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House of Suns (Gollancz S.F.)

House of Suns (Gollancz S.F.)

by Alastair Reynolds (Author)

  • Used

    Hardcover 2008

    $9.15

  • New

    Paperback 2009

    $12.63
Synopsis

Six million years ago, at the very dawn of the starfaring era, Abigail Gentian fractured herself into a thousand male and female clones: the shatterlings. Sent out into the galaxy, these shatterlings have stood aloof as they document the rise and fall of countless human empires. They meet every two hundred thousand years, to exchange news and memories of their travels with their siblings. Campion and Purslane are not only late for their thirty-second reunion, but they have brought along an amnesiac golden robot for a guest. But the wayward shatterlings get more than the scolding they expect: they face the discovery that someone has a very serious grudge against the Gentian line, and there is a very real possibility of traitors in their midst. The surviving shatterlings have to dodge exotic weapons while they regroup to try to solve the mystery of who is persecuting them, and why - before their ancient line is wiped out of existence, for ever.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
 Pages: 480
 Edition: 4th Impression
 Publisher: Gollancz
Published: 17 Apr 2008
ISBN 10: 0575077174
ISBN 13: 9780575077171
Book Overview: Alastair Reynolds is one of the world's finest writers of far future space opera, lauded by mainstream and genre press alike THE PREFECT made the SUNDAY TIMES Top Twenty 'A mastersinger of the space opera' THE TIMES 'Space opera's current Janacek' TELEGRAPH It's rare to find a writer with sufficient nerve and stamina to write novels that are big enough to justify using words like revelation and redemption . Reynolds pulls it off' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY All of Reynolds' novels are excellent backlist sellers; his first novel, REVELATION SPACE, has sold more than 100,000 copies in the UK alone.

Media Reviews
'Reynolds injects a good old fashioned sense of wonder into his science fiction by combining a story of epic scale with a series of awe-inspiring revelations, each more breathtaking than the last. The finale is thrilling, moving and humane. This is Reynolds' best novel to date. -- Eric Brown THE GUARDIAN Reynolds retains a highly readable style which allows him to dip into solid technology without losing the pace and he fleshes out a convincing background to his world. -- Anthony Brown STARBURST A crisper style that recalls hard SF from the '60s and '70s. This nod to the past seems fresh and new. -- Dave Golder BBC FOCUS A splendid example of SF as the literature of ideas, and depsite its longueurs is another triumph for Reynolds. -- Jes Bickham DEATHRAY The book's final revelations are near perfectly judged. Ultimately it's this that gives his novel real heart and soul - an infinitely rarer commodity than any amount of self-consciously insouciant cool. -- Jonathan Wright SFX His writing is solid, his characterisation intriguing; a fine entry for Reynolds. SCi FI NOW Reynolds has written a hugely entertaining extrapolation of contemporary mores: a far-flung comedy of manners, with fascinating precedents. This is warm hearted science fiction with big ideas that are easy to follow. House of Suns might well be the author's most human novel to date. -- INTERZONE Reynolds understands and uses hard science, giving an aura of plausibility to his wildest flights of fancy. As well as visionary brilliance, Reynolds also supplies a knock-your-socks-off ending. A thrilling, mind-boggling adventure. -- Lisa Tuttle THE TIMES He remains as devoted as ever to innovative, hard sf, gigantic, family-sized space opera. What ensues is a chase story across vast tracts of both time and space, veering closer to Iain M Banks's territory than Reynolds's earlier books ventured. Like its technology, when it starts moving, it moves at one hell of a clip. -- Andrew McKie THE TELEGRAPH As well as being an intelligent writer, he shows that he has an awful lot of heart. -- Roz Kaveney TIME OUT I abandoned science fiction years ago, except for the Discworld books, but a friend insisted I read House Of Suns by Alastair Reynolds. I tried it, became hooked, and have now read everything he's written. Alastair Reynolds is an astrophysicist, so he knows his stuff, but what really distinguishes him is a galaxy-sized imagination allied to a real story-telling ability. -- Bernard Cornwell
Author Bio
Alastair Reynolds was born in Barry, South Wales, in 1966. He studied at Newcastle and St Andrews Universities and has a Ph.D. in astronomy. He lived in the Netherlands for 15 years before returning to Wales. He gave up working as an astrophysicist for the European Space Agency to become a full-time writer. Revelation Space and Pushing Ice were shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award; Revelation Space, Absolution Gap and Century Rain were shortlisted for the British Science Fiction Award, which Chasm City won; Diamond Dogs was shortlisted for the British Fantasy Award.