Adam Roberts's Blog, page 17

On trhe 23 November I’ll Be Talking. In a Library! (shhh!)

Adam Roberts: "Can science fiction become science fact?" at Guildford library

23 November 2013 13:30-15:00

Guildford Library

77 North Street

Guildford

Surrey

GU1 4AL

General information

Science fiction is all about imagining the future but how successful have past writers been and how realistic are the imaginings of contemporary sci-fi writers? Have they achieved a realistic vision or are their works implausible? Science fiction novelist, Adam Roberts, examines the issues.

Adam teaches English Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London. In April this year, the University of Lincoln’s Department of English hosted an international conference on Adam’s writing.

Intended for ages 14 and above.

Tickets are £5, including refreshments.

Book online using debit or credit cards.

Telephone credit/debit card bookings on 01483 543599. A small handling charge may apply.

Tickets can also be bought in person from Guildford library.

For ticket sales:-

http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/?a=657296

webpage info:-

http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/events/gui...

Dozois 2013

Gardner Dozois's 30th collection of the Best SF of the year is out. It contains a story by me, but (to quote Paul McAuley, who has two stories in the volume), 'don't let that put you off.' I might as well go on quoting Paul, actually:

Gardner says: 'Every year is special, because every year good new writers come along, and every year the older writers continue to do really good work. It's exciting to watch the field evolve, and I don't think the overall level of literary quality in science fiction has ever been higher-and I've been watching the field for a long time.'

Some fun facts:

Annual editions of this anthology have been published continuously since 1984. At a rough count, the series as a whole has contained about 9,500,000 words of fiction, by hundreds of different authors. It has won the Locus Award for Best Anthology seventeen times, more than any other anthology series in history. Gardner Dozois has won fifteen Hugo Awards as Year's Best Editor, and has been inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. Robert Silverberg said of the series 'The Dozois book is the definitive historical record of the history of the science-fiction short story' and called it "a wondrous treasure trove of great stories and an archive that has immeasurable historical significance." George R.R. Martin said 'The best that science fiction has to offer, chosen by the most respected editor in the field. A copy belongs on the shelf of every SF reader.'

Here's the TOC, if you're interested; and you can buy it here. I don't know when it'll be out in the UK.

Adam Robots Reader

Wait, that cover splash is not right.

That's better. Well, my collection of short fiction was published. It has been variously reviewed, and I have been unsystematic about gathering notices together. But here is one I saw today, by Niall Harrison, that tall man, on the Strange Horizons blog:

Thesis: Adam Roberts is distinctive among contemporary sf writers not just because he writes unashamed ideas-fiction, but because he writes unashamed old ideas-fiction. There aren’t many novums here you won’t have seen before, from the Adamic robot of the title to the various kinds of immortality, the ethics-modifying substances to the time travel devices. That’s perhaps true of much of the field, and yet by and large Roberts doesn’t pursue either of the common strategies for dealing with it, or even give much indication that he sees it as a problem; he doesn’t really write multi-novum stories, and his worlds are often too streamlined to be fully immersive. So in what ways do the stories here work? First, I think Roberts is getting extremely good at structure; his stories vary widely in length and register, from a very effectively fragmented tale like “A Prison Term of a Thousand Years” (2008), which at four pages is in no danger of outstaying its welcome, to a near-novella-length piece like “Anticopernicus” (2010), which uses its duration to invest its Fermi Paradox-riff with psychological and thematic complexity. Second, his writing is precise and often funny, with its now-familiar precise yet fussy-fidgety style. And third the absence of immersion is actually often freeing, used as a prompt to encourage critical reading and reflection. Some of my favourite stories are the most meta-referential, such as “Wonder: A Story in Two” (2007), which explicitly investigates the notion of conceptual breakthrough, and is echoed by “Dennis Bayle: A Life” (2013), a review of an imaginary book filled with imaginary books that asserts and (I think) disproves the notion that sense-of-wonder requires “novelistic momentum.” Most of the pieces here didn’t get much attention on their first publication -- there are few Year’s Best alumni, and no award nominees -- but Adam Robots demonstrates that Roberts can be as effective in the short form as in the long.

Finally, Pete Young sent me the following photo, with the following message: 'my son Miles is 4 next week, loves robots and rockets, which is a good start. When he saw the cover of Adam Robots, he went for it... I've been trying to get him started on something a little less high-concept, but this time he insisted.' I say: give me a child until he is 4, and I shall make him a Robot Jesuit! Or words to that effect.

What's that? You want to know how to get hold of a copy? All good bookshops, my friend! All good bookshops. Also: amazon.co.uk (kindle or ppbk). Also, only one month until amazon.com makes kindle or ppbk available to Americans! But, really, my first suggestion would be: all good bookshops.

… back. In Black. And White. And Red (with pleasure) All Over.

Apologies for the way this site fell into silence. It was probably a stunned silence -- Jack Glass won the BSFA and Campbell awards, and I was both amazed and delighted. I have the trophies sitting on my mantlepiece now, and it's taken me a while to gather my chin from the floor. But I promise to blog more assiduously from hereon in.

2013 John W. Campbell Memorial Award Shortlist

I could not be more delighted to have made the (very strong) 2013 John W. Campbell Memorial Award shortlist:

The Hydrogen Sonata, Iain M. Banks (Orbit)

Any Day Now, Terry Bisson (Overlook)

Existence, David Brin (Tor)

The Rapture of the Nerds, Cory Doctorow & Charles Stross (Tor)

Empty Space, M. John Harrison (Gollancz; Night Shade ’13)

Intrusion, Ken MacLeod (Orbit)

Railsea, China Miéville (Del Rey)

The Fractal Prince, Hannu Rajaniemi (Gollancz; Tor)

Blue Remembered Earth, Alastair Reynolds (Ace)

Jack Glass: The Story of a Murderer, Adam Roberts (Gollancz)

2312, Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit)

Slow Apocalypse, John Varley (Ace)

Alif the Unseen, G. Willow Wilson (Grove Press)

The award, for best SF novel, will be presented during the Campbell Conference, to be held July 13-16, 2013 at the Oread Hotel in Lawrence KS.

I wish I could go, but on the 14th I'm giving a TEDx talk at the Houses of Parliament. Still; to be on the same list as Empty Space, Intrusion, The Fractal Prince, Blue Remembered Earth, 2312, Alif the Unseen and the rest is enormously flattering, and an honour.

The Lowest Heaven

That book to which the Robots version of Adam contributed a story? It's The Lowest Heaven, edited by Jared 'The Man' Shurin and Anne 'The Woman' Perry; it'll be launched June 13th and the Royal Observatory are taking pre-orders now. Oh, it's a good collection. It's a very very good collection.

Anne Perry's middle name isn't actually 'The Woman', by the way. It's 'C.' Just to clear that up.

Bilim Kurgu Tarihi

Turkish publisher Bilim ve Gelecek Kitapligi (Google translate leads me to believe the name means: 'the Library of Science and the Future') of Istanbul have just acquired the translation rights to my Palgrave History of Science Fiction. Hurrah!

Publishers Weekly choose Jack Glass as one of their ‘Books of Summer 2013′

Which is nice of them.

In an interview with PW, Roberts says that he set out to write a new kind of whodunit, where the murderer’s name is revealed on page one yet is still a surprise to the reader at the end. He succeeds admirably with this three-part SF mystery, which just won the BSFA Award. Its eponymous antihero has various escapades while keeping dangerous technological secrets from falling into the wrong hands.

Mechanised Me

From the latest SFX.

FUTURA

Saturday, 15th June. Make a note of the date.

Details here:

"FUTURA presents a convention day on Saturday 15th June crammed full of science-fiction, including panels, readings, kafeeklatsches and much more on the day. Futura brings together a host of science-fiction authors and publishers for a day loaded with panels, readings, signings, booksales and much more. We will also be having an all day Real Ale bar."

Tickets are £25 available from our box office, or via wegottickets.com

FUTURA offers something for all SF fans, writers and readers.

GUESTS OF HONOUR include Ian R MacLeod,Ken MacLeod and Adam Roberts, plus sessions with an impressive range of speakers:

Tony Ballantyne

Sarah Cawkwell

Mike Chinn

Theresa Derwin

Jay Eales

Janet Edwards

Andrew Hook

Kim Lakin-Smith

Selina Lock

Philip Palmer

Stephen Palmer

Adele Wearing

Ian Whates