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Title: Galactic North
Series: Revelation Space #6
Author: Alastair Reynolds
Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 356
Format: Digital Edition
| Synopsis: |
A collection of 8 short stories and novellas set in Reynolds Revelation Space universe. Many of them focus on the Conjoiners and we get several stories that provide history about several of the Conjoiner characters we’ve read about in previous books.
There is also a story about the Green Light that is mentioned in an earlier book and while we don’t see how humanity overcomes that, we do see how it gets started.
One of the stories gives a tip ‘o the hat to the novella Diamond Dogs. That story was much closer to a horror story and it meshed with the tone of Diamond Dogs perfectly.
| My Thoughts: |
Man, another winner of a book. I thoroughly enjoyed this. I’d already read one or two of these stories in Reynold’s Best Of… Collection but they were just as good upon a re-read.
I did enjoy the variation in length of story from novella down to a short story. It helped with the flow of the book and never made me feel like I was slogging. I also liked finding out the history and future of several characters we have already met in previous books. Reading this was a nice “rounding out” experience.
By this time, if one has read this far into Reynold’s Revelation Space universe, nothing here is going to deter one from continuing. Not even referencing one’s self in the third person. That being said, I think there is only one more book for me to read and then I’ll have to go track down his other works and figure out what order to read them.
★★★★½
Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road 
Great review and glad you enjoyed it! Where do you grab your older books from? I can’t remember if you already told me that it not. I recently ordered some from discoverbooks.com which is free shipping, but they don’t always have what I need. 🙂
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shoot me an email at Bookstooge@gmail.com
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Huh, I didn’t know Reynolds wrote short stories. Neat!
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Good stuff. I like them better than his novels 🙂
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Oh, awesome! Mr. Wyrm likes Reynolds’ work, but I’ve never found one that I could get into yet. Maybe his short stories are the way to start.
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In terms of his one-offs, I enjoyed Century Rain a lot.
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Thanks for the info. I’ll have to see if I can get my hands on that. I’ve looked inside this revelation space omnibus that I’m reading for a reading list, or suggested reading list and I’ve got nothing. So I’m just flailing around 🙂
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I read this one recently and enjoyed it very much, particularly for the light it shed on many details I forgot about Reynold’s main work. It motivated to try and re-read the Revelation Space books one of these days, so I’m very glad you appreciated it as well . 🙂
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I am really glad for this Revelation Space omnibus. Having all 7 books right in a row makes it so much easier, especially since they’re not actually a series order any where that I can find.
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Short stories/novellas that add something to the original stories. That’s what I’m talking about!
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This definitely fleshed out the Revelation Space universe. Really glad they were all collected into one book and then all the books collected into an omnibus. So much easier 🙂
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Glad this was such a winner and that it worked as a novella 🙂 Definitely curious about this author!
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Well, if you ever get an itch for SF, he’s a good solid writer. Not as exciting as Neal Asher and the Polity books, but still, pretty solid 🙂
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Ooo, I’d recommend The Prefect (was a stand alone until very recently), or Pushing Ice for your next Reynolds read. (I also really enjoyed This Blue Remembered Earth, but I didn’t like the other two books in this trilogy … be interested to see what you think). 🙂
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I’ve got one more Revelation Space book in this omnibus, then i”ll be branching out. Thanks for the input about the Prefect…
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Man, I really need give Reynolds a try – what would you recommend as a starting point?
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If you just want to try his stuff, “Beyond the Aquila Rift: The best of Alistair Reynolds” would definitely be the place. It is a collection of short stories that gives you a taste of his range. It’s the book that got me into him.
After that, I’ve only read his Revelation Space omnibus (these 7 books), so can’t comment on anything else.
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Wow, seems like youve had a spell of good books to read recently🙂. Happy for you
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I did have a good spell. Sadly, the end of this month and I suspect the beginning of next will bring a small shower of crap books
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