Alastair Reynolds's Blog, page 32

Asimov's - March 2015

I anticipated that I might struggle to keep up with these Asimov's reviews, and so it has proved, but nonetheless I do hope to keep doing them throughout the year, even if the lag between issue and review stretches ever further.



In these puppy-benighted times, it's good to return to Asimov's and be reminded that there have been, and continue to be, generations of SF writers quietly content to write the best SF they can, year after year, with no particular complaint or sense of outrage that "th...

Space is Ace

While I crack on with the March issue of Asimovs, here's a brief mention of the fantastic new album by Public Service Broadcasting:


PSB are a pseudonymous duo based in London who play mostly instrumental music, assembling their pieces around historical voice samples, sound effects and so on. The Race for Space is their second album and in broad terms tells the story between Sputnik and Apollo 17, drawing heavily on NASA and British Film Institute archival material. All well and good; the music...

In Babelsberg

My short story "In Babelsberg", which originally appeared in Jonathan Strahan's anthology Reach for Infinity, is one of the finalists in the Locus awards. I'm enormously happy to have made the shortlist, and I wish the best of luck to all the nominees.


Here's a link to the complete set of finalists:

http://www.locusmag.com/News/2015/05/2015-locus-awards-finalists/

The story behind Poseidon's Children

Here's a link to a short piece I wrote on the genesis of the whole Poseidon's Children sequence.

http://upcoming4.me/book-news/the-story-behind-poseidons-children-by-alastair-reynolds

Forbidden Planet, Poseidon's Wake, Slow Bullets

With a new book due out at the end of the month, I ought to mention that I'll be signing Poseidon's Wake at Forbidden Planet, London, on the evening of April 30th.

https://forbiddenplanet.com/events/2015/04/30/alastair-reynolds-singing-poseidons-wake/

Different people have different "rules" regarding signings. Generally the shop would like you to buy at least a new copy of the book, but I'm very happy to sign older editions if people bring them along. For the sake of the people waiting in line,...

On the present Hugo mess and why I still want one.

The current unpleasant thing happening in the SF world - there's always something - is the hijacking of the Hugo award nominations slate by a group of vested interests with leanings to the extreme right. Neo-fascists isn't too strong a term. They're racist, homophobic and intolerant of anyone who doesn't subscribe to their ultra-conservative religious beliefs. I won't even begin to unpack the grisly complexities behind this, the Sad Puppies versus the Rabid Puppies, but if you're coming to th...

Bad Science - 7th April

If you're in the area tomorrow, why not pop along to the Edinburgh Science Festival? In company with Doctor Stephen Brusatte, I'll be talking about the science - good and bad - in Michael Crichton's novel Jurassic Park.

Event info and tickets:

http://www.sciencefestival.co.uk/event-details/Bad-Science-Books-Jurassic-Park?utm_source=Scottish+Book+Trust+eUpdates&utm_campaign=d166dfec4b-Reading_e_update_April_20154_2_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_4566345a8c-d166dfec4b-56802729

Reviews for "A Murmuration"

I don't usually bother posting reviews of my short fiction, if they exist at all, but I'm delighted with a couple of responses to "A Murmuration". Over on the Locus website, Lois Tilton says

"It can get tedious sometimes, going through story after barely-distinguishable story, largely registering a resounding “meh” on the wunder scale. Then, finally, comes a piece that makes it worthwhile, that sends a galvanic tingle through my story receptors and makes me sit up straight in front of the scre...

It's out!

Today's post brought two handsome copies of Interzone 257, which contains my new story for the magazine. See earlier post for a short excerpt from the story.


It's always a pleasure to be back in Interzone. Not only was the magazine instrumental in getting my career off the ground, by publishing my first stories and helping foster the professional contacts that eventually led to a novel deal, it had an immeasurable impact on the state of British science fiction. Interzone launched many new wri...

Station Eleven

Christopher Priest has already given a far more eloquent appraisal of this novel than I am capable of - read his review here - but I cannot resist adding my own response. What a phenomenal book: beautiful, complex, haunting, humane, surprising at every turn, and so marvellously constructed that you hardly dare breathe. Like the best science fiction (I am not sure quite what I would call this book) it makes us see the world through fresh eyes, with a luminous new clarity.

The end of air travel...