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sfbook reviews

March 23, 2017

Alastair Reynolds’ SLOW BULLETS is one of the finest nuggets of science fiction you could read anywhere

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized alastair reynolds, elizabeth story, review, satalyte publishing, science fiction, sfbook reviews, slow bullets, the splattergeist, Thomas Canty

Three fresh reviews for Alastair Reynolds’ Locus award-winning SLOW BULLETS.

SFBOOK REVIEWS praises the book.

SLOW BULLETS won the 2016 Locus award for best Novella and was shortlisted for the Hugo (along with making a number of must read lists). As you would expect from a novella it’s a short read at 192 pages but it packs in more ideas than many more weighty novels manage.

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From the Narration itself memory then becomes part of the story when the inhabitants of the Caprice realise that the computer memory is failing and they must try and preserve as much as they can physically by writing on the metal walls and later on their own flesh. I won’t go too much further into the story itself as it’s worth encountering without spoiler but suffice to say it lives up to Reynolds usual epic scale. The book moves from memories of the individual to those of society and race, how it is all but impossible to keep a reliable record of the past and our faith in electronic storage is a short-sighted one.

Not only is this book small, it’s incredibly swift too. I read it in one sitting, one morning. There is no wasted space and most is devoted to moving the plot forward, a departure from much of the authors works with little time spent world-building or given over to exposition.

SLOW BULLETS is incredible, it is a superbly balanced story packed full of ideas and subtlety. It’s also not only the finest of Reynolds work so far but it’s one of the finest nuggets of science fiction you could read anywhere.

THE SPLATTERGEIST enjoys the novella.

Reynolds takes the same concept used in the movie PASSENGERS and adds a little twist: when you’re done reading SLOW BULLETS you actually understood what went down and, just as an added bonus, walk away with a satisfied smile.

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A good tactic is by putting your characters in the same room and leaving them to their own devices, leaving them to it to see how they grow and interact with each other – in essence this is a writing exercise used by beginners but at least an iconic writer would also focus on plot and setting. This is a good example of how to write a story; the protagonist is given a ticking time bomb: Scur is threatened with a device that will slowly kill her over a period of time. This approaches the typical ‘dying’ protagonist issue where said character is forced to find a cure or act out revenge against the clock. However, these issues are quickly resolved and now the focus is on keeping the peace between the crew and finding their way home.

SATALYTE PUBLISHING reviews the title.

Whilst SLOW BULLETS is a smaller story (a novella length) and therefore did not have the depth of a Revelation Space novel, I still found myself drawn into this story.

It starts at the beginning of a ceasefire, where we find our protagonist. Scur is a wonderfully written and deep character, given the length of this novel. It is great to see a female kicking butts and taking numbers.

For more info about SLOW BULLETS, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover art by Thomas Canty

Design by Elizabeth Story

July 10, 2014

WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY FINE is by turns creepy, funny, thought provoking, touching, and creepy again

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized daryl gregory, elizabeth story, horror, nate hawthorne, novella, review, sfbook reviews, we are all completely fine

For SFBook Reviews, Nate Hawthorne lavishes praise upon Daryl Gregory’s We Are All Completely Fine.

We Are All Completely Fine is by turns creepy, funny, thought provoking, touching, and creepy again. (I read it late at night while sitting by a window in my living room; it had me jumping as the wind blew and my house creaked.) As with Gregory’s other works, Afterparty, Raising Stony Mayhall, Pandemonium, and The Devil’s Alphabet, the novella mixes action and suspense in impossible circumstances with believable stories about fully human characters – even if they’re not exactly human. Each of the characters in We Are All Completely Fine and the events they lived through could be the subject of a standalone novel. Over each of their shoulders we get interesting and sometimes disturbing glances at a richly detailed dark fantasy world populated with malevolent forces. That Gregory subordinates those glimpses to the plot and characters, rather than pausing to show off how cool the ideas are, speaks to his skill as a writer: he could have easily spent more time on those details at the expense of the story’s suspenseful pacing.

The work leans, though lightly, on H.P. Lovecraft-esque themes: cultists worship incomprehensible other-dimensional creatures somewhere between aliens and gods, people touched by these creatures struggle to maintain their sanity or become violently insanse, and the work alludes to tragedy in a town called Dunnsmouth, a mix of Lovecraft’s Dunwich and Innsmouth. Like in Lovecraft’s work, Gregory’s characters inhabit a universe fundamentally hostile or indifferent to humans, but unlike in much of Lovecraft’s work, Gregory’s characters find just enough healing, peace, and livability to make the story not be completely bleak. In a way this makes the horror all the more intense, because it underlines the very slim but real hope for human happiness amid forces that create great misfortune. These characters aren’t predestined to be doomed, they just are very probably doomed. That’s a different kind of awful, one that’s more true to actual life and that is in a way more awful.

Read the rest of Hawthorne’s review at SFBook Reviews.

For information on We Are All Completely Fine, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover design by Elizabeth Story.