thegooddoctor
8/4/2023
Despite being a huge fan /read 'till your vision fogs over / keep going until after he has scared you half to (or even sometimes beyond) death ... this particualr story is probaby my least-fsvourite by Alastair Reynolds.
I was hooked for all eternity by his stories "Beyond the Aquila Rift", "Zima Blue" and "Signal to Noise". The Revelation Space series is mind-altering. I recommend giving this one a miss, and starting elsewhere.
A word about my rating system for this website (I have done reviews for 270+ "books" (including short stories, novelettes and novellas, as well as novels).
Their system is out of 5 stars, and allows you to use half-stars, so highest rating is 5 full stars, next-highest 4 ½ stars, etc. -- and lowest is ½ star. I did NOT want to space these ratings equally, giving just as much precedence to low-quality mush as to really good works. For that reason, I laid out my system as follows:
I begin with one star being equivalent to a rating of "C -". Progressing upwards, I add ½ star for each step, up to the maximum 5 stars, which is equivalent to a rating of "A"+. I reserve ½ star for BOMBS, there being no option of zero or negative stars.
Having said all of that, a rating of 1 star for me is equivalent to C -, so really not all that low.