Alastair Reynolds's Blog, page 28

Diamond Dogs

Cast and crew of DD. Kneeling with the poster is John Henry Roberts, who played Richard Swift. Standing behind John is Steve Pickering, head adaptor. At the extreme left is Christopher Haimsworth, who played Roland Childe. Kneeling between the front and back rows is Abu Ansari, who played Captain Forqueray; just in front of Abu in red is Joey Steakley, who played Doctor Trintignant (spending the entire production in a mask). Katherine Keberlein, in white at the back, played Celestine, and jus...

Megatech - Technology in 2050

Due out at the end of March is this exceedingly handsome paperback from the Economist, full of smart and informed speculation about the state of the world in the coming mid-century, and also containing two original short stories. One - entitled Ma Ganga - is by the excellent Nancy Kress, and the other - entitled "Visiting Hours" - is by me. My piece takes a speculative look at advances in neuroprosthetic medical technology, springing off from developments already making the headlines.


The 242p...

Go back, Jack

In 1985 I left home to start my university studies in Newcastle, situated on the chilly, north eastern side of the United Kingdom: about as far from Wales as it's possible to get before you end up in Scotland. Even the Romans got as far as Newcastle before deciding that was about as far north as it was sensible to go.
 It had not been my plan to go that far up; my hopes had revolved around a degree in Sheffield or - when the former option started looking doubtful - Colchester, both of whi...

Diamond Dogs goes live, general service update etc

The stage version of Diamond Dogs, which I've mentioned on and off during its development phase, is now playing at the House Theatre of Chicago. The run - which has already begun - continues until the 5th of March.

The play is adapted from my original novella set in the Revelation Space universe, and deals with the psychological allure of a lethal but tantalising alien artefact floating just above the surface of the alien planet Golgotha. Drawn to this trap-cum-puzzle is a small but determined...

Remembering Piers Sellers

The British-born astronaut Piers Sellers died on December 23rd 2016, only fourteen months after his diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. Piers was a hugely respected figure within the scientific and astronautical communities, a veteran of three shuttle missions who rose to the directorship of NASA's Earth Science Division at the Goddard Space Flight Center. Knowing full well the likely term of his diagnosis, Piers nonetheless preferred to spend the last year of his life working with friends and co...

New Merlin story - "The Iron Tactician"

Appearing soon from Newcon Press is the first of the new stories I worked on earlier this year, and I'm very pleased to have it out in the world. "The Iron Tactician" is a 29,000 word novella featuring my recurring character Merlin. Somewhat drunk on his own glory, he's a far-future space traveller at a time of galactic war, on a lone quest to find a fabled super-weapon which may be the only thing that can end the aeons-long conflict. Although his heart's in the right place, Merlin is also va...

Coode Street Podcast

Over the weekend I recorded a Coode Street Podcast with the inestimable Jonathan Strahan and Gary Wolfe. Always great fun, and we touched on a lot of topics, including REVENGER.

Unfortunately laptop hassle meant I had to switch to a backup machine at short notice, and the sound quality on my voice isn't the best at times. Hopefully you can still get some sense out of my ramblings.

http://www.jonathanstrahan.com.au/wp/2016/09/10/episode-284-alastair-reynolds-revenger-and-the-far-far-future/

Thank...

Tour dates

My good friend Peter Hamilton and I both have new books coming out so we're doing some joint signing sessions through the UK. Unfortunately it wasn't possible for me to synch up with Peter for all the dates on his side of the tour, but we're showing up together for the following joint events :

Monday 26th September: Waterstones Birmingham, at noon.Waterstones Nottingham, talk and Q&A, 7pm.Tuesday 27th September: Waterstones Sheffield, (city centre) a signing at noon.Waterstones Leeds, talk...

Revenger word cloud

We're still a month out from publication of REVENGER, but early word is starting to creep in and I'm anxiously waiting to see what the world makes of it.

Goodreads has a slew of reader responses - hop over to:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28962452-revenger?from_search=true&search_version=service

and you can read these observations.

Amazon.co.uk also have some early reader reviews:

https://www.amazon.co.uk

Meanwhile, Starburst magazine carried the first print review that I'm aware of, whi...

Royal Society science books

Today sees the release of the shortlist for the Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book prize for 2016, for which I was one of the judges. The shortlisted titles are:
The Most Perfect Thing by Tim Birkhead (Bloomsbury)The Hunt for Vulcan by Thomas Levenson (Head of Zeus)Cure by Jo Marchant (Canongate)The Planet Remade by Oliver Morton (Granta)The Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee (Bodley Head)The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf (John Murray)
It was a pleasure - and a considerable challenge...