To The Last Page

A return to the Revelation Space universe is always good news for Alastair Reynolds fans. It's a rich universe that always has potential, not least in the existence of the terrifying entities called the Inhibitors, also known as wolves. As pretty much invincible AI technology whose only purpose is to eradicate the human race from every corner of the universe where they can find it, this is almost guarantees a thrilling adventure in every encounter. In Inhibitor Phase , it's more of an undercurrent of threat than an encounter, with humanity now down to a few remote outposts, trying to keep themselves hidden, fearful of what might happen should the wolves be alerted to their presence. That's the case for the small outpost of five thousand souls on Sun Hollow, who since they have no contact with anyone else, might as well be - and could even be - the last remnant of humanity in the universe. So when a ship approaches and risks alerting the wolves, they have no option to destro...

The short story format isn’t where Alastair Reynolds can be seen at his best. The stories in the Galactic North collection all feel like minor episodes in his Revelation Space universe, lacking the complexity and scope of his novels. Only the title story Galactic North attempts to cover the epic scope of eons and history, but it suffers from compression into the short story format. Moreover, since there is a necessity for them to be read standalone, most of the stories tend to fall back on recognisable plotlines with sci-fi horror twists and shock endings that show their influences much more obviously than the authors extended works. (An interesting postscript by the author is quite open and forthcoming about this). On the positive side, the stories are all very readable, showing the variation that Reynolds is capable of, and his strengths with characterisation and exciting, dynamic plots. Anyone familiar with Reynolds’ work will recognise many of those characters and situations from...