- Hardcover: 85 pages
- Publisher: Subterranean Press; Sgd Ltd edition (December 2008)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1596061847
- ISBN-13: 978-1596061842
- Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 14.5 x 1.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 249 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #592,842 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.2 out of 5 stars (15 customer reviews)
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is a little gem of a book., Jan 24 2009
By Lisa M. Mims - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Six Directions of Space (Hardcover)
Only 84 or so pages long, this is another refreshing dive into the cosmos that is the writing of Alastair Reynolds.The story follows "Yellow Dog", a female government spy for an intergalactic empire of the Mongol Empire who is investigating 'phantoms' in what appears to be their spacelane wormhole. She has a pony.
As for the rest of it, the book is too short for me to give you more without spoiling it. Suffice it say, it's emotionally the usual combination of mean and very kind that is characteristic of Reynold's work. (Particularly because he is a horse lover.)
The book also has anti-Christian, anti-tribalism themes that are amazingly current for this time in history. If that's your sort of thing, you will be suitably impressed. If not, this isn't the book for you.
Ridicule of at least one major religion aside, what is most striking about the story is that it nails Gen-X themes of disenfranchisement by government, religion, and home. Reynolds seems to believe that the only thing that is real, in the Cartesian sense of the word, even, is self-reliance and kindess towards others. It's a world view many in our age have.
Very interesting.
P.S. Because of backroom negotiations between Amazon and Golancz that I can't write about without Amazon refusing to publish this review, it's not actually hard to get this book by ordering it through Amazon. It just looks like that's difficult--you may have to wait a few weeks from the time of ordering.
And if you do buy it, you may be wonderfully surprised: mine was a signed copy of 1000. I'm particularly touched that I inadvertently acquired something the author actually held in his hands.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
A good novella, but..., Sep 20 2009
By C. E. Brooks - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Six Directions of Space (Hardcover)
Disappointingly, I found after receiving TSDoS, that it was just a hard cover printing of the same novella that had previously been published in the "Galatic Empires" collection edited by Gardner Dozois for the Science Fiction Book Club. If you've not already read it, it's an excellent story of several galactic empires ovelapping in alternate universes. However, I'd recommend the "Galactic Empires" collection instead, in which you'll get 6 good short stories, instead of just this one.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Am I the Only One?, Aug 10 2009
By Glenn R. Bell - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Six Directions of Space (Hardcover)
I loved this short story, but I too was brought up by the "then there were other adventures" shortcut. The author is a recently emerged giant in his field and all of us who enjoy his writing anxious await his next novel. Now to my point, this story was included, in total, in the SFBC edition of 2008 titled "Galactic Empires" along with pieces by Peter F. Hamilton, Neal Asher, Robert Reed, Stephen Baxter and Ian McDonald, a dream team of writers with terriffic stories of their own. Those that feel they overspent for this book may what to seek "Galactic Empires" out on the secondary market at AMAZON. Hope this gets printed, I am a very good and enthusiastic supporter of AMAZON.
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