Adam Roberts's Blog, page 28

By Light Alone

This is the (I say: gorgeous) cover art of my next novel, the soliluminescently-titled, By Light Alone, out next year.

I look at it and I think: this may be the most lovely of all my covers.

Dozois-osity

My contributor copy of Gardner Dozois' prestigious Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Seventh Annual Collection arrived through the door yesterday. It contains my story 'Hair', but very much else besides, and you ought to buy a copy. Oughtn't, you, now.

What Does Nader Elhefnawy Think of New Model Army?

It's a good question; and the answer is here, at Strange Horizons: 'Roberts's depiction of the results is quite well thought out in some respects ... Still, the book has its share of implausibilities.' Some point of praise, balanced by points of dispraise.

Most of what has been said so far is in line with Roberts's previous writing, which is distinguished less by sweeping worldbuilding or flashy prose than the relation of character-centered stories against his speculative backdrops. The...

On

Gord Sellar, over at gordsellar.com, has reviewed On, my second novel, from way back when. It's a long, but (I think) fascinating review, as much a meditation on how to handle one's preconceptions -- including, interestingly, one's positive preconceptions -- when approaching a novel for review. This bit I especially liked:

What I was doing, when reading Roberts, seems a lot clearer to me now when I look again at my comments on Stone, linked above. I was saying, "Tell me a hard-SF story...

*Yellow Blue Tibia* has been shortlisted for the 2010 John W. Campbell Memorial Award

The headline there says it all: I'm absolutely delighted to have been named a finalist for this prestigious award. Just look at the company I'm keeping!

Scotsman on Sunday on SF

A very nice piece from Stuart Kelly on New Model Army, Kraken and The Restoration Game (Scotsman on Sunday, June 20 2010):

IF I were to say that these three novels dealt, respectively, with how technology is changing the nature of self and democracy; the politics of belief in the postmodern city; and the ramifications of Bostrom's simulation hypothesis for ethics and the philosophy of being, then you'd be forgiven for thinking this newspaper had turned into Critical Quarterly.

Likewise, if I ...

La Gradisil Française

Gorgeous new Folio SF edition of Gradisil, as translated into French by the estimable Elisabeth Vonaburg. 800 pages long, too!

On New Model Army

Slight haitus around here; apologies for that. I'll try and be more regular, and will start with this splendid review of New Model Army on weRead (courtesy Phil):

On one level, you could see this book as another sci-fi dystopia – and, yes, it's that – but as ever, the writing is superb, the story construction compelling and the characterisation fulfilling. The opening sentence: "I am not the hero of this story" is true – the NMA itself is the subject, and one can imagine lesser writers taking...

Pandora SF und Fantasy 04

Dropped through my letter-box yesterday: a contributors copy of the latest Pandora. It includes an article by me on Philip K Dick called 'Der obszohne Klecks auf Ihrem Engramm". The content's page follows that article title with 'von Adam Roberts', which presumably means I've joined the German artistocracy. Excellent!

Cool John Howe cover, though, what? And this issue also includes pieces by Elizabeth Hand, John Clute and Roger Luckhurst, so I'm in good company.

Keith Brooke, The Unlikely World of Faraway Frankie

My contributor copies for this title arrived from Ian Whates' Newcon Press last week (I wrote the short introduction). It's an excellent novel too; certainly one of the very best things this talented author has yet done. If you know what's good for you, you'll want to buy a copy, although the title's amazon page says 'Temporarily out of stock'. I hope because they've sold out, but probably it's because they won't order any in until people start buying it ... so what are you waiting for?...