Portal/time travel/space opera/alt-world/detective mystery mashup. (Whew!)Wordsmithing was good. I laughed several times over the dialog. I dearly wanted at the end for Floyd to tell Auger (the co-protagonists with an unconsummated love), We'll Always Have Paris . Technically it was well done, the author has always had a firm grasp of the 'science' in science fiction. The 1959 alt-Paris major setting needed a little work. Nobody stepped in dog sh*t deposited in the middle of the sidewalk. The...

I've recently become a big fan of Alastair Reynolds, and with good reason! His currently released clutch of Science Fiction stories are inventive, well written, suspenseful, surprisingly close to actual scientific theory and generally really rather good. Despite his great writing style, it's always worth noting that, while many of his stories work as stand alone reads, they really are best when tied into the overarching world, and the explanations of his plethora of inventive new technological m...

“Enjoy it, kid. Enjoy feeling that you can make a difference.' Floyd flashed him a smile. 'It won't last forever."In Alastair Reynolds' Century Rain, Earth is uninhabitable due to what is called the Nanocaust. It is 300 years in the future and something strange is discovered at the end of a wormhole, a 20th century version of Earth. What is the purpose of this Earth and the alternate timeline it has been set upon? This novel feels part hard science fiction and part noir detective fiction. It is

If one can´t avoid the nanocaust, try at least fixing the problem with the help of time travel.Now that´s a completely different Reynolds novel than one is used to, no extremely far future with unbelievable highly developed tech, but instead with 2 relatively close futures, or even presents, or pasts, clashing together in a classical thriller crime style plot that is suspenseful until the end.Reynolds´single novels are something for true hardcore fans, because standalone novels have the problem

Perhaps Four and one half stars over all, "Century Rain" is a hard science adventure mixed with an old-style murder mystery.

WOW! What a cracking - but crazy - read. I'm still reeling from it. It doesn't get muddled or daft and yet it has everything... really... everything: time travel, spies, archaeology, cyborgs, a love triangle, wars, wormholes, virtual reality, a quest, death and sacrifice, murder mystery (with all the usual clichés lovingly included), nanotech, code-breaking, genocide, bodysnatching/ swapping, bootleg music, ecological disaster, white-knuckle chases, wraith-like horror characters, alternative his...

5 stars This fairly long novel is a true testament to the fact that sometimes the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts. This is an accessible hard science book mixed together with an early detective noir story.  As for the science it reaches for some very big concepts and contains many intriguing technologies. It however is lite compared to that of the wondrous science from the Revelation Space series.  The world building however, is top notch and the back story of the war between the Thr...

Alastair Reynolds is a former research astronomer with the European Space Agency, and now prolific hard-sf/space opera writer, best known for his Revelation Space novels and stories, which I have previously read. Century Rain is a 2004 stand-alone novel, and not set in his Revelation Space universe. I read it in paperback. Ironically, even though his fame rests primarily on the Revelation Space series, I have found his stand-alones to be more enjoyable.Century Rain is not just a story aside from...

“That’s the problem, you see. I mean, time travel is definitely involved here, but not in quite the way you’re thinking.”Time travel—but not as we know it—is the strongest, most imaginative and most remarkable aspect of Century Rain. The other Alastair Reynolds books I have read are all set in the far future*, a future so far flung practically nothing is recognizable except some human characters. Century Rain is quite atypical for Reynolds, it has two plot strands, one ostensibly set in 1959 and...

What to say?! This is a truly bonkers book - 500+ pages of wormholes, spaceships, alternate histories, 1950s detective fiction, romance, futuristic science fiction... There is a lot to enjoy in it, and a lot that I did enjoy, but unfortunately my overall impression isn't completely positive. The first two-thirds were good and there was some great, pacily written plot, interesting characters and touches of humour as the portion of the book set in an alternate Paris of 1959 came to its conclusion....

I learned a new word. Nanocaust. Artificially intelligent nanotech designed to control the weather and reverse global warming stops responding to human commands. More nanotech is designed to combat the rogue elements. They go rogue as well. After eight levels of nanotech are released the micromachines start consuming everything on sea and land for fuel – including us. This story takes place some 300 years in the future. Nobody lives on Earth. Humanity is divided into two main groups – Threshers

Al Reynolds is an unpredictable writer. This time, instead of his usual dark hard sci-fi, he delivered something entirely different.Set up on two levels, Earth in 2266 and an, let’s say, alternate one in 1959, the novel combines a highly technological post-apocalyptic world (which will never cease to amaze me) with a crime-mystery story and a musician-detective which at first I thought it was a combination between Poirot and Holmes, but later discovered that was inspired by inspector Maigret. Th...

This is my first Reynolds book. I was very impressed by the idea of this book and the science behind it. While during a few parts I felt like it was a little over my head, he mostly keeps it understandable for all readers. It was a very interesting plot and I enjoyed that it never felt boring even though it's a longer book. While his idea and concept for the story were great, he lacked in several areas. The characters were fairly flat - which was tolerable in the older sci-fi books but I rather

This might become one of my favorite Alastair Reynolds novels. Why? Because he manages to turn one hell of a tale out of a kitchen sink worth of ideas. Great characters, from an ex-jazz musician/gumshoe from an alternate-timeline 1959, to a complex archeologist 300 years in the future sifting through the remains of a nanotech-eaten Earth, to wormholes, body-snatching, one hellofacool mystery, with murder, Casablanca vibes, and a nail-biting space battle that reminded me of Iain M. Banks and Neal...

Imagine how good Alastair Reynolds could be if he learned how to write a decent conclusion. However, the fact is that he writes fascinating, compelling stories, develops interesting, empathetic characters, and immerses you in incredibly detailed universes based on concrete possibility based in science.And then he abandons them. Every single book of his I have read, including Revelation Space, Redemption Ark, Chasm City and Absolution Gap continues with the plot at a breakneck pace, until the fin...

Tagging 'Century Rain' was a harder job that expected. It's kind of an alternate history, but not quite. And it's kind of time travel, but not quite. But I can hang the science fiction and mystery tags with no second thoughts. So do these not quites make a not quite good story? Not at all. And while the book was not groundbreaking, nor did it take me to new undiscovered places and wonders, it was quite fun and held my attention all the way through.Susan White died under suspicious circumstances....

I reread this with my sister for the first time in about ten years. It’s a book I’ve always thought fondly of; I enjoyed it, as a teen, but my sister adored it. It’s actually the book that got her back into reading after years of not caring for it at all. I enjoyed several of Reynolds’ other books, too, but haven’t read any of them for… actually, far too long. So how did it measure up?Pretty darn well. The hard SF aspect I enjoyed less than I used to (though I also grasp it better than I used to...

Q:“Are you Asimov-compliant?”“No,” the robot said, with a sting of indignation. (c)Q:“I didn’t come all this way for nothing,... I’m not going to let a little space-time difficulty spoil my day.” (c) Atta girl.Q:“But at least you cared. At least you were ready to do something.” “This little mess... is all because of people who were ready to do something. People like me, who always know when they’re right and everyone else is wrong. Maybe what we need is a few less of us.” (c)So, Furies it is. Th...

First 40% was different and fun, very good. My advice: Read the first 40% and then stop when "they leave". Pretend it was a novella and ends well. Rest of the book was boring, long-winded verbal diarrhea, insulting. 250 pages too long. It's like those 1/2 hour documentaries on Discovery Channel that have been stretched to an hour, to fill space and add more advertising, repeating the same words and footage again and again. Crap.NOTE: Please, please also read these Reynolds masterpieces:Turquoise...

Paris, noir murder investigation, time-travel, archaeology. Gimme, gimme, gimme!!! I do so love it when a writer takes all my favorite things and puts them into a book I can devour excitedly. A part of me is always a bit frustrated I wasn’t there early enough to write it myself, but what can you do? I opt to simply enjoy the ride.In 2266, a nano-robot apocalypse has forced humans off their home planet; Verity Auger is an archaeologist who digs up evidence of the past civilisation from an eerily