But the universe Reynolds has created is enormous, and, in my opinion, perfect. The Culture (Banks) stands by itself, unparalleled and spectacular. This is the most insane universe I have ever seen in sci-fi. Wolves, face heat sinks, fetus stealing, immortal astronauts, religion, god-snails? A lot could be better, sure. Massive plot holes (or rather, subject matter to be filled at a later time?) But the universe it's set in works. Melding Plague? What's that? The scenery? It's like the whole of Bladerunner was shoved into a blender with Alien (the first one, mind you) Then you're off, you need to find out where where everything goes. Then you have this whole thing with Hausmann (Book 2). (and you still have like 7000 pages left) By the time you realize why this drab idiotic setting is so drab, you're hooked. Once you get to the marriage gun, it starts getting readable. And these idiots are digging in the dirt. You start out on this drab idiotic setting for anyone to be on. We live surrounded by hills, woods and wildlife, and not too much excitement.

I met my wife in the Netherlands through a mutual interest in climbing and we married back in Wales. In my spare time I am a very keen runner, and I also enjoying hill-walking, birdwatching, horse-riding, guitar and model-making. I moved to the Netherlands to continue my science career and stayed there for a very long time, before eventually returning to Wales. I was born in Wales, but raised in Cornwall, and then spent time in the north of England and Scotland. Some of my books and stories are set in a consistent future named after Revelation Space, the first novel, but I've done a lot of other things as well and I like to keep things fresh between books. I write about a novel a year and try to write a few short stories as well. I started off publishing short stories in the British SF magazine Interzone in the early 90s, then eventually branched into novels. I'm Al, I used to be a space scientist, and now I'm a writer, although for a time the two careers ran in parallel.

Revelation space goodreads