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House of Suns (Gollancz S.F.)
 
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House of Suns (Gollancz S.F.) (Hardcover)

by Alastair Reynolds (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 480 pages
  • Publisher: Gollancz (17 April 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0575077174
  • ISBN-13: 978-0575077171
  • Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.8 x 4.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 163,085 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Product Description

Anthony Brown, STARBURST

"Reynolds retains a highly readable style which allows him to dip into solid technology without losing the pace and he fleshes out a convincing background to his world."


Review

'Reynolds injects a good old fashioned sense of wonder into his science fiction by combining a story of epic scale with a series of awe-inspiring revelations, each more breathtaking than the last. The finale is thrilling, moving and humane. This is Reynolds' best novel to date." (Eric Brown THE GUARDIAN )

"Reynolds retains a highly readable style which allows him to dip into solid technology without losing the pace and he fleshes out a convincing background to his world." (Anthony Brown STARBURST )

"A crisper style that recalls hard SF from the '60s and '70s. This nod to the past seems fresh and new." (Dave Golder BBC FOCUS )

"A splendid example of SF as the literature of ideas, and depsite its longueurs is another triumph for Reynolds." (Jes Bickham DEATHRAY )

"The book's final revelations are near perfectly judged. Ultimately it's this that gives his novel real heart and soul - an infinitely rarer commodity than any amount of self-consciously insouciant cool." (Jonathan Wright SFX )

"His writing is solid, his characterisation intriguing; a fine entry for Reynolds." (SCi FI NOW )

"Reynolds has written a hugely entertaining extrapolation of contemporary mores: a far-flung comedy of manners, with fascinating precedents. This is warm hearted science fiction with big ideas that are easy to follow. House of Suns might well be the author's most human novel to date." (INTERZONE )

"Reynolds understands and uses hard science, giving an aura of plausibility to his wildest flights of fancy. As well as visionary brilliance, Reynolds also supplies a knock-your-socks-off ending. A thrilling, mind-boggling adventure." (Lisa Tuttle THE TIMES )

"He remains as devoted as ever to innovative, hard sf, gigantic, family-sized space opera. What ensues is a chase story across vast tracts of both time and space, veering closer to Iain M Banks's territory than Reynolds's earlier books ventured. Like its technology, when it starts moving, it moves at one hell of a clip." (Andrew McKie THE TELEGRAPH )

"As well as being an intelligent writer, he shows that he has an awful lot of heart." (Roz Kaveney TIME OUT )

"I abandoned science fiction years ago, except for the Discworld books, but a friend insisted I read House Of Suns by Alastair Reynolds. I tried it, became hooked, and have now read everything he's written. Alastair Reynolds is an astrophysicist, so he knows his stuff, but what really distinguishes him is a galaxy-sized imagination allied to a real story-telling ability." (Bernard Cornwell )

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Customer Reviews

48 Reviews
5 star:
 (25)
4 star:
 (13)
3 star:
 (5)
2 star:
 (2)
1 star:
 (3)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (48 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Reynolds for the Booker, why not?, 16 Feb 2009
I have just finished House of Suns and I think that it may be one of the finest pieces of literature I have ever read.

It is quite simply a beautiful novel. It's sci-fi context is irrelevant to its beauty and I almost wish that he had written the novel about contemporary shatterlings travelling the world and gaining experiences. Maybe if the setting had been New York and not Neume then this book would be sitting in the sci-fi best sellers and the generic fiction top ten lists.

This book is a massive shift from the revelation space books. Don't get me wrong, I have read them all, but House of Suns is the sum of all of Mr Reynolds previous writing. It is funny, witty and breathtaking but and this is the killer, it is extraordinarly well written.

As I read it the most obvious comparable author was Haruki Murakami. The way Mr Reynolds takes modern themes such as loss and alienation and mixes them with humour and wonder is sublime.

This is not just good sci-fi this is wonderful story telling.

How do you nominate a book for the Man Booker?
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19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars A slow burning, millenia spanning novel, 22 Jul 2008
By Mark Chitty (North Wales) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Purslane and Campion are two Gentian shatterlings from the House of Flowers, two of a thousand clones of Abigail Gentian who left the solar system around the year 3000 to travel and explore the galaxy. All shatterlings meet up for their thousand nights reunion during which they share memories of what they have experienced.

Six million years have passed since the first ships left the solar system and due to the technology available the shatterlings are effectively immortal. They can pass the hundreds of years travelling between star systems in stasis and experience anything the galaxy has to offer.

On their belated way to the next reunion, Campion and Purslane receive a message warning them not to enter the chosen system and to flee to a designated safe system. The Gentian line were ambushed, almost their entire number wiped out and only a few dozen managing to escape and make their way to Neume where they await any stragglers.

Why does someone want the Gentian Shatterlings dead? Is there a traitor in their midst that helped this atrocity? And what exactly is the House of Suns?

This is the story we follow in House of Suns. Travelling with Campion and Purslane while they visit some systems on their way to the reunion, the aftermath of the attack and the events that follow. The first thing that you need to get used to is the timeframe of the novel. As all travel is done at sub-light speeds, with ftl not possible, the events of travelling between systems is done in tens and hundreds of years of subjective time. Once you get the hang of this it's easy enough to focus on the story without thinking of anything outside of it, unless it's mentioned within the narrative.

The story flows along quite well and is well written, probably one of Reynolds' best to date. Parts of the story feel like self contained short stories, particularly the early sections, although everything in the book has a reason for being there. I was impressed with the scope of the story and the timeframes involved, although I didn't enjoy the novel as much as I was hoping for. I love Reynolds' short stories and have enjoyed a couple of his novels more than this one and really hoped it would deliver more than it did.

I can't really fault the novel, it's just my tastes that meant I enjoyed it less than I hoped. There was no real feeling of having to read on, no urgency at all. Perhaps that is the result of having the narrative and background over hundreds, thousands and millions of years. A slow burner more than a page turner.
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21 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A matter of taste., 29 April 2008
By David G. Sheehan "we of me." (Brighton) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Just want to write a short review for those who have become fans of Reynold's sublime Space Operas----This is a new direction from most of his novels. Judging by the other reviews this change in tack (it's not realy THAT spectacular a change) is not to the taste of some-but very much to the tase of others. I add my voice to those who think "House of Suns" it is one of his best. The plotting is magnificently inventive (no change there!)Personally I found it almost impossible to put down and I like that in a book!The protagonists are fascinating and the writing at times surpasses that of his earlier work. If you want to read the cream of contemporary Sci-Fi--this is for you.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Epic work from the best SF writer out there
Wonderful though Reynolds' Revelation Space novels are, you could argue that particularly in regards to his more recent work, he seems to operate or a freer, more imaginative and... Read more
Published 1 day ago by Keris Nine

5.0 out of 5 stars Mind blowing science fiction, with rather cardboard characters...
Six million years before the main story starts, Abigail Gentian, like other humans of the period known as the Golden Hour, duplicated her clone thousands of times and sent the... Read more
Published 23 days ago by A. J. Poulter

4.0 out of 5 stars slow burn
Far future stories can lack discipline, with the author able to wish any technology into being. Alastair Reynolds avoids this trap. Read more
Published 1 month ago by pat heslip

4.0 out of 5 stars Some likeable characters at last....
I have read and enjoyed several of this authors other novels, and as in those the span of this book includes whole galaxies and timescales of millions of years, and is once again... Read more
Published 1 month ago by KalteStern

5.0 out of 5 stars Great
What a pleasure to read! Great story and great prose, this is Mr Reynolds at his best. The concepts are imaginative and well reasoned, characters believable and it leaves you... Read more
Published 1 month ago by T. Doyle

5.0 out of 5 stars Future Human Immortals Roam the Milky Way!
This excellent novel has a short story prequel, unfortunately absent from this volume: 'The Thousandth Night'. It is available in Gardner Dozois One Million A.D. anthology. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Luc Andre Mandeville

4.0 out of 5 stars A bit of a change.
This book differs from some of the Author's early work. He has focused more on the story than the absolute fidelity of the science. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Huckleberry Finn

4.0 out of 5 stars SF = Simply Fantastic
An excellent addition to the Alisair Reynolds stable. When this man is on this kind of form, his books are at the pinnancle of the genre.
Published 1 month ago

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Top rate and inventive Science Fiction that takes me back to the likes of Robert Heinlein at his best. A real page turner with lots of interesting ideas.
Published 2 months ago by Ron Moorby

5.0 out of 5 stars House of Suns
If you like sf space opera this is for you, a mind expanding read. Having read all his books this was my favourite, well written and imaginative.
Published 2 months ago by Expat UK

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