From Publishers Weekly Written like a love-hate letter to American SF, Roberts's latest is a multigenerational saga of space colonization and betrayal. Centered on the life of Gradisil Gyeroffy, it covers the early years of plucky (and/or wealthy) Uplanders, individuals who take up residence in low Earth orbit, through their transforming war with America and Gradi's sacrifices to weld them into a nation. The forward-looking, freedom-oriented space colonists stand in contrast to their tradition-bound, systems-wedded opponents. Roberts (The Snow) suggests that popular access to space is just a technological improvement away, though the government as represented by the USUF (aka the U.S. Upland Force), rather than rugged individuals, would (and should) lead the way. Not surprisingly, this novel of ideas is talky, and it ends on an ambiguous note. Rewarding the patient reader are some witty asides of social changes (like going from one to three to 14 popes) and an unsparing portrait of a social revolution and its costs to the revolutionaries. (Mar.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Read more From Booklist *Starred Review* Gradisil is an epic, generation-spanning tale of migration to space, nation building, and terrifying politics, beginning not too long from now, when new technology changes the possibilities of space travel forever. If sufficiently wealthy and motivated, one can adapt a jet to catch magnetic currents and fly into orbit, in which there's plenty of space--the Uplands--to set up a habitation pod. Klara Gyeroffy and her father are among the first who do. During Klara's life, and then her daughter Gradisil's, the politics of the Uplands becomes more and more complicated. The Americans and the EU are both angling to control space and warring between themselves, while Uplanders have a certain interest in retaining the liberties they sought when they moved up in the first place. Gradisil is a major political force in the Uplands, and her influence is key to Uplands independence. In the final generation depicted, Gradisil's sons are consumed by the knowledge that their father betrayed her to the Americans and indirectly caused her death. They, like their grandmother, swear revenge. Roberts handles the politics of future war, fought mostly in courtrooms, and the idea of inhabiting orbital space, with great style. Gradisil is a thoughtful look at the near future and a well-crafted tale of people at the center of great change. Regina SchroederCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Read more About the Author Adam Roberts is professor of nineteenth-century literature at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is the author of six novels: Salt (2000), On (2001), Stone (2002), Polystom (2003), The Snow (2004), and Gradisil (2006), and two novellas Park Polar (2001) and Jupiter Magnified (2003). His first novel, Salt, was nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award. He has also published a number of academic works on both nineteenth-century poetry and SF, as well as five parodies: The Soddit (2003), The McAtrix Derided (2003), The Sellamillion (2004), Star Warped (2005), and The Va Dinci Cod (2005). He lives with his wife and daughter west of London. Visit Adam Roberts's Web site at www.adamroberts.com. Read more
B**N
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!
K**N
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 stories2. His character developement is excellent3. 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.
E**S
A worthy tale of revenge
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.
S**S
Bittersweet future
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.
A**E
Not Free SF Reader
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.
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