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| Author: |
Alastair Reynolds |
| Barcode/ISBN13: | 9780575084933 |
| ISBN: | 0575084936 |
| Imprint/Brand: | Gollancz |
| Release Date: | Mar 2010 |
| Format: | Trade Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 512 |
| Weight: | 300 grammes |
| Price in AUD: | $35.00 |
| Categories: | Staff Favourites / Staff Recommendations Bestsellers Science Fiction Steam Punk Book |
Spearpoint, the last human city, is an atmosphere-piercing spire of vast size. Clinging to its skin are the zones, a series of semi-autonomous city-states, each of which enjoys a different - and rigidly enforced - level of technology. Horsetown is pre-industrial; in Neon Heights they have television and electric trains...Following an infiltration mission that went tragically wrong, Quillon has been living incognito, working as a pathologist in the district morgue. But when a near-dead angel drops onto his dissecting table, Quillon's world is wrenched apart one more time, for the angel is a winged posthuman from Spearpoint's Celestial Levels - and with the dying body comes bad news.If Quillon is to save his life, he must leave his home and journey into the cold and hostile lands beyond Spearpoint's base, starting an exile that will take him further than he could ever imagine. But there is far more at stake than just Quillon's own survival, for the limiting technologies of the zones are determined not by governments or police, but by the very nature of reality - and reality itself is showing worrying signs of instability…
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Terminal World – Alastair Reynolds
Alastair Reynold's new book, Terminal Worlds, is almost a step back from his usual writing style of humanity surviving in deep space. But pull past the first few chapters and you begin to realise that this world has received as much love and attention as any of his other books.
Terminal Worlds is set in Spearpoint, one of the last cities left on a long forgotten planet. In this world, there are 'zones', which control the level of technology available in that particular area. For example, in one zone, nanotechnology may be able to work, but if you move to an area where nothing above steam power will work, your nanotechnology fails and cannot be retrieved ever.
The story is begins with a pathologist working in a morgue in Neon Heights. Following a disastrous infiltration mission by the "Angels" on the top of Spearpoint, he has been trying to leave behind his gruesome past. When an almost dead Angel falls to his dissecting table, he learns that the angels have not forgotten him and he must flee Spearpoint itself to escape their plans to bring him back for torture. Using the services of an old acquaintance, Quillion is accompanied by Meroka who is charged with his safety until she returns back to Spearpoint. Along his journey, Quillion encounters the dangerous outside world and the people that survive there and the monsters that control them.
Alastair' storytelling in this book is fantastic, characters' personalities are clear from the start, but the events that made them like that are slowly revealed throughout the book and give a deeper meaning to the characters and plot.
The monsters, society and technology that Quillion encounters closely resemble parts of his other books (like the Revelation Space universe), such as the Angels closely resembling Ultranauts and the Skull group being as mysterious as the Inhibitors. But they all have been given attention to make them fit seamlessly in this degrading, technological zone controlled world. Alastair should be given special mention for imagining how humanity would continue to survive and strive in a world of this kind.
However, while I would recommend this to anybody looking for some new hard science fiction, I would say that this book would likely be confusing to readers that have not read and understood the underpinning ideas of his other works.
Terminal Worlds gives another taste of what Alistair Reynolds can imagine, while also bringing a new style for those familiar with his books. Unfortunately, Alistair Reynolds has said that Terminal Worlds will not receive a sequel.
