Stone - Softcover

Adam Roberts is 36 and a Senior Reader in English at London University. His first novel, SALT, was nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award. He has also published a number of academic works on both 19th century poetry and SF.

In the idyllic civilization of t'T, in which dotTech--nanotechnology ensconced in every person's body--takes care of every discontent and bodily modification anyone could have, rendering the people functionally immortal, crime is basically unknown. Ae, however, has committed crimes horrible enough to warrant imprisonment in the heart of a star, which is accomplished slowly by expelling all the dotTech from his body. Even so, a mysterious entity hires him to kill the entire t'T population but leave its planet untouched, and to get things started, breaks him out of prison. Using the arch conceit of Ae telling his story to a stone that was once part of the prison, Roberts makes Ae's curiosity about his employer's identity and the fascination of the t'T drive a well-paced read and an engaging crime story. The revelation of Ae's employer's identity is unexpectedly strange yet appropriate, amply rewarding following Ae on his criminal flight. Even in a paradisical world, someone is always willing to sow destruction, and sometimes destruction isn't entirely negative. Regina Schroeder
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