Alastair Reynolds.
Alastair Reynolds has been garnering praise for his three hard SF novels 'Revelation Space', 'Chasm City' and 'Redemption Ark'. I can vouch for the first two of these novels (the third as yet unread) and the shorter fiction he published prior to those novels. In 2002 PS Publishing brought out the novella 'Diamond Dogs' in their excellent series, and Golden Gryphon Press brought out the novella 'Turquoise Days', both set in this 'Redemption Space' setting. And stalwart UK SF publisher Gollancz have cunningly brought those two small-press stories together into one volume. Read on... I read Diamond Dogs last year, and you can read that review here. Turquoise Days is a slightly shorter story. One of Reynolds' techniques is to gradually unfold the background as the story develops, which he uses to good effect here. The first chapter sees sisters Naqi and Mina studying the enigmatic information-processing life form, the Pattern Jugglers, in an aquatic environment. The planetary setting is one which you hope Reynolds will return to, as it is genuinely inventive and original (the cataclysmatic ending need not be an obstacle, as Reynolds has handled this trick before). The planet Turquoise was settled by one colony ship, which was broken up to create a number of floating cities which move around the planet (from time to time marrying and divorcing). The fecund aquatic planet causes decay to inanimate objects, and fungal infections on the population (somewhat more attractive than athlete's foot). As news of the first visting spaceship for a century arrives, the sisters have the chance to commune with the Pattern Jugglers, and the pair submerge and become as one with the Jugglers. Only Naqi returns. Two years later, the spaceship arrives - an Ultra ship, led by Captain Moreau. The ship carries passengers interested in the Pattern Jugglers, and who take an interest in Naqi's work on isolating Juggler nodes. As with Reynolds stories, nothing is quite as it seems, and when one passenger appears to be intent on destroying the Jugglers, a more complicated history is revealed (including a passing reference to the tower from 'Diamond Dogs'.) A story which, as part of the wide Revelation Space series is particularly interesting, although as a singleton somewhat less powerful than Diamond Dogs. Still, nice to see two shorter stories being given high-street shelf space by a mainstream publisher, and the PS Publishing/Gollancz link, which has two annual collections of the PS Publishing chapbooks similarly presented, is to be welcomed.
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