45-662: Alastair Preston Reynolds (born 13 March 1966) is a Welsh science fiction author . He specialises in hard science fiction and space opera . Reynolds was born in Wales and spent his early years in Cornwall before moving back to Wales, and later attended Newcastle University , where he studied physics and astronomy . He subsequently earned a PhD in astrophysics from the University of St Andrews . Reynolds wrote his first four published science fiction short stories while still
90-700: A busy five minutes. The fountainheads are a member species of the Shaft-Five Nexus, a group of like minded species who have a very stringent set of rules of order. The Nexus is largely responsible for containing the Uncontained. The relationship between the population of Janus and the Fountainheads is one of benevolent trade. Janus (as with all new worlds in the Structure) holds vast power reserves. In exchange for access to some of this power
135-466: A central core, such as found on a willow tree. The outer layer of limbs are thicker and used for locomotion (tractor limbs), inner sets hang above the floor and are used for finer manipulation, the inner most limbs resemble gossamer threads and provide sensory information. Indeed, these sensory limbs often weave together to form a "hi-res" eye as named by the Rockhopper Crew. Little is known about
180-508: A few). In return they want to mine some power from Janus, like the Fountainheads. The Fountainheads warn Bella that the Musk Dogs can't be trusted and that some technologies are far too dangerous for a species ill-equipped to handle them, though the Fountainheads do not know the Musk Dogs true intentions. Svetlana (in defiance of Bella's advice) trades with the Musk Dogs for a passkey in return for access to Janus. The attempted construction of
225-486: A graduate student, in 1989–1991; they appeared in 1990–1992, his first sale being to Interzone . In 1991 Reynolds graduated and moved from Scotland to the Netherlands to work at ESA. He then started spending much of his writing time on a first novel, which eventually turned into Revelation Space , while the few short stories he submitted from 1991–1995 were rejected. This ended in 1995 when his story "Byrd Land Six"
270-586: A message to "The Benefactor" rather than performing other suggested feats including the construction of a Dyson Sphere or an ornamental garden. This decision has far reaching implications for the rest of the characters. In the 2050s, the United Nations has developed into a body that represents not just nations but any corporation with sufficient economic wealth. The Rockhopper is owned by one such entity and gains official UEE status upon commencing its interception with Janus. Not all strong economies are part of
315-480: A routine mission, Lind is informed that Saturn 's moon Janus has deviated from its normal orbit, and is accelerating out of the Solar System. The Rockhopper, deemed the only ship capable of catching up to Janus, is asked to undertake the task of pursuing the moon, sending back as much information as possible before being forced to turn back by the limitations of fuel and supplies. However, on their approach to
360-405: A span of several centuries, spanning approximately AD 2205 to 40 000, although the novels are all set in a 300-year period spanning from 2427 to 2727. In this universe, extraterrestrial sentience exists but is elusive, and interstellar travel is primarily undertaken by a class of vessel called a lighthugger which only approaches the speed of light ( faster than light travel is possible, but it
405-444: A structure set apart from the main colony. The novel traces the life of the colony for many years as they try to eke out an existence on Janus and determine why it is moving through space. They work out a way of deriving power from some alien technology they find, and slowly start to improve their living conditions. They eventually arrive at a vast megastructure where they meet an alien species, called 'Fountainheads'. The encounter with
450-480: Is a "personal favorite", he has "sworn there will never be a sequel". Pushing Ice is also a standalone story, with characters from much less distant in the future than in any of his other novels, set into a framework storyline that extends much further into the future of humanity than any of his previous novels. It contains an alternative interpretation of the Fermi paradox : intelligent sentient life in this universe
495-404: Is a list of notable science-fiction authors, in alphabetical order: Pushing Ice Pushing Ice is a 2005 science fiction novel by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds . According to Reynolds' Web site, the story takes place in a different universe from his Revelation Space stories. Pushing Ice begins in the distant future, where the elected rulers of the "Congress of
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#1732783939781540-528: Is extremely scarce. Reynolds states that he is "firmly intending" to return to the Pushing Ice setting to write a sequel. The Prefect marked a return to the Revelation Space universe. Like Chasm City , it is a stand-alone novel within that setting. It is set prior to any of the other Revelation Space novels, though still 200 years after the original human settlement is established on
585-608: Is implied that the Whisperers have an advantage in making passkeys as other races buy these keys from them. The Whisperers do not appear to behave as a single faction with one Whisperer providing intelligence to the Fountainheads and others selling passkeys to the Musk Dogs and the Uncontained. A highly factious species, the Musk Dogs are another species of the Structure. Their ships resemble large organic bones with bits of other ships and technologies bolted on (and floating around)
630-463: Is so dangerous that no race uses it). Fermi's paradox is explained as resulting from the activities of an inorganic alien race referred to by its victims as the Inhibitors, which exterminates sentient races if they proceed above a certain level of technology. The tetralogy consisting of Revelation Space , Redemption Ark , Absolution Gap , and Inhibitor Phase deals with humanity coming to
675-470: Is stated as having no factions but other than this little is known about their culture. Fountainhead psychology is fundamentally different from humans in ways that no human can really comprehend, it becomes apparent that the Fountainhead's perception of time is not linear but is strongly dependent on events. At one point, a crew member observes that 100 years of nothing is less time to a Fountainhead than
720-460: The Revelation Space universe is now called The Prefect Dreyfus Emergencies . Reynolds states that he has "tentative plans for three more Dreyfus titles, with an arc that would eventually take him beyond Yellowstone, and then back again." House of Suns is a standalone novel set in the same universe as his novella "Thousandth Night" from the One Million A.D. anthology. It was released in
765-407: The Revelation Space universe after the first novel published in it, although it was originally developed in short stories for several years before the first novel. Although most characters appear in more than one novel, the works set within this future timeline rarely have the same protagonists twice. Often the protagonists from one work belong to a group that is regarded with suspicion or enmity by
810-576: The Sidewise Award for Alternate History for his short story "The Fixation". His novella Troika made the shortlist for the 2011 Hugo Awards . His Novel Revenger received the 2017 Locus Award for Best Young Adult Book . On 10 March 2019 Alastair Reynolds announced that his short stories "Zima Blue" and "Beyond the Aquila Rift" had been adapted as part of Netflix's animated anthology Love, Death & Robots . These stories are
855-597: The 2001 British Science Fiction Award for Best Novel. His short story "Weather" won the Japanese National Science Fiction Convention's Seiun Award for Best Translated Short Fiction. His novels Absolution Gap and The Prefect have also been nominated for previous BSFA awards. Reynolds has been nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award three times, for his novels Revelation Space , Pushing Ice and House of Suns . In 2010, he won
900-465: The Fountainhead history other than their realm used to contain many hundreds of thousands of extrasolar systems and at some point uncovered the relics of a long gone humanity. Fountainhead technology is far in advance of the technology available to the Rockhopper crew. Their ships resemble bubbles of coloured glass and have the ability to suppress inertia and manipulate gravity. Bella Lind remarks on
945-419: The Fountainheads and the humans co-exist. The Fountainheads are trading advanced technology with the colony in exchange for drilling rights on Janus, whose core is a vast energy resource. The Fountainheads warn Bella of the arrival of another, repulsive (by human standards) race called Musk Dogs that will infect the colony and tear it apart in an effort to get at Janus' core. When they arrive, Svetlana meets with
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#1732783939781990-458: The Fountainheads trade history and technology from Earth from the time after the Rockhopper left. The technologies are a vast boon to the humans and launch their society from barely surviving to one of high luxury and prosperity. Introduced to Bella by the Fountainheads the Whisperers are a strange race also inhabiting the Structure. They are said to live on the other side of the "matter gap" and as such cannot interact with ordinary matter (much like
1035-635: The Lindblad Ring" gather to decide on a suitable ceremony to honour a woman they consider responsible for the technological advancement and territorial expansion of the future human race, Bella Lind. To explain her role, the chronology is then pushed back to the early days of humanity's crewed exploration of the Solar System , where it is explained that Lind is the captain of the Rockhopper, a spacecraft used for mining cometary ice . While on
1080-445: The Musk Dogs and trades with them, she tries to regain control of the colony, but her actions set off a chain of events that destroys Janus and requires everyone to evacuate. Svetlana, with the assistance of the Fountainheads, leaves the structure through the gap created by the explosion. Pictures from her ship reveal the structure to be a Torus the size of a planetary system, with part of the structure missing at its center (believed to be
1125-420: The Musk Dogs is when The Gristleship arrives in orbit and after hacking into the communications net broadcasts propaganda claiming that the Fountainheads are exploiting the humans and that trade with the Musk Dogs would be far more profitable as they are willing to give technologies far beyond what they currently possess (inertialess drives, femtotechnology, passkeys for the endcap doors in the Structure to name but
1170-531: The Spicans' quarters). Bella dies during the evacuation of Janus, but her body is nonetheless brought along with the evacuating colony. Her body remains in stasis for decades, waiting for the Fountainheads to restore her to life; she eventually awakens to learn that a new human colony has been established elsewhere in the structure. A far future human civilisation inhabiting a region of space roughly 500ly in diameter. The Congress has advanced femtotechnology granting
1215-751: The Steel Breeze (2014), and Poseidon's Wake (2015). The novels comprise a hard science fiction trilogy dealing with the expansion of the human species into the solar system and beyond, and the emergence of Africa as a spacefaring, technological super-state. His Doctor Who novel Harvest of Time was published in June 2013. His forthcoming work includes "Banish", which will be appearing in Multiverses by Preston Grassmann (ed.) for Titan Publishing. Reynolds's fiction has received three awards and several other nominations. His second novel Chasm City won
1260-485: The UEE however, these "Rogue states" include China who were expelled for their reckless experiments with forge vat technology leading to a grey goo outbreak. Named after their appearance these enigmatic aliens are the first to contact the crew of the Rockhopper after their arrival at the Structure. A single Fountainhead is around 3 metres tall and resembles a flowing fountain with multiple layers of coloured limbs erupting from
1305-669: The UK on 17 April 2008 and in the US on 2 June 2009. Reynolds described it as "Six million years in the future, starfaring clones, tensions between human and robot metacivilisations, King Crimson jokes." As with Pushing Ice , Reynolds also states that he is "firmly intending" to return to the House of Suns setting to write a sequel. Terminal World , published in March 2010 was described by Reynolds as "a kind of steampunk -tinged planetary romance, set in
1350-416: The attention of the Inhibitors and the resultant war between them. Century Rain takes place in a future universe independent of the Revelation Space universe and has different rules, such as faster-than-light travel being possible through a system of portals similar to wormholes . Century Rain also departs substantially from Reynolds's previous works, both in having a protagonist who is much closer to
1395-602: The benevolent aliens improves the colonists' situation dramatically. The alien presence is played poorly by Svetlana who loses control of the colony to Bella. Bella does not exile Svetlana, even if she chooses a form of self-exile. The Fountainheads are able to rejuvenate humans, healing injuries and making them younger. The only restriction is that they cannot heal brain damage without the patient losing part of his/her personality. Bella and several others undergo rejuvenation to make themselves younger. Those that are rejuvenated still age, but more slowly. Another several decades go by as
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1440-479: The citizens fantastic capabilities such as near-instant travel, near-light speed spacecraft, immortality etc. An elected representative from each member planet meets once every few hundred years to discuss governance of the Congress. Nearing their 10,000 year anniversary the representatives meet to discuss what to do to commemorate this occasion. A representative known as Chromis Pasqueflower Bowerbird proposes sending
1485-425: The distant future". As with Century Rain , Reynolds has said that he does not plan any further work in the universe of Terminal World . In June 2009 Reynolds signed a new deal, worth £1 million, with his British publishers for ten books to be published over the next ten years. Between 2012 and 2015 Reynolds released three novels set in a new universe called Poseidon's Children : Blue Remembered Earth (2012), On
1530-653: The first of Reynolds's works to be adapted for TV or film. In 1991, Reynolds moved to Noordwijk in the Netherlands, where he met his wife Josette (who is from France) and worked for the European Space Research and Technology Centre (part of the European Space Agency ) until 2004, when he left to pursue writing full-time. He returned to Wales in 2008 and lives near Cardiff . The Inhibitor Sequence: The Prefect Dreyfus Emergencies: Standalone: Science fiction author This
1575-509: The hypothetical mirror matter ). They can only communicate through manipulating inertia and gravity, consequently communication with them ensues through the use of large tables covered in alien script with a heavy ball in the centre. The Whisperer can move the ball on their side of the matter gap to cause the ball on the table to move to different scripts (similar to a Ouija board ). The Whisperers can pass through most Structure doors unhindered but with some have to use passkeys like other races, it
1620-561: The main section; the only ship to be seen is named The Gristleship by Bella owing to its unfavourable look. Musk Dogs themselves resemble "many dogs fighting over a single bone". They resemble terrestrial dogs but are much larger with multiple legs, genitalia and mouths at odd angles. They are highly territorial with different members of the ship constantly competing with each other, visitors are marked by greeting Musk Dogs in an effort to gain status, Musk Dogs that displease their pack are often eaten. The only dealing any inhabitant of Janus has with
1665-435: The mastery of genetics that the Fountainheads possess, in spite of having few records of terrestrial marine life the Fountainheads are able to engineer a variety of fish that would not be out of place if found on Earth. Their mastery over biology is further demonstrated by their resurrection of previously dead (and now frozen) members of the crew and their ability to rejuvenate crew members to a younger age. Fountainhead society
1710-425: The moon, revealed to be a camouflaged alien spacecraft, Lind and her crew are caught in the field of the ship's inertialess drive , causing them to travel farther and faster than expected, and beyond their capacity to return to Earth. Realising their predicament, the crew decide to land on the moon and attempt to survive the flight out of the Solar System, wherever it may take them. Eventually it becomes apparent that
1755-437: The passkey leads to an outbreak of replicating femtotech causing many deaths, at the same time it is revealed that the Musk Dogs are not tapping energy from Janus but priming the moon to explode so as to blow a hole in the wall of the Structure. Little is known about The Uncontained but they are said to be a fiercely violent race. Upon their arrival in the Structure they immediately set about attacking nearby civilizations causing
1800-497: The perspective of our real world (in fact he is from a version of our past), serving as a proxy for the reader in confronting the unfamiliarity of the advanced science fiction aspects and in having a much more linear storytelling process. Reynolds's previous protagonists started out fully absorbed in the exoticisms of the future setting and his previous Revelation Space works have several interlinked story threads, not necessarily contemporaneous. According to Reynolds, while Century Rain
1845-527: The planet Yellowstone in the Epsilon Eridani system. It was published in the United Kingdom on 2 April 2007. Since its publication, the title of The Prefect has been changed to Aurora Rising to more align with the name of the sequel, Elysium Fire , which was published in 2018, marking the first novel length return to the Revelation Space universe since 2007. This sub-series within
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1890-561: The protagonists of another work. While a great deal of science fiction reflects either very optimistic or dystopian visions of the human future, Reynolds's future worlds are notable in that human societies have not departed to either positive or negative extremes, but instead are similar to those of today in terms of moral ambiguity and a mixture of cruelty and decency, corruption and opportunity, despite their technology being dramatically advanced. The Revelation Space series includes eight novels, seven novellas, and six short stories set over
1935-498: The science in his books to what he personally believes will be possible, and he does not believe faster-than-light travel will ever be possible, but that he adopts science he believes will be impossible when it is necessary for the story. Most of Reynolds's novels contain multiple storylines that originally appear to be completely unrelated, but merge later in the story. Eight of his novels and several of his short stories take place within one consistent future universe, usually now called
1980-412: The ship is heading towards Spica , a close binary pair in the constellation of Virgo . At one point before the landing, Bella's closest friend and subordinate, Svetlana Barseghian, pushes for Bella to turn the ship around while there is still a chance to return to Earth. Bella decides that turning back is too dangerous, angering Svetlana, who then leads a mutiny and, after the ship lands, exiles Bella to
2025-471: Was published, which he says marked the beginning of a more serious phase of writing. As of 2011 he has published over forty shorter works and nine novels . His works are hard science fiction, typically in the sub-genres of space opera and noir , and reflect his professional expertise with physics and astronomy, included by extrapolating future technologies in terms that are consistent, for the most part, with current science. Reynolds has said he prefers to keep
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