House of Reviews

Hey,

So, I regretfully finished House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds. A book that's been out in the UK for ages, but which still isn't available over here yet. Because I've heard nothing but good things about this book, I broke down and ordered it.

This novel is separate from the universe described in Revelation Space, Chasm City and the like. The book is also self-contained so full marks for that. And in general it's just a really fantastic book with lots of neat ideas.

The basic thrust is that Abigail Gentain made 1000 clones of herself (with some cosmetic variations), downloaded her memories into each one of them and put them in stasis on fast ships to make long relativistic journeys around the universe. Every so often, the clones would all reunite to share stories and swap memories.

That was about six million years ago. Now two of the clones, Campion and Purslane are running late to their grand reunion. They expect to get scolded for their tardiness and instead find that the Gentian Line has been ambushed by unknown assailants possessing terrifying weapons.

That's really about all I want to say. I don't want to spoil it much. There's are lots of mysteries and secrets to unravel and there are giant ships and AI and mind-boggling time frame references and super-engineering and all that kind of good stuff. It was really a fun book to read and I had to try and slow down a bit so as not to devour the whole thing all at once. The only downside is that I wish there had been more interaction with the other clones from the Gentian Line. It had a sort of Amber feel to it which would've been fun to tease out a bit more.

According to Amazon, the hardcover version will be coming out in June. I highly recommend this one for all my sci-fi loving friends.

later
Tom

House of Reviews

Hey,

So, I regretfully finished House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds. A book that's been out in the UK for ages, but which still isn't available over here yet. Because I've heard nothing but good things about this book, I broke down and ordered it.

This novel is separate from the universe described in Revelation Space, Chasm City and the like. The book is also self-contained so full marks for that. And in general it's just a really fantastic book with lots of neat ideas.

The basic thrust is that Abigail Gentain made 1000 clones of herself (with some cosmetic variations), downloaded her memories into each one of them and put them in stasis on fast ships to make long relativistic journeys around the universe. Every so often, the clones would all reunite to share stories and swap memories.

That was about six million years ago. Now two of the clones, Campion and Purslane are running late to their grand reunion. They expect to get scolded for their tardiness and instead find that the Gentian Line has been ambushed by unknown assailants possessing terrifying weapons.

That's really about all I want to say. I don't want to spoil it much. There's are lots of mysteries and secrets to unravel and there are giant ships and AI and mind-boggling time frame references and super-engineering and all that kind of good stuff. It was really a fun book to read and I had to try and slow down a bit so as not to devour the whole thing all at once. The only downside is that I wish there had been more interaction with the other clones from the Gentian Line. It had a sort of Amber feel to it which would've been fun to tease out a bit more.

According to Amazon, the hardcover version will be coming out in June. I highly recommend this one for all my sci-fi loving friends.

later
Tom