Terminal World [Hardcover]

Alastair Reynolds (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 2010

Spearpoint, the last human city, is an atmosphere-piercing spire of vast size. Clinging to its skin are the zones, a series of semi-autonomous city-states, each of which enjoys a different - and rigidly enforced - level of technology. Horsetown is pre-industrial; in Neon Heights they have television and electric trains ...Following an infiltration mission that went tragically wrong, Quillon has been living incognito, working as a pathologist in the district morgue. But when a near-dead angel drops onto his dissecting table, Quillon's world is wrenched apart one more time, for the angel is a winged posthuman from Spearpoint's Celestial Levels - and with the dying body comes bad news. If Quillon is to save his life, he must leave his home and journey into the cold and hostile lands beyond Spearpoint's base, starting an exile that will take him further than he could ever imagine. But there is far more at stake than just Quillon's own survival, for the limiting technologies of the zones are determined not by governments or police, but by the very nature of reality - and reality itself is showing worrying signs of instability ...

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[A] wildly imaginative genre stretcher. {Reynolds] tells his tale with such verve that you just keep turning the pages." -- Nevill Hawcock FINANCIAL TIMES "A rousing adventure in a widly original setting." -- Eric Brown THE GUARDIAN "This is sci-fi as an intellectual balancing act. We're offered airborne battles and plenty of action too. It's almost the most convincing steampunk novel you'll ever read." -- Jonathan Wright SFX "There are flashes of the energy that drives the big sequences in the Revelation Space trilogy." -- Maureen Kincaid Speller INTERZONE

About the Author

Alastair Reynolds was born in Barry, South Wales, in 1966. He studied at Newcastle and St Andrews Universities and has a PhD in astronomy. He lived in the Netherlands whilst working as an astrophysicist for the European Space Agency, but is now a full-time writer living in Wales.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 496 pages
• Publisher: Gollancz (March 15, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0575077182
• ISBN-13: 978-0575077188
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.6 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (61 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,968,052 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

69 of 77 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars not up to par with Reynold's usual work, June 19, 2010

By 

wheeeeee - See all my reviews

This review is from: Terminal World (Hardcover)

Alastair Reynolds is a novelist that I feel I can buy without considering a review of his work, or even reading the back of the novel. I've read everything he's written to date, and he is a very good author. The only weak work out there I'd finger is Diamond Dogs / Turquoise Days which always struck me as writing that was unsaleable before he hit it big, and was published when they asked him if he had anything else kicking around...

Unfortunately a lot of authors seem to go through this cycle: write junk, get rejected, write something better, get rejected, write something good, get rejected, write something very very good and get it published. They write out their good ideas, with polished novels using skills they learned in breaking through.

Then there is either greed, or laziness, or both. Older ideas get pulled out and dusted off, these will now sell based on strength of name.

This novel I feel falls into this category. It's not terrible, but it is nowhere nearly as interesting as the complicated plotlines and interwoven stories of his other works. This reads as teen science fiction. It doesn't even really have a plot, and what little is there, never resolves itself.

The action scenes are not very interesting, the main character is dull and I can't even really tell you what he is about. Is he a man of action? Not really. A moral man? I guess maybe a bit. He tells you more about things he has done in the past than actually does anything of interest in this novel. So do most characters.

Reynolds breaks out some cliches that should have made editors groan and reject this novel when submitted... Character A mentions some mysterious legend in passing, Character B says whoa please tell me more about this mysterious legend. Character A says: YOU DON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT IT. Or, EVERYONE KNOWS THAT IS A MYTH. Or, NOBODY HAS EVER GONE THERE AND COME BACK ALIVE.

This happens over and over again in this novel. Right away, as a reader, I groan... guess we're getting a visit from the mysterious people, or visiting the mysterious location shortly. Seriously, it's worse than George Lucas writing. "I've got a bad feeling about this." Yes indeed.

I could even have forgiven some of this if the story actually resolved. The main character is left hanging. Not that we really care about him. The people he is supposed to help, left hanging. The entire main plot thread is left hanging.

If this is intended as the beginning of a series, I will be very disappointed if it is followed up. It's an uninteresting novel, and a letdown from a very good novelist. Read it only if you are a Reynolds completist, but even so if you are drawn to sophisticated work like Banks and Wolfe and like the Reynolds work that approaches those novelists then you will find this work rather than pleasure.

63 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Steampunk since Difference Engine, April 19, 2010

By 

Raz S.K. - See all my reviews

This review is from: Terminal World (Hardcover)

I have read and own every one of Reynolds' books to date and a large helping of his short stories where I could find reprints. With this book, I was initially hoping for another hard, technical, super-detailed, jaw-dropping "Wow" journey of cosmic imagination; a masterwork of hard science fiction like nobody but Reynolds can write. As I got further into the book (don't worry, no plot spoilers here) at first I became mildly disappointed, because I could tell there wasn't going to be any crazy space battles, lightspeed barrier shattering, or any insane astrophysics hyper-concepts.

However, I realized quickly that Reynolds had chosen instead to write in what some people would call a "Steampunk" style...and that it was working...really well. As I kept reading it grew on me more and more, until I was just as attached to the main character as I was with any of his other novels (which is saying a lot). Century Rain did the same thing; it was a stylistic departure from what we have come to expect from Reynolds - the best hard sci fi there is (See Revelation Space trilogy for transenlightenment).

Having personally struggled with writing myself for a number of years, I can say it's really hard to come up with concepts that work and don't come off as cheesy, and it's even harder to jump your normal ship and swim with the sharks of a different genre than you normally write. Reynolds deserves applause for swimming with the sharks and stomping them all in the face, because this is one killer book - even without the spaceships and Conjoiners. I have read some reviews that say the plot was basic, and I've come across other reviewers saying Reynolds does nothing for character development (which I disagree with). This is one book that smashes that flat on the nose - by the time you get to the end of Terminal World, you'll be sad that there aren't any more books (yet) about the Doctor's adventures after this one. And given that this author made a name for himself redefining hard sci fi, it's a brave move to suddenly throw the gears and come out with something as different as this book.

So, to everyone who knocked this book, I have some gentle words.....go try to write your own five hundred page book, and see how you do. It's easy to criticize but far harder to create.

Hats off to Reynolds for giving us another great book!

30 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars New Reynolds delivers everything but the Plot, April 1, 2010

By 

Jussi Hermunen (Helsinki, Finland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Terminal World (Hardcover)

As an avid SF-fan and owner of all the previous Reynold's novels I was excited to pick up Terminal World. The set is tempting, the world detailed enough and author's writing strong enough to have all the ingredients for a thrilling story. Unfortunately the plot falls a bit short on its expectations, the story being somewhat familiar to those who've read Banks and Stross. In the middle of nowhere the lead character stumbles upon someone meant for greatness, and becomes slowly aware of this as their journey together progresses. More strange things happen, but they endure. In the end most open questions get answered and reader's curiosity satisfied.

This sort of story can be told in many ways, but in this case it lacks the thrill of Reynold's previous novels. I'm still going to continue reading his works, but this was the first to disappoint somewhat.