Product Description
"At our best and most fortunate we make pictures because of what stands in front of the camera, to honor what is greater and more interesting than we are." --Robert AdamsText and essays by Robert Adams.Paperback, 5.5 x 8.25 in./189 pgsAmazon.com Review
Adams, a noted photographer of the American West, dislikeswords that describe pictures. In this collection of poetic,thought-provoking and highly original essays, he examines PaulStrand's devotion to America and analyzes the origins of his art; helooks at the contradictions in Ansel Adams' lifeand work, and comes to his own conclusions. He writes movingly notonly of people but of place--his beloved West--and his belief that "welive in several landscapes at once, among them the landscape ofhope..." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Why indeed?
Serious and potentially serious photographers will reflect upon that question as they read this. Adams lays it on the line: "Almost all photographers have incurred large expenses in the pursuit of tiny audiences, finding the wonder that they'd hoped to share is something few want to receive." Some will find declarations like these oddly fortifying. If you can't find a large audience for your photography, it may not (or may) be on account of its quality; that's just the way it is, so let's get on with it.

It's unusual to find a book that considers photography and many of its eminent practitioners with disciplined philosophical thought. Adams provides that along with some sad reflections on the deteriorating conditions of the American landscape, conditions that prevail just about everywhere else, no doubt. So much has been altered by "progress," so many places have been fenced off that one has to look very hard indeed for the briefest glance at the landscapes of the soul.

An understated book
Wrote up my own assignment in a photography class on two of the chapters here. Adams left much unsaid, and led me to think and add to his writings.

Not Just Photography
I enjoyed the 3/4 of this book that dealt with photography.The last 1/4 was a treatise on environmentalism.Much of this was written more that 20 years ago and is outdated.For example Adams states that Republicans encourage illegal immigration while liberals want it halted.Today, 20 years later, the opposite seems to be true.Who knows what the political landscape will be 20 years from now.I enjoyed most the essays on various photographers.

Why Do Peoples Photograph?
Comprehensible texts that talk about the `whys' of a subject are hard to come by.Often times those books are overly analytical and specific and can be a challenge to read, let alone get through. Fortunately Robert Adams holds an appreciation for simplification and utilizes this trait in his writing. "Why People Photograph" is a collection of essays in about photography. Adams focuses on subjects like writing, dogs, humor and colleagues, as well as short biographies of those who've mastered the craft.
Throughout Adams makes statements based on his own experience and beliefs.I often found myself in full agreement with what I was reading, if only due to Adams straightforward style, which made understanding his ideas that much easier.
Adams disregard for fluff and value of uncomplicated photography are strong points of this book. He disagrees with the practice of over analyzing (art) photographs (an aspect which shows through in his own writing), because "Art is by nature self-explanatory."
The essays from "Examples of Success" explore the virtues of a selection of master photographers. I think Adams' virtue of directness is apparent in this section of biographies.The way he presents each artist is both interesting in subject and comprehensible in description. He points out choices and explains the reasoning these photographers used, as he refers material they created. Adams manages to sum all of this up in each instance and yet is able to refrain from being overly analytical.
Consider this book as a guide to understanding the `whys' of personal and professional photography. It is an excellent resource for those who photograph especially, but also for those who are just curious (like myself).

In full agreement with Chris Akin
It couldn't be better said.

This book is pure enjoyment.What a wonderful command of the language from this former English professor!Insightful and reflective, this book is about so much more than the obvious.Though perhaps the title is not that far amiss...

My only "criticism" would regard the desire to see more of the photographs to which Adams refers or describes in detail.He gives us very few opportunities to understand what he says by looking at the picture itself. ... Read more

Product Description
The story of the colonisation of the planet Salt.A story told by two characters as their communities slide into the planets first war.A novel laced with religious themes and breathtaking descriptive writing.A Biblical tragedy set on a world as vividly described as Herbert’s Dune. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Excellent
Intense, disturbing and prophetic. The fourth Roberts I've read, his first novel, and my second favorite after Gradisil. Ambitious themes, and complex implementation of them. The setup is the relativistic travel to and colonization of an alien planet, the titular Salt with all the material difficulties attendant on that. The main story is two first person narratives of people from two city states of differing ideologies and daily norms. The two communities have built up tensions, and eventually all out war.

One of most interesting things about this is the political parallel. There's a prosperous and plutocratic regime that undergoes a war in the desert to subdue another society, using the justification of faith as well as a recent and galling terrorist attack. It begins its reprisal with a major bombing to break the spirit of the populace, then moves in at force. Overt opposition is easily crushed and victory seems secured after a short time, but then it turns into a long occupation, attritional guerrilla warfare, and a slow disillusionment that causes political unrest. The invading country specifically paints all resistance against it as terrorism, insists such fighters are not legitimate soldiers and reserves the right to counteract such resistance through extraordinary and extrajudicial means. The reason I find this parallel good rather then eye-rolling is because Salt was written in 2000. Roberts had no way of knowing how much his scenario would resemble the reality of 9/11, the Afghanistan War, the Iraq War. Here I'd say is a good example of SF's ability to be thematically predictive, and have a continued relevance to understanding the way we operate now and the way we might in the future.

In any case, the larger power of the story comes from the way that both main characters, both narratives and both societies are flawed. Things seem at first to be rather balanced in one side, but they each have a lot of problems and injustices that they wear as badges of pride, and in particular there's one rather monstrous action by the 'more sympathetic' character that in retrospect was well set up and that lends a measure of uncertainty to trusting everything about his perspective. Seeing the logic and rationalizations of both sides as they fight and project the worst into their enemy makes for a complex as well as dramatic situation. On a direct plot level the book has no real conclusion, but it says everything Roberts needed to say about the outlined terms of his work.

If taken purely as a sort of dual dystopia, the book would be of limited value. In the end it's not that unique or compelling to demonstrate than authoritarian nationalism and conformist anarchy. I'd say the book works beyond that in the way it plays with the form of narrative. In a dystopian novel, there's almost always a level of trust with the story and the viewpoint of the individual existing in opposition to the dysfunctional system. This perspective might come to a point of defiance fairly early on, as occurs in 1984, or it might be near the end, see Kallocain and We, but the sense of opposition exists, and we're encouraged to trust the viewpoint of the individual and distrust the larger society. In Salt, we're encouraged to see faults in the authoritarian and anarchist societies, as linked to and enabling the untrustworthiness of both narratives. Like with Stone the individual is not enough, and here we're given a more direct way that the personal narratives of two individuals becomes linked to the wider social environment. Furthermore the two polities aren't in the stark dichotomy that it first appears--the apparently over-intrusive dictatorship Senaar features a callous abandonment and non-regulation of the poor underclass, while the free Alys ultimately depends on violence and coercion to maintain its effectiveness. This aspect is something neither of the two perspectives come close to perceiving, every element of their stories reinforces the level of separation and mutually exclusive character for the two polities.

Another strong element from Salt is the titular environment, and just how stark, materially austere and demanding the planet surface is. That gives a degree of solidity to the account and its drawn out story of personality justification and political conflict, as well as building on one of the more memorable speculative fiction environments. For all the playing with perspective and political models, in the end this book is vivid and engaging at least as much as it's interesting.

Better than: Stone by Adam Roberts

Worse than: The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Worst Book I Have Ever Finished Reading
This starts off promisingly enough with an interesting concept of inter-stellar travel but degenerates quickly into one of the least believable scenarios I have read. Harry Potter is more believable.
Nothing about the Alsist society rings true, its all done simply for the convenience of beating the reader over the head with the totality of the conflict betwen them and the fascist Senaarians. The characterisations are weak and there are way too many flaws in the science to make it even remotely engaging. I'm sorry but any society that can fly between the stars is going to be able to commnuicate during a wind-storm and they will have no trouble picking out a buried vehicle from a satellite in orbit. Roberts simply ignores any common sense to tell his pointless story.
He creates no sympathetic characters which means that it is hard for the reader to give a hoot what happens. If it were a longer work I would definitely have stopped reading after about 100 pages but it is only 240-odd so I ploughed on in the hope that there might be some epiphany at the end that made it all worthwhile. There isn't, it peters out with the final section being told by one of the minor characters from the middle of the book who simply whines that no-one understands her and that she cannot confide in anyone amongst her group. Who cares!?!
I read some of the better reviews here to see if there was something I was missing but this book is rubbish, a complete waste of time. I threw it in a street-bin when I got off the bus after finishing it.

Thought-provoking and tragic
By coincidence, I read this book just after a friend had shown me Tillich's discussion of three kinds of morality in his History of Christian Thought: heteronomy (the law of the other), autonomy (the law of the self) and theonomy (the law of God). Although both groups in this novel, the anarchist Alsists and the military dictatorship of Senaar, consider themselves, in some sense, ruled by God, their different flawed conceptions of God mean that they are actually autonomists and heteronomists, respectively.
The Senaarians can't be themselves, they can only be constituted by their society; but the Alsists hardly have a society, because nobody takes responsibility for anyone but themselves. In neither case do they have much in the way of compassion. The Senaarian dictator, for example, when talking about immigration from another city where there has been internal strife, assumes that the immigrants will have to be self-supporting economically; "there would be no point in them coming here to starve in the streets." Charity never crosses his mind. Economics (not free market economics, exactly, but something developed from many of its premises) governs the Senaarians as much as their militarism, and in this way they have a shadow side which is like the self-centred Alsists. The Alsists, on the other hand, work if they want to, but when asked, "What if someone never wants to?" - i.e., what happens to "free riders" - the Alsist narrator says that eventually their friends will get sick of it and beat them up. In other words, the enforcement of social conformity by the threat of violence which the Senaarians use is the shadow side of the Alsists.
Inevitably, therefore, they have a hideous and unnecessary war over their irreconcilable misunderstandings of each other, which each side justifies to itself in its own terms, and everything they can't admit to in their own society is projected onto the other.
The great tragedy is that the story is so realistic.

A chillingly relevant SF novel
'Salt' is a story of colonists on a distant planet. But in this common SF setup Adam Roberts tells an uncommon tale. The science is there, but while he gives us the practical aspects of making a planet habitabal, Roberts drives us towards another tale. This is a tale of two human societies, who are so different, that they can hardly understand each other. And from these differences a conflict rises, that grows from heated talk to bloody raids. The novel has two narrators, representing both sides of conflict. From their subjective stories we can try to get an objective picture.

The ending is a bit of a letdown, but it is still an impressive work.

The book was written in 2000, and it is chilling how it seems relevant to the current situation in the world, particularly in Iraq. 'Salt' shows how the worldview of one society can be completely different from that of another. And how unwillingness to understand and blind faith in your way of life being the only right way of life leads to terrible consequences for both sides.

Adam Roberts is a Sci-Fi Genius
I loved this book. The imagery is so enticing. Nothing compares to Adam Roberts. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

An End to Wandering - A Path to Vengeance
The Horseclans novels are like olives -- you either acquire a taste for them or you don't. They're not great literature, which is why I gave this book a score of only 3, but if you get caught up in the saga, it won't matter. You'll want more, and there are a lot of them!

The story is set in precataclysmic North America, approximately 600 years after nuclear war, man-induced plagues, and worldwide seismic disturbances have thrown humanity into a brutal pre-industrial age. Much of California and the East Coast have sunk into the sea. What remains of the eastern states, from Canada to Georgia, has been settled by waves of dark-skinned and dark-haired adventurers from Europe (Spaniards, Greeks, Armenians, etc.) called the Ehleenee. While these early invaders were rugged fighters in the mold of Athenians and Spartans, the current crop are little more than decadent dictators ruling over downtrodden peasant farmers.

The first book in the series (see The Coming of the Horseclans) details the odyssey of the War Chief of the horseclans, Milo of Morai, a mutant immortal from the 20th century, as he leads the nomadic horseclans on a great migration from the high plains of North America to the Atlantic Ocean. After 200 years of searching for other immortals, Milo has returned to fulfill an ancient prophecy and lead the nomads to their destined homeland by the sea. Since, unbeknownst to the clanspeople, earthquakes long ago sent their original home, Ehlai (Los Angeles), to the bottom of the ocean, Milo convinces them to travel east rather than west. In their way stands the armed might of the Ehleenee and the treacherous Witchmen -- pre-Holocaust scientists who have survived the centuries by repeatedly stealing new bodies to house their minds and who have their own designs for ruling existing civilization.

In the first six Horseclans volumes, the narrative moves forward in time. However, this seventh book of the series (and the next few which follow) all take place before the great migration. The call has gone out and the clans are gathering to hear Milo's words of prophecy which promise and end to their wandering. Yet before they can abandon their hunting grounds, they have one last debt to settle. They must rescue a young girl and her two brothers, who were kidnapped and sold into slavery, and teach their enemies the price of harming people of the clans. But the path to vengeance leads them straight into a sword-swinging battle with two powerful armies.

These books are primarily military science fiction and not for the faint of heart. There are lots of vivid descriptions of battles, torture and ghastly wounds. The prose is spare and very action-oriented. While not a fan of military fiction in general, I was sucked in by the animal component of the series. The clanspeople have the ability to communicate telepathically with their specially bred war horses and with a genetically engineered wild feline, the "prairie cat," which ressembles a blend of puma and sabertooth. I'm also obssessed with translating the terminology of the time -- it becomes a kind of game -- figuring out what words like Ehlai (LA), Pitzburk (Pittsburg), Karaleenos (Carolinas), Neekohl (Nicole), Kuk (Cook), Hwallis (Wallace) all mean. If you like Larry Niven's Man-Kzinn Wars series, you might enjoy the horseclans saga.

You gotta love 70's Sci-Fi
The Horseclan series contains nearly 20 books which were published between 1970 and the late 80's.The setting is post World War III America - a common theme for sci fi from that time period.No apes ruling the planet or roving punk rock bikers though...

This series is more like an epic, with numerous plot threads (some of which are related and some that are not), alot of 'history' and more charachters than you can count.This book is the seventh in the series and not a good jump on point for new readers. You really need some understanding of the Horseclan world to follow what's going on here.

This particular story has about 5 plots which all eventually come together (which doesn't always happen in this series) and are resolved.There's plenty of action - it get's graphic at times, so it's not for the feint of heart.The charachters are very interesting, but sometimes Mr. Anderson goes into too much detail on the backrounds of the minor ones, making for a little bit of tedious reading .

Overall its a fun read and fits in well with the other HC novels.The plot moves towards a somewhat predictable conclusion, but there are enough twists to keep the reader guessing.If you enjoy this series its definately worth picking up as an addition to your Horseclans collection. ... Read more

Product Description
" A Spiritual Classic. Incomparable. A rare gentle Master of Pure Truth Who Knows."Five Star Amazon Reviews Ten YearsThe Father of Awareness"Robert Adams is the only Western Teacher who emanates the purity, realization and true practices of the path to ultimate freedom with a generous charm and grace to people from all walks of life." Gayatri Sudan The Way of BeautyNow Release Fourth Edition- Robert Adams Soft Copy Paperback Book"Never forget the most important thing; Love, Compassion, Humility."Robert Adams is a globally renowned Illumined Master Teacher teaching four decades, a rare Teacher revered in both ancient orthodox and contemporary spiritual traditions throughout the world as the sole American Master Teacher of this century. His famed Live Discourses are transmitted in the international spiritual Classic, Silence of the Heart. His warm gentle humor, unique contemporary sensibilities and un compromised purity of Illumination have touched hearts and transformed lives in spontaneous joy, internationally.Robert Adams, The Father of Awareness, introduced The ETERNAL NOW with the art of compassionate gentle self inquiry to the West at large, then largely unknown. "This has been my experience. Try it and see if it works for you. Bliss is your birthright. You are omniscient love, compassion. The Universe lies waiting in sweet repose for you to discover who you really are. Spread sunshine to all. Acquire a sense of brotherhood."Illumination. Transcendence. Peace. Joy. Compassion." This has been my experience.""The Silence is Magic. The Silence is Love. This does not mean not to talk. To be quiet. I am speaking of course, of an Interior Realization. Of Joy. " Robert AdamsThe Gentle Beloved Original Spiritual Classic by Robert Adams ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (9)

Unfunny, uninformed, tedious, and faintly misogynistic
This novel is meant, perhaps, to be funny. And sure, it's funny if your idea of humor begins and ends with pointing and laughing at people with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (and self-diagnosed autism) and people who are large. In fact, if you are a nether orifice, you'll be reduced to fits of hilarity every time the author points out--in great, hateful details--how immense, grotesque, and monstrous the fat American woman in this book is.

There is no redeeming point. It's not even as if the author knows anything about Soviet Russia, the Russian language, or indeed anything that ought to have been part of his research and pertinent to this error-ridden trainwreck of a book. Much of the time you'll find yourself gritting your teeth at a narrator who adores nothing more than the sound of his own voice, interacting with other characters in series of increasingly pretentious, stilted dialogue. He finds true love, but you will have a hard time caring since neither he nor the love of his life possesses personality. There's a conspiracy theory bandied about, but it's so vague that, again, it's hard to care. The revelation behind all of it is inane and ridiculous. There are rare, faint glimpses of actual humor in here, but that's quickly quashed under the next onslaught of look-isn't-the-mentally-unstable-driver-funny or golly-gee-that-girl-is-disgustingly-fat.

Ouch.
This book is terrible. It starts out like a real story and what appears to be an interesting premise, but it rapidly descends into slapstick that quickly wears thin. I couldn't get beyond the fourth or fifth diversion into obscure antics. Did I mention how utterly depressing it is?

Recommended.
Extremely smart and readable science fiction, with some of the best characters and dialogue I have read in a long time. UFOs, Soviet Russia, Scientology, history and Chernobyl with a bunch of science fiction writers as characters for good measure. (The cover subtitles the book as "Konstantin Skvorecky's memoir of the alien invasion of 1986".)

I don't find it easy to say much else about the book except I think you should read it. It took me around 30 pages to settle in and accept its structure. So don't give up if you bounce off the beginning. Roberts doesn't offer any typical genre footholds, and while the book is better off it can be tough going initially.

Recommended.

Entertaining albeit short of expectations
I struggled with the 'verdict' regarding this book for some time.Of course these reviews are quite subjective, so to give you a bit of context and my personal frame of reference, some of the works which I find to be superb (5 stars) are:

- "Revelation Space" by Alastair Reynolds
- "Chasm City" by Alastair Reynolds
- "Beetle in an Anthill" by Arkadiy and Boris Strugatskiy

And example of good but not quite superb (3-4 stars):

- "Singularity Sky" by Charles Stross

Now, regarding "Yellow Blue Tibia"

The PRO:
I picked up Yellow Blue Tibia due to what I deem to be a very interesting premise of leveraging UFO phenomena to further political agendas and the superposition of sci-fi elements with historic events.The book is well written and has a very refreshing and a sharp sense of humor - if you have experienced USSR culture at all, the humor will be that much more effective. Furthermore, if you are from the former USSR, the book will be more meaningful to you, but at the same time, will seem more flawed.It is a rather quick read.Character development is great and the imagery is effective.The story does throw you a couple of 'curve balls' and keeps you on your toes as you read.

The CON:
There is a severe lack of solid scientific ideas behind the science fiction in this novel - again, this is quite a matter of taste of course. There is too much foreshadowing and at times you feel like you are reading a children's book.Very fast and abrupt resolution that has a fairly shallow basis, leaving feeling 'empty' at the end of the story.Lastly, a rather awkward romantic story line feels grossly out of place and unnecessary - or perhaps is not developed enough to take its place as a integral component of the novel.

Overall:
In my point of view, the book did not live up to the expectations.At the end, it felt very shallow. It was fun enough to read, but as I was 2/3 of the way through, I could not wait to finish it so that I could get to reading "Gallactic North".

"Science fiction is the Olympic Games of the imaginatively fit."
Adam Roberts certainly is in the running for a gold medal with Yellow Blue Tibia. His novel, in the form of a Soviet science fiction writer's memoir, leads the reader on a perplexing, high-strung, high-concept pursuit. Konstantin Skvorecky (the writer); Stalin; KGB officers; other science fiction writers; an American man and woman representing Scientology; and a phobic, tic-ridden taxi driver all play their parts in this elaborate, ironic, schizophrenic "fantasy.'

In the 1950's, Skvorecky, as a young man of twenty-eight, is brought, together with a handful of other Soviet science fiction writers, to see the leader before whom they quake, Joseph Stalin. He orders the group to come up with a plotline about invading extraterrestrials which the Communist dictator intend to feed the people when America is defeated and another enemy is needed to unite the U.S.S.R. The plan is abandoned however and Skvorecky forgets the whole interlude. He also stops writing science fiction. For many years a heavy drinker, in 1986 he's now on the wagon and supports himself with translating jobs. One day, he meets Ivan Frenkel again -- one of the men with whom he worked on the alien plot. And that's when the zaniness shifts into high gear. Soon, Skvorecky; the large American woman, Dora, for whom feelings sweetly blossom within him; and the compulsive taxi driver; motor for Kiev and, more specifically, the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl where "radiation aliens" allegedly plan a sabotage that could slaughter millions. It seems that the wild storyline the science fiction writers invented is coming true!

At one point Frenkel upbraids Skvorecky: " 'Fundamentally, you take nothing seriously. You believe it is all a game. It was the same with your novels; they were never serious....For me, as for Asterinov, literature was a high calling. A serious business. One story, not the ludicrous branchings of possibilities and ironic alternatives.' " Frenkel is, of course also speaking of Adam Roberts' version of science fiction. YELLOW BLUE TIBIA often leaves one dizzy as Skvorecky, though not drunk, sometimes feels himself in a dream or is sure something dire (such as death) has befallen him only to discover he's still kicking. He also engages in some seemingly nonsensical or downright childish conversations that spin the reader around and around like a helpless top. However, the silliness, irony, and the possibilities have a great science fiction hand behind their madness. Even the curious title will, in due time, get its moment in the sun and be a revelation.

Roberts spoofs both the concept of science fiction and honors it. He both twits the whole UFO/alien phenomenon and gives it new, sturdier legs. He bids the reader to stretch their minds with him as he introduces an innovative theory about what is going on around us. YELLOW BLUE TIBIA may jumble your brain a bit, but don't let that stop you. 4.5 stars.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Amazing book
This is an amazing book about classical architecture...wonderful explanations and incredible drawings, no photos!
A must for anyone who wants a close encounter with the classical heritage...I LOVE IT!

Best Overview of Classical Architecture
This work is the best overview of classical architecture that the reviewer is aware of.While most such works concentrate on the five orders, usually in traditional "parallel" format, this work shows all five orders, variations of each, and how each is used.The work shows the various other pieces making up the "kit of parts" of Classicism, and how they are used.In short, a one-book guide.

Great book...
This is the best recent book I've seen on classical architecture. It doesn't get into every possible nuance, but is graphically very rich and clear... well worth the price.

The Gray's Anatomy of Classical Architecture
This is a brilliant book. Derek Brentnall's illustrations are superb. What makes this book a joy is that it really opens a world for anyone who wants to know more about why so many of our banks, office buildings, schools andhalls of government look the way they do. And it really gets detailed - notin an overwhelming or pedantic way - but in a fun, informative and artfulstyle that calls out the venerable ghosts of our classical past for afestival of discovery. ... Read more

Product Description
Adams Calculus is intended for the three semester calculus course. Classroom proven in North America and abroad, this classic text has been praised for its high level of mathematical integrity including complete and precise statements of theorems, use of geometric reasoning in applied problems, and the diverse range of applications across the sciences. The Sixth Edition features a full, separate chapter on differential equations and numerous updated Maple examples throughout the text. ... Read more

Product Description
"The politics are convincing, the depiction of a near-future world where war is only declared once the planners know victory is assured is a credible development of the present, and the notions of a legal system that institutionalizes war, and that the practicalities of winning the war once victory is declared are the problematic thing, are fine present-into-future SF. Oh, and the digs at Dick Cheney are biting and funny. On the hard SF/mythic side, Roberts's use of Scandinavian legend as an allegory to the magnetic boost technologies he uses to put planes into orbit has the smack of an SF trope that'll become a universal cliché in a few years."--Starburst

Gradisil is an epic space opera of family revenge and the birth of a nation.

Not very long from now, if you are wealthy, space can be yours, space to grow. New technology has seeded a rebirth of the pioneer spirit. A new breed of adventurer has slipped the bonds of gravity and begun a fresh life in orbit, free from interference by government, free from the petty concerns of earth.

Who wouldn't want such freedom? Who wouldn't want to escape from society's tangles--from the claws of the corporations, from the stifling love of family?

But tradition, fear, and revenge carry a murderous weight, a gravity that is not so easy to escape. The death of Gradisil's grandfather, floating high in the uplands above earth, was only the beginning. And now the US government is looking up at the new nation above our heads with jealous eyes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Excellent
An ambitious, well formed future history. Benefits from a high quality of writing and very interesting approach. Roberts is clever enough to make the characters serving the 'good' cause often flawed and unsympathetic, and those serving the 'bad' cause quite appealing. Across the book he provides a wonderful portrait of complexity and political ambiguity.

Great story by a master storyteller
I've been reading Roberts' work since Salt.He is moving up the list of my favorite authors.At this time, I would compare him to John Irving because:

1.He comes up with great stories
2.His character developement is excellent
3.He takes on profound themes, and really has something to say.

I think Gradisil is his best so far.It has all the qualities of his prior books, but also tackles themes like parenting, revenge and geo-politics with great skill.Roberts is an author to watch.

Is America ready for Adam Roberts?
Well, I think I can see why this book is not taking off in America (Roberts is British). It does not paint the US or NASA in a very kind light, and makes some rather pointed remarks about the war in Iraq, by analogy. That was very cleverly done. But the story mostly dragged for me, picking up toward the middle. And when it seemed a good place to end...it kept going. My opinion, of course. Interesting to read a story that posits our near-future in space (hard to find books about that). Roberts is a very good, "literate" writer, but this book didn't do it for me. The character Paul was just so incredibly neurotic and whining. I'm sure we're supposed to dislike him, but I really didn't like spending so much time with such an unpleasant person. But it's neat to see us beginning, finally, to take our place in space, and that instead of it being the glorious miliary leading the way, it is some very real, flawed people who just happen to love living in orbit, for a myriad reasons. There's no grand "man taking his place among the stars," or even the triumph of capitalism and free markets pushing us out into space. It reads more like a mainstream novel that just happens to take place in the future. For that, Roberts deserves to be better known, I think. But sf fans are, surprisingly, a conservative bunch, and this is liable to rub them the wrong way. A powerful central woman character? Men who act like spineless jellyfish? Wow. John W. Campbell must be turning over in his grave!

alien-less, humanistic sci-fi
It's a sad vision of the future, that being that humans have not yet ventured far out of earth's lonely orbit. However, some humans make good use of the orbit space and set up a loosely knit community free from the governance of law. This is merely a journey which follows the struggle of this community and the lineage of one of its founders.

Some parts are wonderful twists of your perception of the plot. Other parts tend to drag, like you just want the solution to jump out at you to reveal its nature. Oddly enough this does happen - as part of the story drags and you find yourself wishing for its ending, it'll manifest itself in a blaze of glory. Quite striking!

It's lengthy indeed. I don't dock star or points or whatever you grade a book as being worthwhile, just as long as the plot and keep me buzzing. Gradisil didn't fail entirely at this, proof of this is the book is still on my bookshelf, waiting to be read again in the future. If I was so bored by its scope and thickness I would have sold it.

An acquired taste: Bold yet flawed.
This is a book that will be very appealing to some people, but quite unappealing to others. A problem is that it has been poorly marketed.

The first thing that should be stressed is that Gradisil is NOT a space opera, however hard it may pretend to be. It would be more accurate to say it is a political thriller, with a techno-futuristic bent similar to the work of Michael Chrichton. It is NOT an action-thriller like the works of Tom Clancy or Matthew Reilly. Bear this in mind before purchasing Gradisil, since disappointment is virtually guaranteed if you expect it to be something different from what it is.

The book opens strongly with a fast-paced story and an engaging narrator in the form of Klara. Indeed, if the entire book had just been focused on Klara's story I would say it would have been better. Unfortunately, things begin to go gradually downhill once the second part begins.

Firstly, the pace of the story slows to a relative crawl. Secondly, the engaging narrator of Klara is replaced by the wimpy, self-pitying and largely unsympathetic figure of Paul. Also, a major plot point is revealed almost immediately at the beginning of the second part. As a result it's nearly impossible to spoil the plot of the book because it spoils itself! However it is not revealed until the very end of the book why Paul's section is written in such a mawkish and self-pitying way.

The third and final part of the story feels like an afterthought. It does tie up many loose ends, but does so far more slowly than necessary, because it spends so much time introducing even more new characters with their own issues which go unresolved.

There is a sense that Adam Roberts went to great effort to create the world which exists in Gradisil and that he is very keen to show it off to the reader. Indeed, the book and its narrative can seem like a an excuse to show off as many details of this intricately crafted world as possible. I suspect this is at the core of the flaws inherent to Gradisil and its story structure, he's attempting to do in a book something which would work much better as a wiki.

That said, the quality of prose in Gradisil is extremely good (aside from irritating attempts to synthesise 'futuristic' grammar). The novel is well researched and I was not able to spot any obvious mistakes in terms of physical science, social science, economics or continuity. The plot has no major holes and suspension of disbelief is very easy. The main problems lie in terms of the style in which it is written and how that may interfere with its enjoyment. I trust that after reading this review, you should be well equipped to make the judgement for yourself as to whether you would be likely to enjoy it. ... Read more