Bête - Softcover

Roberts, Adam

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0575127694 ISBN 13: 9780575127692

Publisher: Gollancz, 2015

Synopsis

A man is about to kill a cow. He discusses life and death and his right to kill with the compliant animal. He begins to suspect he may be about to commit murder. But kills anyway ...

It began when the animal rights movement injected domestic animals with artificial intelligences in a bid to have the status of animals realigned by the international court of human rights. But what is an animal that can talk? Where does its intelligence end at its machine intelligence begin? And where might its soul reside?

As we place more and more pressure on the natural world and become more and more divorced Adam Roberts' new novel posits a world where nature can talk back, and can question us and our beliefs.

Roberts is an award winning author at the peak of his powers and each new novel charts an exciting new direction while maintaining a uniformly high level of literary achievement.

About this title

Review:

seamlessly blends a fate-of-a-country climax with passages of prosaic beauty, resulting in a truly thought-provoking read (Sci-Fi Now)

The ever-clever Adam Roberts has conjured up another cracker in his latest...a witty and super-intelligent dark comedy (The Daily Mail)

Roberts' prose is intricate and rich in scientific language and explanation, but it's also dryly funny and on-the-nose when it wants to be, making this book about so much more than a quirky sci-fi concept. (The List)

There's an Orwellian folsky feel to this narrative more Animal Farm than 1984. Twisted in are fragments of The Golden Bough, snippets of Greek myth, of Oedipus and the Sphinx,pop culture, low culture, classic and personal myth, making this novel where Roberts the professor and ARRR Roberts (his comedy persona) meet (SFX)

Roberts tackles issues of cruelty, morality, human identity and interference in nature with confidence and wry wit (The Big Issue)

Bête is a wonderful piece of social commentary and my favourite novel of Roberts for years. It's thought provoking, it has laughs in it and will impact your outlook on life a bit. (Upcoming 4 Me)

Bête is as smart and as satisfying and as challenging as anything any of the Adam Robertses have written. I wouldn't hesitate to recommended it-just promise me you'll keep it from the prying eyes of any interested pets. (Tor.com)

Graham is an irascible, reluctant, foul-mouthed throwback to an earlier era of fiction - and Roberts' best character yet. Bête is ferocious, powerful and Roberts' best yet. (Pornokitsch)

Bête is quite simply stunning. Roberts rivals the most elequent of writers, his prose is poetic and yet satirical and serious all at the same time. With each book he grows and Bête is the pinnacle of his work so far. It's one of those books that everyone will wish they had written and anyone will love reading. (SF Book)

Adam Roberts is an award-winning author at the peak of his powers and each new novel charts an exciting new direction while maintaining a uniformly high level of literary achievement. (Lovereading.co.uk)

Book Description:

An ISLAND OF DR MOREAU for the 21st century. An SF novel that draws in the never more timely issues of Artificial Intelligence and our relationship with the natural world.

About this edition

• Publisher: Gollancz
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0575127694
• ISBN 13: 9780575127692
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320