Alastair Reynolds's Blog, page 17

Weasel Park West

 A couple of sketches based on observations of weasels in our garden.

Random observation

 Assuming no change in human longevity, someone alive in the 23rd century will have a clear memory of meeting someone who lived through Covid-19.

Remembering Abbie Sweetwine

 Today marks the anniversary of the 1952 Harrow and Wealdstone accident, Britain's worst peacetime railway incident, resulting in the loss of 112 lives.

A remarkable side-story of that day, but one which deserves wider exposure, was the involvement in the rescue effort of Abbie Sweetwine, an African-American nurse stationed at a nearby USAF station. Sweetwine's interventions undoubtedly saved many lives, but beyond that she left a lasting legacy in the use of triage practises to assess the severi...

I've delivered a book

 I've submitted the manuscript for my next novel, the title of which is likely to be INHIBITOR PHASE. I've mentioned another title in the context of interviews, but this is the one that seems to be finding most favour with my publishers, and indeed is the one I initially offered as a placeholder name when the last contract was being drawn up. As may be apparent to those familiar with my work, the book takes place in the Revelation Space universe and is largely set in the years after ABSOLUTION G...

Some physics reading and two records

 A few weeks ago, looking to make some inroads into the shelves of unread books around our house, I picked up Faster than the Speed of Light by João Magueijo. Published around 2003, this is a non-fiction, popular science account of a family of theories called VSL. These are theoretical models in which the speed of light is allowed to vary, particularly in the early universe, and for reasons that help resolve some of the nagging puzzles in canonical Big Bang cosmology, such as the "horizon" and "...

Support the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity

My sister, who is an all-round cool person, is doing a marathon(in installments) for the Royal Marsden. Cancer has been hitting close to home for both of us in recent years, so it's a cause extremely dear to our hearts and one well worth supporting. No one should feel in the least bit pressured, but if you do feel like sending a pound or two in Tracy's direction, it would be greatly appreciated.

My sister has had an interesting career trajectory. After many years service in nursing, she retrained...

Essa Hansen Q&A and an interview

 Just a quick note that you can replay the online discussion with Essa Hansen by going to this link:

https://www.crowdcast.io/e/reynolds-hansen-aug2020

There were a few intermittent glitches with audio and sound but by and large I think it went well and we both enjoyed it.

I also wanted to mention an interview I did a couple of weeks ago with the Middletown public library's science fiction book club, kindly made possible by John Grayshaw.

You can either go directly to the group's Facebook page, and ...

Q&A with Essa Hansen

 Essa Hansen is a new writer with an exciting, imaginative debut novel, a weird and vividly-realised far future space opera entitled Nophek Gloss. I'll be in my kitchen in Wales in the gathering gloom of a late August evening, probably with rain lashing against the windows, while Essa will be somewhere considerably earlier and sunnier, in California.

We'll be talking about SF and taking your questions, so if you have a chance, please come along and join us at this Orbit-sponsored event, and I'm s...

Previously published titles returning to print in the US via Orbit

 For the last few years my publisher in the United States has been Orbit. As the arrangements with my previous publisher lapse, Orbit have been reacquiring the titles and making plans to bring them out with new covers (and in the case of one, the revised title that was applied to the UK edition a little while ago).

Here are some of the new versions:

In so far as possible, the remaining titles will follow a similar design. 

Orbit have done an excellent job guiding new readers into my works, with a p...

Reconvene panel on A.I.

All being well, I'll be taking part in a virtual panel as part of Reconvene, on saturday August 15th:

The twitter announcement for this event reads:
Has AI failed us or have we failed AI? Let's delve into the discussion w. Martha Wells (@marthawells1), Ted Chiang, Alastair Reynolds, Karl Schroeder (@KarlSchroeder) & R.W.W. Greene (@rwwgreene). #reconvenesff #scifi #AI
Which my brain can't help but read as "Has Al failed us?" And I'm thinking - well. c'mon, give me a chance, we haven't even had the ...