Didn't really care for this. The tone straddles satire and realism, which made me very uncertain about how to feel about the novel's pack of oddball antihero characters. Maybe just Not My Thing. ( )

I was scouting for an entertaining read, my husband suggested this book. We both enjoy Adam Roberts, but interestingly, we seem to divide them between us: he reads some, I read some. We have all of his works, and there are still one or two that neither of us have read them...but we will....

I’ve probably said it before but Adam Roberts never writes the same book twice. The breadth of his imagination is a delight and his work generally takes one’s brain on a field trip of sorts, and this book is no different.

It is Russian, 1946, the war is over, i and Stalin has gathered together a group of science fiction writers and tasks them with inventing a ‘new enemy’ something that will keep Communism cohesive, something like…an alien threat. Secluded and under pressure, the authors deliver their product but they hear nothing back from Stalin and are told, on pain of death, to forget everything.

Fast forward to 1986. There are only two of the original group of science fiction writers now living, one working for the KGB, the other as an English translator, both of advanced age. It happens that they run into each other after all these years. It seems that the threat they created those many years before is coming true…or is it?

This is a smart, fun book. It’s hilarious in some places, brilliantly funny in others (like the conversation that ensues from inside one of the Chernobyl reactors). Skvorecky’s humor is dry and ironic, and it serves to keep the story from going completely madcap.

Not a lot of women in Roberts’ book—one obese, but lovely Scientologist—, and towards the end I was tiring a bit (so much of men "mansplaining"* to each other), but still it was great ride and a nice distraction. Note: the title of the book is explained near the end of the story. Explanation probably not needed if you speak Russian.

I recommend hubby’s (dukedom_enough) review here on the book’s page for another positive view’.

*couldn’t find a better word :-) ( )

Read about this book on Boingboing. I've just started it, but already I'm glad I found out about it. References to "The Grasshopper Lies Heavy", and that part on page 15 about writers inflicting cruelty on their characters were both awesome. ( )

Strange and interesting.

I was intrigued by the premise of this novel. In the 1930's, Stalin, fearing that the Soviet people would lose their unity once their common enemy, the West, was overcome, sought to create a new common enemy for the people to unite against. He brought together a group of respected science-fiction writers and asked them to create a credible scenario for an alien invasion.

The writers do as they are asked, but are abruptly disbanded and told to forget everything they have just done. Several of the writers disappear. Flash forward to the 1980's. One of the writers is working as a lowly translator when a series of events occur which mirror the events the group wrote about in the 1930's. Things start to move quickly, and the writer is hounded by the Moscow police, the KGB, a taxi driver with Aspbergers, a couple of Scientology adherents, and (perhaps???) aliens.

I would describe this book as madcap and surreal. It didn't always make sense and I didn't really connect with it, but if this sort of thing intrigues you, try it, you might like it.

By the way, one of the funniest parts of the book comes when we learn the significance of its title. You might be able to guess what that is if you speak Russian. I don't, and I was wondering most of the way through if the title had any meaning. ( )