Diamond Dogs [Hardcover]

Alastair Reynolds (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 31, 2001

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into interstellar space ...Alastair Reynolds burst onto the SF scene with the Arthur C. Clarke Award-shortlisted REVELATION SPACE, British Science Fiction Award-winning CHASM CITY, and REDEMPTION ARK. Now experience the phenomenal imagination and breathtaking vision of 'The most exciting space opera writer working today' (Locus) in these two tales of high adventure set in the same universe as his novels. The title story, 'Diamond Dogs', tells of a group of mercenaries trying to unravel the mystery of a particularly inhospitable alien tower on a distant world; 'Turquoise Days' is about Naqi, who has devoted her life to studying the alien Pattern Jugglers.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Astronomer Reynolds's two far-future space exploration novellas, set in his Revelation Space universe (Chasm City, etc.), confirm his mastery of noir SF. Antihero Richard Swift of "Diamond Dogs" joins Mephistophelian Roland Childe's expedition to scale the Blood Spire on the planet Golgotha. As they climb, they must solve increasingly intricate mathematical puzzles, replacing limbs and mental processes with cybernetic constructs as the Spire changes the rules of its lethal game. Naqi Okpik of "Turquoise Days" loses her sister Mina to the sentient ocean of the planet Turquoise. Naqi abandons her humanity, uniting with the ocean to find Mina and save their world from destruction. Spire and ocean are both artifacts of Revelation Space's alien Pattern Jugglers, who form a living gestaltinterstellar entity that in these brilliantly executed parables represents the vehicle for humanity's choice between self-immolation and evolution and the author's postulated solution to the riddle of Faustian man. Reynolds's allegory: if humans embrace science and technology so fervently that body and soul sacrifice themselves to overweening greed, humans will eventually perish in bitter suicide; instead, abandon selfish individuality, immerse the soul in the warm sea of homecoming where minds meet and meld into oneness, and survive, changed forever.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Fans of Reynolds’s brand of noirish sci-fi will find enjoyment here.”—The Kansas City Star

“Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days highlights the strength and flexibility of Alastair Reynolds’s writing.”—SciFi Dimensions

--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 118 pages
• Publisher: PS Publishing; Limited/Numbered edition (August 31, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1902880277
• ISBN-13: 978-1902880273
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,262,106 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Alastair Reynolds was born in Wales in 1966. He has a Ph.D. in astronomy. From 1991 until 2007, he lived in The Netherlands, where he was employed by The European Space Agency as an astrophysicist. He is now a full-time writer.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Indiana Jones, "Cube", and Reynolds' particular seasonings, February 23, 2003

By 

J. Capaldo (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Diamond Dogs (Paperback)

Mercenaries travel to an isolated world to unravel the secrets of a deadly, living, alien tower.

I'll recommend this only for those who loved Revelation Space and/or Chasm City, as it works as a slightly off-key counterpoint to those two larger, better, wonderful novels.

At 111 pages, this short story can easily be read in a sitting, which makes it seem almost a trifle. Adding to that feeling, it also seems not quite as polished as Revelation Space or Chasm City.

Take the old "Indiana Jones" spirit of a quest to find something of unimaginable importance, throw in the premise of the indie flick "Cube" (in which several characters travel from room to room in a massive building, facing one deadly obstacle after the next), add in Reynolds' rather unique style of building a tale from his Revelation universe, and you've got an hour or two of fast, fun reading while you wait for his next, Redemption Ark (available for quite awhile in the UK, but not yet in the States 'till June).

The UK version of this comes w/ a 2nd short story called Turquoise Days, offering a nice tale w/ more information about the Pattern Jugglers. I'd actually recommend getting _that_ version...since T.D. is a better story than D.D.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars First Novella Okay, Second Novella Better, June 30, 2007

By 

J. Avellanet "author of Get to Market Now!" (Williamsburg, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days (Revelation Space) (Mass Market Paperback)

The first novella in the book, "Diamond Dogs," has some very interesting secondary characters and an intriguing setting, but overall, there is not enough to sustain interest - depending on if you like mathematical, geometrical puzzles that you cannot see (i.e. there are no drawings or pictures accompanying the text), you may find yourself skimming paragraphs and pages.

The second novella, "Turquoise Days," is significantly better and I certainly thought the setting and the characters may have been one of Mr. Reynolds original storylines in his novels, but might have been edited out in favor of another. As such, the characters are more developed, the story much more engaging, and the pacing well done.

If you are an Alastair Reynolds fan, get this book; if you are new to his writing, I'd skip this in favor of PUSHING ICE.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One great story, one disappointing, February 19, 2007

By 

Mark5576 "mark5576" (Framingham, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days (Hardcover)

Four stars is the average of what the two novellas deserve separately. "Diamond Dogs" is a tightly written science-fictional horror story with a film-noir atmosphere, a fast-paced human drama, and a gripping ending. All I could say at end was "Wow!" (a creeped out and shivering "wow"). Five stars.

"Turquoise Days" rates three stars at best, maybe even two. It feels very unfinished, more an outline of a novel than a complete story, and is not really consistent with the rest of Inhibitors Universe (in which it supposedly takes place). The characters are uninteresting and the plot falls flat -- to me, anyway.

I have one complaint about "Diamond Dogs" novella which I am surprised no one brought up yet. The series "1,3,5,7" is NOT prime numbers! Even if by some tortured alien logic "1" is a prime, there is no way to exclude "2" and claim the result is prime numbers sequence. Yet all the characters agree that's what the sequence is, and that next number should be "11". Ordinarily I would ignore it as a minor blooper, but mathematics plays a major role in "Diamond Dogs" which makes it jarring. Especially considering it is written by an astrophysicist who ought to know what prime numbers are!