REVIEW: Yellow Blue Tibia by Adam Roberts

Yellow Blue Tibia by Adam Roberts
Publishing Information: Paperback; 336 pages
Publisher: Orion Publishing Co.; 22 January 2009
ISBN 10: 0575083573
ISBN 13: 9780575083578
Standalone
Copy: Out of pocket
Reviewer: Tyson

Back of the Book "It is 1946. WWII is over, the Soviet Union has crushed Nazi Germany and now exerts control over a vast swathe of Eastern Europe. However, Stalin is uneasy. He knows that the decadent United States will collapse within a decade and without an enemy to galvanize it, the Soviet Union's pursuit of worldwide Communist revolution may falter. He summons a group of the USSR's leading science fiction writers to a remote dacha and has them create a new foe to energise the Russian people. They concoct a story of radiation-based aliens launching an assault on the Earth by initially destroying an American spacecraft and then launching a devastating radioactive assault on the Ukraine. After several months of work, Stalin has the project terminated and the writers are sent back to their lives, warned never to speak of the project again."

This is my second attempt to read Adam Roberts, my first attempt was with New Model Army, which I felt was less than stellar. In Yellow Blue Tibia Adams does a much better job. The book spans forty years of Konstantin Andreiovich Skyorecky's life. From his encounter with Stalin where he is to brainstorm the ultimate Science Fiction story to keep the Soviet people in fear from an outside invaders to his time when Chernobyl meltdown.

The character of Konstantin is an interesting one as his sense of humor helps to propel Yellow Blue Tibia beyond the mundane and adds a distinct feel of Russian humor to the novel. The one scene in particular that demonstrates this is his time being interrogated by the KGB. I felt that it sums up the character rather well and does an excellent job of humanizing the secretive agency while injecting some humor. All of the supporting characters are also written fairly well and do a good job of projecting their personalities in the story.

Yellow Blue Tibia supposedly takes place in our history, but Roberts ends the novel in a fairly strange way which makes you wonder if the book really takes place in our time line or in an alternate reality. I know that as I finished the book, I was uncertain of just where or when things took place. It made for a more entertaining read that I enjoyed all the more for it.

While Yellow Blue Tibia was by far a better book than his New Model Army, I still am on the fence as to whether I actually like Roberts as an author. There are some funny situations and dialogue in the book but the book also loses focus and makes for a confusing read here and there which turned me off as we neared the second act of the book. If Roberts has another book that sounds interesting, I may pick it up otherwise I doubt I will go out of my way to pick up another of his novels. It should also be noted that Yellow Blue Tibia was nominated in 2010 for the Arthur C. Clarke Award.

Plot 9
Characters 7
Style 7

Overall 7/10