By Light Alone

Adam Roberts

Aug 2011 · Hachette UK

About this ebook

In a world where we have been genetically engineered so that we can photosynthesise sunlight with our hair, hunger is a thing of the past, food an indulgence. The poor grow their hair, the rich affect baldness and flaunt their wealth by still eating.

But other hungers remain ...

The young daughter of an affluent New York family is kidnapped. The ransom demands are refused. A year later a young woman arrives at the family home claiming to be their long lost daughter. She has changed so much, she has lived on light, can anyone be sure that she has come home?

Adam Roberts' new novel is yet another amazing melding of startling ideas and beautiful prose. Set in a New York of the future it nevertheless has echoes of a Fitzgeraldesque affluence and art-deco style. It charts his further progress as one of the most important writers of his generation.

Ratings and reviews

Incredibly shallow characters in a story that tries to be deep and meaningful but ultimately falls flat. The father is moronic, the wife incredibly superficial whom adds no real value to the story and the only interesting part (that of the daughter and her "world") is not given nearly enough pages! Just skip this drivel and read Fahrenheit 451.

I think that this is Adam Robert's best book yet. His prose is just as precise and perfect as ever but the plot is a cut above his previous efforts.

About the author

Adam Roberts is Professor of 19th-century literature at London University. His novels, SALT, GRADISIL and YELLOW BLUE TIBIA have all been shortlisted for the ARTHUR C. CLARKE AWARD. His novel Jack Glass won both the BSFA and John W. Campbell awards for best novel. He has also published a number of academic works on both 19th-century poetry and SF.