Book Review: Purgatory Mount by Adam Roberts

In the far distant future, a group of long-lived humans take a 40 light year flight aboard the starship Forward to investigate an interesting feature detected on the planet V538 Aurigae. The craft is also a generation ship for what appears to be a sub-species of human and briefly reminded me of Non-Stop by Brian Aldiss.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Book Review: The Compelled by Adam Roberts and Francois Schuiten

The Compelled is a gorgeous-looking e-book written by Adam Roberts with wonderfully atmospheric illustrations by François Schuiten that have an almost retro-Victorian look to them. The book is set in modern times, but I kept finding myself viewing it through steampunk goggles as I immersed myself in the world of the Compelled.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Book Review: By the Pricking of Her Thumb by adam Roberts

Adam Roberts is a great player with words, constructing lyrical prose and playful dialogue without any care as to whether it falls strictly within the rules of English grammar or whether indeed the words could be found in a dictionary. 

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Book Review: By Light Alone by Adam Roberts

A century or so from now, the problem of famine has been overcome by a technique that transforms hair into solar energy collectors that works by a kind of photosynthesis, so that nobody need eat food any more. This means that the poor must wear their hair long in order to survive, allowing them to soak up the sunlight, while the rich style their hair short as they can afford to eat food which has now become a luxury.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Book Review: The Real-Town Murders by Adam Roberts

It’s a nearish-future world in Adam Roberts’ latest novel The Real-Town Murders, wherein a large proportion of people spend a large proportion of their time in the Shine, an immersive Internet/virtual reality world where everything is better and more convenient than the Real-Town.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Book Review: The Thing Itself by Adam Roberts

The thing about ‘The Thing Itself’ is that it’s difficult to say what the Thing is, which is actually the whole point of the thing itself. It can’t be described or even comprehended, due to the way our minds work. I’m afraid that sentence won’t make much sense unless you’ve read the book.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Book Review: Sibilant Fricative by Adam Roberts

I feel slightly inadequate at the prospect of writing a review of ‘Sibilant Fricative’, a collection of reviews and essays from Adam Roberts. He is well-known and respected as a reviewer who is both perceptive and entertaining, while at the same time scholarly. He is the kind of author whose reviews are collected together and published in a book. Obviously.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Random Interview Question: Adam Roberts

Adam Roberts has produced several entertaining and varied novels, including the Gulliver's Travels fantasy sequel Swiftly.

Q. Would you rather move to Lilliput or Brobdingnag?

A. I'm a shade below 6'2". My wife is 5'0", my 10-year old daughter approaching that height, my son 4 years old. I'm already living Gulliver's life in Lilliput. So the answer to your question is: I suppose I should probably give Brobdingnag a go, just to see what that's like. And, actually, if you've read Swift's novel you'll know that the Brobdingnagians are a much more civilised, reasonable bunch of people than the petty, belligerent Liliputians.

Book Review: New Model Army by Adam Roberts

The biggest triumph of Adam Roberts’ new novel ‘New Model Army’ is that he has written a literary and engrossing book despite the narrator.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.