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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)
3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (30 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: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 89,061 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

30 Reviews
5 star:
 (15)
4 star:
 (6)
3 star:
 (4)
2 star:
 (2)
1 star:
 (3)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.9 out of 5 stars (30 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
15 of 19 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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25 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Rynolds' remaking as a master, 27 April 2008
By John Dallman (Cambridge, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This is Reynolds' eighth novel: five previous ones have been placed in the Revelation Space setting, along with two collections of shorter stories, while Century Rain and Pushing Ice have both been stand-alone. His themes and ideas are now reasonably visible: he does chases, pushing the speed of light and the limits of physics, and crimes so bizarre and horrible that they have no names. He knows this, and in House of Suns, he has re-examined and remade himself as a writer.

There are betrayals within betrayals, crimes dating back millennia, people remade into things that seem barely human, and relativistic chases half-way across the galaxy. Familiar tropes, but he has a new maturity and sureness as a writer; he seems to have looked into the heart of what makes him write and understood it anew. He has visibly learned from Iain Banks in some of these things, and he has passed beyond the Banks of today to the stature of the Banks of the nineties. If you need me to spell that out, he has moved from being a good and significant SF writer, to one of the very best in the world.

It is not clear what he will do next. He has, in many ways, made a coda to his past themes in House of Suns. In particular, the great chase of this book lays to rest the problem of the story of Run Seven. That's one of the background stories of Revelation Space, of which there is no satisfactory rendition; the title story of the collection Galactic North doesn't do justice to the sheer romance of the underlying idea. With a different kind of romance - his first real story of love - he has dealt with that unfinished business.

He has completed his journeyman work. Prepare for his maturity. There should be fireworks.
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2 of 2 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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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Over rated and nonsensical plot
I have read all of Reynold's novels, and a LOT of SF, and this plot is rubbish. I have read the 5 star reviews here and wonder if they have read the same book. Read more
Published 2 days ago by G. Davis

5.0 out of 5 stars 5 out of 5
After reading the first paragraph in the book I knew I was in for a treat. The imagination of Reynolds is incredible and as the chapters unfold it just gets better and better... Read more
Published 3 days ago by R. Grieve

5.0 out of 5 stars Science Fiction at its best
Up to Reynolds' usual high standards. As far as I'm concerned Science Fiction is mainly about ideas and you may rest assured that there's no pseudo science techno babble from the... Read more
Published 13 days ago by Dave

5.0 out of 5 stars Now I want to be a shatterling...
I've taken a bit of a break from Sci-fi in recent years, mostly reading other fiction. This is the first book by Alastair Reynolds I've read.

Incredible. Read more
Published 23 days ago by K. Hartnett

4.0 out of 5 stars Alastair Reynolds delivers the goods again
I have enjoyed all of Alastair Reynold's novels, and rank this one amongst his best. Reynolds has the ability to write both series type SF novels (Revelation Space), and one offs... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Malcolm Haig

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely brilliant
I enjoy 'space operas' but have only read one other of Alistair Reynolds, Revelation Space. I tend to find them very difficult to get in to, hard to follow and have to read right... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Caspar Aremi

3.0 out of 5 stars Not on a par with his earlier work
This is a very readable and well-written novel, but in my opinion not up to the standard of his earlier novels. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Kenny Macleod

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing
Having read the high reviews of this latest offering from Reynolds, I was looking forward to reading it - the idea of Reynolds at his best, and comparable to Iain M Banks of the... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Mr. Stephen Carre

1.0 out of 5 stars Like 1930's pulp SF without the zest or drive
Earlier comments have covered the plot details so I'll concentrate on the severe problems with this book. Read more
Published 5 months ago by R. F. Jukes

1.0 out of 5 stars House of Nothing
Since this is the first and only book I have read by Alastair Reynolds, I cannot compare it to anything he has previously written. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Daniel Fruelund Jensen

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