Galactic North
Locus Award nominee 2007.
Set in the Revelation Space universe – the first short story collection by "one of SF's best and most ambitious novelists." (SFX)
With eight short stories and novellas – including three original to this collection – Galactic North imparts the centuries-spanning events that have produced the dark and turbulent world of Revelation Space.
Centuries from now, the basic right to expand human intelligence – beyond its natural limits – has become a war-worthy cause for the Demarchists and Conjoiners. Only vast lighthugger starships bind these squabbling colonies together, manned by the panicky and paranoid Ultras. And the hyperpigs just try to keep their heads down.
The rich get richer. And everyone tries not to think about the worrying number of extinct alien civilizations turning up on the outer reaches of settled space... because who's to say that humanity won't be next?
Alastair Reynolds
Alastair Reynolds (born in 1966 in Barry, Wales) is a British science fiction author. He specialises in dark hard science fiction and space opera and noir toned stories.
Reynolds spent his early years in Cornwall, moved back to Wales before going to Newcastle, where he read Physics and Astronomy. Afterwards, he earned a PhD from St Andrews, Scotland. In 1991, he moved to Noordwijk in the Netherlands where he met his wife Josette (who is from France). There, he worked twelve years for the European Space Research and Technology Centre, part of the European Space Agency. About half of his time in ESA he spent working on S-Cam, the world's most advanced optical camera. In 2004 when he left ESA to pursue writing full time. He returned to Wales in 2008 and lives near Cardiff with his wife. They like horse riding, birds, long walks in the woods, good curries and old films.
Revelation Space
The Revelation Space universe is a fictional universe which was created by Alastair Reynolds and used as the setting for a number of his novels and stories. Its fictional history follows the human species through various conflicts from the relatively near future (roughly 2200) to approximately AD 40000 (all the novels to date are set between 2427 and 2727, although certain stories extend beyond this period). It takes its name from Revelation Space, which was the first published novel set in the universe.
The main trilogy (also known as the Inhibitor trilogy) consists of 1) Revelation Space, 2) Redemption Ark and 3) Absolution Gap, and deals with humanity coming to the attention of the inhibitors and the resultant war between them.
Revelation Space consists of four primary books, and includes five additional books that complement the series but are not considered mandatory reads, and the series is set to expand with the upcoming release of one more book. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
Related series Prefect Dreyfus Emergency