Last week I delivered MACHINE VENDETTA, the third in the Prefect Dreyfus series. All being well, it should appear in 2023. I don't want to say too much more about it until at least the final round of editing (which won't be finished until well until next year) but here at least is the provisional cover copy, subject to change:
Panoply is a small, efficient police force, dedicated to maintaining the rule of democracy among the ten thousand disparate city states orbiting the planet Yellowstone.
Ingvar Tench was one of Panoply's most experienced operatives. So why did she walk alone and virtually unarmed into a habitat with a vicious grudge against her organisation?
As his colleagues pick up the pieces, Dreyfus must face his conscience. Four years ago, when an investigation linked to one of his most dangerous adversaries got a little too personal, Dreyfus arranged for Tench to continue the enquiry by proxy.
In using her - even though he had his reasons - did Dreyfus also put her in the line of fire?
And what does Tench's misadventure tell him about an enemy he had hoped was dormant?
The book marks the end of my ten-novel contract, and since I've stated my intention to do standalones for at least the next few years, it's also the last word on both Dreyfus and the Revelation Space universe for the foreseeable.
Previously, I would be alarmed about the last paragraph, but given how much I enjoyed Eversion, I'm excited to read new adventures outside Revelation Space.
ReplyDeleteThere could always be a short story or even a novella, so perhaps I should have qualified that a bit better and say no more RS novels for now.
DeleteI'm so looking forward to this one. The Prefect Dreyfus series books are some of my favourites.
ReplyDeleteVery excited to read the book. I'll miss new RS novels, but your standalones are often your best work, and it's always better to be left wanting more. Appreciate everything you've done & look forward to what you've got coming next.
ReplyDeleteLove the Dreyfus series but I also really enjoy reading your standalone novels, novellas and short stories. Looking forward to your new projects.
ReplyDeleteYipeee about a new novel, especially about Dreyfus. sad about R/S universe, but then again looking forward to all the weird and wonderful new places that you come up with.
ReplyDeleteMaybe in a few years, you could do a book or novella about the Glitterband turning into the Rust Belt. Unless you have already and I've missed it?
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to anything you write.
I don't know if to be saddened about the last paragraph, because RS is my personal favourite saga or to be happy about it because this means more fantastic books like House of Suns, Eversion, Pushing ice or Harvest of time. For the time being I will be happy about the last Dreyfus installment.
ReplyDeleteSub Press is starting pre-orders on Redemption Ark in HB soon (already done for those that ordered Rev Space)
ReplyDeleteMy wallet, oh my wallet! Do I need another HB edition of a RS novel? Yeeesssshhhh
DeleteGlad to hear Dreyfus is back. Are your post-contract books still with Gollancz?
ReplyDeleteYes, the plan is that I'll be remaining with Gollancz.
DeleteGood grief. Ten years gone just like that ....
ReplyDelete(It has been 1 novel a year, hasn't it?)
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DeleteIt's been a fair bit more than 10 years I'm afraid. For various reasons we didn't quite hit 1 book per year.
DeleteCongrats on the new book. But edit fast, I'm an old man and the clock is ticking.
ReplyDeleteNo standalones! We need sequels to House of Suns and Pushing Ice ;) keep up the great work and good luck on the next project!
ReplyDeleteLike many others I'm sure I will await this new book's arrival like a child awaits Christmas
ReplyDeleteWithout getting into the finances of the 10 book deal, I'm curious to know if the deal was a worthwhile venture for you and the publisher. In other words, did both parties get their monies worth?
ReplyDeleteCheers Al.
I can't speak for the publisher (I don't think anyone involved in the initial deal is still working there anyway) but it's been mostly a positive for me, in terms of having stability and freedom from worry about the future.
DeleteAs always, thank you for being so prolific. We are very fortunate for that, as fans. I really enjoyed Eversion and Inhibitor Phase, and after 15+ years I haven't read an AR book I didn't like, so I'm along for the ride no matter what you do.
ReplyDeleteAlso, not sure if you're aware, but someone built a model of the Nostalgia for Infinity in Space Engine and shared it on the Steam Workshop. I stumbled on it while Googling for images of the NFI:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1976538210
I'm not sure how familiar you are with Steam and the video game world in general, but Space Engine is basically a 1:1 recreation of the galaxy using real data for the systems we've catalogued and data-based procedural generation for the rest. The program allows users to navigate the galaxy in starships if they so choose, and the Workshop is a place for users to share ships they've created.
So the NFI is up there with the BDO from Rendezvous with Rama, Ridley Scott's Prometheus, the Nostromo, Dune's interstellar liners, Battlestar Galactica, etc.
Some of them go so far as to model the interiors in detail, although I don't think the user who recreated the NFI took on the Herculean task of designing 1,000+ decks of the NFI, much as I'd love to see the overgrown forest, dilapidated districts, massive hangars, cache weapons, spider room and all that.
Still, I think it's pretty awesome that someone took on that labor of love to allow other players to cruise the galaxy in the NFI.
Thanks Nick. That link to the NFI is cool. I didn't know about it, but it looks good!
DeleteLooking forward to Machine Vendetta! I have fond memories of tearing through the first two Dreyfus novels.
ReplyDeleteI have just finished 'Inhibitor Phase' - I'm a bit late reading this one, but that's because I can't stop re-reading previous stories!!! Just read RS for the 5th time (story just keeps on gaining depth :) I am honestly in awe of the way you put words together - your descriptive passages honestly touch a 6th sense. Who on earth would have associated a frond with 'a curious brooding resentment.' (p 436 Inhibitor Phase) BRAVO and, of course I look forward to 'Machine Vendetta' (I will be re-reading 'The Prefect' & 'Elysium Fire' of course!!
ReplyDeleteI hope one day to see you return to the Revenger universe - I completely fell in love with the universe you created within.
ReplyDeleteHappy Holidays Professor,
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to send warm holiday wishes your way. You've books have been absolutely fascinating to me - specifically how you weave real physics into your stories. I recently tried coaxing the DALL-E AI model to draw an image of your ship, "Nostalgia for Infinity". I've had mixed success with the results, but I thought it would be even better if you yourself were to interact with the DALL-E model to get an image "as imagined", or perhaps offer a suggested prompt that might illicit the first approximation. Or perhaps there is another iconic scene you'd be interested to get an image AI's interpretation of?
I'm really curious about your thoughts regarding the AI models that are becoming available now, and if you've considered toying with them at all.
Warmest wishes.
-CB
I owed you a reply before now - many apologies. I had a mess around with one of the AI image generators a few months ago but I found the whole process rather unsatisfying, I'm afraid - I think I'd rather just get some paints out.
DeleteMore generally, I feel the same way about AI-generated art as I do about AI-generated music. Because we know there's no intention behind it, it just leaves me cold.
No apologies necessary, holiday season is a busy time for us all and you certainly owe me nothing. I'm just glad you took the opportunity to explore an AI-generator. But your reaction to it carries a very salient point. A psychological support group that interacts with people entirely virtually recently started (selectively) using a text generator to guide responses to persons seeking casual counseling. When discovered, many people had the exact same reaction as you - there was "no one home" so to speak and left them feeling empty, but only after the information came to light.
DeleteHappy new year to you Professor. Warm wishes from Seattle.
I've tried making starship images with Wombo (DREAM) without much luck, which is surprising because it's incredibly good at other tasks. I was on the waitlist for DALL-E and didn't realize the devs opened it up until I read your comment and checked it out.
ReplyDeleteNatural language processing AIs are really good at symmetry for some things, but not for others, which has resulted in misshapen starships and weird results even if the input is very specific. Ask it to render a futuristic car like V's Qauttro from Cyberpunk or K's police vehicle from Bladerunner 2049 and it'll do a great job, but not with a ship. My guess is that cars are very defined things in the cultural imagination and in artwork as well as photos, but starships take thousands of different forms, so the algorithm has trouble understanding what a starship should look like. An algorithm can be well-designed, but without the right training data, it will struggle.
In any case, I know you asked AR, not other fans, but IMO these AI tools are great for ideas and for generating stuff that can be reworked in Photoshop. That's how I've been using it, which combines the creative process with the shortcut of AI, and I think that's gonna be the way to go in the future.
Very excited to hear the news. I'll keep my eyes posted for a publication date. Re-reading Terminal World just now and really enjoying it..perhaps that is a place worth revisiting....
ReplyDeleteVery much looking forward to the next Dreyfus adventure. The first two were elegant novels, with a consistent and well imagined character moveset as it were; some of my favourite of your oeuvre. The feel was that of detective novels. I did think Eversion could have done with a few more passes, to be honest; the idea was great but there was a certain thinness to the execution. Prefect Dreyfus aside, I prefer your longer, more complex standalones. House of Suns and Pushing Ice were great. Looking forward to more...
ReplyDeleteNow I tried this yesterday, but it just disappeared when I pressed the publish button :) - so am trying again,
ReplyDeletehere :) ...
Hey, Mr Reynolds, loved your Elysium Fire - and the characters, and really liked the ending too - so was sad, yet happy, when I finished it. Of course, I’d first read ‘The Prefect’ many years ago and really really enjoyed that, so had been looking forward to another ‘Dreyfus‘ novel.
I would still like to see a few more ‘Prefect Dreyfus‘ novels, but I know authors want to push onto new ideas etc. But it would be wonderful to see those same characters we’ve come to love, survive several more ‘challenges’!
Hey, even give the ‘pig‘ a longer life! :) Anyway, I was thinking what else could go ‘wrong’ in the glitter band to create new stories. I did think of a scenario, for a final book, you might say, where the ‘melding plague’ came in, and Panoply helps solve some of the riddle, and also is instrumental in ‘setting aside/rescuing’ a bunch of habitats that escape the plague and become something else - that maybe even involves a faction of Ultra’s helping, and even Pattern Jugglers - which could then of course also involve a form of ‘Clavain’. :) Or a whole new breed of ‘beings‘ could come out of the Pattern Jugglers, if they see a threat - like, say, the ‘wolves’ - and they look for ways to either move to other planets, or create a ‘preservation type‘ that can be dispersed to parts unknown; ‘preservation types‘ with ‘known personalities :) Of course, the melding plague, or another problem, could always inadvertently come about because of the ‘war’ between Aurora and the Clockmaker. Or an aspect of that ‘war‘ could even be the reason some of the Glitter Band actually escapes the plague - some bad thing that turns out good for Panoply etc. And they poll to move out form Yellowstone, and form a ‘community‘ elsewhere - or even further away in the same solar system. Plus there’s still not been proper exploration of the depths - water and earth - of Yellowstone, and the potential for ancient hidden artifacts! Please forgive my ‘excesses’ here - it’s just that I’m keen to see new books :) - have indulged in Sci Fi from my youth - am 71 now - am still a huge Andre Norton & Asimov fan, as well as a fan of Murray Leinster, Hal clement, Harry Harrison :)
I have loved other stories and characters that I’ve wanted to see expanded - like in David Brin’s Startide Rising, the character Tom Orley is left on Kithrup with few others, and will have to take the ‘long way home’ back to earth! Well, there’s so much extra characters already on the scene there that could be used to make a different tale - one of rescue, one of new friendships, and new adventures etc on their way back to civilized space. So I’m not just picking on you :) ;)
Anyways, love your stories - keep it up! Also love; Iain Banks (sad that he’s gone), Neal Asher, Jack McDevitt, Tanya Huff’s ‘Gunny Torin Kerr novels, Pip Ballantyne (wonderful steam punk stuff) Ben Bova, Greg Bear, Elizabeth Moon, (‘Speed of Dark‘ different yet amazing) Andy Weir (His ‘Hail Mary‘ - so different - yet excellent), Scalzi, Corey, Jack Campbell, Timothy Zahn, and quite a few others that I have in my real live paper-book library, although my preference is for ‘hard sci-fi‘ - you know - a space ship, a ray gun, and aliens - rather than ‘fantasy sci-fi. ciao, Gregg Thorn, Perth, Western Australia
PS: Of course, I’d pre-written this, wondering what medium to use to send to you, then I found this blog where you say you ARE DOING another Prefect Dreyfus novel :) so thank you :)
I will miss the Revelation Space universe more than I care to think about, but having heard about your creative pivot after reading Eversion, I managed to not run screaming through the streets. I know you get a lot of love, but you truly are 1 of 1 these days. Love your work!
ReplyDeleteExcited for a new Prefect Dreyfus adventure. His adventures have beeny favourites in the Revelation Space setting. Sad to hear it might be his last outing but glad to have been able to follow his stories. Looking forward to what you do next sir. :-)
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to read this one! I recently finished Elysium Fire and loved it. I think the characters in this series are amazing.
ReplyDeleteHopefully we will get to see a lot more of the Clockmaker! Perhaps he (it?) is the machine with a vendetta? One of the great characters in Revelation Space universe.
ReplyDeleteVery much looking forward to this book! And am not worried in the slightest about the lack of any RS novels for the time being; I'm perfectly happy to read whatever you publish. :-)
ReplyDeleteJust chiming in here having just finished reading the book today. Thanks so much for that farewell to the setting and characters. It was really lovely.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
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