The Revelation Space Collection Volume 1

by Alastair Reynolds

This is volume 1 of the complete collection of tales set in the Revelation Space universe, by British Science Fiction Award-winner Alastair Reynolds.

The 'mastersinger of Space Opera' (The Times) created the astonishing Revelation Space universe - one of the most vivid and original SF universes ever written. Alongside the award-winning novels is a galaxy of superb short fiction, collected and published here, in two volumes, in chronological order.

This volume

Dilation Sleep
A Spy in Europa
Galactic North
Great Wall of Mars
Glacial
Diamond Dogs

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Hard Science Fiction, Space Opera

357 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 17, 2025

About the author

I'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.

Reviews

[Dan Trefethen · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a good idea, pulling together the various shorter fiction that Reynolds has published in the Revelation Space universe over the past few decades. From the time- and galaxy-spanning Galactic North, to the intricately deadly puzzle box of Diamond Dogs, we get a good representation of the RS story. If you're familiar with the RS books, Nevil Clavain is in a few stories, especially in a sort of origin story about him and the Conjoiners.

Readers not familiar with RS will probably be puzzled by what's going on and how all the stories connect, so this is not for them. But for those of us who are fans of Reynolds's imagined universe, it's a pleasure to have all these stories in a two volume collection to accompany the novels.

[Aiden · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone jumping into the RS universe, I was told to start with the short stories, which give a lot of good background on the universe and its ideas without giving any major spoilers! I’m so glad that these collections got published so that I have all of the stories compiled together! I do quickly have to knock the publisher, as the stories are ordered in PUBLICATION order instead of the much-preferred in-universe CHRONOLOGICAL order. Here are my thoughts on each story:

Dilation Sleep - 4. Uri is the sole crew member awoken from cryo sleep. What went wrong? The Melding Plague intrigues me so much, I’m going to have to read “Chasm City” ASAP!

A Spy in Europa - 4.5. The title does a rather good job at describing this story. This story reminds me of why I love hard sci-fi so much: the plausible mixed with the downright batshit.

Galactic North - 5. An attack on a cargo ship begins a 40,000-year-long revenge story. This reminded me a lot of “All Tomorrows” by C.M. Kosemen!

Great Wall of Mars - 5. War is brewing on Mars, and a duo of diplomats is sent on one last mission to stop it. Goodness, these stories just keep getting better and better!

Glacial - 4. An abandoned research station is discovered upon an icy planet. Classic storyline choice, almost overdone by now, but Alastair managed to keep it fresh.

Diamond Dogs - 5. A strange structure lies on an alien planet, begging to be explored. I have no words. This was simply fantastic!

This volume of the collection is fantastic! I am going to jump in Volume 2 immediately!

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating 4.5
Individual stories range from 4 to 5

Haven’t read these any of these for some time so enjoyed going back to them.
Must admit to liking AR earlier work than some of his recent novels.
These are quite a good start point for anyone new to AR and the writing style of his earlier works.

Value for money side of things definitely worth it for new readers, long term readers probably need to check their collections before deciding on purchase.
On another side note the cover art for this and volume 2 is not very good imo. Pre 2019/20 (maybe) AR cover art on hardback and paperback was incredible, the reflective holographic-almost style really stood on the shelves and made them very desirable. These new covers are quite flat and uninspired, also same thing applies to the recent reprint of the dreyfuss novels … very disappointing.

Overall though definite recommendation for the contents.

[Lars · Rating 3 out of 5]

Novellesamling fra revelation space universet. Noe lest før og stort sett veldig bra, men den lengste novellen i samlingen, Diamond Dogs, bør man styre langt unna. Det er noe med AR - her har man et univers som spenner tusenvis av år og masse rom. I Diamond dogs blir man låst inn i et motsatt escape room med galaksens flateste karakterer - helt forferdelig opplevelse. Du gjorde det samme når du fanga meg i maskinrommet i Pushing Ice.

[David Engberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Samling av sci-fi noveller. Lite blandad kvalite men generellt hög standard. Framförallt den sista "Diamond Dogs" var mycket bra, spännande, skrämmande och drar upp betyget till en stark 4a.

[Sam · Rating 2 out of 5]

een veel slechtere variant van a fire upon the deep van vernor vinge en die was al niet heel gied

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, creative short stories set in Revelation Space. Simply put, Reynolds’ short fiction is well worth reading.

[Mikael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first volume of a great collection of stories if you haven't read them before, packaged in a really nice looking cover.

So it's a great read. Unfortunately most if not all of them have already been previously published in existing collections.
And as a long time fan of Reynolds I naturally own (almost) all of those books, so while it may be nice for new readers to get the collected stories I would have preferred the publisher doing reprints of those existing books instead of new collections that "kind of" overlap older collections, (but not quite fully).

I'll still give this a 4 star rating because the stories themselves are that good and worth re-reading, but I had hoped for more new stories, or a collection of those currently uncollected ones instead.