Customer Reviews

Gradisil (Gollancz Sf S.)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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!

Although I'm a fan of high concept hard science fiction I only recently discovered Adam Roberts. I read Stone last month and was very impressed by his ability to encompass both physics and human social evolution in a novel that's essentially about one man's need to define his own existence in a star spanning society where murder and violence have become extinct.

Gradisil is much more limited in scope since it's a future portrayed just a few years down the road from our own timeline. There's been a breakthrough in technology that allows for people with the means and the time to reengineer aircraft to fly into near space by way of Earth's magnetic fields. Being intrepid pioneers they haul up large metal containers which they turn into little houses with big windows at one end for watching the world go by. The whole concept is very funky and scary sounding but also seems quite realistic in its own way and very fascinating since most writers skip over those years where we made it into space and jump staight off to FTL, AI's and extraordinary adventures with or without aliens. Remember Kim Stanley Robinson's 'Red Mars'?

Mr. Roberts takes the people as we are right now approach and does a wonderful job of inhabiting characters we understand all too well.

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.

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.

Gradisil follows three generations of a family closely connected with the establishment of the 'Uplands'. This is a colony in orbit. Most of the book is about the middle generation, and the daughter, Gradisil.

The backdrop is a short US-EU mostly unbloody war, and political tensions due to the fact that the people in the Uplands are mostly very very wealthy and hence pay no taxes to anyone.

This brings the US and the Uplands into military conflict.

Given some of the plodding in the first two parts and the start of the Gradisil section, the ending is a bit rushed.

Adam Roberts's "Gradisil" is a worthy entry in the new space opera coming from Britain, depicting three generations of the Gyeroffy family and the brutal legacy of revenge in a near-future tale of the birth of a new nation.

The overarching plot in "Gradisil" involves the creation of a nation in Earth's orbit, known as the Uplands; beginning as a playground for eccentric billionaires, it develops into a symbol for freedom, eventually standing up against the US, the world's sole superpower. This epic tale is divided into three sections, detailing the narratives of Klara Gyeroffy, her daughter Gradisil, and Gradisil's two sons, Hope and Sol. Each section is a story of revenge, but on a broader sense also encompasses the three stages of the Uplands' rise to nationhood.

Characters are where this novel really shines. All the main characters are brilliantly crafted, spanning from the nation-building Gradisil to the dedicated American soldier Slater, who is planning the war against her fledgling nation. Roberts does an excellent job of making these characters feel like real people, and does not pander to black and white lines of clearly defined good and evil; every character is a varying shade of gray, usually shifting in moral rightness through the course of their stories. Most of them do horrible things, but the reader can understand, if not forgive, those actions.

Roberts's narrative style helps greatly with this characterization; it's very interesting that he portrays each of the main characters through the eyes of another character at at least some point in the novel. This adds perspective that the reader can't always get from a narrative that stays inside a character's head for the whole book. The language used also helps underscore the passage of time; silent letters are gradually dropped from segment to segment, and references to cultural changes help flesh out the world of "Gradisil."

Typos do seem to be more commonplace in this novel than in others from different companies; perhaps this is a result of Pyr's being a smaller publisher. Considering the quality of their material, that is a small complaint. My greatest criticism of the novel is that the third section, detailing the story of Gradisil's sons, seems too short and tacked-on; it is important in finishing the overarching tale of the Uplands, and in giving some of the characters a bit of closure (in the literary sense, not in any emotional sense for them), but it simply wasn't developed enough--the book needs another 50 or 100 pages to do it justice.

Ultimately, "Gradisil" is a book that's both intelligent and entertaining, grounded in the past literature but with a unique spin that leaves its mark on the genre. This tragedy of the harmful saga of vengeance will probably be widely immitated in years to come, and is certainly worth reading.

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.

Decades after the last moon landing, NASA still struggles with strategic objectives and vision. Many of the wealthy class feels NASA is a failed earthbound bureaucracy that cannot get a mission to reach the stars. In 2059, wealthy American Kristin Janzen Kooistra makes a deal to pay an exorbitant fee to hide from her government in the "Uplands". Now Gradisil's grandfather has the finances to turn over the paradigm caused by that former Nazi von Braun when he persuaded the Americans to go fixed wing aircraft in the 1940s and 1950s. Thus he builds airtight flying houses to orbit the earth with families residing inside them that will be free of government intervention and intercession on their lives. Over the decades however, the earthbound governments especially the tax hungry United States see things differently from the Utopian freedom lovers.

Told in three parts with the first two sections being novel length and the final segment more of a coda novella, GRADISIL is a much more complex tale than the above paragraph provides in order to avoid giving away what happens to those orbiting the planet. The story line follows the orbiters over several decades as a stratospheric Utopia is under increasing scrutiny from below. Key players like Gradisil come across as fully developed yet lacking a motive of why anyone would voluntarily live such a limiting lifestyle. Sort of turning Swift's of Gulliver Part III, The flying island of Laputa, upside down, Adam Roberts captures the attention and imagination of cerebral science fiction fans with his tale of a nation in the sky formed from courage and conviction not continual conquest.

Harriet Klausner

I love good, well written sci-fi and the key here folks is 'well written'. Gradisil starts well and is an interesting, if slow moving, story. However, after the first section the author inexplicably loses the ability to write in English. Irritating misspellings and idiotic 'txt-spk' word substitutes find their way into the book. After the first four or five examples I lost the will to continue, my ability to concentrate on the story, and eventually my temper.

This is one of the few books I have started and then willingly thrown away without finishing. I find the deliberate abuse of English hateful and pointless. It hurts all the more coming from a professional author, someone who makes their living from the very words they corrupt.

The short version - the way the story is written detracts from the story itself, and (at least for me) made the act of reading it a chore. It is a great shame as I have enjoyed some of Adam Roberts' earlier works, but I couldn't recomend Gradisil under any circumstances.