If you’re new, as I am, to Larry Niven’s Known Space world, you’ll find an astonishing amount of information online about this hugely influential series of novels and short stories. Ringworld (1970) was Niven’s first novel in the sequence. There are articles about all the characters, alien species, technologies and events of Known Space as […]
Excession by Iain M. Banks – A Culture Novel
Well, it’s a new year – and good wishes all around! After a mentally tired December when I wrote little, I relaxed while getting to know the work of Roger Zelazny – and re-reading Iain M. Banks’ Excession, the fifth of his Culture books. Some people suggest starting with other novels set in this universe […]
Redemption Ark by Alastair Reynolds – # SciFiMonth Review
It may seem strange to pick the middle book of a trilogy for my rereading of Revelation Space (now called the Inhibitor Trilogy). But Alastair Reynolds’ Redemption Ark is a magnificent novel that stands mostly on its own and goes in depth into the major Conjoiner characters and the threat to humanity posed by the […]
Galactic North by Alastair Reynolds
Galactic North by Alastair Reynolds is a key book of short stories for understanding many aspects of the Revelation Space universe. The novels and stories within that universe follow human settlement of many star systems over several centuries. In the course of this future history, humans adapt in many ways, especially through the use of […]
The Employees by Olga Ravn, Translated by Martin Aitken
The Employees by Olga Ravn, in a beautiful translation from the Danish by Martin Aitken, requires a suspension of expectations about science fiction but nevertheless delivers a devastating impact. As a collection of statements by the crew members of a spaceship, both human and humanoid, it has little narrative drive at first, though it does […]
Belladonna Nights and Other Stories by Alastair Reynolds
Belladonna Nights and Other Stories is a great way to get into Alastair Reynolds’ short fiction. Ever since reading the beautiful “Nightingale” in Galactic North, set in the Revelation Space universe, I’ve been alert to a theme of personal loss and grief caused by separation from a loved one or because of the imminence of […]
