“I am playing in a playground that's already been played in. I am always aware that a lot of the furniture in science fiction is second hand.”

Welsh science fiction author

Alastair Preston Reynolds is a Welsh science fiction author. He is known for hard science fiction and space opera, and his work is closely associated with those traditions. His fiction explores ideas grounded in science, then expands them into large-scale imagined futures and interstellar settings. He is especially identified with the technical rigour of hard science fiction and the broader sweep of space opera.