Adam Roberts

Adam Roberts turns his attention to answering the Fermi Paradox with a taut and claustrophobic tale that echoes John Carpenters' The Thing. Two men while away the days in an Antarctic research station. Tensions between them build as they argue over a love-letter one of them has received. One is practical and open. The other surly, superior and obsessed with reading one book - by the philosopher Kant. As a storm brews and they lose contact with the outside world they debate Kant, reality and the emptiness of the universe. The come to hate each other, and they learn that they are not alone.

By Light Alone

Andrew Sumner

Super interesting philosophical sci-fi and thoughts. Wanted to give 4 starts but the end really dragged, especially some of the interspersed chapters that broke from the main narrative

Nathan Griffin

This book was...out there. I almost gave up on it, because I was SURE there was no way to author could explain what was happening in any way I was going to able to understand. But I stuck with it and really ended up enjoying it (and the author did end up explaining everything...I think...). Like all the best sci-fi, it makes us ask questions about what it means to be human. Specifically, The Thing Itself deals with humans' search for objective truth with a consciousness that is anything but objective. Interestingly, Roberts (an atheist) says in the acknowledgements that his goal was to write a book making the case for why someone should believe in God, which I think is a really fascinating thought experiment.

In a world where we have been genetically engineered so that we can photosynthesise sunlight with our hair, hunger is a thing of the past, food an indulgence. The poor grow their hair, the rich affect baldness and flaunt their wealth by still eating. But other hungers remain ... The young daughter of an affluent New York family is kidnapped. The ransom demands are refused. A year later a young woman arrives at the family home claiming to be their long lost daughter. She has changed so much, she has lived on light, can anyone be sure that she has come home? Adam Roberts' new novel is yet another amazing melding of startling ideas and beautiful prose. Set in a New York of the future it nevertheless has echoes of a Fitzgeraldesque affluence and art-deco style. It charts his further progress as one of the most important writers of his generation.

By Light Alone

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