Gollancz £18.99

By Light Alone, By Adam Roberts

If you're bald, then you had better be rich

Adam Roberts is the master of the big idea; of high-concept science fiction.

He is rare in the genre for eschewing series of recurring characters and worlds, and instead writing one-off books in which he takes an idea, batters it senseless until it is bloody, beaten and unusable by any other writer, and leaves his readers in a state of stunned shock. But however high the concepts he makes his own, they are never at the expense of character, and in By Light Alone, like all of Roberts' recent works, the people make the big ideas leap off the page.

The central conceit is that, a century or so hence, hunger has been eradicated thanks to a treatment that allows human beings to absorb, through their hair, all of the nutrients that they need from sunlight. People can live by light alone.

But rather than ushering in a utopian golden age, this scientific leap has served only to widen the gulf between the rich and the poor. The wealthy elect not to have the treatment, and take pride in old-fashioned eating, so that in a neat reversal of contemporary mores, the dirt-poor are as thin as rakes because they don't consume unnecessary fat, and the fashionable mark of wealth is to be podgy.

No longer having to service the starving masses of the third world, the rich have got richer. From the book's Art Deco cover onward, we are introduced to a Second Jazz Age which is under way in the wealthy West, whose indolent moneyed citizens have languid, meaningless affairs while drinking their way around the world.

In the first section, we are given a view of this world from rich George Denoone, a sympathetic character who is plunged into a nightmare when his young daughter is kidnapped during the family's skiing holiday.

So skilfully has Roberts painted the novel's Gatsby-esque world, that it is a shock when he reveals the flipside and we follow a Messianic young girl on her journey across the poor nations – and into a shocking collision with George's family.

If By Light Alone were written by David Mitchell or Margaret Atwood, for example, it would doubtless be said to "transcend its science fiction" roots, as all literary fiction which borrows SF trappings must. But By Light Alone is unashamedly SF, and would that half the supposed "literary" novels on the shelves today were as well written, thoughtful and intelligent as this.

Independent Comment
blog comments powered by Disqus
Career Services

Day In a Page

Feeding a hungry world – or meddling with laws of nature?

Feeding a hungry world – or meddling with laws of nature?

As scientists at Rothamsted's GM trials plead with activists not to sabotage their work, Michael McCarthy visits the battle field
Monkey meat that could be behind the next HIV

Monkey meat that could be behind the next HIV

Deep in Cameroon's rainforests, poachers are killing primates for food. Evan Williams reports from Yokadouma on a practice that could create a pandemic
Catcalls, whistles, groping: just another day for a young woman

Catcalls, whistles, groping: just another day for a young woman

Government urged to take abuse more seriously as London study shows 41 per cent are harassed
Jailing of Maori separatists stirs colonial-era resentment

Jailing of Maori separatists stirs colonial-era resentment

Militant Tuhoe tribe members defiant amid claims race relations had been set back 100 years
Fatal crashes are cyclists' fault, says Boris

Fatal crashes are cyclists' fault, says Boris

Mayor condemned for saying that two-thirds of riders killed on the road were at fault in accidents
Move over Brangelina, this night belongs to Kingston Bagpuize

Move over Brangelina, this night belongs to Kingston Bagpuize

Unlikely community movie beats the stars to get prized Leicester Square premiere
Solved after 33 years? Case of first missing boy shown on milk carton

Solved after 33 years?

Case of first missing boy shown on milk carton
Like mamma used to make: Pizza Pilgrims is proving a word-of mouth sensation

Pizza Pilgrims: Like mamma used to make

A van dispensing purist pizzas is proving a word-of mouth sensation
The supper on its uppers: Why we need to learn to entertain lavishly for less

Supper on its uppers: Entertain lavishly for less

Dinner parties are buckling under the pressures of food snobbery and belt-tightening...
The 10 best summer cookbooks

The 10 best summer cookbooks

From Claudia Roden's The Food of Spain to The Art of Cooking with Vegetables by Alain Passard...
Gorgeous Georgian: Now we can enjoy the cuisine of Russia's fiery neighbour nearer home

Gorgeous Georgian cuisine

The food of Russia's fiery neighbour is among the world's most inventive and original
Fury at Obama over filmmakers' access to Bin Laden kill team

Fury at Obama over filmmakers' access to Bin Laden kill team

White House denies putting politics before national security
Novak Djokovic: Patriot's game

Novak Djokovic: Patriot's game

The world No 1 is fiercely proud to be from Serbia and to be improving his country's profile. And he knows that winning the French Open – and therefore holding all four Slams – will do his cause no harm at all
Rugby league's great drugs cover-up

Rugby league's great drugs cover-up

After Hull's Martin Gleeson failed a drug test last year it sparked an avalanche of lies, complacency and confusion which Robin Scott-Elliot reveals for the first time
Ian Bell: Forget good-looking shots, I want to be known as a tough operator

Ian Bell: View From the Middle

It was nice to play a pressure innings at Lord's on Monday and be recognised for it