<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

British writer Alastair Reynolds (b. 1966) first began appearing in the SF magazines in the mid-1990s, producing well crafted adventure stories with a strong scientific grounding, particularly "Angel of Ashes" (1999) and "Viper" (1999), but it was not until Revelation Space (2000) that readers learned that he was capable of turning out complex, intricate, and smoothly written space operas after the fashion of Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep (1992) or Dan Simmons' "Hyperion" books. Revelation Space followed several distinct sets of characters, including members of a scientific expedition which is attempting to determine what caused the extinction of an alien race and others aboard a vast starship with a dying but still conscious captain and a crew of genetically altered humans, introducing us to a future in which humanity has fragmented so dramatically that different branches are essentially different species.

Reynolds followed up with two sequels. In Redemption Ark (2002), the disparate human civilizations contend for control of a cache of superweapons, some of which may be sentient themselves, when threatened by an alien force that could extinguish all forms of human life. The story comes to a conclusion of sorts with Absolution Gap (2003), where the action is centered around a frozen world with a good view of a star that blinks in and out of reality. Reynolds adds new depth to the setting with each volume, exploring different facets of a society so far removed from the present.

Although these three books make up the main sequence, Reynolds has set other stories in the same universe. The short novel Turquoise Days (2002) involves an alternate form of intelligence that poses a threat to a colony world. Chasm City (2002) takes place on one specific world whose economy and infrastructure have been devastated by an information virus. The protagonist is a security operative suffering from amnesia who discovers that he has been caught up in a convoluted plot within a plot. Century Rain (2004) introduces us to an Earth ruined by unrestrained nanotechnology and described the discovery of an artificial world which resembles pre-World War II Earth.

The novella "Diamond Dogs" (2002), not related to the other novels, involves the investigation of an alien artifact. Reynolds has written very little short fiction since 2000. "Beyond the Aquila Rift" (2005) is the best of them. Although it is early in his career, it seems likely that Reynolds will prove to be one of the most interesting new writers of the early 21st Century.