![]() ![]() Into this world is thrown teenager Zoe Fisher, who has been surgically modified to increase her chances of surviving the toxic conditions. Unfortunately it is utterly deadly to human life and inhabited by tunnel-dwelling aliens who look like a cross between turtles and millipedes and behave like cuddly extras from a George Lucas film (lots of campfires, flint-topped spears and grunting). The planet Isis is a paradise of blue skies, tall trees and clear rivers. Infinitely less plausible is Robert Charles Wilson's BIOS (Millennium, £5.99), Buy it at BOL which wants to answer the same questions but lacks the rigour and intelligence. Revelation Space has been nominated for this year's BSFA award it would make a worthy winner. Fermi's paradox asks: "If they're out there, why aren't they here?" Reynolds supplies hard-science answers that are plausible, entertaining and clever he even manages to make different flavours of neutrino sound interesting. Keys to the answer are predatory moons and a sentient sea. On a planet known only for its desolation and razor storms, an obsessed archaeologist is searching for clues as to what cataclysmic event wiped out the Amarantin, a long-extinct alien race. Mixing shades of Banks and Gibson with gigatons of originality, he has pulled off that most difficult of SF tropes, believable aliens. ![]() ![]() O n the evidence of Revelation Space (Gollancz, £10.99), Buy it at BOL Alastair Reynolds is a name to watch. ![]()
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