Jack Glass by Adam Roberts

It says: “Golden Age SF meets Golden Age Crime from the author Kim Stanley Robinson thinks should have won the Booker.” Jack Glass by Adam Roberts is published by Gollancz this month (£14.99). It boasts a superb cover illustration, like a stained-glass window,

“Jack Glass is the murderer. We know this from the start. Yet as this extraordinary novel tells the story of three murders committed by Glass the reader will be surprised to find out that it was Glass who was the killer and how he did it. And by the end of the book our sympathies for the killer are fully engaged.

Riffing on the tropes of crime fiction (the country house murder, the locked room mystery) and imbued with the feel of golden age SF, Jack Glass is another bravura performance from Roberts.

Jack Glass has some wonderfully gruesome moments, is built around three gripping HowDunnits and comes with liberal doses of sly humour.”

Adam Roberts guests at the BSFG

Just received from the Birmingham Science Fiction Group. Their guest speaker for the Friday 8 October meeting is Adam Roberts: "Roberts holds a degree in English and Classics from the University of Aberdeen, and a PhD at Cambridge. Currently he works as a senior reader at Royal Holloway, University of London, teaching English Lit and Creative Writing.

He has published twelve SF/fantasy novels since 2000: two of them, Salt (2001) and Gradisil (2007) were nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award; and the latter was also nominated for the Phillip K. Dick Award. Robert’s forthcoming book, Beggar’s Banquet, is to be published in May 2011.

Adam Roberts will give the Birmingham Science Fiction Group a talk about his works on Friday 8 October, 2010, at 8pm (entry from 7.30pm). Venue: The Briar Rose on Bennett’s Hill in Birmingham. Price: £3.00 BSFG members, £4.00 non-members. Please email bhamsfgroup@yahoo.co.uk for more details."

If you live anywhere in or around the West Midlands, the BSFG is for you. For further information, and a copy of the monthly newsletter, please visit their website.