Comments on: Clute on YBT http://www.adamroberts.com/2009/05/08/clute-on-ybt/ The latest news from author Adam Roberts Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:03:39 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Adam Roberts http://www.adamroberts.com/2009/05/08/clute-on-ybt/comment-page-1/#comment-1305 Adam Roberts Mon, 18 May 2009 16:09:26 +0000 http://www.adamroberts.com/?p=321#comment-1305 Mike -- thank you very much! Your praise, in fact, rather knocks me over. I'm delighted you think so highly of what I do. Don't be too harsh on Clute, though: I still think <i>Appleseed</i> an unjustly neglected piece of work. Mike -- thank you very much! Your praise, in fact, rather knocks me over. I'm delighted you think so highly of what I do.

Don't be too harsh on Clute, though: I still think Appleseed an unjustly neglected piece of work.

]]> By: Mike http://www.adamroberts.com/2009/05/08/clute-on-ybt/comment-page-1/#comment-1300 Mike Wed, 13 May 2009 18:16:03 +0000 http://www.adamroberts.com/?p=321#comment-1300 Oh my! Mr. Roberts, I have never written to you before and never posted on your website, but I simply could not ignore this post. It seems tremendously backwards to me that you should feel especially honoured to be reviewed positively by John Clute. It actually shocked me--shocked me!--to see you apparently so excited by a positive review from Clute. I mean no disrespect to John Clute when I say that it is he who should value praise from you. I am really mystified as to how someone could hope for another Appleseed rather than another Adam Roberts novel. Appleseed was almost unintelligible. Totally baffling. Baffling in a somewhat "pretty" way, granted, but more baffling than anything else. As I near the end of Swiftly, I find that I am more convinced than ever that you are the greatest living talent in speculative fiction. I don't have the technical background to describe in Clute-ian terms what I like best about your work. I am not a literary critic. It is frustrating to me to be unable to praise your novels as articulately and expertly as I would like. All I can say is that, to me, your novels have the wonderfully astute characterization and dramatically satisfying plots of Dickens combined with a uniquely malleable voice. Every novel is so different from the others! And yet, at their cores, they all read like 18th and 19th century novels. They skillfully follow conventions, which to me is more artful and more interesting than tossing convention out the window in the name of postmodernism, as I think Clute has done in Appleseed. I read Gulliver's Travels just so I would be able to more fully appreciate Swiftly. I did it because I knew I would be rewarded for it in reading Swiftly, and I have been. I cannot think of a previous case in which I read a book specifically to prepare for reading another book. Your novels command that kind of respect. Thank you for many years of wonderful reads. I look forward to many more. Oh my! Mr. Roberts, I have never written to you before and never posted on your website, but I simply could not ignore this post. It seems tremendously backwards to me that you should feel especially honoured to be reviewed positively by John Clute. It actually shocked me--shocked me!--to see you apparently so excited by a positive review from Clute. I mean no disrespect to John Clute when I say that it is he who should value praise from you.

I am really mystified as to how someone could hope for another Appleseed rather than another Adam Roberts novel. Appleseed was almost unintelligible. Totally baffling. Baffling in a somewhat "pretty" way, granted, but more baffling than anything else. As I near the end of Swiftly, I find that I am more convinced than ever that you are the greatest living talent in speculative fiction. I don't have the technical background to describe in Clute-ian terms what I like best about your work. I am not a literary critic. It is frustrating to me to be unable to praise your novels as articulately and expertly as I would like. All I can say is that, to me, your novels have the wonderfully astute characterization and dramatically satisfying plots of Dickens combined with a uniquely malleable voice. Every novel is so different from the others! And yet, at their cores, they all read like 18th and 19th century novels. They skillfully follow conventions, which to me is more artful and more interesting than tossing convention out the window in the name of postmodernism, as I think Clute has done in Appleseed.

I read Gulliver's Travels just so I would be able to more fully appreciate Swiftly. I did it because I knew I would be rewarded for it in reading Swiftly, and I have been. I cannot think of a previous case in which I read a book specifically to prepare for reading another book. Your novels command that kind of respect.

Thank you for many years of wonderful reads. I look forward to many more.

]]>