Galactic North (Revelation Space) Mass Market Paperback – May 27, 2008

I just finished reading this collection today and really thoroughly enjoyed every single story. I have seen different comments about reading order of the Revelation Space series and I think you could either read Galactic North first or last. I have so far read them in the following order....  Revelation Space , Chasm City (Revelation Space) , Redemption Ark (Revelation Space) , Absolution Gap (Revelation Space) , Galactic North and I just started  The Prefect (Ace Science Fiction) . I am glad that I waited until after reading the first four books to read these short stories. Here's why...After I finished Absolution Gap I had that feeling you get when you finish a fantastic series of books. You just want more. Yet, you're a little exhausted and wrung out from all the ups and downs, ins and outs of the intricate plots and character developments. Galactic North was exactly what I wanted and needed. Short bursts of the Revelation Space universe that either filled in gaps of backstory, added new twists and dimensions to otherwise known settings/characters, explored previously unknown settings/characters or continued plot arcs begun in the novels.You get to go back to Mars with Clavain and Galiana, seeing how Felka got the way she is and how she was as a little girl. Others stories involve political intrigue and espionage on the moons of Jupiter; interstellar piracy amongst Ultras mixed with a deeper look into the mind-bending scientific achievements of the Conjoiners; a horror story regarding the after effects of the melding plague and the resulting deep space exodus of pilgrims to other systems; a story set in the Rust Belt era of Yellowstone regarding the owner of a "bestiary" who's plans for dominance in his chosen field come back to bite him in a vicious and unexpected way (with a cameo from a Diamond Dogs character); a tale of a mercenary mission originating from Sky's Edge that goes very, very wrong; and lastly the epoch-spanning eponymous tale that (sort of) picks up where Absolution Gap left off and which wraps up around A.D. 40,000. I'm looking at you, Greenfly.So as I said, these chunks of the Revelation Space universe were just what I was looking for after putting down Absolution Gap for the last time. I wanted more but not a LOT more. The way these stories are arranged is perfect starting with Clavain and ending with the far-flung future outcomes of events set in motion within the novels themselves. If you really enjoyed the main story arc of the novels you should check these nuggets of gold out at some point. You will be very glad you did.

Galactic North is a compilation of eight stories set in the Revelation Space universe. Each of the eight stories has Reynolds' unique fingerprint...dark, frequently noir-ish, often goth-esque scifi tales brimming with far future human cultures spread through numerous star systems and their -- both good and ill -- interconnection with advanced technology.Amongst my favorite stories in this collection is Weather, which details the rescue of a Conjoiner separated from the rest of her collective and how she helps a stranded lighthugger get out of a sticky situation. This tale also elaborates on and gives us some much desired details of the mysterious Conjoiner drive that has allowed Humanity to approach near-light speed and thus colonize multiple star systems in a relatively short period of time...a mere few centuries.Also amongst my favorites is Grafenwalder's Bestiary, which tells the story of illicit collector of all things organic and rare, Carl Grafenwalder. His penchant for collecting anything living that is exceptionally rare or virtually unique leads him on a quest -- a quest that he himself doesn't always understand -- for a creature that is thought to be only a myth. But his hunt for this creature of quasi-myth leads Grafenwalder into a predicament he never could have imagined.Reynolds acknowledges in the afterward that some of the stories featured in this collection were written very early in the evolutionary process of developing his Revelation Space universe. Because a handful of these stories were written almost two decades before publication of this collection, it makes the author's growth as a writer especially stark. His earliest stories show promise (amongst them, Dilation Sleep, the earliest published work in Reynolds' Revelation Space setting), but there is definitely a clear demarcation between his earliest works and his more later material. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing...to see an author's growth in his craft. But nonetheless, I couldn't help wishing that some of the stories had been fleshed-out a bit more. None of this detracts from what the author has created, an artfully constructed future history with its own personalities, cultures and worlds that -- when everything is said and done a few thousand years from now -- may end up being remarkably like what Humanity's actually expansion into the galaxy may look like. Alastair Reynolds has crafted a universe where the dilapidated and the vaunted nest side by side together; a universe where the believable and the extreme are merely two sides of a coin that Reynolds has tossed madly into the air...gyrating and gesticulating wildly, I am enjoying the coin's arc through space...directly towards me.

In general, I’m not a lover of science fiction or detective short stories but this collection of short and mid-sized pieces by premiere hard sci fi writer Alastair Reynolds is quite good. Intelligently, he has elected to arrange them in chronological order, the first story set a bare two hundred years ahead and the final one starting in 2303 AD and ending ca. 40,000 AD. They are unequal in quality –one or two show their origins in pulp fiction magazines but overall, the quality is quite high. Writing sequential future history, with all the stories set in the same universe with the same common past is challenging: by the final stories, the weight of past events is palpable. But Alastair, an adept plotter and always a whiz at anything scientific or technological (he does have a Ph. D. in astronomy), manages it without apparent strain. True, these are gimmick stories –a collector who buys alien species and then exploits, even tortures them, out of vanity, finally gets his comeuppance; a man is pulled out of deep sleep by a hologram of his wife in order to perform an emergency operation on a space ship headed way, way out, but is surprised to find out who he’s really operating on; two space ships pursue each other across space and centuries of time, only to find their vendetta superseded by a manmade biotech menace that is blotting out sentient species all across the universe—but Reynolds’s gimmicks are exceedingly well put together and they’re grand, dealing with cosmic matters. Reynolds isn’t terribly good at characterization but when you read him you remember why science fiction thrills you when you were young. With the passing of Iain M. Banks, no one does this as well as Alastair Reynolds does.

A good mixed bag, and the 1999 story Galactic North is fascinating as it is the map of most of the stories from Revelation Space. Weather is the best of the bunch.Great Wall of Mars (2000) - 4.5 starGreat stuff. Fast pacing, good characters, short but wonderful early days of Revelation SpaceGlacial (2001) - 4.5 starWonderful continuation of Clavain and Galiana, this time on an ice world, with a murder mystery. Truly great stuff.A Spy in Europa (1997) - 3.5 starA short but interesting spy story, with a nice twist at the end.Weather (2006) - 5 starWonderful, poignant, and a terrific insight into Conjoiner minds and engines. All superbly written!Dilation Sleep (1990) - 3.5 starSingle concept story. Not bad, but not surprising. First story of the Melding PlagueGrafenwalder's Bestiary (2006) - 3.5 starSome nice twists, good pacing, not too much dialogue diarrhoea.Nightingale (2006) - 1 starBlah blah infinite dialogue, repeated. A very short story made horrifically long and dull. Pages and pages of idiots arguing over which way to go in a "hedge-maze", etc. Worst-ever piece of work by Reynolds.Galactic North (1999) - 4 starI grand, sweeping vision of the entire Revelation Space series. It's very episodic, but nicely realised in the subsequent books and stories.Still, nothing here compares to Reynold's finest work: Turquoise Days (2002)NOTE: Please, please also read Turquoise Days, a novella, and short stories Enloa, Weather, and Zima Blue. Surely his finest works, along with House of Suns.

This is an established universe and these stories fill in some of the gaps of the universe. 8 cracking tales well told and engaging over epochs of time. Absolutely worth a read, a page turner

Not usually reading science fiction I decided to take a try reading this book since Alastair Reynold has good reputation as a writer and its been two decades since I last time read the genre. So obviously I'm over age for the science fiction. Also since the book had five full starts at the point when I bought it helped choosing. So the expextation on the content were quite high.Reynolds seems to be a very talented story teller carrying the plot forward while revealing new facts every here and there. To my surprise the book was a collection on short stories just loosely related to each other instead of one consistent book. However, these stories are tied together with the timeline starting from the collapse of the human civilization (why does this apocalyptic world seem so enthralling to many writers?) with the machines taking over the control of humanity while people as we know today are always pushed to the side role until the end of the book where there "just might still be room for the humanity -if- things go well".

If you are thinking of reading Reynold’s Revelation Space series (hint: this is a good idea) start by reading these short stories, as well as the Novellas Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days. Like most people (I suspect) I started with the big novels - if you read these short stories and Novellas first, you will get a much better historical perspective on the novels, as well as understanding properly the back-stories of most of the major characters.

If you have read Alistair Reynolds before, you will enjoy this book. It immerses you in many of the themes and characters of the full length books.If you haven't read Alistair Reynolds before I kind of envy you; you've got a great journey ahead, and this book will take you on the first steps.I enjoyed every one of these stories - buy the book.