The Thing Itself

Front Cover
Orion, Dec 17, 2015 - Fiction - 352 pages

Adam Roberts turns his attention to answering the Fermi Paradox with a taut and claustrophobic tale that echoes John Carpenters' The Thing.

Two men while away the days in an Antarctic research station. Tensions between them build as they argue over a love-letter one of them has received. One is practical and open. The other surly, superior and obsessed with reading one book - by the philosopher Kant.

As a storm brews and they lose contact with the outside world they debate Kant, reality and the emptiness of the universe. The come to hate each other, and they learn that they are not alone.

 

Contents

Cover Dedication Title Page Epigraph
Thing and Sick Unity
Baedekers Fermi Plurality
The Institute Totality
Penelopes Mother Affirmation
Broadmoor Negation
A Solid Gold Penny Limitation
Pursuit Substance and Accident
The Fansoc for Catching Oldfashioned Diseases Causality
A Dialogue in Four Parts Community
The Last Three Days of the Time War Possibility and Impossibility
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About the author (2015)

Adam Roberts is commonly described as one of the UK's most important writers of SF. He is the author of numerous novels and literary parodies. He is Professor of 19th Century Literature at Royal Holloway, London University and has written a number of critical works on both SF and 19th Century poetry. He is a contributor to the SF ENCYCLOPEDIA.

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