Alastair Reynolds is one of my favorite writers (even though I wasn’t fond of his last book Terminal World), so I was excited to see he had written a novella called Trokia. The story is a simple one with a man and a woman discussing past events. But it quickly becomes clear that both of them have had issues in the past and the remembrances and story might not be what they think it is. So, let’s go visit some Russians.

Cosmonaut Dimitri Ivanov escapes (possibly with the help of his doctor) an asylum to go and talk to Nesha Petrova. Dimitri was on the mission to investigate and alien artifact named Matryoshka (after the Russian dolls that nest within each other). Nesha was the astronomer that identified a link between Matryoshka and music. Ivanov, in between digressions about politics and other subjects, tells the tale of entering the nesting layers of Matryoshka and how each of the three astronauts slowly went mad. As he tells his tale, he seems confused about several points in the story and insists that he was put into the asylum by the government to control him. As the story ends the reality of Dimitri’s situation is presented in stark contrast to what false front he presented.

The story is beautifully written with the Matryoshka theme not only standing in for the alien artifact, but for the plot as a whole. Layer after layer is revealed until we are left with the last little doll who is not what we expected. Reynolds is normally a very good writer, but this novella ups his writing. It is one of the better science fiction stories (from a writing POV) of the last few years. Hopefully this level of craftsmanship will continue over into his next novels. Highly recommended.