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Lake of Darkness (SF) - Adam Roberts *****

Two of the best ever fantasy writers - Alan Garner and Gene Wolfe - both wrote books that over the years got more sophisticated and harder to take in, yet these books really rewarded the reader who put in the effort to a great degree. Adam Roberts has become their equivalent in the science fiction world. Although much of Lake of Darkness is an easy enough read, the concepts it is built on are mind-boggling and the last part left my mind buzzing, if not entirely sure what I had just experienced.

This could be seen as one of Roberts' few ventures into space opera - it certainly has the large scale trappings of this sub-genre. But the setting here is very different. Fairly early on, one of the characters (who it is does not become clear until later) addresses the reader directly, poking fun at the way that science fiction stereotypically sees space-based societies almost inevitably as militaristic, with ships modelled on warships. This is a very different type of future, with a society reminiscent in a way of Wells' Eloi in The Time Machine - who have just discovered their own version of Morlocks within.

In Roberts' future - several centuries from now - there is no work: most day-to-day essentials are handled by AIs. (This, in passing, gives an opportunity to underline what happens if you rely too much on AIs and they go wrong.) To keep themselves occupied, humans develop 'fandoms', based on anything from history to physics. It was somewhat scary to hear on the radio while reading this someone saying that to appeal to younger voters 'politicians should develop their own fandoms', though I think this was inspired more by Taylor Swift than Roberts.

For me, three major themes came through. One was a Swiftian take on this quasi-utopian future with its fandoms and obsession with caring for others feelings (as long as they didn't stray too far from the line) - in parts it felt a bit like Gulliver's Travels among the snowflakes. Humour is stressed here with the one bit of the book I found a touch irritating - every historical reference gets something wrong, misnaming books and characters with abandon (though I did enjoy the revived ancient popular song 'We all live in a yellow sunny scene').

A second theme was this being one of the few SF novels I've read that really relished and made use of the super-speculative science (or, rather, the ascientific speculation, given it's rarely based on observation) that is dedicated to black holes. Not only is this discussed at length, it is central to the working of the book. I'm not a fan of this as a scientific topic, but as a vehicle for science fiction it's brilliant.

The third theme is one that some SF fans will struggle with, though again I'd say Roberts handles it brilliantly - Christianity is central to the plot. Roberts is not the first to do this in a science fiction setting - think, for example, of Blish's A Case of Conscience or Miller's A Canticle for Leibowicz (not strictly Christianity but strongly based on its forms). This is not done by Roberts in a negative way as might have been typical of a new wave SF author, but simply takes as fact Christian beliefs, including the existence of devils as fallen angels, and explores some consequences.

I know this is a book I'm going to have to read again quite soon - and as is often the case particularly with Wolfe, I did find the ending too loose and open to interpretation to be truly satisfying, but even though the approach will strongly divide readers, for me this is without doubt one of the most impressive pieces of science fiction writing I've ever seen and possibly Roberts' best.

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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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