WEDNESDAY’S SHORT STORIES #44: Belladonna Nights and Other Stories By Alastair Reynolds

I’m a big fan of Alastair Reynolds and his space operas. In Belladonna Nights and Other Stories, Reynolds captures the immensity of Space with its isolated, disparate human habitats. “Plague Music” explores the aspects of a future Pandemic. I’ve read Reynolds’ SF novels about Prefect Dreyfus who is a future law enforcer. “Open and Shut” takes Prefect Dreyfus into some very unpleasant corners of the extreme libertarian-democratic Glitter Band culture, where personal freedom collides with necessary limitations, hard choices, and harder punishments. 

My favorite story in Belladonna Nights is “Night Passage,” a grim encounter with alien technology and its unanticipated effects. If you’re looking for well-told tales of the future, I highly recommend Belladonna Nights and Other Stories. They possess that elusive “sense of wonder.” GRADE: A

Table of Contents:

  • Introduction: Winter Did Come
  • Belladonna Nights
  • Different Seas
  • For the Ages
  • Visiting Hours
  • Holdfast
  • The Lobby
  • A Map of Mercury
  • Magic Bone Woman
  • Providence
  • Wrecking Party
  • Sixteen Questions for Kamala Chatterjee
  • Death’s Door
  • A Murmuration
  • Open and Shut
  • Plague Music
  • Night Passage
  • Story Notes

17 thoughts on “WEDNESDAY’S SHORT STORIES #44: Belladonna Nights and Other Stories By Alastair Reynolds

  1. patti abbott

    I doubt I have ever read a science fiction short story. But I guess I have seen more than one on the Twilight Zone.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Steve, BELLADONA NIGHTS is a little pricey, but worth it. I have the new Alastair Reynolds SF novel, INHIBITOR PHASE, in the On-Deck Circle.

      Reply
      1. george Post author

        Steve, if you buy the hardcover edition of BELLADONNA NIGHTS, Subterranean Books also gives you the Kindle edition free.

  2. Rick Robinson

    Nice cover, but I’m not a fan of Reynolds writing. I’m glad you find that sense of wonder in his stuff, but I don’t. I do, see similarities to Vance, whom I know is a favorite of yours.

    Reply
  3. wolf

    I don’t remember reading any of Reynolds’s short stories but just looked him up in my little database:
    1REVELATION SPACE (SIGNED HARDCOVER) (INHIBITOR 1)
    1REDEMPTION ARK (SIGNED HARDCOVER) (INHIBITOR 2)
    The only problem is that I’m in Hungary right now while the books are in Germany – and international travel in Europe right now is kind of risky and time-consuming.

    Reply
    1. Todd Mason

      I haven’t yet read enough (full stop) Reynolds, but I endorse George’s citation of him as one of the innovators in space opera and related sorts of epic sf.

      Reply
      1. george Post author

        Todd, Alastair Reynolds helped ignite the renewed interest in the Space Opera genre 30 years ago. And, he’s still at it!

    2. george Post author

      Tracy, Alastair Reynolds tends to write very long books. But one of his best (and shortest) is The Prefect (aka, Aurora Rising). That would be a good place to start.

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *