea, heroes like Naqi, the young researcher in Turquoise Days. Seeking to forget her complicity in her sister’s accidental death, Naqi has dedicated her life to the study of the alien Pattern jugglers, the amorphous, aquatic organisms with the capacity to preserve and reshape human memory. When newcomers arrive around her world, she hopes that she will at last be able to escape her past - but the past has other ideas . . .
‘An authentic novelist, at the forefront of British SF’ infinityplus.co.uk
‘Reynolds has proved not only his considerable talent, but also his willingness to experiment with new ideas and styles of writing, a sure demonstration of his place at the top of contemporary SF’ Enigma Magazine
‘The most exciting space opera writer working today’ Locus
Praise for Revelation Space:
`He fills the book with a sense of wonder . . . quite possibly the space opera of 2000’ Locus
`The span here is mind-boggling . . . a breathtaking journey’ Good Book Guide
`Hard SF on an epic scale, crammed with technological marvels and immensities. A sparkling SF debut’ David Langford, Amazon.co.uk
Praise for Chasm City:
`The best thing Reynolds has done . . . in the end, it is a joy’ John Clute, scifi.com
`He is taking the stuff of space opera and making it into something new’ Locus
`A superb hard SF thriller by one of Britain’s hottest young authors’ SFrevu.com
Praise for Redemption Ark:
`As dark and daring as anything penned by lain M. Banks or Peter F. Hamilton. Fabulous’ SFX
`This is a work of sustained hard SF genius’ Starburst
`A turbulent, wildly entertaining ride . . . Alastair Reynolds occupies the same frenzied imaginative space as Philip K. Dick or A. E. Van Vogt’ Guardian

First British Edition Gollancz (2002)

Paperback - Gollancz (2003)

Redemption Ark
The Inhibitors have returned. Don't make any long-term plans.
Time: the early twenty-seventh century.
Fifty years ago, human intervention triggered an ancient alien system designed to warn of the emergence of intelligence in this sector of the galaxy. For aeons the Inhibitors have waited.
Now the response is on its way . . .
Once, Clavain defected to fight on the side of the Conjoiners, a feared and persecuted human splinter faction dedicated to hive-mind consciousness. Four hundred years later, in the terminal stages of a brutal interplanetary war, something has struck terror into the Conjoiner Inner Sanctum. As the nature of the new threat becomes clear, Clavain begins to wonder if it isn’t time to defect again.
Homing in on a Iong lost cache of doomsday weapons - which might just make a difference - Clavain and a misfit band of allies race towards Resurgarn, an archaeological colony fallen on hard times. Clavain intends to recover the weapons for the good of humanity. Skade, an embittered rival Conjoiner, has her own agenda, and she will distort reality itself to get her way.
But Clavain has more to worry about than Skade.
Someone else already controls the lost weapons. Triumvir Volyova -designated a war criminal after her actions in Revelation Space - has very definite plans of her own.
And the weapons themselves are not exactly lacking in free will…
‘It’s Reynolds’ way with his cosmos-spanning concepts that does the trick’ Good Book Guide
‘Alastair Reynolds is a name to watch. He supplies hard-science answers that are plausible, entertaining and clever’ Guardian
'A turbulent, wildly entertaining ride… Alastair Reynolds occupies the same frenzied imaginative space as Philip K Dick or A E Van Vogt: that he occupies it as a working scientist is what makes it so exciting' M. John Harrison in the Guardian
`As dark and daring as anything penned by Iain M. Banks or Peter F. Hamilton. Fabulous’ SFX
‘This is a work of sustained hard SF genius’ Starburst
‘He is taking the stuff of space opera and making it into something new ... the most exciting space opera writer working today’ Locus

British Pbk Original - Gollancz (2002)

Chasm City
Tanner Mirabel was a security specialist who never made a mistake . . . until the day a woman in his care was blown away during an attack by a vengeful young postmortal named Argent Reivich.
Tanner’s pursuit of Reivich takes him away from his homeworld, across light-years of space, to the Epsilon Eridani system. There he descends into Chasm City, the domed human settlement on the otherwise inhospitable planet Yellowstone. But Chasm City isn’t what it used to be: the one-time high-tech Utopia has become a dark, Gothic nightmare, victim of a nanotechnological virus which has corrupted the city’s inhabitants as thoroughly as it has the buildings. Now the city is a place of steam-driven machines, shadowy factions and deadly new games.
And before the chase is done, Tanner will have to confront disturbing truths, not only about his own past, but about Chasm City itself: truths which reach back centuries, towards deep space and an atrocity history barely remembers.
Come to Chasm City, and embark on a mind-bending ride through Alastair Reynolds’ wild universe . . .
‘Alastair Reynolds is a name to watch. Mixing shades of Banks and Gibson with gigatons of originality.’ Guardian
‘As Reynolds’s beleaguered hero makes his shadowy way through steam-powered machines and inimical factions, the reader finds a perfect synthesis of character-driven story with mind-boggling alien societies.’ Barry Forshaw, Starlog
‘For a new author, Reynolds has embarked on a daring and ultimately rewarding direction for his second novel . . . with Chasm City Reynolds has proved not only his considerable talent but also his willingness to experiment with new ideas and styles of writing, a sure demonstration of his place at the top of contemporary SF.’ Michael Rowley, Waterstones
‘The pace never lets up in Chasm City . . . Reynolds sends the excitement quotient off the scale in every chapter. Long after finishing the book I marvel at the author’s inventiveness and skill. Throughout this artfully plotted work, Reynolds continually conjures up exotic new characters, hidden places and tense situations. There are startling revelations, parallel story arcs and many examples of breathtaking description and deep insight.’ sfrevu.com
‘Chasm City is unified, evolving precisely and craftily to a strange moving climax. Reynolds was a promising SF writer before; now he is an authentic novelist, at the forefront of British SF . . . Reynolds has skill in full and definite measure; and that skill’s maturation is proving rapid. Watch out for his next one . . .’ infinityplus.co.uk

First British Edition Gollancz (2000)

Paperback - Gollancz (2007)

Revelation Space
Revelation Space is set to break the barriers established by previous SF novels and become the book everyone is talking about. This is a massive genre-breaking work, shaped by Alastair Reynolds's professional experience as an astro-physicist for the European Space Agency:

'I am confronted day-in and day-out with the sheer size of the cosmos. I wanted Revelation Space to have a sense that the size of the universe was not something to be skirted around, but which was an unavoidable fact of life that would actually shape the plot… I was also concerned to think about the plausibility of having any kind of intelligent aliens. The old Fermi paradox asks: if they're out there, why aren't they here? After all, the universe is apparently very old, and it would only take a fraction of our galaxy's age for a single culture to colonise every single solar system.

Brimming with vast ideas, Revelation Space, sets a whole new standard of SF writing, with sentient oceans, intelligent neutron stars and a plot that uses the immensity of space. But most importantly it embarks on a mission to answer the biggest question of all: if there are aliens out there then why do they not contact us?
Revelation Space: a quest for the secrets of the universe. Step into Infinity and join the ride of the century.
Nine hundred thousand years ago, something wiped out the Amarantin. Maybe it was pure bad luck that their star chose to flare just when they were on the verge of discovering space flight… or maybe luck had nothing to do with it.
For the human colonists now settling the Amarantin homeworld Resurgam, it's of little more than academic interest, even after the discovery of a long-hidden, almost perfect Amarantin city and a colossal statue of a winged Amarantin.
For brilliant but ruthless scientist Dan Sylveste, it's more than merely intellectual curiosity - and he will stop at nothing to get at the truth. Even if it costs him everything.
The Amarantin were wiped out for a reason. And danger is closer and greater than even Sylveste imagines… Revelation Space is a huge, magnificent space opera that ranges across vast gulfs of time and space… towards the most terrifying of destinations.
‘A terrific treat. I was hooked from page one. Billion-year-gone alien wars, killer intelligences - and perhaps the most stunning and original alien artefact in modern science fiction - and all rendered with the authentic voice of a working scientist. Ferociously intelligent and imbued with a chilling logic - it may really be like this Out There’ Stephen Baxter
'Intensely compelling; darkly intelligent; hugely ambitious' Paul J. McAuley
`...A top-notch pot-boiler with some astrophysics thrown in. Hell, it works.’ Maxim
`Dense with information and incident, this longish novel has no surplus fat and almost seems too short. A sparkling SF debut.’ David Langford, Amazon.co.uk
`This novel’s plot delivery is awesome, cramming subplot upon subplot and developing each in detail... it will definitely be a genre benchmark.’ The Sydney Morning Herald
‘Alastair Reynolds is a name to watch... plausible, entertaining and clever’ The Guardian
`Word of mouth is not always a reliable guide to most challenging and arresting entries in the genre, but when that word of mouth builds up the head of steam that Reynolds’ massive SF epic has created, attention needs to be paid... few will regret getting on board for this breathtaking journey.’ Barry Forshaw, Good Book Guide
‘Revelation Space is the genuine thing: a space opera with good tunes.’ John Clute
`This may be an easy genre to mock but it’s hard to write convincingly yet Reynolds has done just that creating a universe full of surprises and wonder that he plans to return to in his next book. Highly recommended.’ Manchester Metro
`Revelation Space is an impressive first novel, and quite possibly the space opera of 2000. Watch for it at awards time.’ Locus