Zima Blue and Other Stories [Night Shade Books]

If there is a single unifying theme to the stories collected here it is that nothing (and no one) is just as it appears. Whether it's a matter of individual identity (conflicted as in "The Real Story" or transcendent as in the title story), illusion, misinformation, or multiverse cross-over, Reynolds nests misdirection and incomplete understanding at the core of each tale; "Zima Blue and Other Stories" is as much an anthology of mysteries and whodunnits as it is traditional SF (and these stories are most certainly that).

Not that each story is equally rewarding, mind you. While "Beyond the Aquila Rift," "Enola," and "Zima Blue" are truly brilliant and "Spirey and the Queen" is as giddy a space-opera hoot as any a Golden Age periodical show more produced, "Hideaway" and "Angels of Ashes" were merely adequate and felt forced and gloomy. "Understanding Space and Time" is comparatively a piece _sui generis_ here, as if Reynolds mixed a Cosmic Cocktail using Douglas Adams' Whiskey and cosmology infodump soda; the musical selections that accompany it are well-chosen, though.

Via Spirey, Reynolds also provides me with a phrase I know I'll be using now and again when she worries about "suffering from acute existence failure." Nice; thanks, Al! show less

Alastair Reynolds writes great short stories. And some of them are in this collection, but mostly they aren't. This is half good stuff, half off-cuts, and it honestly isn't where I'd recommend anyone start with his short stories. (Beyond the Aquila Rift is definitely the place to start.) That said, there's enough stuff in here that's worth reading and NOT in Beyond the Aquila Rift that this one is worth the time of -- well, someone like me, who has read almost every book Reynolds has written and a fair number of his short stories.

This book is notable for collecting all three Merlin stories (BAR only has the middle one, Minla's Flowers; it does stand alone, but the context of Hideaway and the resolution of Merlin's Gun are very nice to show more have). It also has both Carrie Clay stories (The Real Story and Zima Blue; the latter is better, and it's in BAR, but the former is also very good). Other stand-outs (that are NOT in BAR), for me:

ENOLA. I'm not sure why this wasn't in BAR; it's definitely, in my opinion, one of Reynolds's better stories. A trinket-seller in a marketplace is not what she seems, and neither is the world she lives in.

CARDIFF AFTER. The odd part of this one for me is that it is linked to Signal to Noise, which is the only Reynolds story I've ever found not worth finishing -- like, he's sometimes better, he's sometimes worse, but he's never just a dull mess, except in Signal to Noise. But Cardiff After is shorter, punchier, and more interesting. Cardiff is destroyed by a terrorist bomb in one universe, and, thanks to a quantum connection system, that has a number of effects on another universe, where Cardiff is fine.

SPIREY AND THE QUEEN. It's a space war between two significantly-named factions, and Spirey and Yarrow are chasing a defector on orders from their superior. And then they land, and discover that literally nothing is how they thought it was, including the war itself.

I'm glad I read this. More Reynolds is always a good thing. (Although, wow, when you read a lot of him at once, you become grimly aware of how extremely not at all queer his futures are.) But if you haven't read any Reynolds, start with House of Suns (if you want a novel) or Beyond the Aquila Rift (if you want short stories). Don't start here. show less

This is an excellent collection of short stories written and published over an extended period of time primarily from Interzone Magazine and Asimov's Science Fiction magazine, brought together here and made widely available for the first time. I wasn't wowed by every story but most of these are very good. Although most of the stories are rather small scale, and a few set in the near future, they are almost all within a "space opera" universe. Vast explorations and immense periods of time and ancient alien civilizations and technology are a given in just about every story - but the stories themselves are focused on small scenes and just one or two characters. Suffice it to say, I really enjoyed these stories.

These tend to be all hard show more science stories and the info dump a time or two such as what happens in "Understanding Space and Time", can cause a bit of overload in what was otherwise a pretty great story. My favorite story here was the last, the title story, Zima Blue. It gave me the warm fuzzies at the end also, with a bit of homage to my favorite Asimov story, "The Bicentennial Man". I was also quite moved by "Beyond the Aquila Rift."

Reynolds provides an afterword to each story which adds to the enjoyment of the collection, in small ways.

I read the US edition of stories published by Nightshade Press in 2006. A later expanded UK collection has more stories. show less

I’ve recently read many science fiction works by Alastair Reynolds, but this was the first collection of his short stories I’ve seen. It is a pretty broad assortment of stories, some more science fiction than others, and a few that are rock “hard”. What I mean by that is that the astrophysics is meticulously explained, far above my ability to comprehend. In fact, he could just be spouting absolute nonsense and not one in a million could call him on it.

If you like space opera, or Alastair Reynolds in particular, the majority of these stories will find your favor. I thought the title work, Zima Blue, was particularly poignant.

This collection of short stories NOT set in the Revelation Space world shows greater range than all of Reynolds' other books combined! Space Opera and identity confusion are mixed with near-future, earth-bound stories and even a completely non-SF story. Some of the characters/backgrounds have multiple stoires and I could happily read more about most of them.

Each story or sequence has an afterword by the author - some of these are interesting.

My successful encounter with Alastair Reynold's short fiction in Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days persuaded me to look for more of his stories collections and this one proved to be again different from what I expected: there is a wide range of themes and moods in this anthology, and it helped me appreciate the different shades of storytelling of this amazing author.


Continue reading over at SPACE and SORCERY Blog

Really good short-stories that can get a little samey