Alastair Reynolds, Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days

Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days

Alastair Reynolds

Ace, Jan 2005, $22.95, 240 pp.

ISBN: 0441012388

Diamond Dogs. On the lifeless planet, Golgotha lays an artifact, the Blood Spire, that has left humanity wondering about its secrets. One crew brutally died trying to uncover the mystery of this machine. Others clamor for the opportunity. Doctor Trintignant puts together a strong crew including Richard Swift and Roland Childe. These and other mercenaries on the team plan to enter the tower that waits enigmatically with math riddles that must be solved in a timely response or die. This exhilarating, first person account outer space caper feels more like a gothic planetary noir with fabulous amoral mercenary antiheroes trying to solve a "locked door" puzzler.

Turquoise Days. Naqi Okpik has spent her life learning about the aquatic Pattern Jugglers of planet Turquoise; currently she heads the largest scientific study of the Jugglers ever attempted. Her obsession has been driven by the Jugglers absorbing the body of her older sister Mina like some form of a sponge. Mina's human memories have become part of the Juggler collective. There are off-world scientists with outrageous personal and study demands that if implemented could destroy the sentient life-forms on the planet. This exciting, outer space thriller hooks the audience who obsess as strongly as Naqi has in a need to know the truth about the Jugglers even if it means readers swim into their collective.

Though quite different in theme and narration, the prime link between the tales is Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Universe. The well-written stories keep the audience locked into one sitting completions as both fabulous novellas contain strong casts to include the tower and the jugglers within a sense of doom storylines.

Harriet Klausner