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Reviews & Overviews by Rod Cameron
Diamond Dogs by Alastair Reynolds |
Diamond Dogs is about a puzzle - an alien tower containing
a series of connected rooms. To progress up the tower it is necessary to
solve a puzzle in each room. Each puzzle is progressively harder, but if
you get the answer correct both the entrance to the next room and the exit
from the tower opens. However, if you get the answer wrong you are
punished by amputation which sometimes proves fatal. To "Blood
Spire" on the planetoid "Golgotha" comes a team of experts
led by Roland Childe a rich entrepreneur who is obsessed with alien
technology and puzzles. Together with, the hero Richard Swift who solved
puzzles with Roland as a child, is Dr Trintignant a possessed, frustrated
experimental cyberneticist. So thwarted is the Doctor that he has taken to
rebuilding himself, and can no longer be described as human. Captain
Forqueray provides the transport to Golgotha. Also in the team are a
mercenary Hirz who is a computer hacker and expert in clandestine
infiltration, and Celestine a mathematical genius who used to be married
to the hero. The team enters the artifact, and suffice it to say that the
good Doctor has to make use of his skills. In fact the title Diamond Dogs
describes how Richard and Roland look after Dr Trintignant has finished
repairing and reconstructing them.
The novel has a good introduction by Stephen Baxter. Set in the same universe as Reynolds' two novels Revelation Space and Chasm City, this is an excellent short novel. The closest modern analogy to the story is the film Cube. But don't get too hung up on the puzzles. Watch how the characters interact with each other, and achieve their ultimate fates. |
Publisher: PS Publishing Date: 2001 Pages: 111 Price: £8.00 Format: Paperback ISBN: 1902880269 Reviewed by: Rod Cameron Review Date: April 2002 |
Copyright : Roderick Alasdair Cameron 2001 - 2012 rod@rodcameron.co.uk
Copyright : Roderick Alasdair Cameron 2001 - 2015 rod@rodcameron.co.uk
Copyright : Roderick Alasdair Cameron 2001 - 2015 rod@rodcameron.co.uk