# Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days by Alastair Reynolds (2002)



## AE35Unit (Dec 3, 2012)

This is a book containing two novellas by this author, set in his Revelation Space universe.
For those unfamiliar with Mr Reynolds he is a British former scientist,  once part of the European Space Agency, who gave up scientific research  to write SF full time.






In the first story, *Diamond Dogs*, we have two main characters,  Richard and his lifelong friend Roland Childe. The two have enjoyed  presenting each other with challenges all their life but Roland was  assumed dead years age, but one day  Roland approaches Richard with a  new challenge. At first Richard isnt interested, he's grown past all  that but as Roland fills him in about this latest endeavour he finds it  hard to resist and so accepts the challenge.
 The object of Roland's strange desire is an alien artifact called The  Blood Spire, a vast tower floating about the surface of a planet they  travel to from Chasm City. The tower consists of a series of rooms, each  requiring a test to complete before allowing access. Roland assembles a  team including Richard's former wife, chosen for her innate logical  ability, who was also believed dead.
The puzzles get more and more difficult, each wrong move punishing the  team harder and harder, until blood is spilt, and limbs are lost. One  member of the team is Doctor  Trintignant, an expert doctor and  cyberneticist, infamous for conducting  horrific medical experiments on allegedly unconsenting subjects, and he  helps patch the team up as they are injured. Not only do the tests  become harder but the doorways become narrower, forcing the team to  remove their armour....

This is a kind of maze-of-death story but also very much cutting edge  hard SF, somewhat akin to Iain M Banks or Neal Asher, but heavier on the  science, and is my favourite of the two.

*Turquoise Days *is  a different kettle of fish. Basically Naqi and her sister are part of a  team conducting research on the Pattern Jugglers, strange etheral  beings that live in the sea of the planet Turquoise in places called  Nodes. Naqi loses her sister near the start as she swims with and is  absorbed by them, and Naqi must continue without her. 2 years later a  ship arrives bringing deligates from another world who have an interest  in a moat that Naqi and her team are building around a Node. Naqi has  not swam with the Pattern Jugglers since her sister's death but is  suddenly forced to once more, to communicate with her absorbed sister...

 An interesting story with a  science fantasy feel, Naqi travelling about the world in dirigibles  rather than rocket ships-it has a more 'earthy' feel about it, while  still being very much future SF.


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## Ursa major (Dec 3, 2012)

I read this book in June 2008. Here are my thoughts on the two stories:


> I have mixed views about this book: I hated one novella and really like the other.
> 
> My dislike of *Diamond Dogs* has nothing to do with the writing or the imagination (no lack of it here) and everything to do with the characters. I don't want to give too much away, but feel that I can mention that obsession lies at the heart of this novella. Frankly, I dislike stories where obsession plays a large part. (This was one of the things that I didn't like about the first few chapters of Revelation Space; luckily, the obsession in that book has an underlying explanation.) To put it simply, I think of obsession as stupidity with pretensions. What's worse is at least two of the characters are almost unhinged by their stupidity (and the cast of characters isn't large); I lost patience with them. I'd like to say the story redeemed the novella; it didn't for me. I expected better of this author.
> 
> The people in *Turquoise Days*, by contrast, seemed to have their heads screwed on. The imagination so wasted in the previous novella was here used to create an interesting world where people with the best of intentions, and both eager to confront a terrible evil, find themselves in conflict.


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## AE35Unit (Dec 3, 2012)

Ursa major said:


> I read this book in June 2008. Here are my thoughts on the two stories:



Hmm, but Im obsessed with SF. And we're all obsessed with the Chrons....


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## Rodders (Dec 3, 2012)

Come on, we're all a little a little crazy with one obsession or another. 

Personally, I thought Diamond Dogs was a fantastic story and wouldn't have objected if it'd been turned into a larger novel.


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## J-Sun (Dec 3, 2012)

Like Ursa, I've posted elsewhere on this but, unlike Ursa, I can't find anything specifically relevant.

"Diamond Dogs" was probably closer to my kind of thing in the abstract (I agree: Asher-like) than "Turquoise Days" was (maybe McAuley/I. MacLeod-like) but, in actual execution, I preferred "TD". Both were worth reading, though.

(I dunno about worth _buying_. It still bugs me that the *two* _RS_ collections are a combined 670 pages (and one of them has just the two stories) while the _RS_ trilogy averages 678 pages each. So it's tough to argue that the two novellas wouldn't have fit in _Galactic North_ when it was compiled.)

Still making my way towards reading _RS #2_ and _#3_ but, having read _RS #1_, _Chasm City_, and _Pushing Ice_, vs. _Galactic North_ and _DD&TD_, I still much prefer the stories and recommend both collections. Even though _DD&TD_ came out first, I would start with _GN_, though, or read them mixed together like they should have been published.

The obsession aspect of "DD" didn't bother me as much as logistical/logical details in the story and a certain density in either it or myself regarding the theme. "Space pretty, obsession bad" doesn't seem to be quite enough but I'm not sure what more was going on.

As far as "TD", in a way it was a boring "exotic tour", but I liked the society-building, the Pattern Juggler stuff, and it does build up to good conflict as it goes on.


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## Ursa major (Dec 3, 2012)

I found some of your previous comments on Diamond Dogs, J-Sun.

In this post, you said:


> That's a pretty harsh story and I'm still not sure what I think of it. It was definitely interesting while reading it, though.


 
And in this post, you said:


> Yeah, that more or less corresponds with my impressions though I think my biggest problem with DD was (spoilers): with Childe's memory dumps getting passed from clone to clone despite all the horrible ways some should have been lost and with the idea of a carefully assembled team composed of different supposedly vital skills turning out to be mostly useless cannon fodder.


 
The posts also cover other things about the  story.

(Apologies if you had found these posts, but found them irrelevant.)


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## J-Sun (Dec 4, 2012)

Ursa major said:


> I found some of your previous comments on Diamond Dogs, J-Sun.



Thanks Ursa - I did come across some stuff but I don't remember what and, if I came across what you found I should have paid better attention - the spoiler part in the second quote, especially, does give specific examples of the "logistical/logical details" I mentioned above.


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## AE35Unit (Dec 4, 2012)

The thing I noticed about DD was after all the trouble of assembling a team of various talents, Roland and Richard could have gone alone from the start if only theyd trusted the doctor and his armour!  Also what bugged me was, several times they exited the tower to get their strength back, yet they managed to remember how to get back thru the doors! I wouldnt have been able to remember!


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## Rodders (Dec 4, 2012)

It had the "Tales of the Unexpected" feel to it, i thought.


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## AE35Unit (Aug 9, 2022)

Almost 10 years since I posted this. I fancy a re read


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