Pushing Ice

Fenster

Its the latest Alastair Reynolds novel, I picked it up today as I'm going to save A Feast for Crows for christmas.

Great read so far, he's come along in leaps and bounds with dialogue, even since Century Rain. Exchanges that made you flinch as they were so wooden are hopefully a thing of his past. His tech is as spot on as always, including some very sly post-modern digs (nothing as crass as the whole Slashdot thing from Century Rain).

So far its kind of like The Abyss in space.

EDIT: So what I said makes some sense.

mcgovern

Fenster wrote:

The latest Alastair Reynolds novel, I picked it up today. Gonna save A Feast for Crows for christmas.

Great read so far, he's come along in leaps and bounds even since Century Rain and dialogue that will make you wince is fast becoming a thing of the past. His tech is as spot on as always.

This could be worth grabbing, sounds more like the stuff from him I like than his last one or two.
Let us know what you think when you are finished please.

ixoy

Well while I'm here - how good, or bad, is "Century Rain"? I've read the Inhibitor trilogy and enjoyed it bar the somewhat unfinished ending. I also liked "Chasm City" (haven't got to "Diamond Dogs, Turqoise Days" yet). It would be nice to see that the dialogue has taken an upturn though - no cringing in between the insane plot pieces..

Fenster

Very roughneck type stuff, nothing..bleh...

Good novel so far.

Fenster

About halfway now. There have been very big nods of the head to the Rama novels and to his other works, espcially the Conjoiners and Revelation Space.

Cy_Revenant

I haven't heard much about this one yet.
Is it set in the same universe as the Inhibitors trilogy, Chasm City and Diamond Dogs or is it in that seemingly different universe of Century Rain?

Or are they one and the same? I saw no similarities between them and a whole book full of differences.

Johnny Storm

ixoy wrote:

Well while I'm here - how good, or bad, is "Century Rain"? I've read the Inhibitor trilogy and enjoyed it bar the somewhat unfinished ending. I also liked "Chasm City" (haven't got to "Diamond Dogs, Turqoise Days" yet). It would be nice to see that the dialogue has taken an upturn though - no cringing in between the insane plot pieces..

IMHO Century Rain is readable but I wouldn't recommend it. It has some strange omissions and in general feels a bit random as opposed to satisfying.

Fenster

Its set in its own universe, although you'll probably feel right at home reading this.

Fenster

I completely forgot about this thread..

I finished the novel about a week ago. There's a pretty well done twist about halfway through that entirely changes the nature of the book. You think, from the prologue, that you have an idea of what the ending will be, but its entirely turned on its head with it.

The ending is kinda similar to his other novels in that it features a really, really large explosion, but it otherwise leaves things open for what will probably be a quite interesting sequel. As far as the characters and dialgoue go, on the whole, the characters are similar to those seen before - the book has its Volyova and Sylveste, but the dialogue is good.

AnCapaillMor

ixoy wrote:

I've read the Inhibitor trilogy and enjoyed it bar the somewhat unfinished ending.

Yeah WTF was up with the ending, it was the ultimate anticlimax for me. Got to read century rain myself, it's looking at me as i type. going to finish the praxis books before i start into it.

Ping Chow Chi

I really like Alastair Reynold's books and the Inhibitor trilogy were great read, but he really does struggle to finishes books off. And there where a few parts in the Inhibitor trilogy where he just missed out chunks of story. I remember the build up to them stealing a ship 'never been done before' 'will be very tricky' etc etc, then the book jumps 6 months time and they have the ship

That said - this will be the next on my read list

Cy_Revenant

Even with all the holes and half finished ending, I still loved the whole trilogy.

Fenster

Cy_Revenant wrote:

Even with all the holes and half finished ending, I still loved the whole trilogy.

It was four books

secret_squirrel

Johnny Storm wrote:

IMHO Century Rain is readable but I wouldn't recommend it. It has some strange omissions and in general feels a bit random as opposed to satisfying.

Exactly sums up how I felt about it. AS gets so close to writing a 5* sci fi novel then always seems to screw it up at the last minute - massive plot changes off camera (ship hijack in chasm city) Offing major characters at Random. Or half arsed endings. I so want love his books but he always screws it up slightly for me making what should be a 5* a 3.5-4* read.

Having said that Century Rain wasnt great. He has no feel for Noir.

fenster wrote:

It was four books

Chasm city is generally considered a companion book to the Inhibitors Books, set in the same universe but not the same series.