- Paperback: 368 pages
- Publisher: Gollancz; paperback / softback edition (20 Mar 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0575082321
- ISBN-13: 978-0575082328
- Product Dimensions: 23.2 x 15.2 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 936,889 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Swiftly: A Novel (Gollancz S.F.)
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Review
"Swiftly is a solid, effective work." (Anthony Brown STARBURST )
"Another intruiging novel from one of the UK's most important working writers of SF, and one of his best." (Guy Hayley DEATHRAY )
"Roberts is the king of the thought-experiment and this novel begins with a grand conceit. Both a compulsive comedy of manners and a free-wheeling metaphysical riff on the nature of religion, the universe and scale." (Eric Brown THE GUARDIAN )
"This is very much science fiction, not fantasy, in its approach and philosophy. It is also a strange love story, a social history and a book about the horrors of war. Roberts perhaps has the most untrammeled imagination in current British science fiction and here, in the best traditions of the picaresque novel, he lets it roam freely to unforgettable effect." (Mat Coward MORNING STAR )
"...there are some very well-thought through ideas on relative scale as the Lilliputians deal with items even smaller than them, and the Brobdingnagians have to face even larger creatures. Roberts also borrows tropes from other masters of the genre to test his characters." (Paul Simpson DREAMWATCH )
"This is a novel that does indeed move swiftly." (Paul Kincaid INTERZONE )
"Another intruiging novel from one of the UK's most important working writers of SF, and one of his best." (Guy Hayley DEATHRAY )
"Roberts is the king of the thought-experiment and this novel begins with a grand conceit. Both a compulsive comedy of manners and a free-wheeling metaphysical riff on the nature of religion, the universe and scale." (Eric Brown THE GUARDIAN )
"This is very much science fiction, not fantasy, in its approach and philosophy. It is also a strange love story, a social history and a book about the horrors of war. Roberts perhaps has the most untrammeled imagination in current British science fiction and here, in the best traditions of the picaresque novel, he lets it roam freely to unforgettable effect." (Mat Coward MORNING STAR )
"...there are some very well-thought through ideas on relative scale as the Lilliputians deal with items even smaller than them, and the Brobdingnagians have to face even larger creatures. Roberts also borrows tropes from other masters of the genre to test his characters." (Paul Simpson DREAMWATCH )
"This is a novel that does indeed move swiftly." (Paul Kincaid INTERZONE )
Product Description
It is 1848 and the British Empire has grown rich exploiting Lilliputian slaves - the finesse of their working allowing unheard of feats of minature engineering; even Babbage's computing device has been made to work. But now the French have formed a regiment of previously peaceful Brobdingnagian giants and invasion looms. In a world where humanity is both smaller and larger than it once was, love and hate loom large. Mankind discovers itself at the centre of scale. Lilliptians are twelve times smaller than us but there are those twelve times smaller than them, and twelve times smaller again and so on. And the scale of being goes up from Swift's giants also . . . Adam Roberts has written both a rip roaring 19th century adventure, a love story and a thought-provoking pre-atomic SF novel about our place in the universe.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I'm sure you won't believe me, but the main problem with this novel isn't the 'flowery language' or the rather sprawling plot, it's the fact that the main character becomes obsessed with human faeces.
It's a shame that Roberts felt the need to introduce that particular scatalogical strand into the plot, because the concept the novel's based on is quite brilliant, and there's really no need for poo to be involved.
The other problem is that, due to the insertion of the short story the novel's based around, at the beginning it appears that there are two protagonists. There aren't. Eleanor gets a couple of chapters to herself but then becomes a secondary character for the rest of the story. Which is a real shame, as she's much more interesting and sympathetic than the actual protagonist, who is wracked with self-doubt, shame and self-loathing, largely due to being obsessed with do do brown.
This would be a four-star novel if the plot was a bit tighter and there were less plop-plops in it. Just to be clear, I'm not being prudish or anything, it's just that the cover blurb led me to believe I'd be reading a novel about Lilliputians and Brobdignagians, but it's mostly about self-doubt and poo poo.
It's a shame that Roberts felt the need to introduce that particular scatalogical strand into the plot, because the concept the novel's based on is quite brilliant, and there's really no need for poo to be involved.
The other problem is that, due to the insertion of the short story the novel's based around, at the beginning it appears that there are two protagonists. There aren't. Eleanor gets a couple of chapters to herself but then becomes a secondary character for the rest of the story. Which is a real shame, as she's much more interesting and sympathetic than the actual protagonist, who is wracked with self-doubt, shame and self-loathing, largely due to being obsessed with do do brown.
This would be a four-star novel if the plot was a bit tighter and there were less plop-plops in it. Just to be clear, I'm not being prudish or anything, it's just that the cover blurb led me to believe I'd be reading a novel about Lilliputians and Brobdignagians, but it's mostly about self-doubt and poo poo.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you've already acquired Adam Roberts' similarly-titled short-story collection 'Swiftly', don't be put off from acquiring this new volume as well - yes, there are a few areas of overlap between a couple of Roberts' earlier stories and this new novel but by my reckoning, something over four-fifths of the novel version is entirely new material. Okay, so the bulk of the novel is new - is it any good? Definitely yes: the central idea is a great one and Roberts delivers it with a host of surprises and engaging sidelights. The initial idea of a war between a nineteenth-century England revolutionised by Lilliputian craftsmanship and a France whose armies use Brobdingnagian giants is eye-catching enough but as the book progresses, a world initially developed from 'Gulliver's Travels' gradually extends into new realms, both bigger and smaller than those that Swift sketched. Roberts has a nice way with period detail and never forgets to keep his characters engaging and rounded. One of the most satisfying and diverting fantasies of recent years.
0 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
To be honest a story with much potential and something that fans of Swifts original Gullivers Travels will probably more than want to read with it being set a century after the discovery of the Lilliputians and Brobdingnagians. Whilst the potential is fully realised in the story, what I find to be one of the biggest gripes is the problem surrounding the use of flowery language, which whilst all the rage in Swifts time, for me its an unnecessary extravagance that detracts from the story arc. However what perhaps comes across as the biggest cheat with this tale is that its based on Roberts own short story of the same name. Whilst it could easily be argued that it deserved more attention and a longer story frame that is originally given through a short story I do feel that this type of thing is a bit of a cheat to readers who had already paid good money to read it. Whilst it is interesting and innovative in the way that it plays on politics of the era in which the original was set I suspect that it might end up becoming one of those high brow fantasies rather than something for the masses.
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