Galactic North (Gollancz S.F. S.) [Paperback]

Alastair Reynolds (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 8, 2007 | Series: Gollancz S.F. S.

Gathered here for the first time are Alastair Reynolds' stories and novelettes set in the universe of REVELATION SPACE, his first bestselling blockbuster. GALACTIC NORTH will include several brand-new stories and novelettes written specially for this collection.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A very worth while collection, with hints of what may be coming in future novels. Dark, vicious science fiction." STARBURST "The UK's pre-eminent hard- sci-fi author of the past decade. Let's hope Reynolds has plenty more mind space to explore." EDGE "The stories are written with real energy. Dark, satirical and frequently dystopian. This is gothic SF with gore as Reynolds ensures his taut narratives grip from the first sentence." -- Jonathan Wright SFX "Dark, gothic and graphic, with tightly composed narratives full of shocks and jaw-dropping moments. Atmosphere and economically-drafted characters are as important as the big ideas." -- Dave Golder BBC FOCUS --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Alastair Reynolds was born in Barry, South Wales. He has a Ph.D. in astronomy and since 1991 he has lived in the Netherlands, near Leiden, where he works part-time as an astrophysicist for the European Space Agency.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Gollancz; paperback / softback edition (November 8, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0575079843
• ISBN-13: 978-0575079847
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,082,397 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

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Future in Smaller Doses, April 27, 2008

By 

Arthur W. Jordin (Smyrna, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Galactic North (Hardcover)

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

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Short stories set in the Revelation Space universe, June 7, 2007

By 

Woofdog (Miami) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Galactic North (Hardcover)

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!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Something of a Revelation, June 26, 2010

By 

sft (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Galactic North (Paperback)

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.