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Sleepover
This story is not part of the Revelation Space series. It was developed from notes for an unwritten novel and maybe one day that novel will be completed, for we need to know the fate of the Earth. This story presents one of the more unusual apocalyptic ideas.
85 pages, ebook
First published June 1, 2010
25 people are currently reading
566 people want to read
About the author
Alastair Reynolds
313 books9,336 followersI'm Al, I used to be a space scientist, and now I'm a writer, although for a time the two careers ran in parallel. I started off publishing short stories in the British SF magazine Interzone in the early 90s, then eventually branched into novels. I write about a novel a year and try to write a few short stories as well. Some of my books and stories are set in a consistent future named after Revelation Space, the first novel, but I've done a lot of other things as well and I like to keep things fresh between books.
I was born in Wales, but raised in Cornwall, and then spent time in the north of England and Scotland. I moved to the Netherlands to continue my science career and stayed there for a very long time, before eventually returning to Wales.
In my spare time I am a very keen runner, and I also enjoying hill-walking, birdwatching, horse-riding, guitar and model-making. I also dabble with paints now and then. I met my wife in the Netherlands through a mutual interest in climbing and we married back in Wales. We live surrounded by hills, woods and wildlife, and not too much excitement.
I was born in Wales, but raised in Cornwall, and then spent time in the north of England and Scotland. I moved to the Netherlands to continue my science career and stayed there for a very long time, before eventually returning to Wales.
In my spare time I am a very keen runner, and I also enjoying hill-walking, birdwatching, horse-riding, guitar and model-making. I also dabble with paints now and then. I met my wife in the Netherlands through a mutual interest in climbing and we married back in Wales. We live surrounded by hills, woods and wildlife, and not too much excitement.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
December 17, 2016
'Sleepover' takes a familiar sci-fi theme and does something totally unexpected with it.
Our protagonist, formerly the billionaire CEO of a technology company, awakes from medical cryosleep expecting what he had asked for when he paid handsomely for the procedure: that he's hibernated until the secret of immortality - or at least, life extension - has been discovered. But the dingy room and disrespectful attendants don't seem like part of the bright, shiny and wealthy future he expected.
He's been revived for a reason, and, he realizes, as he discovers the gritty, decaying off-shore oil rig he's on, in rough Patagonian waters, it's not a glamorous reason. But, it could be meaningful...
Our protagonist, formerly the billionaire CEO of a technology company, awakes from medical cryosleep expecting what he had asked for when he paid handsomely for the procedure: that he's hibernated until the secret of immortality - or at least, life extension - has been discovered. But the dingy room and disrespectful attendants don't seem like part of the bright, shiny and wealthy future he expected.
He's been revived for a reason, and, he realizes, as he discovers the gritty, decaying off-shore oil rig he's on, in rough Patagonian waters, it's not a glamorous reason. But, it could be meaningful...
February 28, 2017
A novella with an interesting world that ended rather abruptly. It certainly could have gone on longer & a resolution of some sort would have been nice. The characters were rather flat, too. I really didn't care for the main character's motivations for staying nor his orientation. It was too little & the vagueness was just a device to keep the reader interested. Too heavy handed. Still, it was short & not a bad story.
My copy was in audio, but I don't see an edition for that & am too lazy to add it right now.
My copy was in audio, but I don't see an edition for that & am too lazy to add it right now.
October 1, 2019
Quite a creative spin on a fairly post apocalyptic future. A bit of the The Matrix meets HP Lovecraft, all wrapped in some hard sci-fi trappings.
February 19, 2017
Very short but interesting novella/story. I find it hard to see how it could be expanded into a full novel without getting bogged down in techno-babble.
The world building is inventive, and the characters have some potential. Certainly worth reading for Reynolds fans.
Via Amazon, overpriced though imho.
The world building is inventive, and the characters have some potential. Certainly worth reading for Reynolds fans.
Via Amazon, overpriced though imho.
June 6, 2024
Πρώην δισεκατομμυριούχος τσέος (CEO) πολυεθνικής σχετικής με την τεχνολογία ξυπνάει από κρυογονική νάρκη, όμως αντί να βρεθεί σε ένα κόσμο όπου η αθανασία είναι εφικτή (αυτόν τον όρο είχε βάλει για την αφύπνισή του) συνειδητοποιεί ότι κάτι έχει πάει στραβά και δεν βρίσκεται στον επί γης παράδεισο που φαντασιωνόταν όταν την έπεφτε για ύπνο σαν άφθαρτος Βησσαρίωνας.
Αποδεικνύεται ότι τον έχουν ξυπνήσει για κάποιο λόγο…
Κάτω από το μέσο όρο των νουβελών της συλλογής, χωρίς να είναι ιδιαίτερα κακό. Ο κόσμος είναι ενδιαφέρων (αν και λίγο γκροτέσκος μερικές φορές), αλλά οι χαρακτήρες μάλλον αδιάφοροι και η ιστορία δε σε αρπάζει ακριβώς από τα μαλλιά.
Ωστόσο, οφείλουμε να αναγνωρίσουμε, ότι σαν την εκδίκηση της γυφτιάς, η Ε.Φ. αναγκάζει ακόμη τους τους ζάπλουτους να ιδρώσουν με χειρωνακτική εργασία…
Αποδεικνύεται ότι τον έχουν ξυπνήσει για κάποιο λόγο…
Κάτω από το μέσο όρο των νουβελών της συλλογής, χωρίς να είναι ιδιαίτερα κακό. Ο κόσμος είναι ενδιαφέρων (αν και λίγο γκροτέσκος μερικές φορές), αλλά οι χαρακτήρες μάλλον αδιάφοροι και η ιστορία δε σε αρπάζει ακριβώς από τα μαλλιά.
Ωστόσο, οφείλουμε να αναγνωρίσουμε, ότι σαν την εκδίκηση της γυφτιάς, η Ε.Φ. αναγκάζει ακόμη τους τους ζάπλουτους να ιδρώσουν με χειρωνακτική εργασία…
May 17, 2015
Reynolds is one of the few writers who knows how to write both short and long fiction. I'm not a huge fan of short form SF in general, but Reynolds knows how to do a lot of world building in very little time.
This isn’t his absolute best, but it still blows the pants off just about any short fiction I've read in the past 15 years.
Short fiction requires a writer to make choices, set limits, choose what is important to the story, and to ignore most others. Short fiction still allows you to do world building, great character development, clever dialog, brilliant mood setting, lots of challenging ideas, etc.--all the things you want in a novel...Only you can't do absolutely all of them at once. You've got to discard some of that in order to drive the story home.
In this case, the story is really all about world creation and really wild ideas. The characters are drawn fairly leanly, but satisfyingly nonetheless. There's not a huge amount of dialog or exposition—though even in its sprasity Reynolds manages to set an appropriately dire mood. It doesn’t have a tremendous amount of action or plot movement. But it's not that kind of story.
The ideas, though...Wow, I really loved his world building and left-field ideas. 4-stars for those elements alone.
I see this one’s garnered some criticism, though...Sure, it does kind of feel like the prologue or first chapter in a longer work (which is how it was started). Only, I disagree that it does not have a beginning, middle, and end. It most certainly does.
Beginning: the protagonist wakes up after being put in cryogenic sleep and things don't appear as he had expected.
Middle: he finds out what's going on, what the world situation is, what his predicament is, and discovers a possible way out of it.
End: an unexpected thing happens that forces him to reevaluate his situation and his place in the world. He makes a decision how he's going to handle it.
Does the main conflict in the story get resolved? No. But it's a short story. What did you expect?
Is it worth reading? Absolutely. This is a good, solid piece of innovative world building and mind-bending imagining.
This isn’t his absolute best, but it still blows the pants off just about any short fiction I've read in the past 15 years.
Short fiction requires a writer to make choices, set limits, choose what is important to the story, and to ignore most others. Short fiction still allows you to do world building, great character development, clever dialog, brilliant mood setting, lots of challenging ideas, etc.--all the things you want in a novel...Only you can't do absolutely all of them at once. You've got to discard some of that in order to drive the story home.
In this case, the story is really all about world creation and really wild ideas. The characters are drawn fairly leanly, but satisfyingly nonetheless. There's not a huge amount of dialog or exposition—though even in its sprasity Reynolds manages to set an appropriately dire mood. It doesn’t have a tremendous amount of action or plot movement. But it's not that kind of story.
The ideas, though...Wow, I really loved his world building and left-field ideas. 4-stars for those elements alone.
I see this one’s garnered some criticism, though...Sure, it does kind of feel like the prologue or first chapter in a longer work (which is how it was started). Only, I disagree that it does not have a beginning, middle, and end. It most certainly does.
Beginning: the protagonist wakes up after being put in cryogenic sleep and things don't appear as he had expected.
Middle: he finds out what's going on, what the world situation is, what his predicament is, and discovers a possible way out of it.
End: an unexpected thing happens that forces him to reevaluate his situation and his place in the world. He makes a decision how he's going to handle it.
Does the main conflict in the story get resolved? No. But it's a short story. What did you expect?
Is it worth reading? Absolutely. This is a good, solid piece of innovative world building and mind-bending imagining.
May 24, 2018
Sixty-year old Gaunt, a billionaire in his previous life, is woken up from the hibernation he entered in order to sleep his way to a future where medical technology would have evolved towards clinical immortaliy. But the future is not what he expected. He finds himself on a massive platform in the Southern Atlantic Ocean, as part of a caretaker crew for billions of sleeping humans.
This short story started as notes for a novel, and has a very interesting premise. As post-apocalyptic scenarios go, it is certainly one of the most original I have read. Mr. Reynolds's masterful prose makes the whole thing flow smoothly.
http://www.books.rosboch.net/2018/05/...
This short story started as notes for a novel, and has a very interesting premise. As post-apocalyptic scenarios go, it is certainly one of the most original I have read. Mr. Reynolds's masterful prose makes the whole thing flow smoothly.
http://www.books.rosboch.net/2018/05/...
September 21, 2020
Sleepover was a three-point-five-star read, one that I couldn’t quite bring myself to round up. It was unique and had me curious as to how it would play out, but I was left wanting more from it. With a bit more, it could have been a four-star rating. As it was, it was lacking that final touch.
All in all, an enjoyable read, but I would have liked a wee bit more from it.
All in all, an enjoyable read, but I would have liked a wee bit more from it.
October 25, 2023
" Who stays awake when everyone is asleep?"
Another banger from Reynolds. Great introspection from the character and equally great world-building.
Another banger from Reynolds. Great introspection from the character and equally great world-building.
June 7, 2021
I am haunted at times about the impermanence of things I used to think of as fixed. People die, societies collapse, species go extinct, world’s end, the universe rips itself apart.
It’s all ephemeral in the end, just a matter of how long.
I’d like to think that people, humans, will expand out of our solar system and into the larger cosmos, and in a billion years or two find ourselves scattered across every nook and cranny of our local group of galaxies. Kind of like in the nobler versions of Star Trek.
It’s hard to think of that as being realistic, but a billion years will pass, where we’ll be then… my money is on extinct. Along with earth’s biosphere as we know it. Maybe a few archaea deep in the earth clinging to life in a hellish landscape, but for all practicable reasons, a dead world.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. It could be better. Neither scenario is a destiny humans will just fall in to. Instead I think of it like a giant mountain we have to climb together (If we want to have the better version), and like a chain of mountain climbers, if one or two fall by the wayside, then the rest of us can keep them from falling to their death, our strength is that we’re all climbing this mountain together.
Of course when most of us are falling, or jumping, or assuming the other goobers dumb enough not keep climbing will carry them to the top, then the whole thing will collapse, and we all fall together.
It’s hard work climbing that mountain, and I suspect too many of us will decide it’s not worth the trouble. And so we’ll all go down together. Maybe our machines will look at us one day and wonder at us they way we do the former inhabitants of Easter Island. Poor people were doomed from the start.*
Anyhows, Alastair Reynolds does sort of give me a best-case look at what future humans could do most of the time. Not this time though. This story is a look at how things could go wrong for us. Yeah, it sucks, but by my very nature, I find the more downer stories more realistic, even if the underlying specifics of the story are highly unlikely**.
Love this man’s fiction, and I forget sometimes that he’s really mastered the art of telling a short story. This was well worth my time and left me thinking about it long after I’d finished reading.
*If my memory of what I read on Jared Diamond’s book, Collapase is correct, the island was much too small to not have very strict resource management. And instead of doing just that, they decided to spend every bit of energy they had building these giant stone statutes that they buried in the ground. Until the day they ran out of, well everything. Then they all died.
**SPOILERS – our post-singularity AI’s discover some hard truths about the universe. One, that we’re living in a simulation, and Two, there is a limited amount of computing power available and Three, brains are a huge drag on that limited resource. There is a Four, but I won’t spoil that one
It’s all ephemeral in the end, just a matter of how long.
I’d like to think that people, humans, will expand out of our solar system and into the larger cosmos, and in a billion years or two find ourselves scattered across every nook and cranny of our local group of galaxies. Kind of like in the nobler versions of Star Trek.
It’s hard to think of that as being realistic, but a billion years will pass, where we’ll be then… my money is on extinct. Along with earth’s biosphere as we know it. Maybe a few archaea deep in the earth clinging to life in a hellish landscape, but for all practicable reasons, a dead world.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. It could be better. Neither scenario is a destiny humans will just fall in to. Instead I think of it like a giant mountain we have to climb together (If we want to have the better version), and like a chain of mountain climbers, if one or two fall by the wayside, then the rest of us can keep them from falling to their death, our strength is that we’re all climbing this mountain together.
Of course when most of us are falling, or jumping, or assuming the other goobers dumb enough not keep climbing will carry them to the top, then the whole thing will collapse, and we all fall together.
It’s hard work climbing that mountain, and I suspect too many of us will decide it’s not worth the trouble. And so we’ll all go down together. Maybe our machines will look at us one day and wonder at us they way we do the former inhabitants of Easter Island. Poor people were doomed from the start.*
Anyhows, Alastair Reynolds does sort of give me a best-case look at what future humans could do most of the time. Not this time though. This story is a look at how things could go wrong for us. Yeah, it sucks, but by my very nature, I find the more downer stories more realistic, even if the underlying specifics of the story are highly unlikely**.
Love this man’s fiction, and I forget sometimes that he’s really mastered the art of telling a short story. This was well worth my time and left me thinking about it long after I’d finished reading.
*If my memory of what I read on Jared Diamond’s book, Collapase is correct, the island was much too small to not have very strict resource management. And instead of doing just that, they decided to spend every bit of energy they had building these giant stone statutes that they buried in the ground. Until the day they ran out of, well everything. Then they all died.
**SPOILERS – our post-singularity AI’s discover some hard truths about the universe. One, that we’re living in a simulation, and Two, there is a limited amount of computing power available and Three, brains are a huge drag on that limited resource. There is a Four, but I won’t spoil that one
March 9, 2019
My first Alastair's book and definitely not the last. Great plot, great writing.
December 26, 2013
Brilliant short story, revolving around the twin ideas of war with artificial intelligences, and the universe as a computer simulation. Great hardcore SF.
September 28, 2016
There is some interesting science fiction in this story related to the nature of the universe and well written overall but it's missing a good end.
June 1, 2021
This is a Sci-Fi story about an old man being raised from a hibernation. He went to 'sleep' as one of the richest to wait for immortality. Its invention was just around the corner as claimed by scientists. He was waken up 150 years later to find himself on a utility rig in seas of Patagonia among tired harsh people who treated him like crap. What happened during a century and a half? Why was he awakened? We are to find it out with the hero.
The concept uncovering this way is magnificent and has Matrix vibe in it. The world is thrilling and highly immersive. It feels like a beginning of the novel (as it was intended). The author wraps it all up with the inner conflict of the protagonist and skillfully resolves it. Though the greater conflict is still there and it left me craving for more. The description of the concept is also cramped and feels a little bit eyebrow-raising therefore.
This was the first piece of work by Alastair Reynolds I got to know, and I will be looking into more.
The concept uncovering this way is magnificent and has Matrix vibe in it. The world is thrilling and highly immersive. It feels like a beginning of the novel (as it was intended). The author wraps it all up with the inner conflict of the protagonist and skillfully resolves it. Though the greater conflict is still there and it left me craving for more. The description of the concept is also cramped and feels a little bit eyebrow-raising therefore.
This was the first piece of work by Alastair Reynolds I got to know, and I will be looking into more.
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April 5, 2023I often think that Alastair Reynolds must have encountered some truly unpleasant people in his life, as he creates such nasty characters so well. Sleepover starts with Gaunt awakened from a long sleep, but soon the backstory of why those who awoke him are so unpleasant unfolds. Gaunt awakes to a dystopian future quite unlike any other I’ve read about or imagined and this is where the story really starts to get interesting.
It was clear from the outset that this story was just the beginnings or a larger work, which was pieced together from notes, and may or may not be developed into a longer novel. I hope it does.
It was clear from the outset that this story was just the beginnings or a larger work, which was pieced together from notes, and may or may not be developed into a longer novel. I hope it does.
April 28, 2019
Sleepover is short story by Al Reynolds published back in 2012. Gaunt (the protagonist) wakes up from cryosleep a few hundred years in the future expecting a world far advanced that can extend life indefinitely, only to find the opposite - the world is dying, 90% of the population are in cryosleep, and those awake are doing their best to head off what's causing the Earth's decline.
This was a great little story, packed well into the short page count, with an interesting and original take on the post-apocalyptic idea. It ended a bit abruptly though.
This was a great little story, packed well into the short page count, with an interesting and original take on the post-apocalyptic idea. It ended a bit abruptly though.
June 12, 2021
Похмурий постапок. 23 сторіччя. На планеті 2 млрд людей, але тільки 400 тисяч не сплять. Обслуговують тих, хто чекає кращого майбутнього в кріокамерах. Машини зі ШІ вирішили ховатися від людей, а потім зовсім покинули "тіла" і полетіли в трансцидентну Сферу - якась всеохопна шняга. Але там вже були інші ШІ, з інших світів. Тому почався рейвах...
Найкраще, що є в цьому творі, це те, як автор класно пояснив існування морських чудовиськ. Тих, легенди про які людство плекало за всю історію мореплавства.
Логіка ГГ дуже сумнівна, але кінець в стилі "все погано, але все буде добре" 😂
Найкраще, що є в цьому творі, це те, як автор класно пояснив існування морських чудовиськ. Тих, легенди про які людство плекало за всю історію мореплавства.
Логіка ГГ дуже сумнівна, але кінець в стилі "все погано, але все буде добре" 😂
October 30, 2022
Available in the collection,
Beyond the Aquila Rift
.
Definitely not Alastair's greatest literary moment.
It just all seems a bit cobbled together out of various random sci-fi tropes. He even managed to shoe horn some dragons into this awful dystopia.
Ho hum, the greatest writers don't always write great things.
Next up on Alastair's list is Lune and the Red Empress .
Definitely not Alastair's greatest literary moment.
It just all seems a bit cobbled together out of various random sci-fi tropes. He even managed to shoe horn some dragons into this awful dystopia.
Ho hum, the greatest writers don't always write great things.
Next up on Alastair's list is Lune and the Red Empress .
August 14, 2018
ასეთი საინტერესო იდეის ასე გაფუჭება როგორ შეიძლება? როგორც გავიგე იდეაში რომანი უნდა ყოფილიყო და მართლა ძალიან მაგარი რამე იქნებოდა, მაგრამ პატარა მოთხრობისთვის ეს იდეა ნამეტანი დიდი იყო. რომ დამთავრდა ვერც დავიჯერე - მეთქი ალბათ ფაილს ჭირს რამე (აუდიოვერსიას ვუსმენტი) მაგრამ თურმე არა.
არც კი ვიცი ამისი რამე სხვა წავიკითხო თუ არა, მეშინია უკვე :)
არც კი ვიცი ამისი რამე სხვა წავიკითხო თუ არა, მეშინია უკვე :)
May 12, 2019
Short and Gritty....
An early Reynolds, and it’s subtleties are the the base ingredients for his later epics.
It seems to be a tool for Reynolds, a character construct experiment: Gaunt is something that could easily be built upon, and it’s a shame that he didn’t make more of it really. This world could easily be expanded....
An early Reynolds, and it’s subtleties are the the base ingredients for his later epics.
It seems to be a tool for Reynolds, a character construct experiment: Gaunt is something that could easily be built upon, and it’s a shame that he didn’t make more of it really. This world could easily be expanded....
February 24, 2021
The setting's very compelling. I've seen some "The Matrix meets Lovecraft" endeavoring to encapsulate some of the broad strokes, but I offer up something closer to Evangelion but without giant robots and beam weapons. Anyway, the main character felt mostly like an empty vessel and he didn't do much. As with many of Reynolds's short stories, I'd love to see more of this.
January 29, 2019
It's a great start
It's a pretty unsatisfying read as it really is the first part of an unfinished story. The story is pretty unique once you get into it but doesn't seem so initially.
It's a pretty unsatisfying read as it really is the first part of an unfinished story. The story is pretty unique once you get into it but doesn't seem so initially.
May 9, 2017
Absolutely brilliant. it has FILM written all over it.
August 31, 2018
An interesting thought experiment, but one of his less sound stories.
October 10, 2018
Another good novella from Reynolds, making you think about man's impact on the world, albeit in a different dimension this time! Felt like it ended somewhat abruptly though.
November 8, 2018
Disturbingly haunting dystopia ~ I must say I was not expecting the revelation of what actually happened to the world before the main character woke up!
June 5, 2021
A pretty intriguing idea about how to go out without a bang.
January 1, 2023
This is pure sci fi with a healthy dose of dark, near Lovecraftian horror thrown in. This sort of work is why Reynolds is perhaps the finest sci fi writer of his generation.
October 24, 2023
Novelette. An unhappy and bizarre far future. For me, one of his best shorts: 3.9 stars.
I read the story in the Dozois Year's Best #28, where it was a standout.
I read the story in the Dozois Year's Best #28, where it was a standout.
October 13, 2025
An interesting short story take on the apocalypse, redefining what unexplained phenomena of the past may be. I’ll be looking for longer works by this author.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews