Alastair Reynolds was born in Barry, South Wales, in 1966. He studied at Newcastle and St. Andrews Universities and has a Ph.D. in astronomy. He stopped working as an astrophysicist for the European Space Agency to become a full-time writer. Revelation Space and Pushing Ice were shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award; Revelation Space, Absolution Gap, Diamond Dogs, and Century Rain were shortlisted for the British Science Fiction Award, and Chasm City won the British Science Fiction Award.At the Guardian Reynolds tagged five of the best books about interstellar arrivals, including:
Interstellar visitors need not be as large as Rama to wreak transformation, especially if there is intelligence at work. In Tade Thompson’s Rosewater, which won 2019’s Arthur C Clarke award, an alien construct hits London, then tunnels all the way through to Nigeria, eventually emerging and releasing spores that begin to affect human neurological functioning. Thompson continued the story with Rosewater Insurrection, with the final part of the trilogy, Rosewater Redemption, published this year.Read about the other entries on the list.
--Marshal Zeringue
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