“Lake of Darkness” out now.

I don’t usually use this Notebook for self-promotion, but self is the only mode of promotion that’ll happen with this unusual and, I hope, good novel. It’s available now from all worthwhile bookshops (Blackwells, Waterstones) and Amazon UK. There is some issue with the book’s availability on Amazon US, it seems: I’m not sure why, and will look into it.

Is it any good? I’m hardly the person to say yes, or no, and you doubtless have better things on which to spend your money. Brian Clegg describes it as ‘wow’ and says: ‘the mix of a snowflake utopian future, employing the weirdest bits of speculative black hole physics and religion left my mind buzzing. Some will hate it, but the best new SF this year’. The opening two sentences of Clegg’s review are, I think, the highest praise I’ve ever had as a writer:

Two of the best ever fantasy writers — Alan Garner and Gene Wolfe — both wrote books that over the years got more sophisticated and harder to take in, yet these books really rewarded the reader who put in the effort to a great degree. Adam Roberts has become their equivalent in the science fiction world. Although much of Lake of Darkness is an easy enough read, the concepts it is built on are mind-boggling and the last part left my mind buzzing, if not entirely sure what I had just experienced.

Amazon ratings are not necessarily the most reliable guides to quality, but I note that Lake of Darkness has 57 ratings already, from 3 stars to 5 stars, weighted towards the latter. Here’s the judgment of one of the 3-star reviewers: ‘an almost impenetrable novel that mixes hard SF with philosophy and religion.’ That’s fair enough.

[Update 8th August] SFX have reviewed the novel: