Review: Alastair Reynolds, Century Rain (sf novel)

Alan P. Scott - Rants - Reviews

cinematic


Somebody pleeeze tell me they're making a movie out of Century Rain. It certainly deserves one - I've seldom if ever read a more cinematically-inclined piece of sf. With a galaxy-wide, centuries-spanning backdrop worthy of Robert Charles Wilson (no faint praise, that) and a cast of characters that's both quirky and photogenic, this book really does seem ripe for the kind of treatment that, say, Jeunet and Caro (City of Lost Children) or Alex Proyas (Dark City) could give. It's got an alternate Earth where WWII fizzled in a fairly realistic way, nanotechnology run amuck, Paris buried by ice, dramatic interstellar travel via narrow wormholes - lots of memorable images. The CGI effects would be marvelous, but there are also human characters and perspectives to tie 'em down to reality.

Reynolds is another one of those UK writers I always try to seek out and recommend (like Iain Banks, Charlie Stross and Ken Macleod), although for some reason I tended to forget Reynolds when listing the others. I think this book will change that, at least for me. Recommended.


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Last updated June 7, 2008.

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