The Iron Tactician

There are few things as dependable in science fiction as an Alastair Reynolds novella. Even before you turn the first page, you know you’re going to get an entertaining story larded with eyeball kicks and laid on a substrate of some big idea or other. It’s almost the dictionary definition of twenty-first century sf… except, well, the genre now covers so much ground, and is so diverse, that Reynolds’s ur-sf is only one strand among many. Which is a good thing, I hasten to add. The Iron Tactician is about as dictiuonary-definition Reynolds sf as you can get, on the other hand. It’s a sequel of sorts to ‘Minla’s Flowers’ and ‘Merlin’s Gun’. Merlin stumbles across a cold swallowship and decides to see if it has a show more working syrinx (used to access a NAFAL network created by mysterious aliens). There’s one survivor aboard the derelicxt, and she reveals that the ship traded its syrinx centuries before to a nearby star system locked into a planetary war. So Merlin and Teal head for the planetary system, planning to trade back the syrinx. The locals ask them to perform a task in payment: recover the titular AI from a pirate band, because they need it to win the centuries-long war against their enemies. Of course, nothing is quite as it seems – not the Iron Tactician, nor the the prince who represents the owners of the syrinx, or indeed the syrinx itself. I enjoyed the novella, even though something slightly familiar about it nagged me as I read it. I’m not sure what it was, but something in it felt second-hand and I had not expected it. It’ll probably end up on a coyuple of award shortlists, because genre awards these days are totally corrupt, although I don’t think it deserves to. (No reflection on Alastair or his work, he’s very good at what he does – but I’d hate to think The Iron Tactician is one of the best novellas the genre has produced in 2016, and I know it’s not the best Alastair has written.) show less

The Iron Tactician by Alastair Reynolds is the latest novella featuring the character of Merlin. The story is a standalone and begins when Merlin discovers a derelict spaceship that appears to be deserted. When that doesn’t turn out to be entirely true, he finds himself with a passenger, Teal, and a trip to another star system with the hope of obtaining a part for his own ship that he hopes will aid him in the interstellar war against the deadly Huskers, who destroy starships and worlds.

Upon entering the star system, Merlin finds himself in the middle of a long-standing interplanetary war. It turns out that Teal and Merlin both may have a larger role in the system’s war than either of them understood.

Reynolds manages to pack a lot show more into a novella length story. The plot is interesting and the characters entertaining. It is difficult to truly flesh out characters in a story of this size, but Reynolds nevertheless gives you a good idea of who they are. The story is a complete arc, but it also leaves you curious about the larger universe and what comes next. An excellent story.

I was fortunate to receive an advance copy of this book. show less

Good SF ultimate goal must always be about the human condition. Literally. Always. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein arguably kick started the genre - a novel by a sex-positive teenage feminist in a corset, which tackled the question of what it means to be human, and how we connect with one another, and whether an individual can develop empathy or a moral compass in isolation, without family or society. Sf, as the genre of big ideas, and the genre that actively tackles universal questions of self, of society, of philosophy and religion and the nature of reality (yes, all of those…). It's who we are now, as well as how we might find ourselves living in the future - and that's always, always been the case. It's Margaret Atwood and Iain Banks show more and Arthur C Clarke and George Orwell and Octavia Butler and Robert A. Heinlein and Kurt Vonnegut and - well, all the damn classics. Hell, even “Star Trek”, cheesiest of pop culture staples, was absolutely tackling questions of civil rights and social justice on a weekly basis, under the pointy ears and sparkly moon rocks. It's always been about the characters, whether framed by technological innovation or political or geographical changes. Unfortunately the human condition does not inhabit this work by Reynolds. Reynolds is still confusing mass-market space-opera with SF. SF has always been about humanity dealing with hypothetical situations: you only have to look at the works of writers like Philip K. Dick or the above-mentioned Kurt Vonnegut to see that they are writing solely about the human condition. That’s what makes SF appealing to me. Reynolds sometimes is able to break the mold. No this time. All the characters are stereotypical in the extreme. Reynolds should think about way the Ferengi alone are depicted in Star Trek, e.g., the barkeep's put-upon brother who plots against said brother, and who eventually finds his own path, the mother who repudiates convention by her choice of clothing (wearing some) and by doing a "male's work" in finance, and the nephew who rejects Ferengi hyper-capitalism and joins Starfleet. We sense something profound wanting to come to the fore. The only I thing I felt when reading Reynolds was constipation. I know Reynolds is able to write much better than this, namely about relationships, reaction to change, questioning morals, and considering alternatives in a SF context. It's just a shame that Reynolds sometimes outputs crap like this.

SF = Speculative Fiction. show less

"The Iron Tactician" is a quick, fun novella from Reynolds. The story features his recurring character Merlin in a far-future setting similar to (but distinct from) Reynolds' "Revelation Space" universe. I believe this is the fourth Merlin story and (so far) I've read three of them. I don't think the reading order is too critical, but this story definitely takes place after "Minla's Flowers." (FYI, the first published story "Merlin's Gun" is chronologically the last Merlin story.)

"Iron Tactician" treads some familiar ground with other Merlin stories. Merlin rescues a lone survivor from a starship damaged by the Huskers, a cyborg race at war with humanity. Merlin is on a quixotic quest to obtain a mythical ancient weapon that may tip the show more balance in the war, but his ship is damaged and needs a rare device that enables access to a galaxy-spanning transit system. As luck has it, the wrecked starship just sold such a device to a nearby binary system and the survivor (Teal) was even part of the trade negotiation team. Merlin returns with Teal to the system, where several thousand years have passed since the visit (time dialation) and he finds the situation complicated as they are caught between two sides in a war that has raged for generations.

I enjoy Reynold's short fiction (maybe more so than his novel-length works) but characterization is probably his weakest point and "Iron Tactician" is no different in this regard. Merlin always feels like a slippery, undefined character - he constantly oscillates between semi-ruthless mercenary and principled do-gooder. The supporting cast also feels a little emotionally flat, particularly at the end when all the dark secrets are revealed and everyone just sort of processes it and moves on.

The Merlin stories are a bit like a darker take on Star Trek, and that might even be intentional on the part of the author. When you throw away sci-fi conventions like FTL travel and universal translators the universe becomes a lot messier place to live in. Reynolds is definitely a master at making you feel deep in your gut the almost-unimaginable vast distances and vast timescales that his strictly-relativistic futures take place in. show less

This story was my November 2016 Early Reviewer selection. Evidently there is a whole series of stories about this character, Merlin, roaming the spaceways to find a weapon to fight humanity's foe, the Huskers. The world-building was interesting, and the story adequate, but Merlin's character and his decision-making were confusing to me. I don't know if familiarity with prior stories would have made it more understandable, but based solely on this story, I would rate it only average for that reason.

I'd read Slow Bullets last year and enjoyed it very much so I thought I'd try another story by Reynolds. This novella was my first introduction to the character Merlin, who has appeared in many other stories by the author. I suspect I would have appreciated some aspects of this story more if I had been familiar with the earlier stories. Yet, as a stand-alone book, The Iron Tactician is a pretty good space opera story with much of what I'd expect from this genre, including a sentient spaceship. I definitely liked this book enough to seek out more Merlin stories from Reynolds.

A well-paced novella that reminded me of golden age SF. The main character, Merlin, is apparently the subject of an ongoing series by the author. The character clearly ties into a larger universe, one I'm interested in in checking out. However, the story itself stands on its own - I didn't feel any confusion or frustration that I was missing part of the story. A good read, and a great teaser for more of the series.