Zima Blue And Other Stories [Paperback]

Alastair Reynolds (Author), Paul J. McAuley (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 8, 2007

The stories in Zima Blue represent a more optimistic take on humanity's future, a view that says there may be wars, there may be catastrophes and cosmic errors, but something human will still survive.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This solid collection of 10 stories spanning the galaxies and the career of British SF author Reynolds (Pushing Ice) demonstrates that his pursuit of truth is not limited to wide-angle star smashing. Not that stars don't get pulverized when one character is gifted (or cursed) with an awful weapon by the legendary Merlin, who finds it after a 10,000-year search in "Merlin's Gun." Mainly, though, Reynolds's protagonists find themselves in situations of betrayal, whether by a loved one's accidental death, as in "Signal to Noise," or by a trusted wartime authority, as in "Spirey and the Queen." Reynolds may not always convince that intelligence leads to moral behavior, but his fertile imagination can resurrect Elton John on Mars in "Understanding Space and Time" or make prophets of the human condition out of pool-cleaning robots in the title story. (Dec.)
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.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Reynolds' collection constitutes excellent reading and confirmation of his reputation as one of the best writers of contemporary space opera. "Zima Blue" is about an artist who works in a color named for him and has progressed from small to star-sized installations; it concludes with the final piece of his career and reveals his mysterious past; the story's animating idea is the common-enough concept of a robot that has far surpassed its original role, but Reynolds takes it to greater lengths and handles it with especial style. "Beyond the Aquila Rift" is one of those stories about the hazards of interstellar travel, especially when using technology that isn't entirely reliable, and a particularly interesting example of the kind it is. One tale doesn't trade in the far future but instead revolves around a man whose wife has just died and his brief interaction with her doppelganger in a parallel universe; it is touching and sweet, ideally balancing technology and character development. "Spirey and the Queen" started as part of Reynolds' Revelation Space universe but became something quite different, involving an ancient war and strange machine intelligences. Reynolds does short stories with particular flair, and this collection contains some spectacular sf storytelling. Regina Schroeder
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: Night Shade Books (May 8, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1597800791
• ISBN-13: 978-1597800792
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #981,236 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

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent collection of short fiction, May 24, 2007

By 

Ethan Jennings (Washington, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Zima Blue and Other Stories (Hardcover)

Alastair Reynolds is one of the best authors of science fiction writing today, and Zima Blue, which collects ten short stories set outside his Revelation Space universe, is no exception.

The stories in this collection follow many themes recognizable from Reynolds's other works, including the effects of transhumanism on society and genocidal sentient machines. They are, however, often refreshingly original, always bringing a new perspective, even if it's something Reynolds has written about before. Many of the stories have the same epic scope as Reynolds's novels, but some are surprisingly personal and small-scale--especially "Signal to Noise," which was, I feel, the collection's best.

True to form, Reynolds includes a lot of real science in these stories, so be prepared to do some learning about astrophysics and quantum mechanics. On the other hand, unlike many authors in the genre who tend to infodump in order to show you how intelligent they are, the in-depth science in these stories is always integral to the plot, not just a window dressing that can be skipped. Thus the writing remains tight and is never dull. And Reynolds never expounds on technical details at the cost of characterization; under the science and the science fiction, these are very human stories, ultimately driven by the people in them.

Whether you're a returning fan or new to Reynolds's writing, I highly recommend Zima Blue. These ten stories don't fail to disappoint.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very enjoyable short-story collection from Reynolds, January 29, 2007

By 

Woofdog (Miami) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Zima Blue and Other Stories (Hardcover)

This collection of stories written over a number of years is a very enjoyable way to pass a few hours. Readers of Reynold's novel works will recognize a number of themes in some of the stories, including interstellar 'genocidal' efforts against humanity, the impact of relativity when travelling at speeds near c, his great ability to write really ALIEN aliens (maybe not so much as in Pushing Ice or the Shrouders and Pattern Jugglers from the Inhibitors series), machine intelligences extrapolated into sentience with their own motives, and a lot of hard-science astrophysics and quantum mechanics.

If you enjoy his other published works, this is definitely worth picking up.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars sweeping imagination of New Space Opera, November 12, 2006

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Zima Blue and Other Stories (Hardcover)

The short stories are a tribute to Reynolds' sweeping imagination. You can discern why he is considered one of the main proponents of New Space Opera. While not all the stories qualify on those grounds, several certainly do. He wrote the latter with enough scientific certitude to be plausible. We see a Grand Vision of an interstellar war between mankind and a terrible enemy, stretching over possibly centuries; both sides armed with devastating weapons, drawn from the most basic of physics.

The characters do tend to be less memorable than the plots. But this is a time honoured tradition in science fiction.