Zima Blue and Other Stories

VLK249 reviewed Zima Blue and Other Stories by Alastair Reynolds

Review of 'Zima Blue and Other Stories' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Got this book after watching "Love, Death, and Robots" and the short "Zima Blue." Was screaming at the screen, "Who wrote this? Who is the writer?! I need their work now!!!" Received it as a birthday present, and I love, love, love it. Most of the work runs in the realm of bittersweet stories, of course everyone has their favorites. Mine is "Enola." If you're obsessed with WWII, you know exactly what an Enola is and I was amused by the AI's cleverness but also its compassion. Generally his characters, being humans on the fringe, or AI, are smart, engaging, thoughtful. I also appreciated the author's comments appended to the shorts. Insight for any fresh writer who wants that raw clarity into the creative and especially the publishing process.

I've been avoiding hard sci-fi and its accompanying genres because I don't know where to look, but enjoyed Alastair's works and …

Got this book after watching "Love, Death, and Robots" and the short "Zima Blue." Was screaming at the screen, "Who wrote this? Who is the writer?! I need their work now!!!" Received it as a birthday present, and I love, love, love it. Most of the work runs in the realm of bittersweet stories, of course everyone has their favorites. Mine is "Enola." If you're obsessed with WWII, you know exactly what an Enola is and I was amused by the AI's cleverness but also its compassion. Generally his characters, being humans on the fringe, or AI, are smart, engaging, thoughtful. I also appreciated the author's comments appended to the shorts. Insight for any fresh writer who wants that raw clarity into the creative and especially the publishing process.

I've been avoiding hard sci-fi and its accompanying genres because I don't know where to look, but enjoyed Alastair's works and am looking to give his own recommendations a try.

🌀 reviewed Zima Blue and Other Stories by Alastair Reynolds

Review of 'Zima Blue and Other Stories' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I'll admit that I have a hard time liking short stories. I feel they're rarely long enough to paint a picture that interests me. The first couple of stories were pretty uninteresting for me.

The three Merlin stories picked up the pace - they're separate stories, but featuring the same universe and protagonist.

A lot of the stories are about alternate realities and quantum theory. One story is about opening a communication channel to an alternate world, identical to ours up until the very moment of contact, where quantum theory tells us that observing something changes it.

Another story speculates about quantum immortality - if you die from an accident in this world, there are other worlds where you survived. And by extension, there is a world where you never die at all - that last dying breath is always followed by another one in some alternate world.