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58th out of 59 books
—
7 voters
Anticopernicus
by
Adam Roberts
A brief novel by the author of "Yellow Blue Tibia" and "New Model Army". 4-chapters in total; only available for e-purchase.
First contact: despite our cosmic littleness, the aliens have come to visit. But they have parked their interstellar craft on the outskirts of the solar system, and despite friendly interaction (their English if fluent and idiomatic) they will come no...more
First contact: despite our cosmic littleness, the aliens have come to visit. But they have parked their interstellar craft on the outskirts of the solar system, and despite friendly interaction (their English if fluent and idiomatic) they will come no...more
ebook, 38 pages
Published
July 15th 2011
by Ancaster Books
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I finished Adam Roberts Anticopernicus his self-published "dwarf novel" which is 99c on Amazon and similar on Amazon.uk; also available on Wizard Tower if you want an epub
At 15k words I would estimate about 40 print pages, but Anticopernicus reads like a true novel and it has enough stuff to satisfy; a story of first contact including a clever "explanation" of the Fermi paradox and dark energy with the title hinting at what those are, but being Adam Roberts, the strength are style, characters an...more
At 15k words I would estimate about 40 print pages, but Anticopernicus reads like a true novel and it has enough stuff to satisfy; a story of first contact including a clever "explanation" of the Fermi paradox and dark energy with the title hinting at what those are, but being Adam Roberts, the strength are style, characters an...more
This is a long short story, a novella that has the tight focused flavour of classic sf - before the bloat. I was sort of expecting not to have the encounter at all but when it happened there was enough of an interesting idea that I didn't mind. The female main character is almost a meta-commentary on the older male sf characters - I like the psychology used to create this modern version.
I read this as a part of the Writer and Critic Podcast on self-published ebooks (episode 24)and, apart from "...more
I read this as a part of the Writer and Critic Podcast on self-published ebooks (episode 24)and, apart from "...more
Adam Roberts' witty and fluid style carries this sci-fi novella, his first foray into self-publishing, as he describes on his website. The introduction is a sprightly tour of current scientific thought about the physics of the universe, quantum theory, the mystery of dark matter, and the strangeness of time at micro- and macro-scales. When reading this, I squawked to myself "where's the fiction?!" Patience. It starts in the next chapter, and bears a tenuous relationship to the introduction, in t...more
Writing style: Meh
Idea/Payoff: Excellent
Saw some good reviews and as it was 99 cents decided to give this a try. The writing style is not particularly to my taste, and as much as halfway through, though I liked the main character, I was thinking this was going to be a 2 maybe a 3 star rating. However, it's short, about 15k words according to the author's website, and so I kept going. I'm very glad I did, because the idea behind this story is brilliant. I won't really say more than that, it's sho...more
Idea/Payoff: Excellent
Saw some good reviews and as it was 99 cents decided to give this a try. The writing style is not particularly to my taste, and as much as halfway through, though I liked the main character, I was thinking this was going to be a 2 maybe a 3 star rating. However, it's short, about 15k words according to the author's website, and so I kept going. I'm very glad I did, because the idea behind this story is brilliant. I won't really say more than that, it's sho...more
A short novel from one of my favourite authors, available only as an ebook, and well worth reading. As he usually does, Roberts takes one central idea from science fiction, and explores it. In this case, it is the Fermi paradox, which he manages to solve in the most original way I've yet heard of, along the way overturning Copernicus.
Recommended for science fiction readers who are into "big ideas". Well written, but since I read this immediately after Yellow Blue Tibia, which I rated 5 stars, not that much to my taste.
Quite short, but then it was also 99 cents. I read and enjoy this author's blog, so I decided to get the book on my Kindle. The story was interesting and the prose occasionally pretty great (and otherwise good).
I'm not sure yet if this one will stick with me, but it just might.
I'm not sure yet if this one will stick with me, but it just might.
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Anticopernicus is a cheap short story/novella about first contact, with some intriguing differences between humans and potential other human races, and some interesting speculation about current science. It's pretty well written: despite my science-stupid brain, I could follow the story quite easily, even though it's playing with things we don't actually understand.
For a short story, it's absorbing, complete in itself, and worth thinking about, which is pretty much all I ask from a short story....more
For a short story, it's absorbing, complete in itself, and worth thinking about, which is pretty much all I ask from a short story....more
This is a small book about the loneliness and inconsequence of life, told in the frame of a SF first contact story. It's a satire of our meaninglessness and the meaning of meaning.
In less than 50 pages, this first contact story feels more like an accomplished novel than many 1000 page books.
Apr 04, 2013
Nicholas Harvey
marked it as to-read
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Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Adam Roberts (born 1965) is an academic, critic and novelist. He also writes parodies under the pseudonyms of A.R.R.R. Roberts, A3R Roberts and Don Brine. He also blogs at The Valve, a group blog devoted to literature and cultural studies.
He has a degree in English from the...more
More about Adam Roberts...
Adam Roberts (born 1965) is an academic, critic and novelist. He also writes parodies under the pseudonyms of A.R.R.R. Roberts, A3R Roberts and Don Brine. He also blogs at The Valve, a group blog devoted to literature and cultural studies.
He has a degree in English from the...more
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