Well, I think I can see why this book is not taking off in America (Roberts is British). It does not paint the US or NASA in a very kind light, and makes some rather pointed remarks about the war in Iraq, by analogy. That was very cleverly done. But the story mostly dragged for me, picking up toward the middle. And when it seemed a good place to end...it kept going. My opinion, of course. Interesting to read a story that posits our near-future in space (hard to find books about that). Roberts is a very good, "literate" writer, but this book didn't do it for me. The character Paul was just so incredibly neurotic and whining. I'm sure we're supposed to dislike him, but I really didn't like spending so much time with such an unpleasant person. But it's neat to see us beginning, finally, to take our place in space, and that instead of it being the glorious miliary leading the way, it is some very real, flawed people who just happen to love living in orbit, for a myriad reasons. There's no grand "man taking his place among the stars," or even the triumph of capitalism and free markets pushing us out into space. It reads more like a mainstream novel that just happens to take place in the future. For that, Roberts deserves to be better known, I think. But sf fans are, surprisingly, a conservative bunch, and this is liable to rub them the wrong way. A powerful central woman character? Men who act like spineless jellyfish? Wow. John W. Campbell must be turning over in his grave!

I've been reading Roberts' work since Salt. He is moving up the list of my favorite authors. At this time, I would compare him to John Irving because:

1. He comes up with great stories
2. His character developement is excellent
3. He takes on profound themes, and really has something to say.

I think Gradisil is his best so far. It has all the qualities of his prior books, but also tackles themes like parenting, revenge and geo-politics with great skill. Roberts is an author to watch.

Adam Roberts's "Gradisil" is a worthy entry in the new space opera coming from Britain, depicting three generations of the Gyeroffy family and the brutal legacy of revenge in a near-future tale of the birth of a new nation.

The overarching plot in "Gradisil" involves the creation of a nation in Earth's orbit, known as the Uplands; beginning as a playground for eccentric billionaires, it develops into a symbol for freedom, eventually standing up against the US, the world's sole superpower. This epic tale is divided into three sections, detailing the narratives of Klara Gyeroffy, her daughter Gradisil, and Gradisil's two sons, Hope and Sol. Each section is a story of revenge, but on a broader sense also encompasses the three stages of the Uplands' rise to nationhood.

Characters are where this novel really shines. All the main characters are brilliantly crafted, spanning from the nation-building Gradisil to the dedicated American soldier Slater, who is planning the war against her fledgling nation. Roberts does an excellent job of making these characters feel like real people, and does not pander to black and white lines of clearly defined good and evil; every character is a varying shade of gray, usually shifting in moral rightness through the course of their stories. Most of them do horrible things, but the reader can understand, if not forgive, those actions.

Roberts's narrative style helps greatly with this characterization; it's very interesting that he portrays each of the main characters through the eyes of another character at at least some point in the novel. This adds perspective that the reader can't always get from a narrative that stays inside a character's head for the whole book. The language used also helps underscore the passage of time; silent letters are gradually dropped from segment to segment, and references to cultural changes help flesh out the world of "Gradisil."

Typos do seem to be more commonplace in this novel than in others from different companies; perhaps this is a result of Pyr's being a smaller publisher. Considering the quality of their material, that is a small complaint. My greatest criticism of the novel is that the third section, detailing the story of Gradisil's sons, seems too short and tacked-on; it is important in finishing the overarching tale of the Uplands, and in giving some of the characters a bit of closure (in the literary sense, not in any emotional sense for them), but it simply wasn't developed enough--the book needs another 50 or 100 pages to do it justice.

Ultimately, "Gradisil" is a book that's both intelligent and entertaining, grounded in the past literature but with a unique spin that leaves its mark on the genre. This tragedy of the harmful saga of vengeance will probably be widely immitated in years to come, and is certainly worth reading.

Gradisil follows three generations of a family closely connected with the establishment of the 'Uplands'. This is a colony in orbit. Most of the book is about the middle generation, and the daughter, Gradisil.

The backdrop is a short US-EU mostly unbloody war, and political tensions due to the fact that the people in the Uplands are mostly very very wealthy and hence pay no taxes to anyone.

This brings the US and the Uplands into military conflict.

Given some of the plodding in the first two parts and the start of the Gradisil section, the ending is a bit rushed.