What do you think?
Rate this book
Lake of Darkness
Good is a construct. Evil is a virus.
The Starship Sa Niro and the Starship Sß Oubliette were in orbit around a black hole, one afternoon... by the end of the day, the crews of both starships were dead, victims of a single Captain Alpha Raine.
Raine claims he's acting under the command of a voice emanating from the black Mr Modo. No one believes him.Everyone knows that things go into black holes; nothing comes out.
But something inexplicable has been happening to Raine, and whatever it is seems to be spreading. An historian studying serial killers from the 21st century interviews him... and then nearly kills someone herself. It becomes increasingly undeniable that there's something inside that black hole... and it's found a way out...
The Starship Sa Niro and the Starship Sß Oubliette were in orbit around a black hole, one afternoon... by the end of the day, the crews of both starships were dead, victims of a single Captain Alpha Raine.
Raine claims he's acting under the command of a voice emanating from the black Mr Modo. No one believes him.Everyone knows that things go into black holes; nothing comes out.
But something inexplicable has been happening to Raine, and whatever it is seems to be spreading. An historian studying serial killers from the 21st century interviews him... and then nearly kills someone herself. It becomes increasingly undeniable that there's something inside that black hole... and it's found a way out...
308 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 25, 2024
About the author
Adam Roberts
221 books505 followersLibrarian 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 University of Aberdeen and a PhD from Cambridge University on Robert Browning and the Classics. He teaches English literature and creative writing at Royal Holloway, University of London. Adam Roberts has been nominated twice for the Arthur C. Clarke Award: in 2001, for his debut novel, Salt, and in 2007, for Gradisil.
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 University of Aberdeen and a PhD from Cambridge University on Robert Browning and the Classics. He teaches English literature and creative writing at Royal Holloway, University of London. Adam Roberts has been nominated twice for the Arthur C. Clarke Award: in 2001, for his debut novel, Salt, and in 2007, for Gradisil.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
July 18, 2024
My review of Lake of Darkness is published at Grimdark Magazine.
Lake of Darkness is the new hard science fiction novel by Adam Roberts that asks whether an intelligent being could evolve inside the infinite darkness of a black hole. As the novel opens, two starships are in orbit around a black hole known as QV Tel. Although the crews have been sent to gather data near the event horizon of the black hole, they are suffering from severe physical and psychological trauma after traveling near the speed of light.
The journey takes an especially large toll on one of the starship captains, Alpha Raine, who suffers a complete psychological breakdown, murdering his crew. While others question his sanity, Raine believes he is receiving communication from a being that resides within the black hole itself. Raine undergoes evaluation by Saccade, the other lead character of Lake of Darkness, a historian of twentieth century Earth culture specializing in the psychology of serial killers.
The title of the novel is an allusion to King Lear by William Shakespeare: “Frateretto calls me and tells me Nero is an angler in the lake of darkness. Pray, innocent, and beware the foul fiend.” Frateretto is the name of a devil, and the Nero reference points back to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, where the Roman Emperor is found fishing in hell. This quote accurately captures the pitch-black vibes and demonic overtones of Lake of Darkness. Although this is a hard sci-fi novel saturated with astrophysics, Roberts delves just as deeply into both the philosophical and theological implications of a black hole developing sentient life.
Adam Roberts is a professor of nineteenth century literature at Royal Holloway, yet he clearly knows his physics. The author’s grasp of challenging concepts from general relativity to cosmology is spot on. The true genius of Lake of Darkness is how Roberts constructs a story from the so-called black hole information paradox, which arises when applying a combination of general relativity and quantum mechanics to black hole physics. The paradox concerns the ultimate fate of information sucked into black holes: when a black hole decays due to Hawking radiation, is the information truly lost or could it be re-emitted? More specifically, could the information serve as fuel for evolving an intelligent entity within the black hole itself?
Although Lake of Darkness is a heavy read, there are also some lighthearted moments, especially related to the characters’ misunderstanding of twentieth century Earth. For example:
“…whatever the actual name of the first individual to walk on the Earth’s moon, it was clearly not Arm-Strong. ‘That’s a title, not a name: clearly it reflects the warrior ethos of that belligerent and martial age. Whoever they sent to the moon, he would be a great hero—a masculine figure, since antique Earth valued the male over the female—and an individual of immense physical strength. Hence strong-of-the-arm.’”
Lake of Darkness is not a casual read by any means, but it is highly rewarding for readers willing to devote the necessary effort. It is rare to find a book that delves so deeply into science, philosophy, religion, and psychology, while also delivering a compelling story with complex, morally gray characters. Personally, I found myself unable to resist the gravitational pull of this dense yet darkly alluring opus.
Lake of Darkness is the new hard science fiction novel by Adam Roberts that asks whether an intelligent being could evolve inside the infinite darkness of a black hole. As the novel opens, two starships are in orbit around a black hole known as QV Tel. Although the crews have been sent to gather data near the event horizon of the black hole, they are suffering from severe physical and psychological trauma after traveling near the speed of light.
The journey takes an especially large toll on one of the starship captains, Alpha Raine, who suffers a complete psychological breakdown, murdering his crew. While others question his sanity, Raine believes he is receiving communication from a being that resides within the black hole itself. Raine undergoes evaluation by Saccade, the other lead character of Lake of Darkness, a historian of twentieth century Earth culture specializing in the psychology of serial killers.
The title of the novel is an allusion to King Lear by William Shakespeare: “Frateretto calls me and tells me Nero is an angler in the lake of darkness. Pray, innocent, and beware the foul fiend.” Frateretto is the name of a devil, and the Nero reference points back to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, where the Roman Emperor is found fishing in hell. This quote accurately captures the pitch-black vibes and demonic overtones of Lake of Darkness. Although this is a hard sci-fi novel saturated with astrophysics, Roberts delves just as deeply into both the philosophical and theological implications of a black hole developing sentient life.
Adam Roberts is a professor of nineteenth century literature at Royal Holloway, yet he clearly knows his physics. The author’s grasp of challenging concepts from general relativity to cosmology is spot on. The true genius of Lake of Darkness is how Roberts constructs a story from the so-called black hole information paradox, which arises when applying a combination of general relativity and quantum mechanics to black hole physics. The paradox concerns the ultimate fate of information sucked into black holes: when a black hole decays due to Hawking radiation, is the information truly lost or could it be re-emitted? More specifically, could the information serve as fuel for evolving an intelligent entity within the black hole itself?
Although Lake of Darkness is a heavy read, there are also some lighthearted moments, especially related to the characters’ misunderstanding of twentieth century Earth. For example:
“…whatever the actual name of the first individual to walk on the Earth’s moon, it was clearly not Arm-Strong. ‘That’s a title, not a name: clearly it reflects the warrior ethos of that belligerent and martial age. Whoever they sent to the moon, he would be a great hero—a masculine figure, since antique Earth valued the male over the female—and an individual of immense physical strength. Hence strong-of-the-arm.’”
Lake of Darkness is not a casual read by any means, but it is highly rewarding for readers willing to devote the necessary effort. It is rare to find a book that delves so deeply into science, philosophy, religion, and psychology, while also delivering a compelling story with complex, morally gray characters. Personally, I found myself unable to resist the gravitational pull of this dense yet darkly alluring opus.
July 12, 2024
An almost impenetrable novel that mixes hard SF with philosophy and religion.
Lake of Darkness has a simple enough premise: two ships orbit a black hole - a few hours later and their crews are dead, save for murderer Captain Raine. Raine claims a voice from within the black hole has been talking to him, but of course no one believes him, because nothing comes out of a black hole, does it?
Based on this premise, I thought we'd be getting some sort of space horror and in a way that's not too far from the truth. But from the very beginning, the author presents some very complex ideas without (and why should he have to if he doesn't want to) going easy on the reader. The characters are held somewhat at a distance from a reader, the SF is difficult to understand, and there's something rather passive about the construction of it all.
I had to read about 20% to even have an idea of where the story was going! But there are some interesting ideas in here as well as difficult ones, and I enjoyed exploring them. At this point in history, humanity is doing well for itself. Everyone seems to live in relative harmony, following the hobbies they're interested in (their fandoms), and asking the AIs for information whenever they want it. There's very little crime, Raine's murders aside. But on the downside, there's not much historical knowledge, either. Everyone's giving up on reading - why bother when the AI's can do it for you. So childhood books become Alias in Wonderland instead of Alice. A song about a yellow submarine turns into one about 'a sunny sunny scene'.
No one has to work for anything - and this is where I think one of the main messages of the book comes in. We've all heard the phrase 'without sorrow there is no joy' and this book extrapolates from there. If there's no effort and strife, what can we really achieve? In Utopia, what might we miss out on? What might we be blind to?
I liked this element but I did get rather lost again towards the end. But maybe my brain is the limiting factor!
I enjoyed the mental exercise but I think I'd be very careful in recommending this to others.
Lake of Darkness has a simple enough premise: two ships orbit a black hole - a few hours later and their crews are dead, save for murderer Captain Raine. Raine claims a voice from within the black hole has been talking to him, but of course no one believes him, because nothing comes out of a black hole, does it?
Based on this premise, I thought we'd be getting some sort of space horror and in a way that's not too far from the truth. But from the very beginning, the author presents some very complex ideas without (and why should he have to if he doesn't want to) going easy on the reader. The characters are held somewhat at a distance from a reader, the SF is difficult to understand, and there's something rather passive about the construction of it all.
I had to read about 20% to even have an idea of where the story was going! But there are some interesting ideas in here as well as difficult ones, and I enjoyed exploring them. At this point in history, humanity is doing well for itself. Everyone seems to live in relative harmony, following the hobbies they're interested in (their fandoms), and asking the AIs for information whenever they want it. There's very little crime, Raine's murders aside. But on the downside, there's not much historical knowledge, either. Everyone's giving up on reading - why bother when the AI's can do it for you. So childhood books become Alias in Wonderland instead of Alice. A song about a yellow submarine turns into one about 'a sunny sunny scene'.
No one has to work for anything - and this is where I think one of the main messages of the book comes in. We've all heard the phrase 'without sorrow there is no joy' and this book extrapolates from there. If there's no effort and strife, what can we really achieve? In Utopia, what might we miss out on? What might we be blind to?
I liked this element but I did get rather lost again towards the end. But maybe my brain is the limiting factor!
I enjoyed the mental exercise but I think I'd be very careful in recommending this to others.
July 9, 2024
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital ARC!
Aww, man, I was excited to read this. The blurb sounded fantastic and slightly horror-esque - what's in the black hole that's caused a man to murder everyone and almost caused someone else to do the same when investigating?
Unfortunately, I ended up DNF'ing this unbelievably fast because of the writing style. I felt like I was reading a textbook and needed a degree in astrophysics or something. I enjoy sci-fi and even hard sci-fi, but this felt like a level above that. Every sentence felt ridiculously convoluted, and I genuinely struggled to understand the basic points that were being brought across to me. Not to mention that what I did understand made me go, 'huh?'.
From what I understood, the two ships researching the black hole have different engines. One is meant to be faster than the other but causes more issues for the crew. Yet it only got there...a few days before the other one? So what's the point?! Why would you make your crew sick for the sake of a few days? Again, this is just what I understood, and I could easily have been wrong because the prose was so unbelievably dense.
This is really sad for me. I thought the blurb had so much potential, but it lost me so fast.
Aww, man, I was excited to read this. The blurb sounded fantastic and slightly horror-esque - what's in the black hole that's caused a man to murder everyone and almost caused someone else to do the same when investigating?
Unfortunately, I ended up DNF'ing this unbelievably fast because of the writing style. I felt like I was reading a textbook and needed a degree in astrophysics or something. I enjoy sci-fi and even hard sci-fi, but this felt like a level above that. Every sentence felt ridiculously convoluted, and I genuinely struggled to understand the basic points that were being brought across to me. Not to mention that what I did understand made me go, 'huh?'.
From what I understood, the two ships researching the black hole have different engines. One is meant to be faster than the other but causes more issues for the crew. Yet it only got there...a few days before the other one? So what's the point?! Why would you make your crew sick for the sake of a few days? Again, this is just what I understood, and I could easily have been wrong because the prose was so unbelievably dense.
This is really sad for me. I thought the blurb had so much potential, but it lost me so fast.
August 9, 2024
In Lake of Darkness, we are introduced to a medium-to-far future human interplanetary society of a Utopian bent - and to the thorny problem of evil, which seems to have been eradicated but proves tenacious.
This is a world of abundance, permitting its members to do pretty much what they want, subject to some basic rules about consent. Effectively people devote themselves to hobbies, forming "fandoms" that act in common to pursue goals. These goals range from art projects to the pursuit of pure science to exploration. We see an attempt by one man to be the first to walk on the surface of the planetary core (Roberts addressing the technical difficulties this presents in some (convincing) detail). The aim is basically status, earned by the acclamation of one's fandom. This is seen as a healthier approach than accruing resources or power.
It's all done with the help of AI, which undertakes the real work. This allows a staggering level of achievement, but it all feels a little empty. The people we meet here reminded me of those in EM Forster's The Machine Stops - they sustain a lively degree of chat and engagement with one another but it all feels brittle, shallow, with the real action taking place elsewhere. Representative of this is that nobody can read, everyone relies on the AIs to translate historic documents, resulting in a whole layer of ignorance and misunderstanding arising from the failure of sounds to represent or differentiate underlying ideas.
It's also a short-attention-span society, one where those AIs don't just speak texts but summarise and recommend them too. As a result the adults in this book are contradictory, at the same time both erudite and childlike. When things begin to go wrong, when the system is challenged, nobody is really able to pull together a response (another echo of Forster, I think?)
In Lake of Darkness, what goes wrong is slightly mysterious. It may be a threat from an Ancient Evil which meddling scientists have unleashed from its prison (cue a great deal of speculation about who or what would be capable of constructing this prison and the paradoxes it builds into the universe). Or it may be that the evil has been loose and ac time for aeons. Or it may be that both things are true, with the evil (possibly not the right term, really) representing a part of humanity that the Utopia has suppressed. We are reminded that there are laws of balance and conservation in the Universe and that therefore, at least in the long run, certain things may be impossible - such as firewalling off areas of experience and motivation. Or, putting it another way, some things may be certain, such as human traits and behaviours surviving.
As presented to the reader, this paradox is framed in terms of the event horizon of a black hole. A couple of futuristic ships arrive, capable of FTL travel, to investigate black hole QV Tel but madness and obsession will soon destroy their crews. There is a great deal of debate, both among the characters of this novel and from the narrator (or narrators - the way the book represents how it is being told is twisty, reminding me of Tolkien in its insistence that it is being translated - but from what and to what and by whom is unclear) about whether it might be possible to communicate with whatever life might exist within a black hole. This apparently abstract point of physics, indeed, motivates characters to extremes, up to and beyond murder. (I enjoyed the way in which Roberts uses his apparently consensual society to show an individual with aberrant views can impose this on the wider culture - the grounding in consensus meaning that there are no real checks in place. It all reminded me of a version of social media gone septic. Sorry, gone even more septic).
This question engages real, unresolved issues of physics but it also, I think, represents the gist of the book. The existence of black holes poses a puzzle whose solution allows for real choices in the design of the universe - it's left deliberately uncertain whether it is this fact that drives a succession of characters in this story to defy, indeed trample, the norms of their civilisation, or whether they have indeed been affected by some kind of serial taint that derives from the black hole itself and is being communicated through society, thereby posing a deep contradiction.
This is a novel of ideas, that debate about the nature of reality coming over as more solid that the rather insipid characters who fail to face up to its consequences. And, just to be clear, by "insipid" I don't mean these are badly or weakly drawn characters, I think Roberts depicts them just as he intends to, they are insipid members of an insipid society which has forgotten things about itself that it ought to to have help on to.
Overall, a riveting and strange book, alive with alternatives and a haunting sense of the past and the future debating with each other.
This is a world of abundance, permitting its members to do pretty much what they want, subject to some basic rules about consent. Effectively people devote themselves to hobbies, forming "fandoms" that act in common to pursue goals. These goals range from art projects to the pursuit of pure science to exploration. We see an attempt by one man to be the first to walk on the surface of the planetary core (Roberts addressing the technical difficulties this presents in some (convincing) detail). The aim is basically status, earned by the acclamation of one's fandom. This is seen as a healthier approach than accruing resources or power.
It's all done with the help of AI, which undertakes the real work. This allows a staggering level of achievement, but it all feels a little empty. The people we meet here reminded me of those in EM Forster's The Machine Stops - they sustain a lively degree of chat and engagement with one another but it all feels brittle, shallow, with the real action taking place elsewhere. Representative of this is that nobody can read, everyone relies on the AIs to translate historic documents, resulting in a whole layer of ignorance and misunderstanding arising from the failure of sounds to represent or differentiate underlying ideas.
It's also a short-attention-span society, one where those AIs don't just speak texts but summarise and recommend them too. As a result the adults in this book are contradictory, at the same time both erudite and childlike. When things begin to go wrong, when the system is challenged, nobody is really able to pull together a response (another echo of Forster, I think?)
In Lake of Darkness, what goes wrong is slightly mysterious. It may be a threat from an Ancient Evil which meddling scientists have unleashed from its prison (cue a great deal of speculation about who or what would be capable of constructing this prison and the paradoxes it builds into the universe). Or it may be that the evil has been loose and ac time for aeons. Or it may be that both things are true, with the evil (possibly not the right term, really) representing a part of humanity that the Utopia has suppressed. We are reminded that there are laws of balance and conservation in the Universe and that therefore, at least in the long run, certain things may be impossible - such as firewalling off areas of experience and motivation. Or, putting it another way, some things may be certain, such as human traits and behaviours surviving.
As presented to the reader, this paradox is framed in terms of the event horizon of a black hole. A couple of futuristic ships arrive, capable of FTL travel, to investigate black hole QV Tel but madness and obsession will soon destroy their crews. There is a great deal of debate, both among the characters of this novel and from the narrator (or narrators - the way the book represents how it is being told is twisty, reminding me of Tolkien in its insistence that it is being translated - but from what and to what and by whom is unclear) about whether it might be possible to communicate with whatever life might exist within a black hole. This apparently abstract point of physics, indeed, motivates characters to extremes, up to and beyond murder. (I enjoyed the way in which Roberts uses his apparently consensual society to show an individual with aberrant views can impose this on the wider culture - the grounding in consensus meaning that there are no real checks in place. It all reminded me of a version of social media gone septic. Sorry, gone even more septic).
This question engages real, unresolved issues of physics but it also, I think, represents the gist of the book. The existence of black holes poses a puzzle whose solution allows for real choices in the design of the universe - it's left deliberately uncertain whether it is this fact that drives a succession of characters in this story to defy, indeed trample, the norms of their civilisation, or whether they have indeed been affected by some kind of serial taint that derives from the black hole itself and is being communicated through society, thereby posing a deep contradiction.
This is a novel of ideas, that debate about the nature of reality coming over as more solid that the rather insipid characters who fail to face up to its consequences. And, just to be clear, by "insipid" I don't mean these are badly or weakly drawn characters, I think Roberts depicts them just as he intends to, they are insipid members of an insipid society which has forgotten things about itself that it ought to to have help on to.
Overall, a riveting and strange book, alive with alternatives and a haunting sense of the past and the future debating with each other.
August 8, 2024
Adam Robert’s has written one of the most unlikeable characters in science fiction ever in Guunarssondottir (name makes sense in context).
This is a hard read - hard sf, hard philosophy, and some hard theology, as well as Guunarssondottir as mentioned above. But worth it.
This is the third of his “philosophy SF” books, and maybe the most engaging. But gird your loins going in.
This is a hard read - hard sf, hard philosophy, and some hard theology, as well as Guunarssondottir as mentioned above. But worth it.
This is the third of his “philosophy SF” books, and maybe the most engaging. But gird your loins going in.
August 2, 2024
Two of the best ever fantasy writers - Alan Garner and Gene Wolfe - both wrote books that over the years got more sophisticated and harder to take in, yet these books really rewarded the reader who put in the effort to a great degree. Adam Roberts has become their equivalent in the science fiction world. Although much of Lake of Darkness is an easy enough read, the concepts it is built on are mind-boggling and the last part left my mind buzzing, if not entirely sure what I had just experienced.
This could be seen as one of Roberts' few ventures into space opera - it certainly has the large scale trappings of this sub-genre. But the setting here is very different. Fairly early on, one of the characters (who it is does not become clear until later) addresses the reader directly, poking fun at the way that science fiction stereotypically sees space-based societies almost inevitably as militaristic, with ships modelled on warships. This is a very different type of future, with a society reminiscent in a way of Wells' Eloi in The Time Machine - who have just discovered their own version of Morlocks within.
In Roberts' future - several centuries from now - there is no work: most day-to-day essentials are handled by AIs. (This, in passing, gives an opportunity to underline what happens if you rely too much on AIs and they go wrong.) To keep themselves occupied, humans develop 'fandoms', based on anything from history to physics. It was somewhat scary to hear on the radio while reading this someone saying that to appeal to younger voters 'politicians should develop their own fandoms', though I think this was inspired more by Taylor Swift than Roberts.
For me, three major themes came through. One was a Swiftian take on this quasi-utopian future with its fandoms and obsession with caring for others feelings (as long as they didn't stray too far from the line) - in parts it felt a bit like Gulliver's Travels among the snowflakes. Humour is stressed here with the one bit of the book I found a touch irritating - every historical reference gets something wrong, misnaming books and characters with abandon (though I did enjoy the revived ancient popular song 'We all live in a yellow sunny scene').
A second theme was this being one of the few SF novels I've read that really relished and made use of the super-speculative science (or, rather, the ascientific speculation, given it's rarely based on observation) that is dedicated to black holes. Not only is this discussed at length, it is central to the working of the book. I'm not a fan of this as a scientific topic, but as a vehicle for science fiction it's brilliant.
The third theme is one that some SF fans will struggle with, though again I'd say Roberts handles it brilliantly - Christianity is central to the plot. Roberts is not the first to do this in a science fiction setting - think, for example, of Blish's A Case of Conscience or Miller's A Canticle for Leibowicz (not strictly Christianity but strongly based on its forms). This is not done by Roberts in a negative way as might have been typical of a new wave SF author, but simply takes as fact Christian beliefs, including the existence of devils as fallen angels, and explores some consequences.
I know this is a book I'm going to have to read again quite soon - and as is often the case particularly with Wolfe, I did find the ending too loose and open to interpretation to be truly satisfying, but even though the approach will strongly divide readers, for me this is without doubt one of the most impressive pieces of science fiction writing I've ever seen and possibly Roberts' best.
This could be seen as one of Roberts' few ventures into space opera - it certainly has the large scale trappings of this sub-genre. But the setting here is very different. Fairly early on, one of the characters (who it is does not become clear until later) addresses the reader directly, poking fun at the way that science fiction stereotypically sees space-based societies almost inevitably as militaristic, with ships modelled on warships. This is a very different type of future, with a society reminiscent in a way of Wells' Eloi in The Time Machine - who have just discovered their own version of Morlocks within.
In Roberts' future - several centuries from now - there is no work: most day-to-day essentials are handled by AIs. (This, in passing, gives an opportunity to underline what happens if you rely too much on AIs and they go wrong.) To keep themselves occupied, humans develop 'fandoms', based on anything from history to physics. It was somewhat scary to hear on the radio while reading this someone saying that to appeal to younger voters 'politicians should develop their own fandoms', though I think this was inspired more by Taylor Swift than Roberts.
For me, three major themes came through. One was a Swiftian take on this quasi-utopian future with its fandoms and obsession with caring for others feelings (as long as they didn't stray too far from the line) - in parts it felt a bit like Gulliver's Travels among the snowflakes. Humour is stressed here with the one bit of the book I found a touch irritating - every historical reference gets something wrong, misnaming books and characters with abandon (though I did enjoy the revived ancient popular song 'We all live in a yellow sunny scene').
A second theme was this being one of the few SF novels I've read that really relished and made use of the super-speculative science (or, rather, the ascientific speculation, given it's rarely based on observation) that is dedicated to black holes. Not only is this discussed at length, it is central to the working of the book. I'm not a fan of this as a scientific topic, but as a vehicle for science fiction it's brilliant.
The third theme is one that some SF fans will struggle with, though again I'd say Roberts handles it brilliantly - Christianity is central to the plot. Roberts is not the first to do this in a science fiction setting - think, for example, of Blish's A Case of Conscience or Miller's A Canticle for Leibowicz (not strictly Christianity but strongly based on its forms). This is not done by Roberts in a negative way as might have been typical of a new wave SF author, but simply takes as fact Christian beliefs, including the existence of devils as fallen angels, and explores some consequences.
I know this is a book I'm going to have to read again quite soon - and as is often the case particularly with Wolfe, I did find the ending too loose and open to interpretation to be truly satisfying, but even though the approach will strongly divide readers, for me this is without doubt one of the most impressive pieces of science fiction writing I've ever seen and possibly Roberts' best.
September 1, 2024
Others have nicely summarised the story, so what I want to do is try to help you decide if this is a book for you.
You may have seen reviews saying the book is hard because of all the physics, and it is indeed stuffed with physics jargon. However the physics in the book is just a word salad of terms you have probably encountered in Michio Kaku documentaries. It's there for decoration and has no meaning. You won't understand it because there is nothing to understand, and I say this as a retired physicist who has studied both general relativity and quantum field theory.
I'm sure (I haven't asked him) that this was quite deliberately done by Roberts and I think it works very well. I found it gave a feeling of awe and mystery to the story. This sort of thing can easily come over as pretentious, but Roberts does it with such gusto that I found it great fun. However it does make the story slow moving in places, and if you don't enjoy this approach to writing then now is a good time to put the book down and run away.
The story (again, just my interpretation) is a take on the story of the Garden of Eden and loss of innocence. I'm sure Eden was a great place but we all have to grow up and take responsibility for our actions eventually, and you'll quickly get annoyed by the feckless and child-like humans in Roberts's future universe and start cheering for the "Gentleman". I'm not sure I fully understand the meaning of Roberts's conclusion to the story, if indeed it has a meaning, but then that's part of the fun.
I'm not convinced the book has any deep meaning, and I suspect that Roberts was just having fun with some interesting ideas and never meant it to, however it's a book where ideas are more important than action. If you're just looking for a ripping yarn this isn't the book for you. It's also very slow moving in places - even I found myself occasionally skipping paragraphs and I'm a sucker for this type of book.
Reading back what I've written above I suspect I've given the impression this is an "intellectual" (deliberate use of scare quotes) book, and that's going to put a lot of people off. However the book is more about having fun with ideas than trying to teach you philosophy, and I'd encourage you to give it a go. Treat it as you would a fantasy novel - you don't expect to understand all the magic - you just stand back and admire it.
You may have seen reviews saying the book is hard because of all the physics, and it is indeed stuffed with physics jargon. However the physics in the book is just a word salad of terms you have probably encountered in Michio Kaku documentaries. It's there for decoration and has no meaning. You won't understand it because there is nothing to understand, and I say this as a retired physicist who has studied both general relativity and quantum field theory.
I'm sure (I haven't asked him) that this was quite deliberately done by Roberts and I think it works very well. I found it gave a feeling of awe and mystery to the story. This sort of thing can easily come over as pretentious, but Roberts does it with such gusto that I found it great fun. However it does make the story slow moving in places, and if you don't enjoy this approach to writing then now is a good time to put the book down and run away.
The story (again, just my interpretation) is a take on the story of the Garden of Eden and loss of innocence. I'm sure Eden was a great place but we all have to grow up and take responsibility for our actions eventually, and you'll quickly get annoyed by the feckless and child-like humans in Roberts's future universe and start cheering for the "Gentleman". I'm not sure I fully understand the meaning of Roberts's conclusion to the story, if indeed it has a meaning, but then that's part of the fun.
I'm not convinced the book has any deep meaning, and I suspect that Roberts was just having fun with some interesting ideas and never meant it to, however it's a book where ideas are more important than action. If you're just looking for a ripping yarn this isn't the book for you. It's also very slow moving in places - even I found myself occasionally skipping paragraphs and I'm a sucker for this type of book.
Reading back what I've written above I suspect I've given the impression this is an "intellectual" (deliberate use of scare quotes) book, and that's going to put a lot of people off. However the book is more about having fun with ideas than trying to teach you philosophy, and I'd encourage you to give it a go. Treat it as you would a fantasy novel - you don't expect to understand all the magic - you just stand back and admire it.
July 27, 2024
I could not read past a few pages as the prose was impossible. Reads like a dry impenetrable university lecture, not a novel. The author is clearly super smart, but I'm not sure what his intended audience is, beyond academics.
I read lots of sci-fi, love science, but this was something else entirely.
Regardless i hope there will be people enjoying it.
I read lots of sci-fi, love science, but this was something else entirely.
Regardless i hope there will be people enjoying it.
August 17, 2024
The horror in it is spine chilling. Plot was thrilling. The SciFi dialogues were hard as f! I wanted the same WOW effect for the ending, but it was not on the same level of the rest of the book. But that's ok. Dialogues and characters and physics/philosophy super addictive. A page turner. Best book I've read this year.
August 24, 2024
So I didn't quite connect with the narrative on this unfortunately. I'd really hoped to enjoy the story but ... it lacked a certain something.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews