Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days

Revelation Space, Book 6

By: Alastair Reynolds

Narrated by: John Lee

Diamond Dogs

The planet Golgotha - supposedly lifeless - resides in a remote star system, far from those inhabited by human colonists. It is home to an enigmatic machinelike structure called the Blood Spire, which has already brutally and systematically claimed the lives of one starship crew that attempted to uncover its secrets. But nothing will deter Richard Swift from exploring this object of alien origin.

Turquoise Days

In the seas of Turquoise live the Pattern Jugglers, the amorphous, aquatic organisms capable of preserving the memories of any human swimmer who joins their collective consciousness. Naqi Okpik devoted her life to studying these creatures - and paid a high price for swimming among them. Now she may be the only hope for the survival of the species - and of every person living on Turquoise.

©2002 Alastair Reynolds (P)2015 Tantor

Critic reviews

"[R]eaders familiar with Reynolds will find intriguing sidebars." ( Kirkus)

Great short stories

I love it when an author creates short stories in the universe that we love to live in, but don’t concern any main story characters. These two stories are very fun to listen to.

Interesting characters and worlds

Excellent performance. Unique and soothing voice. Immersive world building. The novella format crystallizes the challenges that the characters face. Their responses to these challenges demonstrate their character.

Virtuoso sci-fi, but not for RS newbies

Any additional comments?

If one can be a sci-fi virtuoso, Alastair Reynolds is it. You enjoy his work immensely, but you can never figure out how he does it.

Diamond dog, Turquoise days are two short stories/novellas. You should have read one or two books in the Revelation space-series before taking them on, otherwise words like Ultras, jugglers and Chasm City may through you off.

Diamond days is the story about people penetrating an alien and deadly maze. Turquoise days circles on the isolationist planet Turquoise and it's home-grown research on the juggler phenomenon.

The novellas are not as good as the novels in the Revelation space-series, but still fills me with that kind of wonder I am after when reading a Reynolds novel. John Lee is brilliant as ever.

Two connected novellas

Was not my favorite in this series. The first part - Diamond Dogs was a credulity stretch. The second part interesting and these stand alone from the other books though add a dimension to the world.

Loved This

I'm a big Reynolds fan...and John Lee's narration is amazing. I could listen to him narrate a phone book. The stories here are exceptionally entertaining, especially for fans of hard sci fi.