I haven’t read much science fiction over the last few years. I haven’t even read that much fantasy. I’ve been reading a lot fo mysteries and thrillers. Most of my sicience fiction consumption during the last twelve months was in the form of audiobooks, mainly Alastair Reynolds’ Revelation Space series with a little of David Drake’s Hammer’s Slammers thrown in. The bulk of my audio books (what hasn’t been nonfiction) has been Lovecraft, Wellman, Howard, and a little of C,lark Ashton Smith, plus some Conan Doyle and other short story wirters.

What got me to thinking about future histories was the audiobook of Alastair Reynolds’ latest novel, Halcyon Years. It’s a standalone deep space adventure, although I don’t think it falls into the category of space opera for reasons I won’t get into very deeply in order to avoid spolers.  I’ll say this, it’s a clever blend of hardboiled detective and hard science set on a generation ship.

It’s a standalone, and I don’t see how he can pull a sequel out of the ending that won’t be a letdown compared to t his one. I recommend it.

But I degress.

The topic of this post is future histories. Continue reading →