The main trilogy forming the Revelation Space universe (Revelation Space, Redemption Ark and Absolution Gap) are Alastair Reynolds’ fictional answer to the Fermi Paradox: if, as predicted, the emergence of intelligent life in the universe is very likely, then why are we unable to find any evidence of the existence of these alien civilisations? E.T. read more?»
Chasm City, Alastair Reynold’s stand alone “Revelation Space” novel, is a tense, interstellar roller coaster.
Tanner Mirabel is a man with a mission: the assassination of Argent Reivich, the aristocrat responsible for the murder of both Tanner’s boss, the arms dealer Cauhella, and his boss’ innocent wife. Obsessively, Tanner follows Reivich across light-years of empty space, from the planet Sky’s Edge orbiting 61 Cygni to Yellowstone, in the Epsilon Eridani system. What once was the greatest, most technologically advanced city in settled space, Yellowstone’s Chasm City is, by the time our villain and antihero arrive, reduced to a sickly impoverished shadow of its former glory. The Melding Plague, an alien nano-machine based disease, has corrupted the advanced technology of the city’s buildings and the inhabitants’ implants alike. Up, up, and away!»
In which my steam-powered opener opens a can of worms and I disagree with nearly the entire steampunk-loving world.
Set in a late 19th century America where, due to increased advances of technology, the civil war is still raging, Boneshaker paints a contrasting steampunk world removed from the Victorian frills of other novels in the same genre. Dirigibles away! »
You know the joke about the lawyers and the sharks? Well, after reading Your Inner Fish, you will have to modify the punch line to “we are all sharks”. Swim to the rest of the review»
True! American intellectual culture is even more depleted than the elusive, Iraqi uranium stockpiles that apparently have been depleted into non-existence. Susan Jacoby makes that point come across clearly and quite eloquently. Filled with interesting details and plenty of harsh criticism, Jacoby has written an interesting tome on, among other things, why Americans are so obsessed with folksy people (George W. Bush, anyone?), and why so many Americans fear “intellectual elitists” (Obama, anyone?). Continue reading this post»