Reynolds Alastair 02

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