http://yet.org/2008/03/diamond_dogs_t... ( )

Combining two shorter stories turn out to be to Reynolds advantage. Some of the trouble I've had with his former work includes pushing things for too many pages only to resolve it all in the last five. This format suits him better as the short five page solutions can now be used without feeling like he is cheating. ( )

Two excellent novella style works, here. The first is about an alien artifact that is a complicates of series of mathematical puzzles that get harder as they go on, and the desperate lengths people will go to to try and understand it.

The second is about two sisters and their relationship with the biology of the strange ocean on their planet, as well as the unstable political situation they live in.

Fine work.

Diamond Dogs Turquoise Days : Diamond Dogs - Alastair Reynolds
Diamond Dogs Turquoise Days : Turquoise - Alastair Reynolds

Mathematics requires surgical precision.

5 out of 5

I sea we have a problem.

3.5 out of 5

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2007/01... ( )

http://www.leftfield.org/~rawdon/book... ( )

Wow. You know that bit where you finish reading and you think you're going to do something else now but instead you have to sit still and kinda absorb until it all settles? Really, really liked Diamond Dogs.

Two novellas; Diamond Dogs is about a bunch of talented individuals challenging an alien puzzle device except it is really all about the relationships and obsession and, well, go read it. Turquoise Days is about a girl who gave herself over to an intelligent alien ocean and the sister who didn't. The story is close behind in love but I should have waited longer between stories because it suffered from being after Diamond Dogs. ( )