Questions tagged [alastair-reynolds]
For questions about the British author "Alastair Reynolds" specialising in dark hard science fiction and space opera. Five of his novels and several of his short stories take place within a consistent future universe, known as the "Revelation Space" universe. For questions about these see the [revelation-space] tag. Only use for questions about the author himself.
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Revelation Space question about "Nostalgia for Infinity" - what is their purpose?
So I'm reading this and wondering... are these guys on some kind of mission... are they a clan or workers for some company? Are they a family? I don't understand their purpose/motivation. I know they ...
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What does "reefer" signify in Reynolds' books?
In Alastair Reynolds' "Revelation Space" universe there is no faster than light travel, and so to travel interstellar distances people are put in a form of suspended animation called "...
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In 'Revenger,' what does 'cove' come from?
In Alastair Reynolds' Revenger, which is set some tens of millions of years in the future, the characters have new nicknames for things.
Usually the derivation is pretty obvious, "grey" for brains, "...
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Why did the Nest-builders want to prevent the Shadows from entering our universe?
In Alastair Reynold's Absolution Gap mankind is ultimately saved by the Nest-builder race. The Nest-builders cooperated once asked, yet were unwilling to offer support before.
Dan Sylveste sends the ...
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Are the Akinya black?
I started reading ‘Blue remembered Earth’, and from all the details given about Geoffrey and the Akinya (the household is in Tanzania, their native tongue is Swahili, besides the surname itself) I ...
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Are Effectors unique to Iain M. Banks's "Culture"?
In Iain M. Banks's "Culture" novels, the Culture's most powerful and sophisticated weapons are effectors, electromagnetic manipulation devices capable of remotely reading and controlling computers and ...
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The relationship between Hell Class and hypometric (and Homunculus) weapons in Alastair Reynolds's novels
In Alastair Reynolds's Revelation Space series of books, there is a cache of mysterious weapons called "Cache Weapons" or "Hell Class weapons". They work in different ways, but they all seem to have ...
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Why does Travertine have vis own pronouns in On the Steel Breeze?
In Alastair Reynolds' On the Steel Breeze, the physicist Travertine has vis own set of personal pronouns, something like
ve (nominative)
ver (accusative)
vis (genitive)
verself (...
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In House of Suns, what was the role played by Dr Meninx?
That is, what was his role in the larger context of the story? Was he just a character to be sacrificed to temporarily cast doubt on Hesperus? Or was he just meant to be an example of the fact that ...
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Suggested reading order of Revelation Space
I'm new here. I am going to start reading the Revelation Space books. Can someone please suggest me a reading order of the books? I'd like to know the characters before the main trilogy, but if some ...
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In Pushing Ice how does the Lindblad artefact get there?
The Lindblad cube just appears one day in orbit around Janus. How!?
I cannot recall even an attempt at a handwaving rationale for this irruption of narrativium.
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Is there a detailed explanation for how the voting system algorithm is defined in The Prefect?
I was sitting in the car driving to work and talking about democracy with my girlfriend. I remembered the asteroid in The Prefect where the citizens on the rock had a greater valued vote.
My question ...
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In Pushing Ice, why did Janus kill people who walked the same path too often?
In the novel Pushing Ice, the moon Janus has a habit of killing and recycling people who repeat the same path on its surface too often. This means that the settlers need to choose random paths when ...
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House of Suns: Which shatterling was Abigail Gentian?
Was it ever revealed or hinted at which of the 1000 Gentian shatterlings was the original Abigail Gentian?
I know Purslane found something that looked like Palatial in the secret stasis chamber on ...
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Revelation Space - Why does Khouri have a fragment of spacecraft shrapnel in her?
In Revelation Space, when Khouri is brought on board the Nostalgia for Infinity, Volyova removes pieces of shrapnel that are embedded in her body from her soldiering days. One of those pieces turns ...
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House of Suns - What does Hesperus scratch onto the wine glass?
In House of Suns, Hesperus scratches a figure resembling a spoked wheel into a wine glass with his thumbnail. Does this represent the:
Remnants of the supramundane ring around Neume?
or the
or is ...
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Revelation Space - Why didn't the ship get trashed when Volyova put it into reverse?
In Revelation Space, Volyova puts the Nostalgia For Infinity into reverse at 10 g acceleration. This saves her life because she's falling down an elevator shaft at the time. It also kills Nagorny who ...
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What caused the Melding Plague in Alastair Reynolds Revelation Space universe?
I'm looking for information on the origins/causes of the Melding Plague.
Is the specific cause in the books
(and I just missed it) ?
Is there any other information from
Reynolds (interviews, short-...
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Glitter Band to Rust Belt - When?
So I got into Alastair Reynolds. A while ago, I stumbled over Redemption Ark, found the blurb on the back interesting, and bought it. After reading it, I went back and bought Pushing Ice, too. After ...
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