Revelation Space

[Entropy]

Chick - I remember you mentioned Alastair Reynolds in another thread, and I was wondering what you thought of this book? I think you said in your opinion he'd only had one miss in his career. I've read most of Peter Hamilton's stuff, and whilst I've found I've become pretty intolerant to sci-fi in general, he's been the best author in the genre. I used to love both science fiction and science fantasy, but seem to have fallen out of favour with them recently! Be good to know what you, or anyone else, thinks.

Cheers!

C

 

[Chick]

Rev space is amazing, though a little old. Reynolds' style is much slower than the "cheap thrills" provided by Hamilton or Asher but much more satisfying.

The only truly weak book he's written is Absolution gap, the 4th part (or 3rd depending on whether you count Chasm City) of the Revelation space series, absolution gap. It just doesn't quite hit the mark, though is still light years ahead of many genre authors.

Since it's probably �3 on Amazon i'd definitely buy it and tuck in. IF you find it a bit slow, move onto soem of his newer stuff (Century Rain, Pushing Ice, House of Suns, Terminal WOrld) though if you like immense space opera then it'll definitely tickle your bells.

Couple of q's:
What did you make of The Algebraist?
Do you like / have you read Anything by Richard Morgan or Neale Asher?

 

[Brutus]

I have nought but to echo Chicks thoughts here in that the man writes exceptional science fiction with solid groundings in physics and brilliantly realised characters and environments that truly are without comparison.

As stated cheap thrills and such are not found within, some truly amazing and wonderful settings, technologies realised from the mind of a respected scientist, histories and peoples, he brings to life every aspect of his world with glorious details, but without rushing it.

Of all his books *looks at shelf* I would have to say he hasn't really made a serious balls up at all, some are however better than others.

REVELATION SPACE (2000)
CHASM CITY (2001)
REDEMPTION ARK (2002)
ABSOLUTION GAP (2003)
THE PREFECT(2007) (I personally felt this was his weakest)

The first three are very very very good indeed. There are also a few other works of his abounding which are stand alone:

GALACTIC NORTH (circa 1999 apparantly)
CENTURY RAIN (2004)
PUSHING ICE (2005)
DIAMOND DOGS & TURQUOISE DAYS (?)

I have not read century rain but pushing ice was the first of his works I read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Diamond dogs...etc... is two seperate short stories of which Diamond dogs is very good indeed but I would give Turquoise days a miss as it simply was not up to par.

That said I mentioned this bugger a while ago and was directed to Asher and Hamilton by Chick, both of whom I have enjoyed, but never to the same level as Reynolds

My 2p

 

[Zeus]

cool, i'll have to get some of these then. i've got plenty to read atm, but my brother's spending far too much time on trains, and got through the reality dysfunction series in about 2 weeks :/

 

[Chick]

I liked the prefect a lot, i'd have put it as equal second best except for terminal worlds was released and blows all his work away!

House of Suns is amazing.

*giggle*

 

[Entropy]

Rev space is amazing, though a little old. Reynolds' style is much slower than the "cheap thrills" provided by Hamilton or Asher but much more satisfying.

The only truly weak book he's written is Absolution gap, the 4th part (or 3rd depending on whether you count Chasm City) of the Revelation space series, absolution gap. It just doesn't quite hit the mark, though is still light years ahead of many genre authors.

Since it's probably �3 on Amazon i'd definitely buy it and tuck in. IF you find it a bit slow, move onto soem of his newer stuff (Century Rain, Pushing Ice, House of Suns, Terminal WOrld) though if you like immense space opera then it'll definitely tickle your bells.

Couple of q's:
What did you make of The Algebraist?
Do you like / have you read Anything by Richard Morgan or Neale Asher?

Well on that advice from both of you, I'm giving it a go. On chapter 2 Mum bought it for me for Christmas, so haven't had any time lag getting into it.

Afraid I haven't read The Algebraist, or even heard of Morgan or Asher. For the last couple of years I've pretty much just read really mainstream bestsellers: A Thousand Splendid Suns, White Tiger, Half of a Yellow Sun, The Blind Assassin etc etc etc and a few older classics, e.g. Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mocking Bird etc.

Basically stuff I should have read years ago. It's made me a lot more critical even though I wouldn't go so far as to say the few books I've mentioned are necessarily all that well written. Really enjoyed Ender's Game as I mentioned in another thread, but think I'm going to leave it at that, as it does sound as if the series deteriorates.

 

[Entropy]

Cheers for the advice on this one guys - am reading it and enjoying it a lot! You were right re slow start, and the build up later on. About 250 pages in so far and will be buying the rest in the series