Revelation.Space is very much a first novel. It’s promising but clunky and rough around the edges where Reynolds spends too many pages building up.characters who aren’t particularly interesting. It’s the product if a very accomplished writer of short fiction coming to grips with writing at novel length.
His second Chasm City is a lot more polished.
For that reason I usually recommend that people start with one of his standalone novels or his short fiction (like I did).
E.E. “Doc” Smith – coruscating
I collect Gollancz SF Masterworks so I have some overlap with my old 1970s and 1980s paperbacks ftom my childhood.
I use the Masterworks editions as reading copies.
I have the NEL edition with the Tim White cover of thr Arthur C. Clarke short fiction collection that I bought in high school. I also have all of the stories in the (near) complete The Collectrd Stories of Arthur C. Clarke collection. Recently I picked up another edition of Expedition to Earth because it had detsil from Robert McCall’s movie poster art for 2001: A Space Odyssey on the cover, was in really good condition and only cost me 5 bucks.
Oddly I find that I can read non-fiction a lot quicker than I do fiction.
Leon Trotsky’s former bodyguard Bernard Wolfe wrote Limbo, the first scufi novel about cybernetics. He also wrote a lot of science articles for magazines like Popular Science Monthly and Mechanix Illustrated plus a whole swag of other novels.
Leon Trotsky’s former bodyguard Bernard Wolfe wrote Limbo, the first scufi novel about cybernetics. He also wrote a lot of science articles for magazines like Popular Science Monthly and Mechanix Illustrated plus a whole swag of other novels.
It reminded me a lot of the New Wave scifi of the 1960s & the 1970s. There was quite a bit of push back against the New Wave in fandom circles by the Campbellian old guard back then so I get how the book isn’t for every one.
The Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake. I bought a volume per fortnight after school on a Friday.