Adam Robots

by Adam Roberts

Gathered together for the first time from a major publisher are the short stories of Adam Roberts. Unique twisted visions from the edges and the centre of the SF genres. Stories that carry Adam Roberts' trademark elegance of style and restless enquiry of the genre he loves so much. Acclaimed stories, some that have appeared in magazines, some in anthologies, some appearing for the first time. Stories to make you think, to make you laugh, to make you wonder, to make you uneasy. Stories that ask questions, stories that sow mysteries. But always stories that entertain.

Contents:

1 • Preface (Adam Robots: Short Stories) • (2013) • essay by Adam Roberts
3 • Adam Robots • (2009) • shortstory by Adam Roberts
14 • Shall I Tell You the Problem with Time Travel? • (2011) • shortstory by Adam Roberts
32 • A Prison Term of a Thousand Years • (2008) • shortstory by Adam Roberts
38 • Godbombing • shortstory by Adam Roberts
44 • Thrownness • (2011) • novelette by Adam Roberts
75 • The Mary Anna • (2010) • shortstory by Adam Roberts
83 • The Chrome Chromosome • (2009) • shortstory by Adam Roberts
89 • The Time Telephone • (2002) • shortstory by Adam Roberts
98 • Review: Thomas Hodgkin, Denis Bayle: a Life • shortstory by Adam Roberts
107 • S-Bomb • (2008) • shortstory by Adam Roberts
125 • Dantean • (2004) • shortstory by Adam Roberts (variant of Dantesque)
134 • Remorse® • (2007) • shortstory by Adam Roberts
139 • The World of the Wars • shortstory by Adam Roberts
144 • Woodpunk • (2009) • shortstory by Adam Roberts
156 • The Cow • (2010) • shortstory by Adam Roberts
157 • The Imperial Army • (2002) • novelette by Adam Roberts
206 • And Tomorrow and • (2006) • shortstory by Adam Roberts
222 • The Man of the Strong Arm • (2008) • shortstory by Adam Roberts
246 • Wonder: A Story in Two • (2007) • shortstory by Adam Roberts
263 • Pied • shortstory by Adam Roberts
273 • Constellations • novelette by Adam Roberts (variant of The Order of Things 2005)
294 • The Woman Who Bore Death • shortstory by Adam Roberts
309 • Anticopernicus • (2010) • novelette by Adam Roberts
346 • Me:topia • novelette by Adam Roberts (variant of Me•Topia 2006)

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction, Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy, Anthologies, Collections

389 pages, Paperback

First published January 17, 2013

About the author

Librarian 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.

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adam Roberts is one-man Science Fiction writing machine, pumping out amazing work at a rate that makes me wonder whether he’s chained to a desk in an SF sweatshop somewhere.

With masterworks like Stone, Bete and Jack Glass behind him Roberts is one of the best and most innovative writers working in his genre today. How the rights for his books haven't been scooped up by Amazon or Netflix boggles my mind- there's a riot of ideas in his catalogue to rival (dare I say it... damnit, it's justified) the worlds and concepts of Philip K. Dick.

Anyway, obviously I’m pretty much a crazed fan who will gobble up anything he writes, but even so, Adam Robots never really caught my eye, what with the golden-era SF robot on the cover and the seeming play on the author's name. Of course, the cover is no way to judge a book, and this collection is much better than its old-timey cover art suggests. This is an interesting, sometimes experimental collection of memorable stories, that well earns its place on your shelf next to Robert's other work.

Like any collection of short stories Adam Robots has its highlights and bum notes, but in the main this is a harmonious piece, and the highs significantly outnumber the lows.

Shall I Tell You the Problem With Time Travel? is an absolute standout, a real ripper of a story with a great underlying concept and a kicker of an ending – this is the sort of short story that makes me love SF.

Another standout - The Imperial Army - is a very cool, fairly chilling space opera that sees humanity at war with a near infinite enemy, whose limitless ability to spawn themselves leads to our implementing tactics that diminish the value of human life and poison our own military leaders against us.

In the tradition of Stone Roberts plays with some fascinating quantum theory in Anticopernicus, a real killer of a short story that will have you thinking about the nature of intelligence (and its impact on reality) for hours.

Others, such as the eight line reimagining of a child's nursery rhyme The Cow and The Strong Man - a story that plays with future criticism of contemporary SF - are more whimsical, and have the feeling of an author who knows his genre so well that he can subvert it's rules and tropes.

There are of course weaker links (I’ve yet to encounter a short story collection that is nothing but solid gold, and sadly, Adam Robots isn't the exception to that rule), and stories like ReMorse® and The Time Telephone don’t really hold up next to their stronger page-mates.

However, there is substantial SF gold in this collection, and even if you aren’t a fan of Roberts you'll find stories to love. If you haven't read him before I'd start with Stone, or New Model Army or one of his numerous other amazing novels, but if short stories are your thing you'll find plenty of reading pleasure in Adam Robots.

Of course, if you’re a crazed Adam Roberts fan like me you’ll love just about everything in here, and you'll likely find yourself caught in daydreams of endless armies, quantum theory and time-travel conundrums for days after you've finished it.

[Liviu · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read most of the stories here in their original venue - having an Adam Roberts stories makes an anthology generally an automatic buy (assuming reasonable prices and availability of course) - so it took me a few months to buy this one as I oscillated between even 2-3 newer AR stories are worth the price and I am already spending so much on books not to be able to justify this one...

Finished the collection; definitely worth the money and probably the most diverse, inventive and overall excellent author collection I've read in a long time with a few stories as good as anything in their category (never could bother to discern between short story, novella, novelette beyond the obvious if it is close to a novel, it's a novella and if it's one page it's a short...); here I will group the stories into:

the best of the best, stories that are at the top of the genre:

The Imperial Army (mil space opera a la Adam Roberts; while the main conceit is similar to the one in Exultant by S. Baxter, the story is chock full of irony and goodies)
Anticopernicus (first contact and the Fermi Paradox a la AR; wrote more in its review on original publication)
Shall I Tell You the Problem With Time Travel? (time travel..)
Thrownness (multiverse or many worlds QM)

excellent and stories that would be the highlight of any volume

Adam Robots (Adam and another Adam rather than Eve in paradise)
A Prison Term of a Thousand Years (long lived humans)
The World of the Wars (Wells reinterpreted)
Constellations (dogma and its questioning on alien planets)
Review: Thomas Hodgkin, Denis Bayle: a Life (review of imaginary books)
Wonder: A Story in Two (sense of wonder a la AR)

very good and enjoyable

Godbombing (riff on religious wars)
The Mary Anna (Kipling for the 22 century; in verse too)
Dantean (as expected)
The Chrome Chromosome (short from the perspective of the chromosome)

stories that are an ironic take or a straight-out parody on various tales and which maybe try too hard to fully succeed, but are still quite good

S-Bomb (short and stringy, tries too hard for gross out funniness)
ReMorse® (wonder drugs parody)
The Time Telephone (calling from the future)
The Man of the Strong Arm (future criticism of early sf)
The Cow (famous children story retold in 8 lines)
Pied (sfnal zombies and the like)

stories that just failed to impress me in the least - rare and surprising for an AR story; still readable

Woodpunk (riff on the "original on publication" steampunk mania; forced and it shows, so pointless and boring)
Me-topia (creation envisioned by AR; again forced and boring)
And tomorrow and (Macbeth somewhere; never cared about Macbeth, so could not care about this)
The Woman Who Bore Death (sort of fantasy Roberts; could be interesting at longer length but here came as disjointed and pointless)

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, come on. Can you see that cover? That giant robot; those streamlined rocket ships? There was simply no way I was going to leave the second-hand store without this book. And then there's the title pun, which is even more delicious when read in a British accent. For Adam Roberts is a British author, and Adam Robots is a very British science-fiction (and fantasy) collection.

The stories inside Adam Robots are, mostly, almost as retro as that cover, harking back to the 1950s and 1960s, when sf was stretching boundaries in the afterglow of the Atomic Age and just starting to consider the experimental stances of the New Wave. That appeal may be their only commonality, in fact. As Roberts points out in his Preface (which does not contain the egregious grammatical error from its back-cover excerpt, by the way),

They're all different (apart from the one which isn't; you can work out which one I mean yourself). Even the ways in which they differ differ.

So there's the title story, about a robot named Adam in a Garden where there's just one rule; another about the problem with time travel (which turns out to be a very big problem indeed); a third ("Thrownness") about an involuntary traveller between parallel universes... but also, later on, a fantasy about a woman whose name must be discovered, one ("And tomorrow and") where the Scottish play gets turned on its head, and another half-a-tale that might be just a drugged dream of wonder in a Medieval field of flowers.

Two dozen stories, in all.

There's usually a twist, and often a point, to these tales—so whether we're talking about the soldier for a decadent Galactic Empire who led an army of his own offspring in "The Imperial Army" or the Bradburyesque "Me:topia," about the Neanderthals who crash-landed their spaceship on an endless, wind-swept steppe, we're talking about some pretty good, pretty old-school stuff—just as the cover promised.

[Johan Haneveld · Rating 4 out of 5]

8,5 Not a five star read for me, just because there were several stories that to me seemed to be a little too clever for their own good - or I was just not intelligent enough to 'get' what they were trying to say. Knowing the academic pedigree of the author it's probably the latter. He's nothing if not well read and thoughtful and an original thinker to booth. And I like that he does not take the easy way out, writing about old tropes in old ways. He almost agressively carves out new roads, new forms, new territory. His use of language is literary in quality, with beautiful descriptions, like this one: 'Sinclair, wading out fro the shuttle's wreckage through waist-high grass, drew a dark trail after him marking his path, like the photographic negative of a comet.' I think that's beautiful. But this use of language can put the reader at a distance, I find. Roberts love for sciencefiction in the broadest definition of the term is clear and he's also not shy of the pre-New Wave form of SF as thought experiment. The cover with a 50's style robot must make that clear. In the foreword Roberts states his intention to write a story in every subgenre and subsubgenre of SF. From time travel fiction to space opera to religious speculation to conceptual breakthrough. He also uses many different forms of story, at one time even writing a story in verse! And in another riffing on a play by Shakespeare (I'll leave you to discover that one for yourself as I don't want to spoil that one for you). So, for the reader also loving SF as a vessel for the transmission of idea's, this is an unmissable collection, as it is for the reader interesting in the use of literary techniques for the transmission of said ideas. As I said, the ideas didn't alway become clear to me, and some stories fell flat to me. But other stories were clearly in the five star category for me. More than half of them for sure. I especially liked the two stories at the end, 'Anticopernicus' about aliens visiting our solar system and an astronaut longing for solitude. Also 'Me-topia' which is in the subsubgenre of 'big dumb objects' and concerns uplifted Homo Neanderthalensis discovering a planet that shouldn't exist. Also very interesting was the opening story 'Adam Robots', which ask a couple of interesting questions about robots and the biblical tale of the fall of Man. Also fun was Godbombing, where a weapon has a pointedly different effect on believers from different religions. 'ReMorse' was a great little story that reminded me of Frederick Pohl, with a sting in the tail. 'The World of the Wars' was a great twist on the famous story of H.G. Wells. 'The Imperial Army' is a fun space opera, that comments on the tropes of the genre at the same time, with a lot of imagination and the great opening line 'This story begins with a sixteen-year-old boy masturbating, on the plaet Bakunin of the double-star Helio in the Cloud of Glory ...' 'Wonder: A Story in Two' delivered the sense of awe I look for in my SF in spades. Recommended. 'Constellations' is an interesting story about religious folk trying to make the earth as pure as the heavens, by straightening the coastlines ... You may have other favorites in this collection, as even this short list of my own shows the range of ideas and styles in this collection. One thing is for sure: 'Adam Robots' is never boring, and when one story misses the mark for you, another will hit the bulls eye. So definitely recommended for afficionado's of SF as the literature of idea's.

[Harrison Fowler · Rating 5 out of 5]

In most cases, I'm a huge fan of Adam Roberts. Though hard science fiction isn't always something I enjoy, he does it with such a sense of grandeur and confidence that I can't help but enjoy it. Usually his ideas, whether they be novels or short stories, are original and imaginative beyond belief, and his explanations, though long, are very plausible and enjoyable. For me, scientific accuracy is not always a necessity, but believability is. That being said, 'Adam Robots' is a fantastic collection of stories with mostly excellent tales and very few weaker ones, and not one bad story. To review them all individually would take too much time, so I'll outline the strongest and the weakest.

THE STRONGEST:
'Adam Robots' - The title story is not only a very interesting twist on Genesis, it's philosophically thought-provoking, and it's incredibly compelling. The title is more than a pun on the author's name; it's a very balanced and well-done story.

'Shall I Tell You the Problem with Time Travel?' - An excellent time travel story. I've grown weary of time travel stories due to the sheer number of them, and the lack of originality in most of them. However, this story adds so much more by mixing in Hiroshima. Seems weird at first, but the pay-off is glorious. Highly recommended from me.

'Thrownness' - One of two very long stories, this one is a very engaging multiverse story, with, of course, an Adam Roberts twist to it. I've always enjoyed Roberts's clinical, often impersonal prose, and it's used to perfection here. Each scenario unfolds not as if in a daze by the protagonist, but clearly outlined and explained, and when there's ambiguity, there's a good reason why. Aside from a minor plot hole, it's a great story.

'S-Bomb' - Interesting story based on string theory. Since I'm not entirely familiar with the science, my understanding and appreciation of the story is limited at best, but I found it a thought-provoking read.

'Dantean' - I haven't read any of Dante's works, and I would probably enjoy this story even more with them, but the images conjured in my head reading this startled me. The story is fantastic, and Roberts uses his imagery perfectly to encapsulate and enrich the philosophy used. Who knows, maybe I 'd get more texture out of the story if I read Dante, but 'Dantean' is damn good without the extra reading.

'And Tomorrow and' - I like Shakespeare, and this, unlike 'Dantean', is a story that requires one to have read 'Macbeth'. It's required. Good thing I have read it, and good thing I enjoyed it. I would say that 'And Tomorrow and' adds a whole new layer to 'Macbeth', and addresses an amusing plot hole I've myself thought about before, to darkly hilarious effect. Very enjoyable.

'Anticopernicus' - I adore this story. The sheer scope of its vision, its characters, its tackling of Copernicus, everything. The story is beautifully crafted and written from start to finish. It dazzled me with its ideas and storytelling. Easily my favorite of the whole collection.

THE WEAKEST

'The Chrome Chromosome' - I've read this story at least five times, and I'm no closer to understanding it. I would consider myself an attentive reader, and I do not mind ambiguity in the least, but this crosses that threshold and skips to a merry tune as it does so. It's interesting, but I have no idea what it is.

'The World of the Wars' - I enjoy the subversion of H.G. Wells's 'The War of the Worlds' and I like the ending, but other than that, it's a somewhat forgettable story that is overshadowed heavily by the other tales in the collection.

'The Woman Who Bore Death' - For a fantasy story - and I do not like fantasy stories - it compelled me, and got me thinking. I like it for that. It's one of the better fantasy stories I've read, but that's not saying much. I find most fantasy to be vague science fiction devoid of ideas or explanations for anything, and 'The Woman Who Bore Death' is sorta like an Adam Roberts sci-fi story without all the sweeping explanations or original ideas. It's good, and it kept my attention, but it falls in the shadow of the others.

The rest were all very good, but make up the other 65% of the book or so. Ultimately, this is a marvelous collection with mostly great stories, a number of amazing ones, and only a few weak ones. Adam Roberts continues to impress me with his work, and I can safely say I haven't been disappointed yet.

[David Raz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adam Robots: Short Stories by Adam Roberts

First, a sort of warning. The book name has "Robots" in it, and so does the cover, so I was a bit misled to think these are Robot Short Stories, but they are not. In fact, the author writes "I like the idea of writing at least one thing in all the myriad genres and sub-genres of SF..." and even that is a bit misleading as some of the stories belong to the Fantasy genre and some are... well just stories.

That out of the way, I think this is quite a misleading book. I was going to rate it much differently while reading it than what I ended up doing. The author really did try to write in as many genres as he could. It starts with some solid stories, short and energetic. A good robot story, followed by some good time travel, a thought about immortality and so on. Then in the middle of the book are some stories which are a bit dragging and boring. They seem like the author stretched his capabilities to areas where he had very little to say. Then, if you managed to get there, the last few stories are pure gems, imaginative and thought provoking.

Almost all short story collections are a mixed bag, some stories better than other. I tend to think a good collection is one which leaves enough impact on you to remember the good one and ignore the rest. This book certainly does that, deserving a recommendation to read and 4 out of 5 stars.

[Niall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thesis: Adam Roberts is distinctive among contemporary sf writers not just because he writes unashamed ideas-fiction, but because he writes unashamed old ideas-fiction. There aren’t many novums here you won’t have seen before, from the Adamic robot of the title to the various kinds of immortality, the ethics-modifying substances to the time travel devices. That’s perhaps true of much of the field, and yet by and large Roberts doesn’t pursue either of the common strategies for dealing with it, or even give much indication that he sees it as a problem; he doesn’t really write multi-novum stories, and his worlds are often too streamlined to be fully immersive. So in what ways do the stories here work? First, I think Roberts is getting extremely good at structure; his stories vary widely in length and register, from a very effectively fragmented tale like “A Prison Term of a Thousand Years” (2008), which at four pages is in no danger of outstaying its welcome, to a near-novella-length piece like “Anticopernicus” (2010), which uses its duration to invest its Fermi Paradox-riff with psychological and thematic complexity. Second, his writing is precise and often funny, with its now-familiar precise yet fussy-fidgety style. And third the absence of immersion is actually often freeing, used as a prompt to encourage critical reading and reflection. Some of my favourite stories are the most meta-referential, such as “Wonder: A Story in Two” (2007), which explicitly investigates the notion of conceptual breakthrough, and is echoed by “Dennis Bayle: A Life” (2013), a review of an imaginary book filled with imaginary books that asserts and (I think) disproves the notion that sense-of-wonder requires “novelistic momentum.” Most of the pieces here didn’t get much attention on their first publication -- there are few Year’s Best alumni, and no award nominees -- but Adam Robots demonstrates that Roberts can be as effective in the short form as in the long.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of short fiction by the author Adam Roberts. In the preface, Roberts states that he was working towards exploring all the common themes and sub-genres of science fiction. The stories are previously published with four being original to this book.

A tone that connects a lot of the stories is a sense of dark humour or satire. Religion is a recurring theme from the examination of familiar stories in ‘Adam Robots’ to fundamentalism and repression in ‘Constellations’. There are also new approaches to older material such as ‘The World of the Wars’ and ‘Pied’. The best of these is ‘And tomorrow and ‘ dealing with the precise wording of the prophecies in ‘Macbeth’. The highlight of the collection for me, is ‘The Imperial Army’ a dissection of military science fiction space operas and trying to fight long term wars that goes into very dark directions.

However, I felt that the stories had a tendency to convey a distancing effect. They are well written and good explorations of the ideas the narrative is dealing with. Still, often they come across as lacking a sense of engagement with the characters. You are aware of the intelligence of what you are reading, but it becomes something easier to admire the cleverness rather than emotionally care. It is the same problem I have with Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk. The material is intelligent but you feel that the author is not really having any feeling for the figures he pushes across a board to get from A to B.

Despite this, there is clearly very good material in the collection. It may just be that the distancing effect is caused by trying to read it all in one sitting. Or this collection may be more suited for readers who already fans of the work of this author rather than complete newcomers.

Originally published
at SF2 Concatenation' link. http://www.concatenation.org/frev/rob...

[Raj · Rating 3 out of 5]

Adam Roberts is good at short stories. In the introduction, he says that this collection contains his attempts to write a story in each of the myriad genres within SF, and although I haven't counted, it certainly feels like he's succeeded. Each story has a new idea, from the Biblical Adam of robots to time travel, space opera, dystopia and more. The only problem, for me, at least, is that eventually it becomes wearing. I found myself longing for a run of a few good, simple, adventure stories. However, I readily accept that this is my failing, not the book's (nor the author's). There were a few stories towards the end that I really didn't like, Wonder: A Story in Two is probably the one that made me want to throw the book across the room the most. This felt very experimental and "New Wave-y", but since I've never really been a fan of the New Wave, it totally left me cold.

There is, however, an awful lot to like. From the very meta Review: Thomas Hodgkin, 'Denis Bayle: a Life' (a review of a biography of a fictional SF author) to And Tomorrow And, a very funny retelling of Macbeth. So as I say, there's an awful lot to enjoy, but it's probably worth taking your time over.

[Matija · Rating 3 out of 5]

"I suppose there is more of the now in grief than in happiness."

Quite a peculiar set of science fiction (and light fantasy) stories. Not one is alike and most all have something to offer. I thorougly enjoyed approximately half of the stories in this book. The rest were decent: part interesting, part confounding and part confusing. A handful of stories I found somewhat abstract and unable to understand, either partly or completely. Not sure who dropped the ball there, the author or the reader.

Regardless, Adam Robots is a loving tribute to SF writing as a whole and it is worth your time. The opening story is especially endearing to read.

Best stories:
Adam Robot
Thrownness
Dantean
And tomorrow and
Wonder: A Story in Two
Anticopernicus
Me:topia

"I still tended to doubt my own sanity rather than the sanity of the world around me. I daresay that says a lot about my personality. Or maybe it's normal. Maybe anybody, finding themselves in my situation, would do what I did.
I tend to believe so."

[Gordon Collins · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started off liking this. It's classic SF: Take a (Sciencey) idea to its extremes. But it's much better written than most of the genre and that's why I bought it. However, along with some literary sensibilities, he has added a veil of literary obfuscation. Has he? Or am I missing the point in so many of these? Perhaps I am but if so then I can't quite be bothered to dig out the ideas.

You know the pub menu which runs to 12 pages? You know that some of the dishes are overambitious Is the chef just trying to demonstrate his range when he should be concentrating on a few signature dishes?
Roberts tries to write in every possible sub-genre of SF. So it's a bit hit and miss. Some of the stories are satisfying and interesting Some aren't.
The Mary Anne poem is naff. The MacBeth pastiche is just sad. Woodpunk gives us an insight into the mix and match method of story production. Like the landlord's attempt at "fusion".

[Tim Hicks · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author's notes more or less explain that he challenged himself to write a book full of short SF stories that are all different in kind and style. He has done so.

Each of us will like some of the stories and dislike others, but Roberts has handled his self-challenge well.
The variety is remarkable.

One of the stories, which would otherwise be fine, ends with a dreadful groaner, skilfully set up so that you don't see it coming but when it hits you go, "Oh, no" because you can SEE how he misdirected you. I will not, of course, tell you which story it is. The groaner isn't on the epic level of Asimov's "The death of a Foy," but then nothing ever will be or could be.

Very worthwhile.

[Jeremy Hornik · Rating 3 out of 5]

He is so smart and so clever and I kind of hate short stories but these have a lot going for them... if he could only break my heart I would love him forever. But he hasn't yet. And I suspect he never will. Welp.

[Jose Brox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Puntuación por relatos más abajo.

Pros:

1) Adam Roberts escribe realmente bien. No se trata de que maneje un vocabulario vasto (aunque sabe usar perfectamente una palabra culta cuando le apetece), sino de que sabe moldear el lenguaje, algo realmente extraño en la ciencia ficción; para comparar, ahora estoy leyendo Babel-17 de Delany (en inglés), que se supone que está excelentemente escrito, y palidece en comparación. En particular, Roberts dedica al menos un párrafo de cada relato a describir el amanecer o la iluminación de un paisaje, y todos resultan fascinantes (por su buen uso de la metáfora y el color).

2) Cada historia trata un tema diferente, y son 24, no han escatimado a la hora de recopilar. La diversidad hace que la inevitable decepción con algunos relatos no haga perder esperanza en el resto del libro.

3) Algunas de las ideas leídas me han resultado originales. La creatividad de Roberts no se limita a su maestría con la prosa.

Contras:

1) Se nota, como pasa con tantos otros escritores "de ciencia ficción", que Roberts no sabe mucho de ciencia. En consecuencia algunas ideas importantes están muy manidas, otras son erróneas, y otras no tienen ningún sentido (no son más que pseudoexplicaciones para salir del paso). Los fuertes de Roberts no son la verosimilitud de la idea ni la exploración de sus consecuencias, sino su explotación como artefacto argumental. Esta falta de verdadero sustento de sus conceptos de ciencia ficción es en parte responsable de que me hayan gustado más los relatos fantásticos de la recopilación.

2) Se nota que el autor se considera un intelectual literario, lo cual se agradece en su estilo, pero a veces molesta en sus experimentos. En algún pasaje me ha aburrido el exceso descriptivo. Dejar un final en el aire puede quedar muy postmodernista y parecer muy inteligente, pero en realidad es una señal de vagancia y un hurto a los lectores, especialmente si se lleva a cabo en una historia larga. Roberts lo hace dos veces.

3) Hay relatos que son una simple pérdida de tiempo y no deberían haber pasado el corte del editor, incluyendo parodias breves y un relato misticista.

4) La intención expresa del autor de escribir una obra de cada subgénero deja una sensación de dejà vu persistente. No es que los relatos parezcan ya leídos, pero no se alejan demasiado de los tópicos habituales, y por tanto no destacan globalmente por su originalidad, a pesar de la frescura del tono.

* Relatos de 5 estrellas:
- S-bomb (en el estilo de Philip K Dick)

* Relatos de 4 estrellas:
- Me:topia (sería de 5 estrellas si no se hurtara el final)
- The woman who bore death (4.5 estrellas, final algo abrupto y típico)
- Pied
- Constellations

* Relatos de 3 estrellas:
- Adam robots (3.5 estrellas, comienzo genial, explicación final un tanto decepcionante)
- ReMorse (3.5 estrellas)
- Anticopernicus (3.5 estrellas, buena idea, pero la física cuántica no funciona así)
- The imperial army (noveleta, comienzo de 4 estrellas, va perdiendo, final hurtado)
- Shall I tell you the problem with time travel?
- A prison term of a thousand years (la personalidad del protagonista no es coherente a lo largo del relato)
- Throwness
- The time telephone
- Review: Thomas Hodgkin, Denis Bayle: a life (crítica imaginaria de crítica imaginaria)
- Dantean

* Relatos de 2 estrellas:
- Godbombing (la idea me gusta, el estilo no)
- The Mary Anna (en rima, pero aburrido; parodia de algo)
- The chrome chromosome (muy enrevesado para la premisa final que tiene)
- And tomorrow and (basado en Macbeth)

* Relatos de 1 estrella
- The world of the wars (reinterpretación del final de The War of the Worlds)
- Woodpunk (relato estúpido, seguramente crítica a cf pulp antigua)
- The cow (microparodia de algún cuento infantil)
- The man of the strong arm (otro relato estúpido)
- Wonder: a story in two (relato simple supuestamente crítpico que para el autor se queda)

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

High on concept, (often) low on follow-through.

Adam Robots, a compendium of short stories from the writer with the similar-sounding name, displays much of the brilliance and also many of the problems that characterise his other work.

Roberts is a writer of singular imaginativeness, who creates premises and fictional universes that rival the best in the business with their sf-nal inventiveness, and thematic cleverness. But, having filled out his worlds and explored his thematic preoccupations to his own satisfaction, he seems eager to wrap up his books stat, even in a way that might be unsatisfactory to the more plot-oriented reader. Yellow Blue Tibia and Jack Glass were culprits of this, sporting arresting premises and intriguing universes, but ultimately lacking a sense of completeness and closure.

In that regard, however, the short story medium attenuates this problem because the brevity of the stories prevents expectations from being built up as much as they would in a full-length book. So when the stories fall flat (if they do), the gulf between expectation and reality is not so stark.

That's not to say that the compendium is a disappointment - the breadth and depth of Robert's stories is impressive, with the stated goal to write one short sf story in every subgenre. There's science fiction in there of all kinds - the Asimovean robot-treatise, the Heinlein-esque space opera, stories about time travel, religion, sf fantasy, gaia-sf. Some stories are better than others - some are indulgent experiments; others are serious attempts at self-contained short fiction. Some are truly bizarre - The Cow is a one-page riff on the famous nursery rhyme about a lunar-cresting bovine. But almost all display immense creativity of premise, in the best tradition of speculative fiction.

One other note: Many of Roberts' stories display an interest in religious themes and imagery. Roberts likes to use the imagery of religion - especially Christianity - to explore and interrogate religious devotion, orthodoxia, and cultural norms. Adam Robots is rife with such stories, some displaying a more sympathetic thematic bent towards religiosity of thought, some less so.

Here are some of the better stories in the collection:

Adam Robots: The title story is about AIs that are placed in a simulated Garden of Eden to see if they will commit the Original Sin. A taut satire of the ways in which hermeneutics can be twisted to justify any self-serving purpose.

Thrownness: A somewhat chilling story about what would happen if you got the power to traverse dimensions, meaning your actions have no consequences from your local frame of reference. Mayhem ensues. Throws up some interesting questions of ethics.

The Mary Anna: I have to give Roberts credit for this story - even though it's a somewhat pedestrian example of the subgenre of solar system romance, it's entirely in verse and actually reads pretty well.

And Tomorrow And : What if the witches' prophecies were taken completely literally, and MacBeth became functionally immortal as long as their overly restrictive conditions were not fulfilled? A wildly inventive piece of speculative fiction that takes us to the near future to solve MacBeth's conundrum.

Anticopernicus: Interrogating the question of what if Copernicus was wrong, qua what if we are the centre of the Universe? Brings out that ol' sensawonder so important to the genre.

I give this short story collection: 4 out of 5 clone armies

[Alex Sheldon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can't decide if I should rate this a 3 or a 4 out of 5.
3.5 would be more on point for me, but Goodreads, for whatever reason, doesn't give us that much-needed option.

Ratings aside, this felt like a literary exercise in new-wave writing for the most part, and even a little experimental in some cases.
Certainly not my favorite style of writing to read, at least on a regular basis, which would account for why it took me almost a year to get through (between other books).
And yet, it was also refreshing and I did appreciate Robert's originality and his take on a variation of sci-fi themes.

When in the right frame of mind, I not only enjoyed, but was also impressed with his varying styles of storytelling. And just as well, as I already have 2 full length novels from Adam Roberts sitting on my shelf waiting to be read, and I'm highly curious as to how his long-form style might differ to his short story approach.

All in all, there were some stories here that I found highly enjoyable to read, despite less than satisfactory endings. Besides, there's rarely a good payoff when it comes to the endings of short stories, so no surprises there.

[Tricia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Book Club Read - I've not read much of Adam Roberts work so wasn't quite sure what to expect, from reading this collection of stories - some verging more on flash fiction they were so short - I have come to the conclusion that the mind of Adam Roberts is a bewildering place. Part of me would like to explore further, part of me thinks it is the most batshit crazy place on the planet and I'm really not sure I want to go anywhere near it!

I loved some of the stories, almost cried at others and really don't want to think about some of them any more, thank you very much. Some I felt just stopped rather than coming to end which was disconcerting. A friend commented that some of his longer works start off with a good idea then lose their way, some of the longer stories definitely echoed this.

The thing I did like was the wit and slightly warped sense of humour which was evident throughout the collection, particularly in the story relating to Macbeth. However the tendency for appalling puns was rather too evident.

The best summary I can come up with is that reading it was an experience.

[Omar El-Begawy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most of the stories in this collection should have stayed in the author's drawer. Few of them have plausible ideas or any narrative strength. Most have a contrived plot, and many are told from a first-person perspective, being more akin to essays where an idea is explored around a very thin plot.

Plot holes abound (e.g. if everybody wears a veil their whole life, how would one suddenly be able to recognise a person without one?), and sudden endings as well. Luckily the stories are quickly read.

The best stories in the collection are Adam Robots, Woodpunk and Me-topia. The rest can be skipped. Even the mentioned ones could have benefitted from some editorial help.

Pity, because I've read a couple of good novels from Roberts, and expected the short stories to be equally good.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. Adam Roberts goes out of his way to show the variations that make sci-fi so vibrant. Never have I read a science fiction poem before.

[Richard Howard · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mildly diverting and entertaining collection. As with all volumes of short fiction, this is a mixed bag.

[Dalibor Dado Ivanovic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ima stvarno odličnih priča, ali mi je Roberts draži u dužoj formi

[Jonathan D McMillan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great collection of tales

In this collection you'll see some glimpses of the author's voice, themes explored in his novels. The form may be short but the ideas are just as big.

[Owen Townend · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been too long since I last read science fiction that excited me as much as some of the stories in this book.
When Roberts explores theoretical concepts he really invests time and energy into them and thereby makes it an undeniably fun experience for the reader as well.
I also love how he covers a cornucopia of subgenres from classic time travel to postmodern space opera. Providing a rich variety from start to finish Roberts also attempts some fantasy though to mostly middling effect.
Furthermore some of the scientific explanations he offers are difficult to keep up with let alone unravel and so a handful of stories fall flat long before their ending.
Nevertheless Roberts has enthralled my nerdiness with this collection.

Notable Stories

• Thrownness - it must be a lonely existence perpetually flitting between dimensions like this.
• The Imperial Army - masturbation for money has never before led to such militaristic madness.
• And tomorrow and - Macbeth has never been cooler, let alone more logical about the rules of magic.

[Barry Haworth · Rating 3 out of 5]

An odd sort of story collection. Roberts has an active imagination which tends towards the mystical at times (though only at times). These stories covered a variety of settings and concepts and were all original (at least to me) - I don't think I predicted the ending of any of them. Many of these stories had fascinating ideas and the collection as a whole is solid, but I can't see myself rereading the book in the future.

Update: Thought I'd mention my favourite story in the collection - the one about Macbeth, and how those witch's charms would really work out. Very amusing.

[Dark Matter · Rating 5 out of 5]

James Kennedy reviewed this book; for more reviews by James, see James Kennedy on Dark Matter Zine. To see all reviews on Dark Matter Zine, go to Dark Matter Zine's reviews.

Adam Robots is a collection of science fiction short stories. It’s a five-star tasting menu of many different sci-fi sub-genres and it was a perfect book for a novice sci-fi reader like me because it allowed me to discover which sci-fi sub-genres I enjoyed reading the most.

By far the best story in this book was ‘Thrownness’, a twist on Groundhog Day. The title, ‘Thrownness’, is a rough translation of the German word “Geworfenheit”, which is a philosophical term used to describe the feelings people have about a past that is neither deterministic nor chosen. Author Adam Roberts brings this bizarre abstract concept to life by making the protagonist’s world ‘reset’ itself every 70 hours. After a ‘reset’ all the characters go back to where they were 70 hours ago and start going about the same 3-day routine in perfect repetition. The only difference between each cycle is what the protagonist chooses to do (his location and thoughts are not reset each time). He starts off well-behaved, but soon learns that the only way to survive is to rob, cheat and steal. (He steals from the same people in each 3-day cycle but his ‘crimes’ are forgotten after 3 days!) There’s definitely an element of dark, understated humour that’s unmistakably British underlying this short story.

‘Thrownness’ also makes a political point about incarceration and the notorious problem of reoffending. The situation, not the man himself, propelled the protagonist’s downward spiral. With no roots and no long-term direction in his life, he very quickly resorts to crime.

‘Shall I Tell You the Problem With Time Travel?’ was another one of my favourite stories in this book. Protagonist Professor Bradley, a scientist developing time travel in the near future, has realised that every time travel attempt causes a giant explosion at the intended time and place of arrival. He also notes that he can only travel into the past—not into the future. I won’t give anything away here, but the story is very cleverly-written and not contradicted by present-day scientific theories, which is important for me.

Reality is very important for me in books, which is why I read so much non-fiction. I’m not a fan of the extremely farfetched—complicated alien civilisations and the like, or artificial intelligence—and I’m put off by scientific impossibility. I learned all this by reading Adam Robots. I learned that I enjoy reading sci-fi that’s set either in a believable future, or in a slightly altered present and Adam Robots gave me a very generous serving of both. (‘The Time Telephone’ and ‘A Prison Term of A Thousand Years’ in this book were also very good.)

Recommended for people who want to get more into reading sci-fi.

[David Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nobody can accuse Roberts of short changing his customers. Apart from the stunning cover art (just look at it!) this book contains 23 stories and a poem. Which is also a story.

As the introduction suggests, these stories really do seem to cover most aspects of current SF, but, as with Jack Glass (which was in three parts, each satisfactorily genre-warping) Roberts refuses to let things get categorised too neatly. Or at all, really. Most of these stories defy categorisation. Nor does he hold back from philosophical depth, using his stories to examine the nature of sin (in the titular "Adam Robots"), cause and effect ("Shall I tell you the problem with Time Travel?"), and potential manipulations or augmentations of human nature ("ReMorse", "The Chrome Chromosome" "Me-topia") as well as to critique literature in various ways (in the weirdly self-referential "Review: Thomas Hodgkin, 'Denis Bayle: A Life'", in "Dantean" and "And Tomorrow And") as well as to... do loads of other interesting stuff in a fun and never predictable way.

Fancy a pseudo medieval Welsh story? It's here, yet with definite SFnal overtones but which are maddeningly elusive. Or "War of the Worlds" from the Martian perspective? Or a life story, told in verse by a roistering industrialist father to his disappointing son? Then "The Mary Anna" is for you. (This poem gave me that maddening feeling that I almost recognise what it's parodying - but I can't quite get it. Does anyone know?) Or some satisfying speculation about where dark energy really comes from ("Anticopernicus") or string theory ("S-Bomb")

In short, this collection is a tour de force, so many good ideas, going in so many directions. Buy it now.

[Willy Eckerslike · Rating 4 out of 5]

In my continuing mission to broaden my sci-fi horizons, I chanced upon Adam Roberts thanks to Amazon’s recommendations and this collection of short stories seemed a sensible place to see if I liked his style before embarking on a full-length novel. I ought to add that the marvellously retro cover may also have influenced my decision but, hey, never judge a book by its cover.

Thankfully, the ‘Danger, Will Robinson!’ artwork was not a dire warning of imminent literary death-ray attack. This splendid collection of twenty four stories covers the full range of sci-fi sub-genres from space opera & Golden Age through military and speculative to full blown spiritual meaning-of-life stuff with a splendid, almost comedic, take on Macbeth thrown in. There is even one in rhyming verse that, for me at least, didn’t work at all. But that is the whole point of a short story collection; it’s sort of a mezze appetiser before the main course and you’re bound to like some things more than others.

As you’d expect from a lecturer in creative writing, Roberts’ penmanship and mastery of the language are superb but it does sometimes tend towards pretension and smugness; you almost get the feeling that the collection has been written as a reference book for a science fiction module in a creative writing degree. I’m sure that’s not the case, though, it is just very unusual for one author to have written stories that so eclectically encompass the entire genre.

All-in-all, an enjoyable introduction to Robert’s work and I shall definitely read more. Perhaps ‘Jack Glass’ is next…

[Ron Henry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars is probably generous for the collection as a whole, but in fact there are several 5-star stories in the collection, so the average is weighted toward them, I guess. The great stories are padded with a lot of pieces that are just average, and a few that are below average.

For the record, the must-reads are: Godbombing, Thrownness, S-Bomb, Anticopernicus (this novella is the best piece in the book), and Me-topia. Others worth reading but not strictly amazing include: A Prison Term of a Thousand Years, Wonder, The Time Telephone, Review: Thomas Hodgkin..., and Woodpunk. The others you might or might not like. But if I had it to do over I'd skip The Imperial Army, which appears to be some kind of extended in-joke about Golden Age sf (and Poul Anderson maybe, what else could "Admiral Luop" be hinting at?) with a plot that hinges on a marauding interstellar empire/army created from the accumulated, er, emissions of masturbating teenage boys (yes, really; the joke/satire might have worked at 10 pages but at 50 pages, whoo boy).

[Isabel (kittiwake) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everywhere she looked she saw people abasing themselves before her: men bending forward to tie their shoes, women leaning over to rest laden shopping bags on the floor. Bowing down. An illusion, though. There was nothing special about her. She was as perfectly ordinary as anybody else in the world. And the world itself was perfectly unexceptional, ordinary, banal, in cosmic terms a Copernican un-wonder.

Most of the stories in this collection are science fiction, with a few being more like folk tales. I've read one or two of them before, definitely "Shall I Tell You The Problem With Time Travel", which is a tale of time travel experiments and nuclear bombs, and either "ReMorse" or something with a very similar premise.

My favourite stories were "Anticopernicus", "Me-topia" in which humans have left the polluted earth to genetically engineered Neanderthals, and "Thrownness" about a man who is transferred into a new, but very similar, alternate world every 3 days.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Roberts is an interesting author. He has no shortage of ideas and most of them are pretty good. He's also not at all stingy with them - writing stories and novels at a rapid pace. This has resulted in a lot of interesting, yet flawed works. Adam Robots follows this mold. Most of the stories have interesting hooks and some of them are very good but none of them have the craftsmanship to compete with the best short stories. What the stories do have is texture. "And tomorrow and" is a great example of this. A clever, yet ridiculous story that only works because of how effortlessly it presents itself. It's funny and enjoyable but so insubstantial that a perfectionist would have given up on it.