Books: The Thing Itself - By Adam Roberts

(Drivebycuriosity) -  I am a connoisseur of science fiction and I have been collecting scifi novels & short stories for many years. When I discover an interesting short story I try to read more by its author. I enjoyed Adam Roberts`s story "The Ice Submarine" published in the anthology "Total Conflict", edited by Ian Whates, which focuses on "Military Science Fiction" (my review ). The story reports about the Muslim crew of a submarine below the Antarctica ice shield in a future war between the West and an Islamist union.

This draw my attention to Roberts´s "The Thing Itself" (amazon). The book is a collection of short stories, some are connected, others are not. Unfortunately the anthology doesn`t come up to my taste. There is no scifi in it. I found just 2 passable stories, the rest I skipped reading after some pages.

The name giving story  "The Thing itself" (also published in "The Year's Best Science Fiction: 32nd Annual Collection", edited By Gardner Dozois. My review ) is a sinister tale about 2 men who are spending the long polar night on an Antarctic station together. It is about weirdness and philosophy.

"Baedeker´s Fermi" by Adam Roberts (also published in "Paradox - Stories inspired by the Fermi Paradox". My  review ) is a kind of travel report from the early 20th century.

Many stories are random and tedious. Robert`s frank sexual descriptions are amusing but most parts of the book look like early attempts to get a computer to write stories.