Adam Roberts's Blog, page 21

PAN

Come along, why don't you? Saturday 25th Feb, Senate House in central London, from 2pm: entrance is free.

Odd Strange Fantasy

You wait for ages for a book to come along containing a contribution from yourself, and then three come along all at once. First, the Gollancz Masterworks reissue of Stapledon's Odd John (1935) with a new introduction by Y.T.:

Fishbowltastic cover, I think, though of limited relevance to the actual story. Then there's Keith Brooke's anthology of original critical essays Strange Divisions and Alien Territories: the Sub-Genres of Science Fiction (Palgrave 2012), containing my essay on SF and Religion called 'Does God Need a Starship?'.

And finally, The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature (edited by Edward James and Farah Mendlesohn). I contributed the 'Gothic and Horror Fiction' essay to that one:

So in sum: odd; strange; fantastic.

Jack Glass Cover

I've known about this for a while, and now that's it's been officially announced (on the Victor Gollancz website) I can go public. This is the cover for Jack Glass; my favourite, I think, of all my covers. To quote Aishwarya (a real person with a twitter account; although also, confusingly, a character in Jack Glass): 'Okay, wow. I see @arrroberts' run of great covers continues.' It's true!

Click, as they say, to embiggen.

University of Kent at Canterbury Reading

I'm giving one of the University of Kent at Canterbury 'CREATIVE WRITING TUESDAY READINGS' (6 pm; £2 entry; Darwin College Senior Common Room) next Tuesday (31st Jan). I grew up in Canterbury, so I'm really looking forward to this event.

2012 BSFA Awards

I'm immensely pleased and honoured that By Light Alone has been shortlisted for the 2012 BSFA Award for Best Novel. The shortlist is a very strong one, this year:

Cyber Circus by Kim Lakin-Smith (Newcon Press)

Embassytown by China Mieville (Macmillan)

The Islanders by Christopher Priest (Gollancz)

By Light Alone by Adam Roberts (Gollancz)

Osama by Lavie Tidhar (PS Publishing)

BSFA members and attendees at Eastercon can vote, the winners being announced at Olypmus 2012, this year's Eastercon. It's a tricky call deciding which of that list is best: I don't envy you having to make your decisions!

First Fictions

I'm appearing at the First Fictions event this weekend, at the University of Sussex -- Sunday 22nd Jan. It would be great to see you, if you're there, or thereabouts.

At 4pm I'll be interviewing the superb Elleke Boehmer, both a brilliant literary critic and postcolonial theorist, and an exceptional novelist.

Then, two hours later at 6pm, I'm talking about my most beloved subject, science fiction, sharing the stage with crime writer Andrew Pepper.

Ellison, and on, and on

Through the frontdoor post-hole this morning: my copy of the Gollancz 'SF Masterworks' edition of this great classic of the genre, Edited By Harlan Ellison, by Dan G. Rous Visions. 600 pages of stories that changed science fiction: £9.99 on the back cover (£5.29 from amazon right now, I see), unmissable. This new edition incorporates introductions from both Mr Visions himself, and from Michael Moorcock (these date from a 2002 reissue of the book) plus a brand new extra introduction by me. Two more things: (1) I see the SF Masterworks series even has its own Wikipedia page; and (2) isn't that a superb piece of cover design by the peerless Vincent Chong? Check out his website page on the brief.

By Light Alone

A little belatedly (must attend to this 'bsite more frequently): a brief round-up of things that have been written about By Light Alone. To begin with a couple of actual readers, since they're the most important people. First Lizzie Barrett, on facebook:

I have just finished By Light Alone by Adam Roberts. If you like political literary novels, if you like emotionally compelling stories, if you like science fiction, you will like this. Hell, if you like your words strung together in beautiful and profound sentences so that you reread them for the sheer joy of language, you will like this.

Then, for balance, an anonymous reader, reported by Michelle Howe:

I recommended BLA to a collegue who likes hard sf and political intrigue, so of course I thought he'd love it. He didn't, and now is telling everyone not to trust my recs or reviews.

Marmite-acious. Over on the Strange Horizons blog Niall Harrison, that tall man, has written a characteristically insightful and intelligent account of the novel, putting it in the wider context of plays novels what I write:

Adam Roberts novels, it seems to me today, often worry at questions of sincerity and insincerity -- or authenticity and inauthenticity... For someone often pegged as a quite cynical, sardonic commentator, Roberts' fiction concerns itself quite often with what you might call verities of "the human condition", as conventionally understood -- there are essays to be written about love in Adam Roberts novels, and war in Adam Roberts novels -- albeit rarely in conventional forms, indeed usually deliberately contrary or challenging: the emotional arcs in Swiftly most infamously, perhaps. And more significantly, science fiction as published today is a fundamentally sincere genre: earnest, even, both politically and stylistically. Because Adam Roberts novels are only ever sincere in backhanded ways, and frequently insincere in obvious ways, it's easy to see them as critiquing science fiction; and they usually are; but per Puchalsky they're usually doing more than that as well, I think.

Niall links to pieces by Rich Puchalsky and Paul Kincaid that I've mentioned before on this site, but he also links to an interesting essay by Lavie Tidhar about me qua problem, 'Shall I Tell You The Problem With Adam Roberts?'. The whole thing is thought-provoking, but Lavie's thesis is summed-up in his conclusion: 'He is both the Fool and Knave of science fiction.'

So there you go.

Langer's Science Fiction and Postcolonialism

Here's something to take not of (erm, '... of which to take note') if you're interested in SF. The brilliant Jessica Langer's brilliant Science Fiction and Postcolonialism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011) is now available. Three things you should do.

1. Buy a copy.

2. Check out io9.com tomorrow (Tuesday, around 10 AM North American time), who are running an except from the book.

3. Nominate Dr Langer for a best-related Hugo and/or best-related BSFA award, if you have that power.

That is all. (What's that? My 'buy a copy' link goes to a UK site? Oh, right. Here you go).

Adam Robots

Luke Yexley is a talented individual presently doing an A-Level in design. As part of his coursework, and in consultation with me, he has designed a cover for a collection of my short stories. And here's the result -- very nice, I think. I'd suggest you click-to-embiggen the above brother-of-simon Jay Pegg, and decide for yourself. [I have signed a contract with Gollancz to issue a collection of short fiction, actually: should be out some time next year I think].