Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days

By: Alastair Reynolds

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 6 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's Summary

Diamond Dogs

The planet Golgotha - supposedly lifeless - resides in a remote star system, far from those inhabited by human colonists. It is home to an enigmatic machinelike structure called the Blood Spire, which has already brutally and systematically claimed the lives of one starship crew that attempted to uncover its secrets. But nothing will deter Richard Swift from exploring this object of alien origin.

Turquoise Days

In the seas of Turquoise live the Pattern Jugglers, the amorphous, aquatic organisms capable of preserving the memories of any human swimmer who joins their collective consciousness. Naqi Okpik devoted her life to studying these creatures - and paid a high price for swimming among them. Now she may be the only hope for the survival of the species - and of every person living on Turquoise.

©2002 Alastair Reynolds (P)2015 Tantor

Critic Reviews

"[R]eaders familiar with Reynolds will find intriguing sidebars." ( Kirkus)

not a continuation of any other book :(

I think it's misleading to call this book 6 of Revelation space. Although these two short stories are interesting in their own right, other than existing in the same universe they have no bearing on the other books. And while I enjoyed the stories, I would have been happier if it was called: "Tales From Revelation Space". That said, high scores for awesome storytelling and a great narrative performance.

9 of 9 people found this review helpful

Two short stories, not worth the price

I love Reynold's books as a whole, but this disappointed me. I expected that a $22 book would be longer than this. Both stories seem like they were just the set up for a larger plot.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Virtuoso sci-fi, but not for RS newbies

Any additional comments?

If one can be a sci-fi virtuoso, Alastair Reynolds is it. You enjoy his work immensely, but you can never figure out how he does it.

Diamond dog, Turquoise days are two short stories/novellas. You should have read one or two books in the Revelation space-series before taking them on, otherwise words like Ultras, jugglers and Chasm City may through you off.

Diamond days is the story about people penetrating an alien and deadly maze. Turquoise days circles on the isolationist planet Turquoise and it's home-grown research on the juggler phenomenon.

The novellas are not as good as the novels in the Revelation space-series, but still fills me with that kind of wonder I am after when reading a Reynolds novel. John Lee is brilliant as ever.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

The End of the RS Road

Would you listen to Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days again? Why?

Not sure I would listen again but I enjoyed the heck out of it. I have listened to all of hte Revelation Space books and stories and this was the last one in the series for me. It provided great context to the conjoiners, the Melding Plague and Greenfly. If you have come this far you will enjoy it. I am not sure this is the entry point for new RS readers, I would complete the novels first.

What other book might you compare Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days to and why?

Galactic North. These are shorter stories, with a different tone than the series. These stories are a bit darker and Turquoise Days brings the Greenfly element into the story that was only hinted at the end of Absolution Gap. If Reynolds writes additional stories in this universe I have a feeling that the parallel universe's of Greenfly will play a part and Turquoise Days sets that up.

Have you listened to any of John Lee’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have listened to at last 10 other books read by John Lee. He is a master and this book compares favorably to his best work.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Diamond Dogs and Turquoise Days

Any additional comments?

If you enjoyed the RS Series this book is a must. I realize a credit for a 6 hour book is a bit steep but it is well done and is important in understanding the RS Universe and where it might be headed in the future.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Modest excrescences in Revelation Space

Alastair Reynolds' Diamond Dogs (5 stars) and Turquoise Days (2 stars) are two short stories from the Revelation Space universe. The former involves an artificial alien structure that is essentially a series of math puzzles getting progressively harder and more dangerous, while the latter concerns a remote outpost with "juggler" conditions. While Dogs is clearly the superior offering over Days, both have the feel of concepts where interest simply waned or they could be a prelude for a longer story arc.

The sci-fi elements are keeping in line with the Revelation Space universe. Humans are long lived (400 years), and while there is interstellar travel, there is no faster than light physics. While no new aliens species are introduced, the pattern jugglers are prominent in both selections. Diamond Dogs is by far the better offering with an alien structure called the death spire. Upon entering, a series of successive rooms are encountered requiring math puzzles to be solved. With ascent up the spire, the puzzles become progressively more difficult, more dangerous (lethal in fact), and eventually time limited. The rooms also become smaller requiring removal of space suits and eventually due to the services of a Josef Mengele knock-off, body modification taken to the extreme. Reynolds appears to have derived a metaphor for man's unending pursuit of more knowledge and the resulting evolution in ourselves that must occur. Turquoise Days ultimately is just a "boys from brazil" affair that comes off as more a setup for another story than much of a story in itself. There is perhaps a bit more background on the jugglers presented.

John's Lee's narration is the most delicious part of the audiobook. His mastery of voices, along with his natural broadcaster's pitch and tone, and his overall sense of pacing and mood is simply in a class by itself. Lee could read your cable and wireless bills and make them sound riveting.

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

So disappointed

This is a collection of disjointed short stories masquerading as a book. I had hoped for a strong continuation of the story.

5 of 7 people found this review helpful

Wanders...

Someone said, in a review of a different book, that they could listen to John Lee read a Phone-Book and stay interested.. I have always agreed with that! But I think this book was about as close as you'd care to get to listening to a phone-book being narrated. It seems to take some tiny parts of Reynolds' other Books, and jams them together. I think it was supposed to add detail to some sub-plots and story lines from other books, but the effect, at least to me, was that it may have been some unfinished story bits laying around (or maybe things that got edited out of other books), that got published as a stand-alone book.

Not Reynolds' best work... But Hey, John Lee reads it! ;)

5 of 7 people found this review helpful

The story of Pattern Jugglers is complete!

why would you swim? what happens to you? why don't the swimmers disappear? how are Pattern Jugglers so smart? love the mathematics and geometry discussions. shorter than most, but just as much content, and the Blood Spire makes it a thriller!

Very disappointing

Although billed as a Revelation Space book it didn't continue the plot from any of the previous books in the series at all.
The book is actually an over priced selection of two short stories, both of which appear to be completely unrelated to each other. Additionally, neither story had a cohesive plot, and neither had a finish, and left this reader wondering what the outcome was in both. I agree with another low score review that these stories were nothing more than hooks for some yet to be published book(s) to entice the reader to make future purchases. Overall both stories while interesting were disappointing in both character development and plot.
On a more note worthy aspect the narrator was exceptional in presenting the story and made these two disjointed stories worth the listen.

Two totally independent, throw away, stories

Far beneath Alistair's potential. A threadbare story in both novellas, none of the rich and fantastic space opera from the other books in the series.

Disappointing

Poor ending to an otherwise excellent series. Basically two short stories, unrelated to the earlier books

Two Brilliant Stories

The stories were brilliant, left you wanting more. I was so engaged that I didn't take a break, work passed by very quickly.