Galactic North | |||||||
Alastair Reynolds | |||||||
Gollancz, 392 pages | |||||||
|
A review by Greg L. Johnson
It may sound a bit grim and gloomy, but one of Reynolds's gifts as a writer is to take these characters and make
them sympathetic, often by putting them through such hardships that you eventually can't help but feel for them, even
after knowing the things that they themselves have done. The stories collected in Galactic North, some of them
written and published before Revelation Space, show us even more about the future Reynolds has envisioned, and
often give us details of characters lives and events that are alluded to in the novels. At the same time, they prove
that Reynolds' writing can be just as dark and intense at shorter lengths as it is in novels
like Chasm City and Absolution Gap.
Take, for example "Great Wall of Mars," which fills us in on the early history of Galiana, Nevil Clavain, and the
Cojoiners. Or "Weather," a story of life onboard a starship as an Ultra, the cyborg-like humans who have adapted themselves
to the rigors of life in space. Both these stories help to make the characters and the life they represent a little less
mysterious and a little more understandable. At the same time, they work well on their own as stories of turmoil, desperation,
and the struggle of people to understand each other and themselves.
In an afterword to Galactic North, Alastair Reynolds professes his love for future histories, those vast,
sprawling creations that often cover thousands of years or more worth of history and are comprised of many stories set
against a common background. His own work, the Inhibitor novels and the stories contained
in Galactic North fit right into this tradition, and help to establish Reynolds' own future history as a
creation equal to any of those of the past. In particular, he singles out Larry Niven's Known Space series
as an influence, and that influence is readily apparent in the title story, which recalls Niven's own "The Ethics of
Madness" in its depiction of a chase leading through immense reaches of space and time. Reynolds puts his own twist
on the situation, one that confirms his place as a writer who is both working within a tradition, and who has
created his own special place in it.
Reviewer Greg L Johnson admits to being captivated by a universe inhabited by Cojoiners, Ultras, Demarchists and hyper-pigs. His reviews also appear in the The New York Review of Science Fiction. And, for something different, Greg blogs about news and politics relating to outdoors issues and the environment at Thinking Outside. |
If you find any errors, typos or other stuff worth mentioning,
please send it to editor@sfsite.com.
Copyright © 1996-2014 SF Site All Rights Reserved Worldwide