Diamond Dogs

Diamond Dogs is novella by Alastair Reynolds, set in his Revelation Space universe.

In a universe where all the aliens seem to be dead or hiding, a potential momentous discovery is made: an alien structure - a tower of some kind - is discovered on a lifeless planet. This tower, known as the Blood Spire, killed the crew of the ship that first discovered it. The last surivor, before succumbing to his horrific wounds, recounts how the tower tested him and his crew. Pass the increasingly difficult tests and you can possibly ascend to the top of the alien tower and unlock its secrets. But get any of the increasinlyg difficult questions wrong, and...well, let's just say that very unpleasant things happen to you.

The story follows the efforts of a new expedition team, led by a man named Childe, in their attempt to ascend the Blood Spire.

""I had the same dream," I said, wonderingly. "And there was another dream in which I was inside somekind of-" I halted, waiting for the words to assemble in my head. "Some kind of underground tomb. I remember being chased down a corridor by an enormous stone ball which was going to roll over me."
 * Alien Geometries: Comes into play as the tests become more and more difficult, the higher they ascend the tower; the challenges begin to involve higher-dimensional shapes and arcane math.
 * : Part of the big reveal about
 * Curiosity Killed the Cast: An ominous and inscrutable alien tower on a barren, unknown planet you say? And you go inside and it tests you? And brutally punishes and/or kills you for failing? And the tests get harder as you go along? Sign me up!
 * Cyborg: Doctor Trintignant is absolutely obsessed with cyborg-ifying anyone he can get his hands on, including himself. Badly injured people (like those retreating from the Blood Spire after being "punished") are a great opportunity for him.
 * Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Played with. Doctor Trintignant was already pretty immoral, even before he began experimenting on unwitting subjects (along with himsefl). On the other hand
 * Downer Ending:
 * Dream Weaver: The night before their first attempt on the tower, Childe somehow feeds the plots of various "popular narratives from history" in an attempt to mentally prepare them for the challenge (see Shout-Out below)
 * Forbidden Fruit: Despite being unquestionably dangerous, the crew can't help but keep on going into the Blood Spire, even after people start getting mutilated and/or killed.
 * One character compares it to climbing a mountain: "Because it's there."
 * Genius Loci: Though never explicit, it's heavily implied that the Blood Spire isn't a simple structure but is in some sense alive.
 * Karmic Transformation: Possibly with
 * Meaningful Name: A man with the name of Childe, in a quest to climb a Dark Tower? Who would ?
 * Never Found the Body: Mostly averted, in that those killed by the Spire are unceremoniously ejected from the tower (sometimes in pieces, depending on how they died). Thus, the land surrounding the tower is littered with the remains of those who previously attempted the tower. Played with in that the Spire keeps any mechanical parts, and in the end, body (well, his ) is never found, implying that.
 * Nothing Left to Do But Die: 's reason for commiting suicide; he knows that will ask him to  when they return. However, he considers . So he kills himself rather than go through with it. That's right, he killed himself just to spite them.
 * Morally-Ambiguous Doctorate: "Doctor" Trintignant. Seriously, who made this guy a doctor?
 * Non-Action Cast: Most the members of the expedition were chosen for their mental abilities, not their fighting abilities. The one possible exception would be Hirz.
 * Only Smart People May Pass: A deconstruction of this trope
 * Schmuck Bait: Near the end, the narrator/protagonist speculates
 * Shout-Out: Many. There are two right near the beginning, in a sequence where the protagonist's party, about to enter the Blood Spire, are dream-fed similar scenarios in case they help:

Hirz nodded. "The dream with the hat, right?"

"My God, yes." I grinned like a madman. "I lost my hat, and I felt this ridiculous urge to rescue it!""

"Celestine broke the silence, turning to Hirz. "Did you have the one about the cubes, too?" "Christ, yes," the infiltration specialist said, as if suddenly remembering. "The cubes. What about you, Richard?" "Indeed," I answered, flinching at the memory of that one. I had been one of a party of people trapped inside an endless series of cubic rooms, many of which contained lethal surprises. "I was cut into pieces by a trap, actually. Diced, if I remember accurately."
 * And:

"Yeah. Not exactly on my top ten list of ways to die, either.'""


 * Don't forget the Shout-Out implicit in the title, to David Bowie's album Diamond Dogs (which was based loosely on George Orwell's 1984).
 * Also: Childe's name is likely a Shout-Out to Childe Roland To The Dark Tower Came, the poem that the Dark Tower series was based upon. Also doubles as a Meaningful Name (see above)
 * Title Drop: "Diamond Dogs" refers to the monsterous forms