Product Description

Reynolds' pursuit of truth is not limited to wide-angle star smashing - not that stars don't get pulverised when one character is gifted (or cursed) with an awful weapon by the legendary Merlin. Reynolds' 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, in 'Spirey and the Queen'. 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. But overall, 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29988 in Books
• Published on: 2009-04-30
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 416 pages

Review
"Reynolds's second collection contains 14 stories and novellas, ranging from a near-future, character-based exploration of love and quantum reality set in Cardiff, to far-future space operas packed with seat-of-the-pants action and cutting-edge ideas. He's noted for big novels that combine storylines strung out across aeons with mind-blowing cosmological theory, and he's just as successful at presenting these concepts in the more constraining form of the short story." (Eric Brown THE GUARDIAN )

"Reynold's is most definitely a writer's writer. He knows how to weld big ideas to real emotions." (Jonathan Wright SFX )

"This is clever stuff, and consistently well realised." (Matt Bielby DEATHRAY )

About the Author
Alastair Reynolds was born in Barry, South Wales, in 1966. He studied at Newcastle and St Andrews Universities and has a Ph.D. in astronomy. Since 1991 he has lived in the Netherlands, near Leiden. He gave up working as an astrophysicist for the European Space Agency to become a full-time writer. Revelation Space and Pushing Ice were shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award; Revelation Space, Absolution Gap and Century Rain were shortlisted for the British Science Fiction Award, and Chasm City won the BSFA, and Diamond Dogs was shortlisted for the British Fantasy Award.

Customer Reviews

Full of strange
Inventiveness and humour run throughout this book. One important and enduring question that is explores through these and other stories: what happens when you mess with people? And I mean really, really mess with people. In the brilliant 'Understanding Space and Time' a man believes he is the last human in the universe and sets off on a question to solve the biggest of all riddles and meanwhile grows a huge affinity for a certain large-flaired pop star. In the title story - 'Zigma Blue' - ace-journo Carrie Clay sets off after a crazed artist whose body modifications are extreme enough to let him float around space in close proximity to stars, painting what he sees on truly huge canvases. But his story is much stranger than that. And 'Signal to Noise' explores the universe's multiple dimensions, and life's multiple loyalties, from the comfort of a Cardiff laboratory. The most human and heartfelt of the collections, it leaves you plenty to meditate on. Those are three of my favorites - but the collection is easily rich enough for other readers to list a completely different set.

Reynolds at his best
Fortunately, I found this book in a Barnes and Noble in Nashville, and didn't therefore have to pay the kind of price for which it sells in the UK. This is a superb collection of cutting edge science fiction - there was not a story here that I didn't enjoy. I came back to science fiction recently - after not having read any since I was teenager. Among recent sci-fi Reynolds's work stands out; he uses the genre to explore really big and important themes and ideas. This is what his work so engaging, and readable. This collection is representative, and well worth picking up.

Engrossing
I didn't really like Reynold's last collection of short fiction, but this one blew me away. ir eally could not put it down. The title story, Zima Blue stayed with me long after I had finished it. I really felt that this was like reading a young Larry Niven for the first time. There was a asense of wonder to these tales. Well done Aliaster.