Beyond the Aquila Rift: The Best of Alastair Reynolds
Ratings16
Average rating4.4
Some stories are fantastic, others not so good.
A recurrent problem is that a lot of these stories end in a cliffhanger, so you will end up always wanting more.
After the first cliffhanger I thought we will get some references or conclusion in the other stories, but no. So keep that in mind. The stories end, even though it seems like they are just getting started.
Master class in short fiction.
While the stories themselves were pretty hit or miss for me, the skill on display was readily apparent. Alastair Reynolds crafts his stories with an artisan's touch, gently shaping and polishing his works to nearly radiant perfection.
The main reason this is 4-stars instead of 5 is because I noticed he tends to focus hyper-specifically on one main facet while letting others fall to the wayside. For example, incredible characterization (Minla's Flowers, Zima Blue, Thousandth Night), outstanding worldbuilding (Beyond the Aquila Rift, Diamond Dogs), intense and wonderful storytelling (Vainglory, Trauma Pod)
Major standouts include Minla's Flowers (holy shit, the slowly changing meaning of the titular flowers? Top tier for that alone), Zima Blue (entire reason I read this was because of the LD&R adaptation of this story, the short story is even better, mind-blowingly incredible), Diamond Dogs (David Bowie reference in the title? Story about Math geniuses upgrading their mental capacity to ascend a tower of puzzles?? You can't get any more up my alley than this. Planning a TTRPG campaign based on this story, very high marks), and Thousandth Night (maybe my favorite in the collection? Love how Reynolds plays with massive timescales and he does it best here I think).
Badass book, wildly imaginative and thought provoking. Alastair Reynolds is one of the modern SF greats.
This book was very very good – so good, in fact, that despite the fact that I had borrowed a copy from my local library, I have decided to purchase my own copy of the book. The offerings in this collection are a great reminder of why Alastair Reynold's books are so greatly anticipated and equally greatly (if not more so) enjoyed by fans of epic, world-building (and world-shattering), cosmic themed stories.