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By Light Alone

Written by Adam Roberts

Average Score: 90(5)

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 women 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.

Book Details

Science Fiction
Paperback, 488 Pages
Published by Gollancz on August 18, 2011
ISBN-10 0575083654
ISBN-13 978-0575083653

Reviews


Fantasy Book Critic | Liviu Suciu
Review Rating: 100
...a masterpiece of literary sf and a book that could stand proudly alongside any literary novel of 2011.
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SF Signal | Guy Haley
Review Rating: 100
Taken in isolation, his sentences here tend to the overly candied, but the effect of them en masse is hypnotically poetic. It's brilliantly effective, and affecting.
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The Wertzone | Adam Whitehead
Review Rating: 90
...an intelligent and well-written SF novel with real literary ambitions that it comes close to fulfilling.
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SF Signal | Niall Alexander
Review Rating: 80
A Sterling specimen of standalone, satirical science fiction, brilliantly conceived and beautifully composed.
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Strange Horizons | Nic Clarke
Review Rating: 80
But By Light Alone is more than the sum of its parts, and needs to be viewed as a complete piece; each character's viewpoint brings new layers to the story and its central issues.
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