this post was submitted on 13 Nov 2023
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I've been listening through my Alastair Reynolds audiobook collection since early October. Started with the Revelation Space trilogy and the other books in that universe, then Pushing Ice, Terminal World, and Century Rain. Forgot I had Glactic North on audio, so I'm halfway through that. Next up is a personal favorite: House of Suns.
All of them are read by the same narrator, so my internal monologue is now largely in the voice of John Lee.
Probably reading through the Revenger series next (they weren't on-sale when I bought the first collection on Audible).
That sounds interesting, listening the books of an author by one narrator.
So, how do you like Alastair Reynolds work?
I am a big fan of hard sci-fi, and he does an excellent job of it without letting it cramp the story or limit the scope of human space colonization (those limits help make the story rather than constrain it). Plus, he has a whole series that's basically space pirates (Revenger) so hard to go wrong with that haha.
Most of the stories are set 100 to 300 years after Star Trek takes place, but FTL travel is non-existent here. Things like inertial dampeners that are basically handwave plot devices in Trek are a huge deal in his stories (i.e. very experimental, of alien origin, and absolutely horrifying when they malfunction or are pushed beyond their "safe" limits).
Reynolds used to work for the European Space Agency, and he absolutely brings that to his stories and shows his work. One of the big (pun intended) areas he excels at is keeping the scale correct when parts of the story take place in-transit between various star systems.
Some critics complain he doesn't end his stories very well, but I've only had issues with a couple (mostly because it seems like they were set up for a sequel that never came about).
Interesting. Thanks for the detailed response.
He is already on my wishlist, but this makes me even more interested in reading his work.