When I was a kid, I was reliably informed that we’d have gone to Mars by 1985, and of course it’s 2012, and we’re still really no closer to a human expedition to Mars, but that shouldn’t detract from the amazing achievements that are being done on a day-to-day basis by robotic envoys. Alastair Reynolds Read Quote
If the Chinese are the first to the asteroids or the first to Mars, good for them, as far as I’m concerned. Alastair Reynolds Read Quote
One of the dangers of science fiction, particularly bad science fiction, is that you have these scenes where the characters turn to a blackboard and start explaining how this faster-than-light drive works, or something like that. We never really have those conversations in real life. That’s not part of the way we interact as human beings. Alastair Reynolds Read Quote
If you’re creating a whole universe, even if it’s a universe squeezed into a solar system, you have to use a little bit of sleight of hand. Alastair Reynolds Read Quote
I used to be a strong believer that we would eventually colonize the solar system the way it’s been done in science fiction many, many times: bases on the moon, Mars colonized, move out to the outer planets, then we go to the next solar system and build a colony there. I don’t know now – I’m not as convinced that’s the way it’s going to pan out. Alastair Reynolds Read Quote
I’ve always been skeptical of the idea that sentience is going to be an exclusively human attribute. Alastair Reynolds Read Quote
When I was writing ‘House Of Suns,’ there were a few writers I had in mind as role models, the main being Gene Wolfe. Alastair Reynolds Read Quote
I just start writing, and in the process, one hopefully comes up with ideas and solutions and explores all the little nooks and crannies. Alastair Reynolds Read Quote
As a kid, I’d buy novels with these magnificent Chris Fosse covers which showed an enormous contraption hovering over a planet, and you’d always think ‘Where’s that going to come in?’ And it never did! It was always slightly disappointing when the contents of a book never lived up to the cover. Alastair Reynolds Read Quote
