‘At Budokan’ by Alastair Reynolds
Reynolds is by far the biggest name in this anthology. He is a superb short story writer who is now perhaps best know for his huge novels (and, indeed, his huge ten year contract with Gollancz). But he is not an immediately obvious fit for Shine; his vast space operas often attract the adjective “gothic” and the timescales he routinely deals with are virtually nihilistic.
Well, this story isn’t much like anything else in this book and isn’t much like anything else he’s written. ‘At Budokan’ starts with a nightmare about being “crushed to death by a massive robot version of James Hetfield”. It ends with a tyrannosaurus rex playing a Gibson Flying V. Near future and optimistic don’t really come into it.
Near-future? See above.
Optimistic? See above.
Readable? Yes.
Good? No.
First comment on here in ages and I’m pointing out a typo (James Hetfield if it’s referring to the Metallica vocalist/guitarist) – someone shoot me.
Is this story available online or only in this collection? I just want to read it for the death metal playing dinosaur.
Lal
9 September 2011 at 20:14
Is this story available online or only in this collection? I just want to read it for the death metal playing dinosaur.
I think it is only here (Reynolds hasn’t updated his bibliography for a while). Still, he must be due another collection soonish. That’d be a better bet than buying Shine.
Martin
9 September 2011 at 20:29
[...] The Stars’ by Mari Ness (Excerpt) ‘Seeds’ by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Excerpt) ‘At Budokan’ by Alastair Reynolds (Excerpt) ‘Sarging Rasmussen: A Report By Organic’ by Gord Sellar [...]
Shine by Jetse de Vries « Everything Is Nice
16 September 2011 at 14:47
[...] ‘At Budokan’ by Alastair Reynolds (everythingisnice.wordpress.com) [...]
Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days, Alastair Reynolds (Gollancz, 2003) | The Archaeologist's Guide to the Galaxy.. by Thomas Evans
29 December 2011 at 19:34