Alastair Reynolds's Blog, page 37

Visitor

Unusual visitor to the garden yesterday. Not the first time we've had one but the last was a few years ago and only just avoided being gobbled up by a fox.

Nuthatch chicks

The nuthatch chicks are now a week old. There were five to begin with, but now we're down to two, although the final pair do seem to be doing quite well. They look quite a bit larger now.

Harvest of Time - first review

SFX are in with the first review of Harvest of Time, and they seem to like it:

"Reynolds nails both the family horror tone of the series and the characterisation of the regulars. The Doctor is all warmth and gentle pomposity, while the Master is charming, detached and amusingly ruthless. At one point he hypnotises a man into committing suicide – but lets him finish his cup of tea first. The secondary characters are also a well-drawn bunch: sympathetic, believable and often doomed."

Full review:...

Nuthatch eggs

Title says it all really. There are at least six eggs in this nestbox. If all goes to plan they should start hatching somewhere around May 14th.

Excession Man

It took me a little while to get what Iain M Banks was up to. I had been only distantly aware of his books before the publication of his first SF title, Consider Phlebas, in 1987. On the strength of an interview in Interzone, and a short story set in the same universe, I bought the hardcover of Phlebas when it came out. No small thing, that, since I was still an undergraduate student and hardcover purchases were not something to be taken lightly. However, Phlebas seemed likely to be the kind...

Redpolls

The continued cold weather may be sapping our spirits but there's always the possible consolation of unusual winter visitors to the garden. This morning we had fifteen redpolls in, drawn by niger seeds spilled onto the ground by the messy-eating goldfinches. My wife noticed that there was a collection of ground feeding birds that were something out of the ordinary, so we reached for the binoculars and camera. Redpolls are enchanting little birds, beautifully coloured, and this is certainly th...

Harvest of Time update

PDF proofs of Harvest of Time have arrived, meaning that the book is now all but nailed down. UK publication is June, so only a few months away. Here's the back cover copy, to give you a hint of the story:

After billions of years of imprisonment, the vicious Sild have broken out of confinement. From a ruined world at the end of time, they make preparations to conquer the past, with the ultimate goal of rewriting history. But to achieve their aims they will need to enslave an intellect greater...

A Map of Mercury

I've written a story entitled "A Map of Mercury", which will appear in Pandemonium: The Lowest Heaven, an original anthology of stories to be published in June in partnership with the Royal Observatory Greenwich and related to celestial bodies in the solar system. You can read a bit more about the book here:

http://www.pandemonium-fiction.com/lowest-heaven.html

And here is the table of contents:

Introduction by Dr. Marek Kukula (Royal Observatory Greenwich) "Golden Apple" by Sophia McDougall (Th...

Three Vignettes

These three unpublished vignettes - flashbacks in the life of the character Quillon - were written for my novel Terminal World but omitted in final edits as they did not fit neatly into the structure of the book, as well as adding 8000 words to what was already a bulky text. Nonetheless, I've always been quite fond of them and hope they are of some interest to those who have read the novel. Feel free to pick up on any typos or errors in the comments - they have not been proofed,...<![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>

Dracula

Dracula - coloured pencil and wax crayon, March 1st 2013 - after a photo of Christopher Lee.