Swiftly: A Novel

Adam Roberts

Orion, Sep 9, 2010 - Fiction - 368 pages

It is 1848 and the British Empire has grown rich exploiting Lilliputian slaves - the finesse of their working allowing unheard of feats of minature engineering; even Babbage's computing device has been made to work.

But now the French have formed a regiment of previously peaceful Brobdingnagian giants and invasion looms. In a world where humanity is both smaller and larger than it once was, love and hate loom large.

Mankind discovers itself at the centre of scale. Lilliputians are twelve times smaller than us but there are those twelve times smaller than them, and twelve times smaller again and so on. And the scale of being goes up from Swift's giants also ...

Adam Roberts has written both a rip roaring 19th century adventure, a love story and a thought-provoking pre-atomic SF novel about our place in the universe.

About the author

Adam Roberts is Professor of Nineteenth Century Literature at Royal Holloway College, London University. His novels, Salt and Gradisil were shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award. His novel Jack Glass won 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.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Swiftly: A Novel
• Author: Adam Roberts
• Publisher: Orion, 2010
• ISBN: 0575087838, 9780575087835
• Length: 368 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / Satire; Fiction / Science Fiction / General; Fiction / Science Fiction / Steampunk