''The Medusa Chronicles'' is a 2016

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

novel by

Alastair Reynolds Alastair Preston Reynolds (born 13 March 1966) is a Welsh science fiction author. He specialises in hard science fiction and space opera. He spent his early years in Cornwall, moved back to Wales before going to Newcastle University, where he s ...

and Stephen Baxter, a sequel to Arthur C. Clarke's 1971 novella ''

A Meeting with Medusa ''A Meeting with Medusa'' is a science fiction novella by British writer Arthur C. Clarke. It was originally published in 1971 and has since been included in the anthology '' Nebula Award Stories Eight'' as well as several collections of C ...

''.

Plot

The novel expands on the premise of Clarke's story, taking the main character into the distant future, while also going into the past to show that both the novel and the original Clarke story are set in an

alternative history Alternate history (also alternative history, althist, AH) is a genre of speculative fiction of stories in which one or more historical events occur and are resolved differently than in real life. As conjecture based upon historical fact, alte ...

where in 1968,

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

and the

Soviet space program The Soviet space program (russian: Космическая программа СССР, Kosmicheskaya programma SSSR) was the national space program of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), active from 1955 until the dissoluti ...

united to prevent an asteroid from impacting Earth.

Reception

A reviewer of ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'' stated "The novel’s reach does come at the expense of some psychological depth, but fans of the authors’ other work won’t be disappointed." Allen Stroud of SF Book Review mentioned "''The Medusa Chronicles'' is an excellent read, continuing where Clarke left its principle character and expanding his ideas in a way that pays homage but also expresses the gift of the two writers who have chosen to take their pens to this future fiction world".

References

2016 British novels Adaptations of works by Arthur C. Clarke British alternative history novels Collaborative novels Novels by Stephen Baxter Novels by Alastair Reynolds Victor Gollancz Ltd books {{2010s-ah-novel-stub