_Celestial Matters_ Under Discussion

Richard Garfinkle	CELESTIAL MATTERS UNDER DISCUSSION Note: Clicking on most of these links will take you off this site. Celestial Matters garnered positive reviews immediately on publication, and it's still finding new admirers today. Read some excerpts below and find links to some thought-provoking reviews. "This is hard science fiction with a difference, the difference being that the hard sciences are Ptolemaic astronomy and Aristotelian physics and biology. Garfinkle works out the implication inherent in them as rigorously as any writer has done with implications of, say, quantum mechanics. He also works out those implication most entertainingly, setting them in a fast-paced plot with lively, well-differentiated characters. You won't find anything like this one anytime soon." Harry Turtledove	Cover art by Bob Eggleton
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	Richard Garfinkle's first novel, Celestial Matters, was well-received, winning the Compton Crook Award in 1997 for best first novel of 1996, as well as nominations for a Nebula and the John W. Campbell Award. A good amount of international attention led to a Spanish language edition. Click here to Read A Review of Celestial Matters in SPANISH by Pedro Jorge Romero. "In newcomer Garfinkle's outrageous alternate world, the natural laws as understood by the ancient Greeks are literally true. . . . Weird, disconcerting, fascinating, and original" Kirkus Reviews Celestial Matters is the story of Aias of Tyre, an ancient Greek scientist who is leading a desperate project to sail out through the crystal spheres which encircle the Earth to gather a piece of the Sun to use as a weapon against the Middle Kingdom -- China -- in the war which has raged between the Delian League and the Middlers for centuries. "[A] remarkable fantasy . . . Celestial Matters is an exhilarating book, alive with energy and the wonder of discovery. Admirers of hard sf, historical fiction and fantasy alike should check it out." Washington Post	LINKS TO REVIEWS ON OTHER SITES A Review from the Weblog of Anoop Sarkar A Pleasant if Lukewarm Review by Evelyn C. Leeper



	"This is an alternate world of the best sort. Garfinkle has fully fleshed it out, with enough internal logical cohesion to make suspension of disbelief a done deal. . . . Garfinkle also manages to fold in a satisfying cultural background that works as well as his alternate tech ideas. This world of Greece Triumphant is an interesting place, from its American Indian Spartan warriors to its Indian philosophers. The fusion of an alternate science with the ur-culture of a world essential to our own and now long gone is a tour de force of speculative fiction, well reasoned and thoroughly believable." Strangewords.com
	A Review of Celestial Matters in FINNISH We're not entirely sure, but we think this is a good review. It does demonstrate the multinational appeal of the story.

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