![]() ![]() 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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