Slow Bullets by Alistair Rynolds

[Rodders]

This came through my Amazon feed. Slow Bullets is a new novel by Alistair Reynolds that i haven't heard about.

It is a paperback and audiobook release, but it sounds interesting, here's the blurb;

"From the author of the Revelation Space series comes an interstellar adventure of war, identity, betrayal, and the preservation of civilization itself.

A vast conflict, one that has encompassed hundreds of worlds and solar systems, appears to be finally at an end. A conscripted soldier is beginning to consider her life after the war and the family she has left behind. But for Scur—and for humanity—peace is not to be.

On the brink of the ceasefire, Scur is captured by a renegade war criminal, and left for dead in the ruins of a bunker. She revives aboard a prisoner transport vessel. Something has gone terribly wrong with the ship.

Passengers—combatants from both sides of the war—are waking up from hibernation far too soon. Their memories, embedded in bullets, are the only links to a world which is no longer recognizable. And Scur will be reacquainted with her old enemy, but with much higher stakes than just her own life."

 

[Vertigo]

Sounds interesting.

 

[Silver Owl]

It's a novella! Just in case you didn't know

 

[Vince W]

Sorry, but at 192 pages that's a novel in my book. There was a time when novels regularly came in under 200 pages.

I'm really looking forward to this one.

 

[Rodders]

Novel, Novella. I'm looking forward to this, too.

 

[Gramm838]

I've had it a few days and am making my way through it, but's not a "read in one sitting" for me - maybe because I was less than enthused about the Poseidon's Children trilogy.

There are hints of some of his previous short stories/novellas in it (at least I think there are).

I dunno...I get the impression that AR has lost some of the 'hardness' from his writing, almost as if he's been told to tone it down to be more populist (I really hope he's not consciously trying to dumb his work down)

 

[Atum Hadu]

I'm a big fan of Reynolds, and I've read everything he's written with the exception of his Dr. Who book, but I can't say Slow Bullets is one of my favorites. I read it in mid-August, and I had to stop and think for a minute to remember how the plot unfolded and how it ended. That's a hell of a lot different than Revelation Space, which was stuck in my head for months and years afterward.

Everything about Slow Bullets is bare-bones, from the language, to the way the ship is described, to the characters. For a guy who is known for memorable starships, Reynolds didn't really make the ship in Slow Bullets stand out. Scur, the protagonist, isn't much different than previous Reynolds characters, and likewise the antagonist isn't a very memorable character.

Overall it's worth a read if you like Reynolds and his brand of SF, because he can still spin a compelling tale, but I sincerely hopes he returns to form with something in the Revelation Space universe, or something similar.