Alastair Reynolds’ Terminal World delayed

UK science fiction writer Alastair Reynolds‘s next book, Terminal World, has been delayed in its publication from October this year to March 2010.

The book was first announced in April 2008, according to Wikipedia, and is not set in Reynolds’ Revelation Space universe, in which his books Revelation Space, Chasm City, Redemption Ark, Absolution Gap and The Prefect sit. Reynolds first described it as “SF, it’s weird, and it doesn’t have spaceships”.

Writing on his blog, Teahouse on the Tracks, earlier this month, Reynolds said:

“By now word seems to be out on the street that Terminal World is not going to appear until March 2010. I’d been aware of this as a possibility for some while – first it was on, then it was back to October 2009, then it was back to 2010 again – and it seemed unwise to make any definitive statements until I knew where we stood.

The book is finished, though, and I understand that proofs should be out there before too long. After some deliberation, my editor and I decided not to include around 12,000 words of new material that had been written late in the day. Good on one level – it keeps the book relatively lean – but it’s always painful to cut stuff that you worked hard on, sometimes under the gun. Never mind, maybe I’ll put the deleted scenes up here one day, when the dust has settled.”

In other Reynolds news, the author posted that his father passed away last week. “Obviously not the best of times, but I’m fortunate to have a wonderful wife and family around me, not to mention many good friends,” he wrote.

Commentary
Deepest sympathies from Keeping the Door go to Reynolds following the death of his father. It’s never an easy time. Hopefully Reynolds is bolstered by the sympathies of his many fans in this hard time.