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.
Zima Blue
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"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 ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
"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 ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Book Description
A fabulous collection spanning the galaxies and career of SF superstar Alastair Reynolds.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
34 of 38 people found the following review helpful
By Dave Tansley
Format:Kindle Edition
I won't mention too much about the actual stories - suffice to say that I've really enjoyed them. Compelling, well written, touching (in a few cases) and thought provoking. A welcome dose of intelligent sci-fi.
However, the reading experience has been significantly lessened by what is all too common on the Kindle - the quality of the text and layout. Unlike older books that were presumably scanned and OCR'd (and thus suffer from typos and odd formatting), Zima Blue can't possibly use age as an excuse. Yet somehow, every single page is inflicted with a spacing issue between paragraphs - in short, there is an extra blank line in between each paragraph. It may not sound like much, but in sections where there is a lot of dialogue, you lose half the content on the page. And it is impossible to tell where section breaks occur, severely disrupting reading flow.
Come on Amazon! If you're going to sell e-books for the same price as the paperback version, at least have the common decency to make the experience the same!
However, the reading experience has been significantly lessened by what is all too common on the Kindle - the quality of the text and layout. Unlike older books that were presumably scanned and OCR'd (and thus suffer from typos and odd formatting), Zima Blue can't possibly use age as an excuse. Yet somehow, every single page is inflicted with a spacing issue between paragraphs - in short, there is an extra blank line in between each paragraph. It may not sound like much, but in sections where there is a lot of dialogue, you lose half the content on the page. And it is impossible to tell where section breaks occur, severely disrupting reading flow.
Come on Amazon! If you're going to sell e-books for the same price as the paperback version, at least have the common decency to make the experience the same!
18 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
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.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I had avoiding buying this for a while, thinking that it would just be an exercise in cashing in, anthologising lesser earlier work.
I'm glad to say I was very wrong. This is an excellent collection which I enjoyed more than I did Galactic North.
It worked for me on two levels, firstly it is an excellent collection of stories in and of itself, and secondly it shows Reynolds developing as a writer looking backwards, sideways and forwards. Looking backwards we see some of his influences. Enola is a post-apocalyptic story descended directly from Philip K Dick, The Real Story looks very like the Mars of Kim Stanley Robinson. Looking forward we see strands of his later work appearing. Three related stories featuring a chacater called Merlin involve vast distances and timescales and fearsome weapons in a clear pre-cursor of the Revelation Space Universe. Also there are two detectives which point towards Century Rain and the Prefect. Looking sideways Reynolds explores themes similar to contemporaries. Angels of Ashes uses perverted religion in a similar way to Dan Simmons. Digital to Analogue is a cyberpunk musical story akin to Pat Cadigan.
One of the other great joys is that Reynolds is a genuine scientist and uses his knowledge as a sound base for very believable, very hard SF. For example three stories are based on quantum theoretical multiverses.
So an extremely wide ranging, very strongly recommended collection.
I'm glad to say I was very wrong. This is an excellent collection which I enjoyed more than I did Galactic North.
It worked for me on two levels, firstly it is an excellent collection of stories in and of itself, and secondly it shows Reynolds developing as a writer looking backwards, sideways and forwards. Looking backwards we see some of his influences. Enola is a post-apocalyptic story descended directly from Philip K Dick, The Real Story looks very like the Mars of Kim Stanley Robinson. Looking forward we see strands of his later work appearing. Three related stories featuring a chacater called Merlin involve vast distances and timescales and fearsome weapons in a clear pre-cursor of the Revelation Space Universe. Also there are two detectives which point towards Century Rain and the Prefect. Looking sideways Reynolds explores themes similar to contemporaries. Angels of Ashes uses perverted religion in a similar way to Dan Simmons. Digital to Analogue is a cyberpunk musical story akin to Pat Cadigan.
One of the other great joys is that Reynolds is a genuine scientist and uses his knowledge as a sound base for very believable, very hard SF. For example three stories are based on quantum theoretical multiverses.
So an extremely wide ranging, very strongly recommended collection.
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4.3 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent
In one word; excellent. Alastair is as adept at short stories as he is of the epic space opera. Definitely recommended.
Published 2 months ago by Simon
5.0 out of 5 stars
fine stuff
for short stories some of these cover a lot a thoughtful mix especially enjoyed enola reminded me of philip k dick. Read more
Published 6 months ago by m. dosa
4.0 out of 5 stars
Zima Blue
I bought the collection on the strength of the story 'Zima Blue', which was featured in an anthology of the best sci-fi stories. Read more
Published 14 months ago by David Brookes
4.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent anthology of original and thought provoking Science...
Given that I am a great fan of both the short SF story format and of Alastair Reynolds, there was little chance that I would not enjoy this collection. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Willy Eckerslike
3.0 out of 5 stars
Zima Blues
Worth a read but not what I would call typical Reynolds material. A bit of a mixed bag of leftovers. Read more
Published on 11 Jan 2011 by T. Judd
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Collection
Space Opera at its best.
With each of his books Mr. Reynolds takes you on an incredible voyage through space and time. Read more
With each of his books Mr. Reynolds takes you on an incredible voyage through space and time. Read more
Published on 14 Dec 2010 by Carlos Mendez
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent book
It's a great collection. The actual Zima Blue story is excellent and thought provoking, well worth the book on its own.
Published on 26 Sep 2010 by D. Wilson
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great collection of short stories!
As a rule I generally pick up "collections of best short stories" books. Having read and loved the short story "Zima Blue" I decided to pick up this book, which obviously is a... Read more
Published on 25 Sep 2010 by A. Stasiak
5.0 out of 5 stars
king of the opera
I don't usually go for a collection of stories but, if you are a reynolds fan as I am, you won't be disappointed. Read more
Published on 21 Sep 2010 by grant mcnicol
5.0 out of 5 stars
Other Stories and Zima Blue
In this collection we traverse from Mars to the outer reaches of the Galaxy and back to Earth - from the near to far future. Read more
Published on 21 Aug 2010 by D. S. McCormack
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