"Roberts joins my list of essential authors."--VECTOR (Critical Journal of the British Science Fiction Association)
"A purveyor of illusions that underscore the real."--SFSite.com
In his fourth novel, the critically acclaimed author Adam Roberts once again produces an innovative, rewardingly different SF tale, full of extraordinary ideas.
In Adam's universe, a breathable atmosphere extends between planets, aristocrats cruise insterstellar space in biplanes, and skywhals make mysterious distant orbits. The hero, Polystom, the fiftieth steward of Enting, has always lived in a world of certainties: certain that his new wife will love him, certain that his servants respect him, certain that war will bring him the glory he seeks. Then his uncle Cleonicles--the inventor of the Computational Device, the greatest work of man, the summation of human knowledge, the explanation of the
stars--dies.
And that is only the first shock to Polystom's comfortable view of life...
Adam Roberts is author of the novels Salt, which was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, On, and Stone. He teaches at London University, and has also published academic works on both 19th century poetry and SF.
"Roberts joins my list of essential authors."--VECTOR (Critical Journal of the British Science Fiction Association)
"A purveyor of illusions that underscore the real."--SFSite.com
In his fourth novel, the critically acclaimed author Adam Roberts once again produces an innovative, rewardingly different SF tale, full of extraordinary ideas.
In Adam's universe, a breathable atmosphere extends between planets, aristocrats cruise insterstellar space in biplanes, and skywhals make mysterious distant orbits. The hero, Polystom, the fiftieth steward of Enting, has always lived in a world of certainties: certain that his new wife will love him, certain that his servants respect him, certain that war will bring him the glory he seeks. Then his uncle Cleonicles--the inventor of the Computational Device, the greatest work of man, the summation of human knowledge, the explanation of the
stars--dies.
And that is only the first shock to Polystom's comfortable view of life...
Adam Roberts is author of the novels Salt, which was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, On, and Stone. He teaches at London University, and has also published academic works on both 19th century poetry and SF.
Industry Reviews
EVENTS Adam will be appearing at the NFT Crime Scene 2003 with Richard Morgan on Saturday 12th July. Adam Roberts will be reading extracts from his novelat Borders, Oxford Street on 14th July. Adam will also be teaching a SF course at the Cheltenham Festival in October. REVIEWS 'Adam Roberts continues to intrigue, invent and tantalise.'DREAMWATCH 'As ever with Roberts, the writingis sharp and the characters suitably nasty.'THE GUARDIAN 'Roberts is able toinclude the big sf stuff and let it entrance us for a bit, but then he takesus back down to earth (or whatever) to deal with how and why it's there in the first place. His abolity to write on both scales in (to me) the mark of a good sf writer... It remains for me to categorically state that this is Roberts' best novel so far.'INFINITY PLUS 'Many will read this with great affection and praise.'SFCROWSNEST 'Polystom is a complex novel, and Roberts has created a richly fascinating world and complex characters to popuate it. He writeswith intensity about human emotions in a world strangely dissimilar from ourown.'THE ZONE 'This is a superb piece of work, full of little details which create an alien, moribund society as disorientating as the physical universe it inhabits (Roberts is a real master of this)'STARBURST
