SF Bookshop

This is my selection of the best science fiction books I have ever read, including....

Revelation Space The first novel set in Alastair Reynolds' sf universe and for my money the best. The perfect place to jump straight in and be amazed at the scope of it. The author has always loved the work of authors who set their books in the same science fiction universe and he had been working on his own backdrop in short stories for quite some time before the novel was written. This lends the whole fantastic thing, seen through the eyes of the main characters, a "realism" and depth that is unrivalled. My favourite aspect is the artefacts left over from ancient civilisations. The book revolves around, among other things, a collection of ancient weapons stored in the hold of a spaceship, and the scenes in this hold are genuinely spine tingling.

Galactic North. It's a collection of short stories, but before you groan and skip to the next review, they are all set on the same time line within the same sf background and they form a satisfying whole on top of their individual brilliance.

The stand out idea for me is a contract so long that it can not be read by a human being. Search engines must be used to look for a loophole in it. Anyone who has ever read books by this author will know what to expect. Hard edged space opera with very clever and often huge ideas. My favourite story was the one about an extraction group looking for their target on what is supposed to be the long dormant hulk of a hospital ship orbiting a long ago war zone planet. It's very creepy and needles to say they find a whole heap of trouble on the "dormant" ship.

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