If you're still after a signed first edition of Inhibitor Phase, keep an eye on Goldsboro Books. Here I am signing copies which will shortly go back to them.
https://www.goldsborobooks.com/
If you're still after a signed first edition of Inhibitor Phase, keep an eye on Goldsboro Books. Here I am signing copies which will shortly go back to them.
https://www.goldsborobooks.com/
Did you get the guy from Media Death Cult to stack those for you :-)
ReplyDeleteI probably can’t afford one (I already have the audio book & a hard copy from my local bookshop) however I just have to say I’m absolutely loving this book. You are my fav author & reading this feels like “coming home”. (Hope that’s not too wierd 🙊.)
ReplyDeleteDid you quit smoking at some point? At least your characters seem to have.
ReplyDeleteI've never smoked. Which the main chars smokes in the RS books apart from Volyova, who's very old at the start of RS? She smokes because of a part I read in a Stanislaw Lem novel where an astronaut pats his pockets looking for a pack of cigs; I though it was such a brilliantly humdrum moment, something I'd never seen done in Anglphone SF.
ReplyDeleteYou are the expert, of course, but it just seemed to me that there was smoking in several of your novels. And it pleased me! Not least because it is very uncommon.
DeleteLOTS of smoking in Pushing Ice!
DeleteI would like a plastic model kit of Scythe, please! Hell, what I'd do to get my hands on a model kit of the Nostalgia for Infinity as depicted in that illustration by Yann Souetre, which seems to me like what the ship would have looked like after a few centuries, maybe in the Triumvir era at the beginning of RS. Still functionally solid, despite obvious signs of decay, and not quite the horror show it eventually becomes under the influence of various plagues, viruses and non-corporeal consciousnesses.
ReplyDeletere: Volyova smoking: It always seemed to me like Volyova's smoking fit with the atmosphere of the ship. Not only does no one care enough to stop her, but with 7 or 8 people in a 4km-long-ship, there's really no one around to complain. Ilya could walk for hours and not encounter another crew member. Plus it reminds us of her anxiety as she warms the captain's plague-ridden corpse just enough to kickstart neural activity, deep in the bowels of the ship where the others are terrified to go.
Here I was going to ask if the danger of smoking in the artificial atmosphere of a diving submarine would not also apply to spaceships. Some years ago I asked a submarine captain about smoking on submarines, and he told a complicated story about how people would secretly tap into the oxygen lines, because otherwise a cigarette would not burn, and there was a huge risk of explosion. But I am starting to think he just made that up on the spot, as now I cannot find any reference to anything like that anywhere. In fact, the US Navy appears to have allowed smoking on submarines until 2010, when it was banned because of second-hand smoke health concerns.
DeleteTo Alastair Reynolds, I wanted to let you know that I adore your worlds - so packed full with awesome and unique characters, locations and ideas. Minla’s Flowers is my all-time favourite story. Pattern Jugglers really cool - was this idea inspired by the living ocean from Solaris?
ReplyDeleteYou’re that author who I can’t stop reading in order to read other stuff 😂
Hope you are doing well, and please keep writing supercool stories
Thank you very much, Alfred. I'm glad you liked Minla's Flowers, it's also one of my favorites.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Pattern Jugglers, they started off as sort of vaguely humanoid aliens in a very early version of the Revelation Space universe, then gradually morphed into the alien oceans thing. I'm sure Solaris was in there somewhere, as well as the alien ocean thing that appears in David Zindell's Neverness, if I remember rightly. The name for the aliens, as others have picked up, was a direct steal from the lyrics of King Crimson.
I am very well thanks, and hope you are as well.
Thanks for the response 😁
DeleteI'd just like to add how much I've enjoyed Inhibitor Space. Although I couldn't help but be filled with sadness at how much has been lost to the wolves.
ReplyDeleteHyperpigs in the news:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/19/health/kidney-transplant-pig-human.html
Hey Alastair, any reason why Ilia Volyova's spelling of her name is changed to Ilya in the back of Inhibitor Phase? I don't know why it irks me so much. Perhaps because I named my cat after her (one of three named after your characters lol). I loved Inhibitor Phase though, and look forward to more stories in the Revelation Space universe, as well as the release of Belladonna Nights and Other Stories!
ReplyDeleteThat's my fault. Ilia was Ilya through all the early drafts of Revelation Space, then became Ilia during the editing process. I'm afraid muscle memory kicked in when I wrote the endnotes and neither I nor anyone else spotted the slip.
ReplyDeleteAlastair, I recently finished reading Inhibitor Phase, and as usual with your stories, I loved it. There was, however, one thing that was driving me crazy while I read it - the use of single quotes for normal dialog. I purchase and read my books in the U.S., so I am accustomed to double quotes. Anyway - I loved the book and hope you keep writing for years to come.
ReplyDeleteThat's just the standard typographical convention this side of the Atlantic. I must admit as I read as many US editions as UK ones, I don't really notice it. Glad you enjoyed IP, and yes, I hope to keep going for a while, the creek don't rise etc.
ReplyDeleteNice Mont Blanc fountain pen. Looks like you use standard cartridges, probably not to write your novels with, but there is a bit of romance attached to using such a pen. I was recently introduced to your work via two shorts on Netflix. I’ve since picked up “Revelation Space.” Love your style, very cinematic. Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteThe Mont Blanc pen was a gift from my wife. It comes out for proper stuff like signings. I do use the cartridges, but the set also includes an ink pump and reservoir; I just haven't needed to use it yet. I started writing with a much more basic fountain pen a few years ago, just to keep a notebook on me while travelling and try to ensure my handwriting doesn't deteriorate. Thanks for the kind words.
ReplyDelete