The mythology and history shared by many of Alastair Reynolds’ books has been called the Revelation Space Universe (RSU). The world gets its name from the first book to feature it, namely Revelation Space. RSU and space opera: Reynolds writes space opera, which to me means stories that contrast the heroic individuality of the protagonist against the enormity of space. That “enormity...
Plutarch was a priest, magistrate, ambassador, and essayist born in Chaeronea in Greece around 46CE (d. 120CE). The Greek states had already been part of the Roman Empire for two centuries by the time of his birth, and it is no surprise that at some point Plutarch became a citizen of Rome, changing his name to Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus. Plutarch (or Lucy, as I’m sure his friends called...
The Seven Beauties of Science Fiction is a book written by Istvan Csicsery-Ronay Jr, a professor of English at DePauw University and published in 2008. I wanted to have a bird’s eye view; I ended up in outer space. (Preface) There’s something inexpressible about SF[1]. This inexpressible something, the author suggests, reflects the role of SF in helping us parse and express the role...
