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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
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.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
First Novella Okay, Second Novella Better, June 30, 2007
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.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
One great story, one disappointing, February 19, 2007
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!
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