I am in the middle of reading "Zima Blue", a collection of sort stories, and it is AWESOME. In part it is because Reynolds refuses to refute Einstein -- there is no FTL in his stories and characters take decades or centuries to get from place to place. This leads to stories which are utterly sweeping in scope, for by the time human race or its distant descendants pervade the Galaxy, it takes tens of thousands of years for anything significant to have its full effect. Add time dilation, cold sleep and rejuvenation technology, and you get stories like "Merlin's Gun" where protagonist goes to sleep for three thousand years (she has little choice in the matter) and wakes up to meet a man who had been lost in the mists of legend by the time she was born. Cultures which rose and fell and rose again, and look with mystical awe at millenia-old artifacts they do not understand, even though they themselves are far above our current real-world technology. Wars that span the entire galaxy and tens of millenia, with each side having only a dim suspicion that its enemies arose from the same Old Earth it did.

If any SF writer can make your head spin, Reynolds is it.

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Thanks for the recommendation, I'll have to check that out.

Any other Reynolds books to recommend, other than Zima Blue? I can only think of a few novels I've read where interstellar colonization/wars occur even without FTL travel.

His entire "Revelation Space" timeline (none of "Zima Blue" stories are in it). The novels, in chronological order are:

Diamond Dogs/Turquoise Days - 2460-2515
Chasm City - 2480-2517, with flashbacks to around 2300
Revelation Space - three separate plotlines starting 2524, 2540 and 2551; all come together in 2566
Redemption Ark - 2605-2653
Absolution Gap - 2615-2727, with a glimpse of 3100 or so

I think Chasm City should be read first. Other books make a lot of references that make little or no sense if you had not read Chasm City. BTW, one of the main characters of Revelation Space is introduced on the last page of Chasm City, although her name is not given and you do not find out for certain it is her until early in Redemption Ark.

The Prefect, Reynold's newest book, takes place around 2450. I had not read it yet.

"Galactic North" is collection of stories set in the same universe:

Great Wall of Mars - about 2205
Glacial - about 2220
A Spy in Europa - about 2300
Weather - about 2400
Dilation Sleep - could be anywhere from 2300-2500
Grafenwalder's Bestiary - about 2520
Nightingale - somewhere between 2500-2550
Galactic North - begins about 2300, spans next 40,000 years

Great Wall of Mars, Glacial, and Galactic North provide minor background points for Redemption Ark; Chasm City provides major background for Grafenwalder's Bestiary and Nightingale.

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Besides "Zima Blue", the only non-Revelation Space book by Reynolds I read is "Pushing Ice". It is good, but not great; it also takes place (or rather, begins ) in much nearer future than most of his stories.

Smiley because emphasis is on "begins". Just how far in the future it ends is almost too scary to contemplate.

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Alastair Reynolds is my favourite SF author, for all the reasons above. He simply wins.

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Greg Benford tried that in his six-novel "Galactic Center" series, but did not pull it off quite as well. First two GC books, "Into the Ocean of Night" and "Across the Sea of Suns", take place in solar system and within a dozen light-years or so. Subsequent four books all take place within a few light-years of Galactic Center -- and 35,000 years pass between second and third. Not surprisingly, because that's how long it takes to get from vicinity of Earth to galactic core. What Benford lacks is sheer sweeping scale of human continuity across galactic distances -- it's more like a travelling tribe than a spreading one. Also, "Into the Ocean of Night" was written in 1970's and did not age well.

BTW, Benford was my favorite SF writer before Reynolds, and Reynolds credits Benford (also Larry Niven) with inspiration for his major themes.

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Minor quibble - unless I am mistaken, it is "In the Ocean of Night", not "Into".

I have read quite a few of Reynolds' shorter works, including Galactic North, Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days, and a rather good short story not set in the Rev Space series. Once I have finished my teaching course I will read Rev Space and Chasm City, which sound interesting.

You are right
What do you teach?

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At the moment, mainly Skills For Life Numeracy, which is everyday maths - things like, how to calculate the three kinds of average, how to deal with measures, convert fractions to percentages to decimals and so on. Mainly to adults who are by no means unintelligent but who had a bad experience with maths when they were at school. I also teach 16-19 year olds how to use computers in a professional manner. I have one student who is fascinated by astronomy, so I lent him some magazines and told him about a telescope salesman who lives very near him - recommended to me by no less than Sir Patrick Moore!

Frankly, I think that Revelation Space is the better-written of the two. Though I like the noir feel of Chasm City. No spoilers here, but I think Chasm City is a little more distant from the mainline plot of the series.

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I read Revelation Space first, and found it a rather difficult book. It has a lot of details which simply do not mean anything if you had not read Chasm City. None of them are very important to the plot, but you certainly lose out without them, and they cause frustration because you are trying to figure out things which simply can not be figured out from this book alone.

When I re-read Revelation Space after reading the rest of the series, I was amazed just how many details went over my head -- and were promptly forgotten, -- the first time. So yes, while Chasm City is somewhat off to the side from the main plot, I still think it must be read first. It provides the most background, and requires least.

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Fiction has to be plausible. Reality is under no such constraint.

I don't think you need to read Chasm City first - heck, it wasn't even written first. It's nice to have the backstory, but you can do fine starting with Rev Space in media res. I'd read them in chronological order now, but I didn't have the option when I started the series (only Rev Space had been written), and I seemed to get through it just fine. And in any case, Rev is still better-written.

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Quaeso quousque humi defixa tua mens erit? Nonne aspicis, quae in templa veneris?

Hey guys, I picked up Chasm City per Ilya's recommendation - enjoying it so far! It's good enough that I'm planning on reading the remaining 'Revelation Space' books after finishing Chasm City. Thanks for the recommendation!!

Question: Should I read Diamond Dogs next or Revalation Space?

Hate to disagree, but I'd say the opposite - Chasm City was definitely my favourite of the Revelation Space universe. The main three (Revelation Space, Redemption Ark and Absolution Gap) all had small niggling problems in my eyes (jarring characterisation in the first two; in the third the very end chapter (might be an epilogue) seemed superfluous given the great "ending" that preceded it). They are all very good though - I do recommend them. Also be sure to check out his one-off Century Rain, which together with Chasm City are his best books IMHO; and Pushing Ice, which has been criticised as unoriginal but I enjoyed it for that very reason (it is almost a sequel to the late great Clarke's Rama; I liked Pushing Ice in inverse proportion to how much I enjoyed the official sequels).

Calling Pushing Ice a "sequel" to Rama is... well... pushing it But tribute to Rama, certainly.

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"Almost" was probably a not a strong enough disclaimer . But I was thinking of this review: http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/nonfic...6.htm#reynolds . But I did enjoy it.

Should I read Diamond Dogs after finishing Chasm City, or go right into Revalation Space?

I don't think it matters. Depends if you want to read a long or short book next . But do make sure you read Diamond Dogs before reading the short stories in Galactic North (it helps explain a character in one of them).

Thanks!

I read (and thoroughly enjoyed) Diamond Dogs whereas I have not yet read Rev Space. (I started it but was sidetracked; I'm looking forward to getting back to it.)