![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Review, 20070101 - Galactic North, by Alastair Reynolds
Blogger's note: It is with a measure of personal irony, that one of my most literate lj friends recently posted a screed in which he decried a tendency among some bloggers who seem to believe that reading a certain number of books is a mark of some kind of achievement. Not that I have set any such goal for myself, but at the same time Colin has announced that he will review fewer books, I had decided that, this year, I will try to say at least something about every book I do read this year.
Will I prove to have much to say about them? Time alone will tell.
Well, there's "space opera" and there's space opera. The former, at its best, is Stars Wars written with at least some consideration of internal consistency, if not with the laws of physics. The latter, on the other hand, can go toe-to-toe with the best non-genre popular fiction and Alastair Reynolds, a relative new-comer to the field, is a heavy-weight, writing with a sure hand novels and stories of epic scope, well-drawn characters and a healthy dose of scientific verisimilitude.
Reynolds' latest is a collection of stories set in his "Revelation Space" future history, one spanning tens of thousands of years.
The stories in this volume are printed chronologically - not as written, but in terms of when they are set. The first takes place a couple of centuries in the future, the last ends around the year 40,000. However, unlike too many SF story collections, Galactic North makes no pretense to being a novel (and yet, I can think of some "novels" that hold together as a single narrative less than this collection of stories does).
Reynolds' future is one of spectacular and sometimes disturbing change, yet his characters - even those barely recognizable as human - still manage to be people in whom the reader can believe, even on those occasions when they are repellent.
From war and treachery on Mars, to genetically-engineered humans living 100 kilometres below the ice of Saturn's moon, Europa, to the far reaches of insterstellar space, Reynolds' book kept me turning the pages with pleasure and anticipation.
If you enjoy adventure that makes you think, if you take pleasure in comtemplating the complexities - good and bad - the future might hold, Galactic North seems to be an excellent introduction to Reynolds' universe.
Interestingly, Reynolds seems to stick pretty scrupulously to what is currently known to be at least scientifically plausible (if not necessarily likely). Though there are star-farers galore in his universe, there is no faster-than-light travel or miraculous gateways in time, no god from the machine.
Along with other recent writers of high-end space opera like Stephen Baxter (another Brit), one is tempted to suggest that Science Fiction risks entering a second "golden age".
no subject
What Dat?
Re: What Dat?
tends a lot more towards humor or snark than deep thoughts, though the community profile says it's for both.
Re: What Dat?
no subject
Stands Alone
no subject
For me setting a reading goal and accomplishing it does mean something to me. When you have limited time, career, kids and other aspirations, making time for something you love does have to be scheduled and milestoned.
If he wants to be a literary snob, that's his choice. Personally I don't pass judgement on anyone that wants to pick up and reads book regardless of their motive. So what if they want to plow through X number of books to be able to boast about being an avid reader even if they don't grasp half of what they read. As long as they buy some of those books first hand there's a few more entertainment dollars that found their way to some publishers and writers somewhere in the world.
Sorry if I sound like I am replying to his post in your journal. I guess in a way I am. It wasn't my intention.
Getting back to your review, I've seen some of Alistair Renyolds works around, but can't say as I have read him. I'll keep him in mind. Have you read any of Karl Schroeder's work? Not all of his work is exactly Space Opera, but his Permenance was rather enjoyable. And I have high hopes for his Space Pirate novel Son of Suns which he said he had immense fun writing and blowing stuff up after the very intellectually dense Lady of Mazes which I have, but have not read.
Judgements Galore
If one's motive is only to hit a certain number, or to read particular books simply in order to say that one has read them. What I suspect (without having asked him) really set him off is the tendency of some to either "review" a book by quoting a synopsis from Amazon or something, then tagging that with 2 or 3 sentences that amounts to, "I liked it" or the opposite.
Or worse, those who simply list books they bought, which simply baffles me.
"[M]aking time for something you love" is, I think, something very different.
I did read Son of Suns when it was serialized in Analog a while back, but though I finished it I found it frustrating. More than anything else, I think the high-tech/low-tech background simply didn't convince me. Nor, come to think of it, did the semi-feudal political order.
Post-Scriptum re Karl Schroeder
You might, just possibly, be able to find Analog at the Black Cat magazine store downtown (Durham Street?). If not, they might order it for you.
no subject
If so, bring it on. :)
Pohl!
no subject
BSG! BSG!
no subject
"Everyone"?
no subject
no subject
That said, there's certainly nothing wrong with posting about what you read, assuming you're not simply chasing a quota. In fact, that's welcome.