The Eight Worlds Were Even Better

[threemonkeys]

Another collection of short stories filling the gaps between the novels in an author's universe. This time it was Galactic North by Alastair Reynolds. Enjoyable with for the same sorts of reasons as the Baker collection the other day. Freed from the confines of progressing the big story arcs the author can have a bit of fun with the ideas. Perhaps not as entertaining as the Baker collection but Reynolds was better in one respect. This volume has a good afterword where Reynolds discusses the stories and even more interestingly talks about his literary influences. Turns out Reynolds has read and admired many of the authors that I like too. In particular he cites Larry Niven's Known Space stories as the inspiration to create a common universe to set his stories in - one where telling good stories was more important than consistency and adherence to some future history scholarship. I get that - those earlier Niven stories really did catch the imagination.