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Yellow Blue Tibia

3.63 of 5 stars 3.63 · rating details · 613 ratings · 141 reviews

Russia, 1946. With the Nazis recently defeated, Stalin gathers half a dozen of the top Soviet science fiction authors in a dacha in the countryside. Convinced that the defeat of America is only a few years away—and equally convinced that the Soviet Union needs a massive external threat to hold it together—Stalin orders the writers to compose a massively detailed and highly...more

Hardcover, 336 pages

Published January 22nd 2009 by Gollancz

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Jul 08, 2010 Ceridwen rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: All you folk who didn't listen to Mike

Recommended to Ceridwen by: Mike Reynolds

Shelves: alternate-history, aliens, books-about-books, pomo-a-go-go, rule-britannia, sci-fi, red-scare

Cross-posted on Readerling

I once got in a huge argument with some friends when they uttered the following statement in my presence: “The post-Soviet economic system is a much purer form of capitalism than our own.” In addition to being vague to the point of meaninglessness, this idea, which I've heard several times in different contexts, is such a ridiculously American piece of twaddle, uttered in comfy American living rooms while outside government continues to function and basic services are r...more

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Nov 17, 2012 Ben Babcock rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: alternate-history, science-fiction, via-io9, from-library, 2012-read

This is a very odd book. It’s the kind of love-child that might result from someone distilling Umberto Eco and Kurt Vonnegut. Adam Roberts takes on the spectre of Soviet Russia and, at the same time, explores how science fiction shapes and is shaped by the issues at work in the society of its time. Yellow Blue Tibia is not your typical work of alternative history.

At the end of World War II, Stalin gathers some of Russia’s greatest science fiction minds and asks them to create an alien menace tha...more

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Sep 02, 2012 Nikki rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: speculative-fiction, historical-fiction-alternatehistory

I have no idea what I just read. It probably doesn't help that I'm sleep deprived. Does it help if I say that I enjoyed it anyway? It was almost easier to read in this state: something in my sleep-deprived head clicked with the narrative quite well. I'm curious to read it again sometime when I'm not sleep deprived, as well, though. (And I'm sure you're all curious to see me review it when I'm not sleep deprived.)

I think it's really best read to understand what the experience is like. I can't pit...more

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Mar 07, 2009 David Hebblethwaite rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is Adam Roberts’s tenth novel, which of course means there were nine before it. Nine that I haven’t read. How on Earth have I allowed this to happen? If they’re all as enjoyable as Yellow Blue Tibia, I have been missing out.

Yellow Blue Tibia is presented as the memoir of one Konstantin Skvorecky, a science fiction writer who was gathered together, along with four others, by Stalin in the aftermath of (what I know as) the Second World War. Stalin charged the writers with the task of creating...more This is Adam Roberts’s tenth novel, which of course means there were nine before it. Nine that I haven’t read. How on Earth have I allowed this to happen? If they’re all as enjoyable as Yellow Blue Tibia, I have been missing out.

Yellow Blue Tibia is presented as the memoir of one Konstantin Skvorecky, a science fiction writer who was gathered together, along with four others, by Stalin in the aftermath of (what I know as) the Second World War. Stalin charged the writers with the task of creating a new enemy — an enemy from outer space — which the ruling party could claim to be fighting, thereby strengthening the prestige of communism. The authors come up with some outlandish nonsense about ‘radiation aliens’, and hammer out a future history — but the project is promptly cancelled, and the writers instructed never to speak of it again.

Skvorecky sees neither hide nor hair of the others until 1986, and a chance encounter with another of the group, Ivan Frenkel — who claims that the story they constructed four decades previously is now coming true, beginning with the Challenger disaster (caused by radiation aliens!!). Sounds ridiculous, of course: but then Skvorecky (who works as a translator) meets the American James Coyne, who insists something similar — and then dies in mysterious circumstances.

After various turns of the plot, we find Skvorecky racing to Chernobyl, along with Ivan Saltykov, a nuclear physicist turned taxi driver who says he has Asperger’s syndrome (though he never gets to name it in full), and ceaselessly reminds people of the fact; and Dora Norman, Coyne’s hugely overweight compatriot. And, after Skvorecky survives a grenade attack against all the odds, things start to get really strange…

My strongest abiding memory of Yellow Blue Tibia is how much of a pleasure it was to read. Though not (I would say) primarily a comedy, it is nevertheless one of the funniest books I have read in some time: witness, for example, the scene in which Skvorecky is first translating for the two Americans, and frantically trying to think of acceptable ways to ‘translate’ his colleague’s insults.

More than this, the novel also provides plenty to think about. Roberts bases his fiction on a paradox about UFOs: there are so many reports of them, yet such a paucity of evidence for their concrete existence. The author’s fictional solution to this paradox is fascinating to think about; I particularly like the wayhe takes some well-worn ideas and spins something fresh out of them.

Roberts also effectively plays tricks with the narrative. Skvorecky undergoes a pre-frontal lobotomy during the novel, which subtly alters his narrative voice, and disrupts his sense of the passage of time, something Roberts exploits to extend the mystery of his plot. Skvorecky stresses at the beginning that ‘[t:]here are no secrets in this book’, but of course there are — they’re just hidden from the narrator as much as from the reader (reading back the paragraph I’ve quoted from, I also discovered several subtle hints that seem innocuous at first, but change in meaning once you’ve read the book).

Another strand of Yellow Blue Tibia concerns parallels between science fiction and communism; but lacunae in my knowledge of history and politics prevent me from really getting to grips with it. A further strand that I did appreciate, though, was the love story. It might seem unexpected to find such an element in this novel, but its title refers to a phonetic way of saying, ‘I love you’ in Russian — and it is indeed central to the story.

One recurring feature of Yellow Blue Tibia is that a character may say that something can be in one state or another (one could go somewhere accompanied or alone, for example), but that there could (and, in some instances, could not) be a third option. Well, I finished the book with a big smile on my face. Or it could be that I finished it with my imagination fizzing over at the possibilities Roberts put forward. Then again, it was probably both.(less)

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Feb 19, 2011 Lea rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: acquired-2011, read-2011, favorites, reviews

Either I loved this book, or I didn't love it, or it was some third thing.

But (really) I loved it, and you'll just have to read the book to understand the first sentence of this review.

In 1946, science fiction author Konstantin Andreiovich Skvorecky, along with a group of other writers, is given the task of inventing an alien invasion scenario by Josef Stalin. Stalin believes that America's defeat by the Soviet Union is imminent, and he wants to invent a new enemy that the Soviet people can be...more

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Sep 02, 2012 Celine rated it 4 of 5 stars

Despite finding Adam Robert's style a little frustrating at times, I greatly enjoyed this book. I found all the characters interesting and sympathetic, and I thought the story was clever and involving, though as I say the style annoyed me occasionally.

I've read Cat Valente's rather over the top review of it, and will take her at her word that much of Robert's Russian references are off, but I must say that much of what Cat Valente objects to in this book, I saw as humour (the main character for...more

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Apr 04, 2013 Mike rated it 5 of 5 stars

I've read a few of Roberts' books now and they're all brilliant, challenging and thought-provoking but this is the most unusual of them. His main character has the usual slightly tetchy, bemused-contemplative approach to his world and the events are as surreal as any of Roberts' previous works but the explicit humour of this book is what really caught my attention. It's a matter of the ridiculous or slapstick delivered in the dryest manner. Some authors would fail to make this gel with such a ra...more

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Nov 11, 2012 D.M. Busek rated it 4 of 5 stars

Pros: Nicely paced; at times very funny; plot became coherent at the end - which kind of justified the whole slapstick/violence mixture. Lovely hidden quotations like "I like to keep my engine clean" etc.

Contras:
1. Russian NAMES. I wonder why it's so difficult, after all the troubles with making historical background and atmosphere more or less credible, just to: 1. make a list of all your characters. 2. give it to a Russian person. 3. pay him or her like a 100 bucks. 4. get your patronymics ba...more

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Apr 09, 2012 Jani rated it 4 of 5 stars

For some reason alternate histories is a bit neglected subgenre of Science Fiction for me. It isn't like I desperately need to have advanced technology present or something of the kinds that most people recognize as the trademarks of SF, it's just that I haven't happened upon such books.

This was changed about six months ago, when wondering after a SF exhibition I glanced upon this novel and its Soviet themed cover; I picked it up and by the time I got to halfway down the marketing text I was so...more

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Nov 10, 2011 Yaroslav rated it 2 of 5 stars

Это даже не клюква, а какая-то морошка. Не знаю, что я имею в виду. Но и Робертс тоже накатал роман, абсолютно не зная об СССР ни черта. Все реалии, которые ему не были известны, он осторожно (не смело!) додумал. Получилась книга, которую бы мог написать теперешний старательный восьмиклассник. Знания о Сталине и Советском Союзе середины восьмидесятых у Робертса примерно на таком же уровне. Впрочем, наш школьник не стал бы приукрашивать действительность, сообщая читателям, будто в русском языке н...more Это даже не клюква, а какая-то морошка. Не знаю, что я имею в виду. Но и Робертс тоже накатал роман, абсолютно не зная об СССР ни черта. Все реалии, которые ему не были известны, он осторожно (не смело!) додумал. Получилась книга, которую бы мог написать теперешний старательный восьмиклассник. Знания о Сталине и Советском Союзе середины восьмидесятых у Робертса примерно на таком же уровне. Впрочем, наш школьник не стал бы приукрашивать действительность, сообщая читателям, будто в русском языке нет соответствия слову teetotaler. Или как вам такие типичные фамилии милиционеров - Пахуланик, Зембла и Лиски? (Кстати, забавный момент: если бы в книге нашего писателя действовали милиционеры с такими идиотскими фамилиями, я бы автору с готовностью поверил.)
Но даже если и закрыть глаза на эти мелкие благомаразмы, роман вышел идиотский. Все персонажи высосаны из пальца, причем из пальца, который до этого уже порядком выжали. Никто, несмотря на творящееся вокруг хрен пойми что, не задает никому никаких вопросов. А если вдруг кто-то пытается объяснить происходящие непонятки или поведать Главную Тайну, в него тут же стреляют из-за угла.
Итого. Единственный плюс: я узнал, что значит слово tibia (большая берцовая кость). Опять же примечательно: сам Робертс почему-то считает, что эта кость находится в руке. Но вполне возможно, голова Робертса как раз и располагается между двух берцовых костей.(less)

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Oct 20, 2011 Algernon rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011

My first Adam Roberts book. I liked his narrative style, his intelligent concepts and his flashes of humor. However this book tickled me in all the wrong places with his nasty atitude towards the Russian people and culture. I don't now where he got his research done, but he popultated his world exclusively with garbage, ugliness, foul mouthed government officials, pea brained KGB agents,vodka addicts, scatter brained nuclear physicists. It all seems to come out of a CIA propaganda bureau from th...more

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Sep 15, 2011 Sjhigbee rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I picked this book off the library shelf (something I won’t get to do much longer, if the Government and local councils have their way...) because I thought the cover intriguingly different.
Konstantin Andreiovich Skvorecky was one of a group of Russion SF writers called together by Josef Stalin in 1946. Stalin, convinced that the defeat of America was only a few years away, needed a new enemy for Communism to unite against. Skvorecky and the others were tasked with creating a convincing alien t...more I picked this book off the library shelf (something I won’t get to do much longer, if the Government and local councils have their way...) because I thought the cover intriguingly different.
Konstantin Andreiovich Skvorecky was one of a group of Russion SF writers called together by Josef Stalin in 1946. Stalin, convinced that the defeat of America was only a few years away, needed a new enemy for Communism to unite against. Skvorecky and the others were tasked with creating a convincing alien threat; a story of imminent disaster that could be told to the Soviet peoples.
And then after many months of diligent work the writers were told to stop and, on pain of death, to forget everything. Little is known of what happened to the writers subsequently but in 1986, Skvorecky made a dramatic reappearance at Chernobyl claiming that everything that he and the others had written was coming true. His assertion was widely disbelieved but Skvorecky claimed (tastelessly many believe) that the Chernobyl disaster and the destruction of the Challenger space shuttle conformed to the pattern set by Stalin’s scenario. Skvorecky believes that alien invasion is ongoing.
I’d not come across Roberts’ work before, but it didn’t take long to realise that this chap can write. Narrated in Skvorecky’s first person viewpoint, the character is beautifully realised – right down to the odd Russian contradictions such as his (completely understandable) world-weary cynicism, along with the touching belief in love. The book recounts Skvorecky’s adventures leading up to the Chernobyl disaster and how an encounter with a couple of American Scientologists changed his life.
Roberts deftly portrays a Russia suffering a crisis of confidence with everyone scrabbling to cope with Gorbachev’s cataclysmic changes involving perrestoika against a backdrop of crumbling Communism. It isn’t a pretty picture – especially filtered through the viewpoint of an aging, burnt out ex-alcoholic. By rights it should be unremittingly grim enough to make the likes of Dan Simmons and Roger Levy look pink n’fluffy in comparison. However Roberts leavens the underlying awfulness of his subject matter and backdrop by dollops of humour, to the extent there are laugh-aloud moments in this book. I found myself chuckling during Skvorecky’s interrogation when the official questioning him gets in a muddle as to when the tape is turned off and on…
The book veers from moments of acute danger, high farce and reflections on the dreadful circumstances within a couple of pages without jolting the reader out of the story. It takes a writer at the height of his powers to pull this off. And Roberts really does flex his ‘show off’ muscle in this book - the narrative voice denoting English as a second language, complete with amusing puns and odd confusions; Skvorecky’s entirely believable transformation from a miserably cynical has-been to someone a lot more hopeful and proactive; the swooping changes of mood from moments of high drama to farce… But then, if I could write like this, I’d probably be performing the literary equivalent of dizzying pirouettes, too.
Interestingly, science fiction as a genre and belief system comes under close examination in the book, right from when Stalin decides that aliens should make the next unifying threat to keep Mother Russia together. Skvorecky maintains his belief throughout that alien abductions and spaceships do not exist – that even when he was a respected science fiction author, he did not believe in such things. Science fiction becomes a metaphor for a population’s credulous belief in things without any proper foundation. Or does it? Roberts plays the sorts of games with the reader that we are more used to seeing from the literary end of the spectrum, such as providing us with an unreliable narrator. Generally I have limited patience with such gimmicks – but then they are often employed by authors who don’t possess Roberts’ skill and humour.
Any niggles? Nope. Not a single one. I’ve read reviews that have grumbled that some of the interesting issues raised in the book are not fully developed – but that’s FINE with me. This is a piece of fiction designed to entertain. In addition, Roberts has also chosen to give us food for thought along the way – what he didn’t do was to hold up the narrative pace to extend those reflections beyond their use in the story. A writer that – despite his stylist flourishes – puts the needs of the reader above his own hubris. Hallelujah! In short (in case it’s already escaped your attention) I think that this is a superb, funny, sharp read by a clever author who knows exactly where he’s going… Go on – track it down, you be thanking me if you do. And if you’re scratching your head about the odd title – apparently the Russian phrase Ya lyublyU tebyA, meaning I love you, sounds roughly like yellow, blue tibia.
10/10
(less)

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Sep 10, 2011 Maciej rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Pod koniec lat 40tych Stalin zbiera na odludzi pięciu najwybitniejszych radzieckich pisarzy SF i wydaje im proste polecenie: mają stworzyć wiarygodny i szczegółowy scenariusz ataku obcych na Ziemię, tak aby po upadku USA, Związek Radziecki mógł przedstawić swoim obywatelom nowego wroga. Brzmi ciekawie? Dla mnie zabrzmiało i pierwsze kilkadziesiąt stron, rzeczywiście zapowiadało niezłą jazdę po ZSRR. Lekkie pióro, ciekawe dialogi, ZSRR i kosmici – czego chcieć więcej? Niestety po mocnym wstępie a...more

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Apr 23, 2011 Lorraine rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was quite good all the way through -- I thought the ending a bit weak though. It struck me as ostensibly metafictional, which is a mixed bag -- it can end up ridiculously -- but Roberts did it quite well. There are a few holes in the plot, I think, but it doesn't matter. Roberts resolves the whole thing fairly well. It's a good meditation of the role of fiction in politics and every day "reality". Especially science fiction. I can't help thinking Roberts has a slight neurosis about this, ri...more

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Mar 14, 2011 Benjamin added it

Shelves: bedside-reading

If nothing else, Adam Roberts is not afraid to make enemies by speaking his mind. His 2006 academic The History of Science Fiction takes aim at some of the most popular academic theories of science fiction (Suvin's cognitive estrangement, Damien Broderick's megatext and object-focus, and Samuel R. Delaney's reading protocols); Roberts ditches these theories for an alternate theory that argues that science fiction really begins with Greek stories of fantastic travels; that sf takes a historical n...more

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Aug 03, 2010 Tim Pendry rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

This is not so much a science fiction book (the sci fi is crammed into the last thirty or so pages but I refuse to do a spoiler here) as a book about science fiction - the old Soviet science fiction tradition.

This Soviet tradition followed a different trajectory from that of the West with Zamyatin, Jules Verne and H.G. Wells as its masters. Its most well known writers outside the 'East; are probably Mikhail Bulgakov and the Strugatsky Brothers ('Roadside Picnic') to whom might be added the Polis...more

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Jul 21, 2010 Bryna rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jul 14, 2010 Amanda rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: bought-copy, science-fiction

Yellow Blue Tibia by Adam Roberts is about Konstantin Andreiovich Skvorecky, a Russian SF writer who is called by Stalin to be part of a group who are to create a new threat for Communism to unite against, after the end of World War II. Soon after coming up with the concept of radiation aliens, and writing about their destruction of the Ukraine, the SF writers are disbanded and told, on pain of death, to forget everything that they have done. 40 years later the story picks up and follows Skvorec...more Yellow Blue Tibia by Adam Roberts is about Konstantin Andreiovich Skvorecky, a Russian SF writer who is called by Stalin to be part of a group who are to create a new threat for Communism to unite against, after the end of World War II. Soon after coming up with the concept of radiation aliens, and writing about their destruction of the Ukraine, the SF writers are disbanded and told, on pain of death, to forget everything that they have done. 40 years later the story picks up and follows Skvorecky as a number of strange occurrences cause him to believe that the alien invasion is actually coming true as it was written so many years ago.

Just writing that synopsis makes me marvel at the imagination required to arrive at a plot which is, at once, breathtaking in its scope and farcical in its telling. Adam Roberts has written a novel which makes you laugh in delighted shock on a number of occasions, but, above all, makes you wonder.

The writing is well-crafted at an extremely high intellectual level - I say this with a certain amount of pride, but it is a rare book these days that has me reaching for the dictionary to find out the meaning behind a word I have never encountered before, and Yellow Blue Tibia did this on a couple of occasions. The philosophical musings, the authentic settings that brought to life Communist Russia, the rampant humour - all of these factors made me delight in reading the book.

However, the humour is probably the one element of the book that had me scratching my head. I adored the cynical irony, the slapstick chases, the quirky characters - but it meant that the novel was more of a comedy and therefore the impact of some of the high concept sci-fi components was lost.

I also didn't manage to connect with the characters on any level at all - I laughed at their antics, but I ended up caring very little as to the resolution of their story. This particular quote, I believe, sums up the novel perfectly:

" '...One thing I hate in this world and you are fucking it. You are an ironist.'

'An ironist?'

'Fundamentally, you take nothing seriously. You believe it is all a game. It was the same in your novels; they were never serious. They had no heart...' "

Having said that, the love story at the heart of Yellow Blue Tibia - and the reason for the title - were sweetly unexpected. I liked Dora, especially the fact that Skvorecky saw beyond her physical appearance to realise the beauty in her soul.

I liked Yellow Blue Tibia well enough, but felt it was not the unbelievable novel it had the potential to be, because the humour confused the issues being presented. I have not read any other Adam Roberts novels, and so I am left wondering whether every novel he has written has the same ironic bent (which, actually, sounds very like the author's rather snarky blog as well!) What, I guess, is promising is the fact that I would like to seek out other novels by Adam Roberts! Yellow Blue Tibia is a highly imaginative novel with a lot of soul but little heart - humorous but a little shallow.

Arthur Clarke thoughts: There is no doubt that Yellow Blue Tibia deserves its place on the short list - it is, again, a very different type of science fiction novel. I think what I have truly admired so far about the Arthur Clarke reads is that they are so very different, but united in some fantastic writing and stunning science fiction concepts. I certainly don't envy the judges, having now read five of the six! In my opinion, Yellow Blue Tibia is a very strong novel, but I think it is possibly too light-hearted for the award - especially when considering the impact of novels such as The City & The City and Far North. (less)

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May 25, 2009 Jo rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people in need of a fun read

What pleasant surprise ! '86 was one of those years in my life that saw major changes and Chernobyl in some odd ways became one of those turning-point moments which assumed more and more convoluted and throuroughly over-determined significance as life went on. To come across a novel which does not shy away from playing with exaclty those issues is almost redeeming in a way. Not of course that I ever suspected mysterious radiation aliens to plot an attack on planet earth following a script provid...more

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Sep 09, 2009 DC rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sf

This is a very difficult book to describe (without, at least, revealing much too much of how the story unfolds). The bare details of the plot revealed on the covers are that that this is "Konstantin Skvorecky's memoir of the alien invasion of 1986", and that in the immediate aftermath of the Great Patriotic War Stalin gathered together a group of Soviet SF writers and instructed them to concoct the story of an alien invasion threat, a foe against which the Soviet people could unite once the next...more This is a very difficult book to describe (without, at least, revealing much too much of how the story unfolds). The bare details of the plot revealed on the covers are that that this is "Konstantin Skvorecky's memoir of the alien invasion of 1986", and that in the immediate aftermath of the Great Patriotic War Stalin gathered together a group of Soviet SF writers and instructed them to concoct the story of an alien invasion threat, a foe against which the Soviet people could unite once the next foe (America) had been dealt with — say, after five years or so. They do their job, but then are suddenly told that their work is finished, and they are never to speak of it again. Then, in 1986, it appears that their alien invasion scenario is coming true.

That's the basics. What it doesn't hint at is the engaging wit of the book, which could be classed as a satirical comedy on life in the Soviet Union (two people on the street is just two people, but three: that's a queue), as well as being a gripping adventure, a love story, and perhaps — this is not something you can be sure about either way until the end of the book — SF. It does not overlook the central contradiction of the UFO claims: millions claim to have seen them, but it is impossible to demonstrate their existence: they obviously don't exist, as Skvorecky states in the book. This is one of those books where a great part of the pleasure in reading it is the way it is written (for a book written by an English author, it is completely convincing as being told by a Russian character: that's very rare).

There is only one real gripe with the book. At one point, the tibia is referred to as one of the arm bones, which it of course isn't. Granted, this is Skvorecky talking, and Skvorecky could be wrong — but an educated man who knows it is a bone not knowing where one of the largest bones in the body is...? Yes, that's a trivial complaint, really: it's not as though the tibia is important. It says something that that is the only thing wrong I found with the book. I was concerned that the end would be a let-down. It was not.

I am definitely going to read this again.(less)

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Feb 21, 2009 Liviu rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009_release_read, genre-sf, read_2009, review_fbc, t1_recommended_2009

Excellent book; darkly funny, superb narrative and ending. It instantly became a top 5 sf for 09 and a co-Adam Roberts favorite alongside Stone.

Some quotes from the first pages that take place in 1945 in a dacha near Moscow where Stalin himself commissions some Russian sf writers to concoct an alien invasion scenario will give you the flavor; the rest of the novel takes place in Moscow and Kiev of 1986 and it's just brilliant darkly funny modern sf

" 'A fine story', said Asterinov ....
'Six...more

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May 31, 2012 John Montagne rated it 4 of 5 stars

It's a novel set in the cold war, concerning a (very subtle) alien invasion. From this you might think spy vs. spy with alien tech., but no, it's not that. In fact, I'm quite surprised the book didn't bore me - but its characters and unique take on an alien invasion is what kept me interested - and the way Roberts WRITES like a Russian. His characters are like those in famous Russian works of literature, deal with some of the same issues and share cultural perceptions that have been established....more

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Jun 12, 2009 Mike rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Bill P, Donald, Ceridwen, Manny, Eric W, Simon, Brad

Recommended to Mike by: the Guardian

Really damn good. I can't believe I haven't read anything by Roberts before. Review forthcoming... Uh-oh: now someone actually cares, so...caveat lector.

Tibia's glorious high-concept plot opens with a gaggle of bedraggled Soviet Science Fiction writers still wincing from experiences in the Great War, convened at Stalin's dacha and told--by big blustery scary-ass demon Joe himself--to write an alien invasion novel. What follows is in some ways a reinvigoration of the classic alien invasion novel,...more Really damn good. I can't believe I haven't read anything by Roberts before. Review forthcoming... Uh-oh: now someone actually cares, so...caveat lector.

Tibia's glorious high-concept plot opens with a gaggle of bedraggled Soviet Science Fiction writers still wincing from experiences in the Great War, convened at Stalin's dacha and told--by big blustery scary-ass demon Joe himself--to write an alien invasion novel. What follows is in some ways a reinvigoration of the classic alien invasion novel, complete with the seven-veil tease of the conspiratorial plot. Yet, as our narrator, the ironist Josef Skvorecky notes, it seems often quite "peculiar," like an "idiot conspiracy. A conspiracy by cretins." Most of the action occurs in 1986, the year of Chernobyl--an event predicted as a first salvo in the alien war written by said gaggle some forty years before. We follow Skvorecky dragged back into the mess, pushed about and bullied (as much like a classic noir as an SF protagonist) by the dunderheaded Militia, the sinister KGB, the confusing American Scientologists, a Pushkin Chess Club full of UFO enthusiasts, and a sidekick named Saltykov with "a syndrome"...

...and the plotline(s) start to shift between multiplying options. The conspiratorial thriller tracks into farce, and back again. I will note, as I move away from my great pleasurable engagement with such plotting, that even if you are not like me, do not enjoy the lure of the meta and the conceptual, you can still relish the novel as thrill ride and/or fall-down funny. Skvorecky confounds and drives to furious exasperation a militiaman named Zembla (Roberts is constantly tipping his cap) who while interrogating JS gets confused about when he's turning on or off the tape recorder (so that he can off-record threaten, with increasing fury and decreasing potency, JS's ballsack). Or JS is himself driven to Oliver-Hardy-esque bluster by the rigorous commitment to certain procedures demanded by his ally Saltykov, who keeps reminding everyone that he has a "syndrome" which leads to certain needs and behaviors--like a terribly ineffectual escape route during a tense getaway scene.

But like Skvorecky I am at heart an ironist, unable to take--largely uninterested about taking--"the direct route." The novel engages quite literally and fully with the work of the science fiction novel, its relationship to history and reality -- "Let us say," advises Skvorecky, "that science fiction is a kind of conceptual disorientation of the familiar." Often, like Communism, it is a kind of dream of Necessity, a corrosive and critical comment on what should be. (A KGB foil of Skvorecky's notes that "Alternative history has no pedigree in Soviet science fiction" because "postulating what things would have been like ... is meaningless to us.") But, like Roberts, Skvorecky disagrees, is forced by the complex plot and fuelled by his own attitudinal disposition to recognize the play of possibility. SF isn't (or needn't be) about what should be, but about those conditions which could lead to X, or Y, and in interrogating--juggling--the possibilities SF demands of the reader a kind of ability to trace across the superposition of contrary, contradictory notions of history, politics, language.

Skvorecky also happens to be a translator. Late in the novel, conversing with the on-the-run American Scientologist Dora (another hat-tip), he notes how to say "I love you" in Russian. He parses the translation without saying the words, the sound of the Russian (which is, in fact, the book's title). Roberts doesn't spell things out--in this case there is no need, but even where things can get sticky, he's committed to the ambiguous (even as he maintains the amped-up pleasures of plot). At the level of language, genre, plot, theme--Roberts is a masterful juggler of the conditional.

I enjoyed this as a huge SF fan, but I think Roberts' readership could and should be broader. I can't wait to grab some more of his work...(less)

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May 17, 2010 Simon rated it 5 of 5 stars

Yellow Blue Tibia, subtitled Konstantin Skvorecky’s memoir of the alien invasion of 1986, is Adam Roberts’ 10th novel, it was shortlisted for the BSFA Award and the Arthur C. Clarke Award for best novel.

It’s 1946, Nazi Germany has just been defeated and Stalin believes that victory over America is just a few years away. He perceives that the U.S.S.R. needs an external threat to give it unity and purpose. He therefore assembles in a dacha in the Russian countryside a group of Soviet science ficti...more Yellow Blue Tibia, subtitled Konstantin Skvorecky’s memoir of the alien invasion of 1986, is Adam Roberts’ 10th novel, it was shortlisted for the BSFA Award and the Arthur C. Clarke Award for best novel.

It’s 1946, Nazi Germany has just been defeated and Stalin believes that victory over America is just a few years away. He perceives that the U.S.S.R. needs an external threat to give it unity and purpose. He therefore assembles in a dacha in the Russian countryside a group of Soviet science fiction authors, including Konstantin Skvorecky and Ivan Frenkel, and orders them to concoct an alien invasion scenario so convincing that the whole world would believe it, an external threat against which the U.S.S.R. can unite. The group of authors come up with a story involving invisible radiation aliens, the destruction of an American rocket and the catastrophic destruction of a power plant in Ukraine. They are then ordered to forget about what they have done and never speak about it to anyone.

Jump forward to 1986, Konstantin Skvorecky is now a translator on a job for a Russian ministry and two American scientologists when he is approached by Ivan Frenkel who he has not seen since their work for Stalin in the dacha. Ivan tries to tell him that the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster of January 1986 was no accident, the alien invasion story they concocted for Stalin so many years ago is now coming true. Despite his efforts to stay out of the whole thing, Konstantin Skvorecky get embarked upon an adventure to uncover the truth.

As the subtitle (Konstantin Skvorecky’s memoir of the alien invasion of 1986) implies, the book is written as if Konstantin Skvorecky himself were the author, even going so far as to having him mention the chapter number at one point. This is great for two reasons: a) his dry acerbic wit and sense of humour dripping with cynical irony make him a hilarious narrator, b) as the reader you feel your are being told a secret history that no one else knows about.

Yellow Blue Tibia is a hilarious and delightful novel, I spent most of my time reading either with huge grin or actually laughing out loud. Indeed humour permeates all aspects of the book: the quirky characters such as Saltykov the nuclear physicist/taxi driver with Asperger’s syndrome, the increasingly surreal and bizarre situations Skvorecky finds himself in like for instance the group of UFO enthusiasts who mistake his denial of the existence of UFOs for an exercise in dialectical thinking, the mundane arguments that evolve into debates on existential philosophy… The prose itself is top-notch and filled with numerous puns including multi-lingual puns such as the name of the book itself. You can tell that Adam Roberts had a lot of fun writing this book!

The novel is, as Adam Roberts explains, an attempt to explain how the UFO phenomenon can be so ubiquitous in our culture, affecting so many, and yet be widely dismissed as being make-believe. However that’s not all, it’s also a witty commentary on the fall of the U.S.S.R.

Yellow Blue Tibia was a breath of fresh air for me, a welcome change from the usual SF tropes. It’s a very fun intellectual read that doesn’t take itself too seriously but manages to tackle some important themes in a new way: the sociological and psychological aspects of UFOs, truth, belief, reality. The book and its themes remind me a lot of Philip K. Dick and Kurt Vonnegut, and yet it’s also very different in tone and treatment.

This was the first book I read by Adam Roberts, I enjoyed it so much that I have since bought his latest book New Model Army as well as a couple of his previous novels. If the quality remains on par, I will have to add him to my favourite authors :)

http://blog.chaostrophy.org/articles/...(less)

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Apr 20, 2012 Chris rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: alternative-history, 2012, russia, sci-fi, arthur-c-clarke-nominee

Yellow Blue Tibia is an alternative history science fiction book based in communist Russia. The book begins with Stalin bringing together a group of Science fiction writers to concoct an invasion of an Alien species to unite his people against a common enemy.

For reasons unexplained the plug is pulled on the project and one of the writers Skrovecky, is left to peruse a career as an interpreter, and full time drunk. The book jumps forward, to just before Chernobyl, and Skrovecky begins to have vi...more

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Aug 16, 2011 Michael Hirsch rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

I've just finished reading "Yellow, Blue Tibia" by Adam Roberts. It is one of the better books I've read and I'll definitely be looking for more of his novels.

The basic plot if that in the 40's a bunch of soviet SF writers were told by Stalin to create a scenario in which aliens came to conquer the world. It seems that Stalin believed that the U.S. would fall soon and a new enemy would be needed. After a few months, the project was canceled and the participants were ordered to forget it.

Now (in...more

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May 22, 2012 Mike rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi-fantasy

Sci-fi club - This fiction is written as the autobiography of Russian sci-fi writer Konstantin Skvorecky. He and his fellow writers ordered by Stalin, in 1946 by Stalin, to invent an extraterrestrial menace as the next enemy for Communism to defeat. They barely get started when the project is cancelled and the group disbanded. Then, in the 1980's, in the beginnings of perestroika, past events and people re-enter Konstantin's life, with hints of conspiracies and cover-ups, and a link to the Chern...more

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Jun 16, 2009 Aaron rated it 4 of 5 stars

It is disturbing that this book is so good, and that Adam Roberts has written around ten other books, and the first time I heard of and about him is like one month ago. So: the book is written as a memoir. The person recalling their past, several decades worth, is among the great droll, ironic voices of (my recently read) literature. He is living in the Soviet Union. He is unintentionally sucked into the Soviet law and order bureaucracy, which is as inept as it is serious, and is a nice target f...more

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Sep 16, 2011 David Williamson rated it 3 of 5 stars

A book trying to hard to be like Bulgakov: although it is a page turner, funny, well written, it tries very hard to crowbar quantum physics, philosophy, and Communism (although more successfully)into the book without really adding anything. Perhaps, Roberts is trying to be Russian in this respect, but the great Russian writers used high themes, concepts that brought the book some further depth rather than just fit the story or as a narrative tool.
All in all, it is well worth reading as there ar...more

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Nov 29, 2011 James rated it 3 of 5 stars

I have read a few of Adam Robert's books and have thrown them with greater or lesser force at the wall at some point. However, I was pleasantly surprised that this was so readable, filled with humour and, until the last third, a good story. Even the strange title gets explained, obliquely, of course.

The Russian characters were well written, with a set of 'bad guys' that are as bizarre and funny as any found in a classic Carl Hiaasen novel.

The plot does run out of steam before the end of the book...more

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About Adam Roberts

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

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“A realist writer might break his protagonist's leg, or kill his fiancee; but a science fiction writer will immolate whole planets, and whilst doing so he will be more concerned with the placement of commas than the screams of the dying.” — 7 people liked it

“Let us say that science fiction is a kind of conceptual disorientation of the familiar.” — 1 person liked it

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