Customer Reviews

Galactic North

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Galactic North (2006) is a collection of SF stories set in the Revelation Space universe. It contains eight stories and an Afterword by the author.

Great Wall of Mars is a Conjoiner story about Nevil Clavain and Galiana in the home nest. Glacial relates another Clavain and Galiana tale about a failed outsystem colony. A Spy in Europa recounts a Demarchist tale about an enemy agent who gives his all. Weather describes the rescue of a Conjoiner from a pirate ship and how she returns the favor.

Dilation Sleep tells of a refugee from Yellowstone who operates on a crewmember with the Melding Plague. Grafenwalder's Bestiary features a collector of rare beasts in the Yellowstone Rust Belt. Nightingale is about a mission to retrieve a Sky Edge war criminal from a lost hospital ship. Galactic North takes a ramliner captain on a millennia long pursuit of a pirate ship.

These stories convey various short subjects within the RS milieu. It covers all the several technological/political groups found within the novels, but develops their characteristics in greater detail. Since the novels are packed with strange technologies and politics, this collection makes a great introduction to the longer works. Enjoy!

Highly recommended for Reynolds fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of lightspeed ships, exotic technology and outsystem colonies.

-Arthur W. Jordin

This review may contain spoilers.

This book presupposes some familiarity with the Revelation Space series, as some stories lose a lot of their meaning or significance if you don't understand persons or events referred to. Others depend much less on any familiarity with RS.

Along with the recent publication of The Prefect, Alistair Reynolds has begun publishing in the RS universe again. Stories here include background stories on Nevil Clavain, Felka, and Galiana, stories set in the Sol System, a story set on Yellowstone post-plague, one on Sky'e Edge, and a somewhat bizarre story which finally gives more than a name to Greenfly, (which was tossed into the very end of Absolution Gap with no explanation whatsoever, one of several defects in that title,) though the temporal telescoping in the last story reminds me more of something Poul Anderson might have written.

I wonder if Reynolds himself had decided on the origin of greenfly when Absolution Gap was published; the 4-page epilogue which substituted for actual resolution of that book gives few if any clues...

This is an enjoyable collection, well worth getting!

Galactic North is redolent of some of the best space opera from the 50s and 60s. Reynolds's nicely-honed baroque pulp fiction is brimming with inventiveness and is grandiose in scope. He creates convincing worlds that you will want to explore and technologies that are truly ingenious. His writing style is evocative while remaining clear and controlled. My two reservations are that his characters are rather clichéd and the denouements are sometimes disappointing. The bottom line, however, is that this is an entertaining and well-written book. I shall be reading more. And that says something, as space opera is a genre I'm not normally partial to.

Although Reynolds is best know for his detailed, long and literate space operas, I found this collection of related tales quite satisfying. Think of a series of vignettes stringing into the future with occasional references to the past and that's the nature of this book. Each tale is a complete story in itself although knowing a little background is helpful.

Many of the stories are simply mysteries to be solved; others highlight a new direction for mankind or choices we will one day be forced to make. All of them draw the reader into the action and the characters until, at the end, a sort of surrealistic haze covers the landscape. He has gone beyond words and yet there they are, describing almost unimaginable creatures and events. Yet, after all is said and done, after all the smart matter, new intelligences, nanotech, discovery of the inner secrets of the universe, it is still the human relationship that excites and drives and makes us want to read more.

My Grade: A

"Galactic North" is a collection of stories taken from Reynolds's Revelation Space milieu. As a whole, this is a highly entertaining collection. And none of the stories are especially clunky.

Some of the stories feature familiar characters while others expand on familiar places. In some cases, you can see events referred to in the longer works and the story could have started as a writing exercise or maybe something excised from one of the novels. This adds a real dimension if you've read the works, but it never detracts if you've not dealt with (say) Ultras, Spiders, or hamadryads before.

Reynolds has given us some interesting characters before and he's got some nice ideas, setups, and general atmosphere. I like his novels, but here, in shorter blocks, he seems more focused and less prone to some of the letdown you get when you've invest 700 pages only to have the resolution seem somehow less epic than it could be. Instead, with the shorter form, he focuses on delivering more conventional plots and thus characters like Nevil Clavain are given the room to breathe. Nice.

A pretty good collection of short stories and novellas taking place in Revelation Space, which includes Chasm City, Yellowstone, the Glitter Band (and Rust Belt), the Melding Plague, the Inhibitors (only mentioned), and all the factions of humans in the future history. Altogether it's a satisfying inclusion to the Revelation Space series. However, I think his stories in Zima Blue were of better quality overall. The eight stories include:

Great Wall of Mars - 4/5: Taking place in Revelation Space when humankind was still inside its' own solar system. The Conjoiners have a Mars base and who are at differences with the Demarchists. Explore the budding relationship between the two human sects and even the relationship between the to-be-famous Conjoiner Galiana and Demarchist Nevil Clavain. Its antiquity is an interest. 51 pages

Glacial - 3/5: In the immediate post-Great Wall of Mars time, Galiana and Clavain descend upon a mysterious frigid planet which already has an American scientific base. The question as to how they got there and why they got there is not satisfyingly answered. But how the one survivor lived while the rest of the crew died proved to be mediocre. 51 pages

A Spy in Europa - 5/5: After the moon of Europa is colonized with underwater cities, word of a Demarchist hyperdiamond shard sparks a back-stabbing spy mission which may put power into the hands of the Gilgamesh Isis. Extreme surgery, rumors of shark/human hybrids and bloodshed follows. 23 pages

Weather - 5/5: In the Yellowstone colonization era, an Ultra reefersleeper craft is pursued by a pirate ship which is left ruined. In the wreck, the Ultra crew plunder the pirate ship and discover a out-of-place Conjoiner woman, who is despised by the Ultra captain. Can the solo Conjoiner survive, appease relations and even serve the ship? 57 page

Dilation Sleeper - 4/5: Takes place during the post-Melding Plague era. A reefersleeper in deep space is woken early to perform surgery on fellow sleeper with the Melding Plague. Reconstruct on his former wife on Yellowstone guides him through his awaking. 16 pages

Grafenwalder's Bestiary - 4/5: A Xenozoological collector in Rust Belt above Yellowstone competes for fame with a new unknown collector after both receiving a rare specimen from Sky's Edge. Each successive oddity must be outdone to draw prestige. 48 pages

Nightingale - 4/5: Three veterans from Sky's Edge's Southland Militia and Northern Coalition are gathered to capture a Colonel Jax, rumored via the Ultras to be hidden away in a wartime hospital ghost ship. With his capture they hope to crucify him, but even finding him in the floating derelict seems hopeless. It's a tad predictable, but maintains nice theme of space horror. 73 pages

Galactic North- 3/5: A multi-millennial plot where a reefersleeper ramliner is boarded by pirates who steal 200 sleepers. The ramliner captain seeks here long revenge and retrieval of the sleepers across the galactic north plane. I reread the story but I still don't know what a greenfly is and how it did what it did. 41 pages

Alastair Reynolds has written a great exemplar of what a short story collection should be. Arranged chronologically from the structure of his universe, included are a mystery, a horror story or two, and a very odd romance. All the stories stand on their own except the final epic; this is really a culmination of all the prior material, and a capstone using his themes of betrayal and forgiveness.

His main themes may be described as the evil of cruelty and the evil of war; one, the other, or both, are present in each story, making the collection a bit sad. Even if this were the only book known to the reader set in this universe (as it was for this reviewer), the reader would get the feeling that he or she has a true grasp of the whole. This is especially noteworthy as the stories were written out of order over a span of at least twenty years.

This is truly a remarkable collection.

Reynolds is one of my favorite newer authors. His books are big in scope and complex, as are his characters,and his prose flows well. I have never had to back up and re-read something I didn't understand. The revelation Space universe is a masterpiece. I like this book because it is a short story collection set in that universe. You get Reynolds at his best, in smaller doses.(I agree with Mr.Jordon!) This is important because once I start one of his books I cannot put it down.

When it comes to believable Space Opera, Alastair Reynolds cannot be beat!

"Galactic North" is a collection of short fiction set in the author's Revelation Space milieu. Each tale stays within the "hard" science fiction conventions, yet each has a moral point to make.

"Great Wall of Mars" features an old friend, Clavain, whose mission to the Conjoiners quickly goes awry. We learn how he first became allies with Galiana. It raises some provocative ethical issues. ****

In "Glacial," we meet up with Clavain again sometime later, as he helps Galiana solve a murder mystery on a frozen world. Fast paced and logical. ****

"A Spy in Europa" is interesting especially for the author's envisioning of what conditions might be like on this most puzzling of Jupiter's moons, which might just be able to sustain life as we almost know it." ***

"Weather" is absolutely first rate. A conjoiner rescued from pirates by Ultras overcomes the prejudice of the Ultra captain with the aide of his shipmaster. *****

"Dilation Sleep" is a well-written little trifle that gives us a few details about the melding plague. And not much more. ***

"Grafenwalder's Bestiary" the author puts his tongue in his cheek ever so slightly in this semi-comedy about the hazards of collecting. *****

"Nightingale" riffs on a basic sci-fi plot element: the retrieval team arriving at the site of a mysterious space ship where they suspect a bad guy lurks.*****

"Galactic North" is a slight (and illogical) pursuit tale that feels like a stunt. Cordwainer Smith could bring stuff like this off; Mr. Reynolds doesn't quite. Anyway it spans 40,000 years and the entire galaxy.***

The author's afterword is a must read. Don't skip it thinking it's merely acknowledgments.

I generally tend to dislike short story collections. I often find them too unconnected and uneven to hold my attention. This, however, isn't a major problem with this book. They are all good to very good with the possible exception of the very last one.

The Revelation Space mythos is one of the more believable sci-fi settings in my estimation. The space travel, body modification, and cybernetic enhancements are mind-expanding while still retaining a core of believability.

All of these stories are set within that universe. Those unfamiliar with Reynolds' work should probably stay away from this since they draw much from the previous work--although a good portion can be enjoyed with no prior knowledge. "Glacial," "A Spy in Europa," Grafenwalder's Bestiary," and "Nightingale" were the highlights for me. They are stories that deal with the themes of consciousness, genetic modification, exploitation and revenge, and the horrors of war, respectfully.

Reynolds even touches on the horror genre with stories like "Nightingale." It was very well done.