Reynolds' pursuit of truth is not limited to wide-angle star smashing - not that stars don't get pulverised when one character is gifted (or cursed) with an awful weapon by the legendary Merlin. Reynolds' protagonists find themselves in situations of betrayal, whether by a loved one's accidental death, as in 'Signal to Noise', or by a trusted wartime authority, in 'Spirey and the Queen'. His fertile imagination can resurrect Elton John on Mars in 'Understanding Space and Time' or make prophets of the human condition out of pool-cleaning robots in the title story. But overall, the stories in ZIMA BLUE represent a more optimistic take on humanity's future, a view that says there may be wars, there may be catastrophes and cosmic errors, but something human will still survive.

**

### From Publishers Weekly

This solid collection of 10 stories spanning the galaxies and the career of British SF author Reynolds (*Pushing Ice*) demonstrates that his pursuit of truth is not limited to wide-angle star smashing. Not that stars don't get pulverized when one character is gifted (or cursed) with an awful weapon by the legendary Merlin, who finds it after a 10,000-year search in "Merlin's Gun." Mainly, though, Reynolds's protagonists find themselves in situations of betrayal, whether by a loved one's accidental death, as in "Signal to Noise," or by a trusted wartime authority, as in "Spirey and the Queen." Reynolds may not always convince that intelligence leads to moral behavior, but his fertile imagination can resurrect Elton John on Mars in "Understanding Space and Time" or make prophets of the human condition out of pool-cleaning robots in the title story. *(Dec.)*
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

### From Booklist

*Starred Review* Reynolds' collection constitutes excellent reading and confirmation of his reputation as one of the best writers of contemporary space opera. "Zima Blue" is about an artist who works in a color named for him and has progressed from small to star-sized installations; it concludes with the final piece of his career and reveals his mysterious past; the story's animating idea is the common-enough concept of a robot that has far surpassed its original role, but Reynolds takes it to greater lengths and handles it with especial style. "Beyond the Aquila Rift" is one of those stories about the hazards of interstellar travel, especially when using technology that isn't entirely reliable, and a particularly interesting example of the kind it is. One tale doesn't trade in the far future but instead revolves around a man whose wife has just died and his brief interaction with her doppelganger in a parallel universe; it is touching and sweet, ideally balancing technology and character development. "Spirey and the Queen" started as part of Reynolds' Revelation Space universe but became something quite different, involving an ancient war and strange machine intelligences. Reynolds does short stories with particular flair, and this collection contains some spectacular sf storytelling. *Regina Schroeder*
*Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved*