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May 03, 2005

Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days - Alastair Reynolds


*** SPOILERS ***

Two short and unsatisfying science fiction stories.

Readers of the epic space opera begun in Revelation Space will be a bit disappointed by these two tales. Both take place in the same universe, though are not connected in any other way. In the first a very rich, old, devious man (hmm, haven't we seen a few too many of these already Mr Raynolds) has found what appears to be an alien artifact on a distant planet. He has some recorded evidence that other humans found it first. It is a building with a series of rooms, and in each room is a puzzle. If the puzzle is solved a door opens to the next room, if not, then the room kills or maims those inside. All the previous explorers are dead.

He gets together a team of the best people he knows, intelligent, cunning, surgically enhanced. He brings along a mad scientist who can replace limbs cut off, even organs damaged. For a very large amount of money they are going to see how far they can get.

That's about it. The story is interesting, the characters real, but the journey never really gets resolved.

The second story takes place on a Juggler panet. This is an aquatic world, populated by a semi intelligent organism called a Juggler. Humans have settled there to study the creatures, and have been isolated from the rest of humanity for about 100 years.

The lead character is a woman whose sister went to swim with the Jugglers and never came back - they have the ability to assimilate people into their collective consciousness. There is a hint of something evil in the water, which never gets resolved. Then a team visit the planet, ostensibly to study too. This causes great consternation and upheaval. They have only
been on planet for a short time when one of their number goes on the rampage killing both his own people and the locals, and then attempts to throw something into the water to kill the jugglers too. But he is stopped.

That's about it.

Both stories are well told, but Reynolds hasn't been fair with us with this brief volume. He builds up an intriguing premise, then leaves it open ended. I guess a lot of science fiction stories do that, but after the novels I was expecting more. I'm very glad I didn'tpay full price for it.

If you have never read any of his other books, that is actually quite a good place to start. The novels are very large and also dense, so if this taster doesn't interest you, it would be best to give them a miss. However if you quite like the stories, and want to know a bit more - Revelation Space is the place to start.

AE1

Posted by se71 at May 3, 2005 04:45 PM

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