The Midas Rain (SF) - Adam Roberts *****

As a genre, science fiction is surely the best-known home of short fiction. Magazines carrying SF short stories and novellas have always been part of the field, and although publishers always claim that books of short stories don't sell, there are still a fair number of science fiction story collections published. The only downside is that publication has traditionally required a larger vehicle before the story can be made public. But ebooks make it possible to sell a novella as a cheap standalone, and a good number of authors have gone down this route.

As one of the leading current SF writers, Adam Roberts has given us a good example of the opportunities that standalone ebook novellas provide in The Midas Rain. Like a short story, it is too focussed on a single idea to make a satisfactory novel, but has sufficient length to allow some character development and to explore that idea in significantly more depth than would otherwise be possible.

The novella set in a future where asteroid mining is undertaken by dropping chunks of asteroids onto the Earth, creating hellish conditions for those who live nearby. The payloads are coated in a smart foam that can protect the contents and produce comet-like jets to steer and slow their fall. Midas Rain's central character, Paul Samson, has a philosophy reminiscent of Communist Russia - he wants to help the masses, but doesn't mind hurting a lot of people to do so. Paul plots to undertake the biggest heist ever, waylaying an asteroid on the way to Earth that is mostly solid gold.

To an extent, the whole story is a vehicle for a central speech by Paul that is effectively a short essay on the nature of money, of gold and of the significance of its inertness. (This is even published without speech marks, emphasising that essay-like nature.) Because his motivation is not what they assume, Paul repeatedly surprises his associates by his actions, ending with the biggest surprise of all.

This edition does suffer from a couple of small issues. The editing is a little haphazard, and (as was often case with golden age books) the cover image effectively gives away a major plot point. Paul's plan to steal the asteroid is also absurd, because of the one aspect that Paul doesn't discuss in his monologue: gold's dependence on scarcity. But I'm sure Roberts was aware of this, simply adding to the futility of the human condition described here. It's not a cheery story.

Despite the dystopian setting, this is, though, an enjoyable read, and, as is often the case with good SF, it makes you think, in this case about the nature of money and of the value of gold.

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Review by Brian Clegg - See all Brian's online articles or subscribe to a weekly email free here

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