Skip to main content

Halcyon Years (SF) - Alastair Reynolds *****

Mystery novels have become one of the best sub-genres of science fiction. Think, for example, of the classic Asimov The Caves of Steel, Alastair Reynolds' own Prefect Dreyfus books, or Adam Roberts' Real Town Murders. We've also had the gritty gumshoe noir version, arguably kicked off by Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and hence Blade Runner, but also superbly done in Nick Harkaway's Titanium Noir. Now, Alastair Reynolds has also embraced gumshoe noir, but with some characteristically clever twists.

Here, the put-upon detective (who almost inevitably gets beaten up early on in the narrative) is Yuri Gagarin. Yes, that Yuri Gagarin (sort of). He may not be familiar to younger readers, but to anyone of a certain age, the first man in space was a big name. However, the story is not set in the early 60s Soviet Union, but rather on a generation starship called Halcyon, seemingly around 400 years in the future.

Gagarin has not only to work out what has happened in the two unexplained deaths his mysterious client Ruby Blue wants investigated, but also a situation that seems to put the whole ship at risk. Add in confusion over his own existence and there's a whole lot going on. Initially, I found things a little slow - though extremely intriguing, it took a long time for Gagarin to start getting his ducks in a row. But about half way through, Reynolds changes gear and the writing becomes brilliant.

Often with one of these crossovers we get either SF with a touch of detection, or a detective novel that just happens to be set in the future. But Reynolds masterfully mixes the two, making it effective both in terms of its SF complexity and in the satisfyingly deep mystery that Gagarin gradually uncovers. 

Halcyon Years has impressively many layers, but Reynolds' speciality is making a complex plot accessible. This is possibly his best book - and that's saying something.

Hardback:   
Kindle:  
Using these links earns us commission at no cost to you
These articles will always be free - but if you'd like to support my online work, consider buying a virtual coffee or taking out a membership:
Review by Brian Clegg - See all Brian's online articles or subscribe to a weekly email free here

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Who Invented the Computer? – Ian Watson

Ian Watson is the author of  The Universal Machine  and featured in a recent  Four Way Interview . Saturday June 23 2012 was the centenary of the birth of Alan Turing, the troubled genius who invented the modern computer. Why though do so few people recognize his name and his great achievements? In 1936 English mathematician Alan Turing, published a paper,  On Computable Numbers, with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem . This became the foundation of computing. In it Turing presented a theoretical machine that could solve any problem that could be described by instructions encoded on a paper tape. A Turing Machine could calculate square roots, whilst another might solve Sudoku puzzles. Turing demonstrated you could construct a single  Universal Machine  that could simulate any Turing Machine. One machine solving any problem for which a program could be written – sound familiar? He’d invented the computer. Then,  computers  were peop...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Star Book – Peter Grego ****

This attractive landscape format book combines an excellent introduction to the stars and basic astronomy with a set of star maps, plus in depth looks at some of the stars featured, with a  bonus section on the solar system. Amazon says it’s a hardback, but in fact it’s a paperback with a rather ingenious cover – you can’t tell from the photo, but the words ‘The Star Book’ are punched through as a series of holes that show the white paper of the next page beneath. Like many astronomy/space books, the cover lacks shelf appeal because it is mostly black, but at least there is some original thought here. Unlike many books in this format which tend to concentrate on the pictures, there is a good deal of excellent text by Peter Grego, so there was no feeling that you were only getting the star maps and star ‘biographies’, something these days much more suited to an iPad or smartphone app. Instead, the opening 30 or so pages give a very good introduction that would be valuable to ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ignorance: How it drives science – Stuart Firestein *****

This is a delightful little book that really gets you thinking. I stress the ‘little’ part not as a negative, but as a good thing. There is nothing worse than fat, bloated popular science books where the author feels they have to get 120,000 words to be taken seriously. This is the sort of book that can be read in a couple of hours – but you will get so much more out of it than one of those tedious doorstops. The premise underlying the book is in once sense extremely simple, yet is fundamental to an understanding of what science is and what scientists do. And it is an understanding that is totally at odds with the typical way science is portrayed both in university lectures and popular science books. As Stuart Firestein points out, what is important is not the facts, but rather the area of ignorance. The interesting part and the fundamental heart of science is not about what we know, but about what we don’t know and where we want to look next. Take this lovely quote: ‘Working ...
Post a Comment
Read more