A short tale with two story lines that intersect: a ship is sent from Earth for "first contact" with aliens who won't come closer than the Oort cloud, and a pilot not chosen for that mission takes on a routine delivery mission to Mars. The outcome raises an intriguing philosophical question about the place of humans in the universe. ( )

In a future when the Solar System is being opened up, enigmatic aliens appear in a ship in the Oort Cloud. Ange is picked for, and then dropped from, the contact crew, but then problems start to happen... ( )

SPOILER: I'm not a huge fan of the anthropocentric payoff, but, on the other hand, I like that it takes anthropocentrism to the highest degree possible. Absolutely brilliant opening, suitable for teaching in an object-oriented ontology or ecocritical environment. ( )

A novella, this one, or maybe a long short story. An enjoyable read - I think science fiction often works well in a short story format, as it's often the ideas which are the most interesting and they can be conveyed quite quickly.

The human race has made first contact with an alien race. An alien spaceship has appeared on the edges of the solar system and initiates contact with humans. It seems that the aliens have studied Earth for some time and have learnt English but their communications are confusing and make little sense. They will come no nearer to Earth than the Oort Cloud and a spaceship is dispatched to meet them: a journey that will take at least a year. Meanwhile, Ange Mlinko, initially expecting to be one of that spaceship's crew, is dispatched on a routine flight to Mars instead. But the two events become intertwined in a surprising way and our basic assumptions about the way the universe works are brought into question. ( )

More of long short story than a short novel as the amazon page suggests, this is nonetheless a good read. Aliens arrive at the edge of the solar system and stay there while a human craft trundles out to meet them. The story, meanwhile, follows the ill-fated space voyage of a spaceship pilot who should have been on that ship but instead ends up delivering ice to Mars. What happens next would be a fairly standard, if entertaining, 'space journey goes wrong' story were it not for the startling revelation that the aliens bring with them - I won't say any more about it but this is a twist that really makes you think.

The only other Adam Roberts book I had read before this was the hilarious Yellow Blue Tibia, after which this more strait-laced affair was a bit of a shock. There are a few irritating typos (or at least badly formed sentences) that take some of the shine off the book - but overall this is as good a £1 as you can spend on your Kindle. ( )