“The human capacity for grief. It just isn't capable of providing an adequate emotional response once the dead exceed a few dozen in number. And it doesn't just level off—it just gives up, resets itself to zero. Admit it. None of us feel a damn about these people.”

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.